Fourth of July weekend

I spent this weekend mostly on the bike, when I wasn't catching up on sleep. I rode 52 miles Friday, went down to Flatiron Reservoir near Loveland. I did fall off the bike once in a spectacular but low speed crash, I was going through Boyd Lake and hit a bump over the road too fast, and my feet didn't come out of the cleats in time. I have a beautiful triangular bruise on my inner right thigh from the seat as a result, but all my skin is intact. I had a soft landing on the grass next to the bike path.

The ride to Flatiron was easy except on my butt. Saturday morning I ran the 5K at City Park and my legs were toast. My mind was even worse. I got through mile 1 fairly fast and it didn't feel too hard, but it felt like I'd already gone 3 miles. So I slowed down and jogged in. I guess my burnout is universal when it applies to running. I have no desire to push myself hard, or to train. I can get out and see nice scenery, like the picture above, on my bike ride near Richards Lake this morning.

Dennis ran great at the 5K, won the master's race. It was a good run for him, he hasn't been training either. Felix had a good run too. I told him about my plans to ride a century this summer, and he suggested that I go check out some different saddles for my bike. Felix inspires me to do longer bike rides with his double century streak. If I could do even half of what he does, I'd feel like superwoman!

Dennis and I spent the weekend playing with the girls, and Isabelle's 8th birthday was today, so they got doggie ice cream and we played at the park. And of course I made my trips to the sauna each day. It's been in the 120s in Death Valley, could be a hot year. Will it hit 130?

I am going to run the Mountain Avenue Mile in August here in town. And then I am thinking about going down to Arizona in September to run a 50K on the Hopi reservation, mostly for the scenery and the road trip. If I do that, I'll have to do at least a little running after I get back from Badwater. Maybe I'll feel like it by then. And if not, there's nothing wrong with a long hike in the desert.

On my run last weekend with Cat, we were talking about how hard it is to rest, and back off of training schedules. We runners are so driven, and so highly self-motivated and self-disciplined, that we lose sight of how important it is to rest.

We think it's important to work hard all the time so we feel guilty when we don't stick to our schedule and we're not putting in much effort. We aren't used to being slackers, we're not the type who go to work and sit on our butts and draw a paycheck. So when it comes time to rest and back off, we don't know how to do it.

I go back to work tomorrow. Just three days of work, then I go out to Death Valley on Friday. I'll be flying to Las Vegas, driving to Pahrump, and then into Furnace Creek Sunday before the pre-race briefings start. It will be so fun to see everyone!