Criss-Cross Applesauce

No, I didn't buy a new bike, I bought TWO new bikes!!  We got Cannondale Synapse 5 bikes.  Mine is champaign color (purple of course sold me on the bike lol), and Bill's is a white, also his favorite.  Bill said he hated when I was training for my first marathon and how miserable that was for him.  So, when I train for (???) ride he wants to be WITH me.  He didn't want to have to try to keep up with a cheap, 20-year-old department store mountain bike while I'm on my really cool road bike.  Great!  I'm glad he wants to do this with me.  I can't wait to train with him.  This is so exciting!




This is the official start to my [criss]-cross training.  I am hoping this will make my running faster, easier, and more efficient.  This is something I have wanted to do for nearly 3 years now.  It was about that long ago that I walked into the bike shop and looked at some cool bikes.  Although they tried to put me in a hybrid and a mountain bike at the time, I did sit on a Cannondale road bike and loved the feel of it.  Since I wasn't serious, due to the crazy sticker price, I just sat on it and didn't take it out to the parking lot or anything.  It has taken me that long to come back and be ok with the price.  The salesperson was great and VERY patient with my silly questions.  I'm sure it was very obvious that I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I was determined with what I wanted to do and the quality of bike I wanted to get into.  I am in awe how light these bikes are.  wow.

We brought them home and went for a short 4-mile ride to get used to them out on the road.  I felt like I was learning to ride all over again.  The gearing was very different than riding through the parking lot and I felt like the tires were quite slippery.  I strapped my Garmin to see our distance and speed (actually it was pace as I have it set to running).
Today we went out riding for 3 miles or so to push it a little.  Bill is on call and can't be very far from home.  I wanted to really go out and see how much I could push the bike.  I strapped on the Garmin to the bike so I could be vigilant to the pace and distance.  I am trying to figure out how fast I am really going.  This may take a bit.  My bad math tells me I was averaging around 16-18mph.  Considering there was a 35mph ESE wind, that was ok.  After about 3 miles of messing around town, I went out on the Ethanol Loop that I typically run.  That felt really good.  My HR was around 158ish.  I figure I run about 165-170 average so that was a good rate for me.  I felt like I wanted to go faster, but I had it set on the highest gear spinning as fast as I could.

Another observation I made is that tend to run with my calves and bike with my thighs.  When I get really tired, my calves are the muscles that get achy on runs.  On the contrary, when I was into the wind  pushing as much as I could, my thighs were feeling the tug.  I'm ready to get out on the open road and do some more serious biking with Bill!  I have a colleague who has recently gotten into biking and sprint tris.  She mentioned she's a slow biker, about 20mph.  wow, not sure I can keep up to her.  I am feeling good about my very brief start, though.

today's mileage: 8 miles riding
weekly mileage: 5 miles running; 12 miles riding
monthly mileage: 11 miles running; 12 miles riding

annual mileage: 205 miles running; 12 miles riding
TOTAL mileage: 217