Katy Flatlands was Flat (except for two places)

Another good weekend to be in the outdoors. But first, the week was chock full of good HART training. On Tuesday we ran to the pullup bars and did a set of 5-4-3-2-1 then did an indian run around the jogging track. Stan was in our group so we were of course were consistently telling him to slow down...which you will realize is very ironic as you read what we did to him later in the workout...Then we did another set of pullups, this time 1-2-3-4-5. Good upper body workout. After that we jogged back to our cars and mounted our bikes for a 5-mile bike ride. Since the trails were closed due to the recent rains our only real option was the fruit loop. We did that for about 4 loops--we slowly ramped up the speed. This is where we betrayed Stan--we didn't slow down for him. We simply dropped him. Nice. He was visibly pissed when we regrouped back at the cars. I have a feeling he won't be slowing for us during the next run. Too funny.


Thursday we started with cals, including the dreaded lunges. I'm still feeling those things right now! We then went for a bike ride on the green trail and then the time trial course. Met back up at the cars and went for a final uptempo run on the purple trail. I was feeling good, but Stan was feeling like, well, Stan. He pulled away steadily but I caught up back to him as we got to the rocky dip--it was full of water and he wasn't sure how to get across. I showed him the log crossing and we were off again...and again he pulled away. I still kept him in sight. It was a good run--I haven't felt that good in a while...I'm almost back.


Saturday I did my protocol ride in the morning and then Mo and I headed to Huntsville to meet up with Nancy, Matt, and Miz Vera for some paddling. We didn't get there until about 3:30pm. The bad part was that the others didn't have a boat to paddle but were planning to rent one there at the park...the bad part of that was they waited for us before actually going to rent the boats, but by then the rental place had closed and the attendants were being asses. So Mo and I would have to paddle by ourselves. It was good, but Mo had forgot to bring her hat, so midway in the paddle her face was burning. I had to drop her off after the first hour of paddling so she could get some shade--the "feels like" temp was about 100, so that would explain it. I went for about another hour and it was a nice day to be out on the lake, even if it was that hot--it wasn't too humid and there was a slight breeze to keep me relatively cool. We hung out a bit longer and watched the turtles pop their heads out of the water, then headed back home.


Sunday was the Katy Flatlands ride. We had a good HART showing: Me, Warship, Tommy, Cynthia, Tracy, Eric, Janet, Raymund, Michelle, Matt, Nancy, Tina, and Lisa. Eric was the only monster who did the 100miler--but it was more of a mistake as he took a wrong turn at the 60mile/100mile decision point. Good times. We had a good ride and Tommy, Weihan, and I stayed together for most of the time, except for the first 20miles as Weihan got a late start and we had to wait for him at the 2nd rest stop. We had our own good paceline going and we would at certain points have other people latch on. The best one was this one guy in a white jersey who got on our train and would pull for about 30secs and then peel off. Needless to say we did most of the work. Then this punk decides to sprint off at the finish. I said, "hell no!" I sprinted after him to put him in his place--no way are you gonna draft off of us and then claim the glory. LOL. All in all, it was a good ride--no real issues except for Eric getting those 40 bonus miles.

Oh yah, I mentioned two non-flat parts during the ride. On the last 3rd of the ride there were two SLIGHT inclines and I decided to get my heartrate up so I led us up it at about 23-24mph. Tommy, wanting to get in on the action, takes us up the next incline at about 25-26mph...but then immediately peels off. Nice. It was some good interval training. Another thing I noticed was the difference in my heartrate when pulling and when sitting in the draft. Its about a 10% difference, which is huge! Its not a new concept, but this is yet another instance which shows the importance of pacelines--the group can go a lot faster than an individual because of the rest periods in between pulls...but that also depends on your impetus to go faster as a group, FLOYD LANDIS! :)

Also, if you looked at my T6 log, you might have noticed that Lance Armstrong had possessed my body for a second or two as I was going at about 220mph. Felt like nothing.