Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Intervals and Close Encounters

INTEVALS:

Intervals were on the schedule for yesterday evening. The workout was prescribed as: 15 min warmup, 3x (5 minutes HARD, 3 minutes REST), 10 min cooldown.

Decided to do this as an out and back. And I was mathmatically challenged and thought that I would turn around after the 2nd 5 minutes hard. To make the cool down closer to 10m minutes, I should have turned BEFORE the 2nd 5 minutes, but whatever. Just made for a longer easy segment at the end.

The splits were as follows

warm up - 11:01
5min hard 9:14
3 min rest 16:03 - walking
5min hard 9:28
3 min rest 18:20 - walking
5min hard 9:12
3 min rest 11:30 - walking, then running easy
cool down 10:36 - ended up being 18 min, 1.75 miles to get back

I'm not really sure how fast my HARD segments should have been, but I was impressed with myself for pulling off numbers in the 9:10-9:30 range, for me that is pretty darn speedy.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS:

I was hit by a cyclist during my warm-up. Never expected that to happen!

Begin rant.

I was running the warm-up on the sidewalk next to a road with a bike lane. The cyclist was riding fast up on the sidewalk rather than in the actual bike lane. And as he came speeding by, either his body or his bars hit my forearm. SMACK! He didn't stop or slow down to say sorry or make sure whoever he hit was okay. I was okay, but that's not the point.

For the sake of argument, let's say I had been a little kid or part of a family walking on the sidewalk, this could have really turned out bad. Anyway, my arm was sore, but nothing serious. But still...

Being a seasonal cyclist myself, this really made me angry. The guy should have been riding in the bike lane and not up on the sidewalk. If he felt the bike lane was unsafe, he should have slowed down and been much more cautious around walkers/runners up on the sidewalk.

This is a perfect example of why cyclists get a bad name. Motorists and others are upset with them in general. They end up taking it out on the rest of us when we are out on the road (where we belong...not on the sidewalk!!)

End rant.

23 comments:

  1. I've been biking for about a year now and I'm so cautious about the people around me and I ride on the road (there aren't any bike lanes here). It sucks that you got hit.

    Sounds like your run went well, though. 9:10-9:30 IS fast! Way to go.

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  2. That is horrible!! I am glad that you are okay. BTW, that pace is very speedy :)

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  3. You have a perfect right to be angry, Ms. Speedy. You shoulda chased him down with your inner bunny and kicked his butt....

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  4. Good intervals!

    I have never had an issue/incident with cyclists but I hear about things like this all the time.

    Rock on!

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  5. What a/n (insert naughty word here)!!!!

    Since I have taken biking alot more seriously this season, and some close run ins. I have been preaching safety, and obvious this jerk doesnt have a clue. The bike lane is there for a reason, ride in it, it is suppose to be the safety spot destinated for the biker. Road for the cars and the sidewalk for everything else. I dont understand for one second why he had to speed up, trying to show off??? Then didnt have the manners to even stop to make sure you were ok. That is one of the rudest things I have heard. I believe in karma, I am not wishing this idiot something harmful, but maybe he had a flat with no tubes or cellphone on the farthest point away from home. I am sorry you got hit

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  6. first off NICE job on the intervals!!!!

    omg i cant believe they didnt even say sorry :( grrrrrr that is awful!

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  7. It drives me crazy when I see cyclists on the sidewalk. Well, not really "cyclists", they're usually people without helmets, carrying shopping bags or someting. BUT, they're always going against traffic, on the sidewalk. And as often as I walk Boomer in the neighborhood, it happens too often. Believe me, I DO NOT move for them. They need to get off the sidewalk. Okay, end *MY* rant! ;)

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  8. UGH, cyclists should not be whizzing by on the sidewalk! I'm glad you're okay... it just sucks that he didn't even slow down or stop to apologize. :/

    On a more positive note, GREAT job on those intervals. Speedy paces!

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  9. Nice job on the intervals!

    And I'd have been totally pissed. I probably would have yelled something rude at him. But, I'm classy like that.

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  10. Nice workon the intervals! Boo to the cyclist who hit you!

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  11. Nice job on the intervals!

    And about the biker on the sidewalk? What in the world? Especially since there was a bike lane. HOW RUDE!

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  12. First off - great intervals... SPEEDY! YEAH!

    Second.... that cyclist = jerk (can I say that!?)... what a prat (English term for Jerk I suspect).... definitely sort of thing us cyclists don't appreciate as just tarnish us all.

    Thirdly... don't you just {heart} Wes - his comment is very funny (and cue strange image of you wearing giant floppy bunny ears chasing him down with a giant white pompom - representing the bunny tail).... It must be by bedtime....

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  13. Hi Lisa,
    Woohoo for kicking it into fast gear for those intervals! Nice work!

    Sorry about the cyclist...thank goodness you are okay. You have every right to rant!!

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  14. Sorry about the close encounter of the moron type. People like that on bicycles give us all a bad name.

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  15. those are some strong intervals Lisa! Well done.

    and i hate seeing cyclists do things like that. might as well have blown snot rockets on you. it's just wrong.

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  16. That is terrible. My mom always told me it was a sideWALK and not a sideRIDE.

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  17. I've had that happen, too. A good cyclist would have announced they were coming upon you, such as "bike on your left" or where ever.

    Nice job on those intervals!

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  18. holy cow! Yes a sidewalk is not meant for bikers and I always get peeved when I see them. I know that some people just don't know the rules, but still when the sidewalk is full...come on

    great job on speed

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  19. Yikes sorry you got hit by that cyclist! Maybe he didn't know the rules of the road, but even still he should have at least slowed down when he saw there was someone else on the sidewalk.

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  20. A good friend of mine was hit by a cyclist three weeks ago, while she was out walking with her 5 week old son. She broke her elbow and is now having real troubles picking up her newborn. It's terrible.

    Glad you are OK!!

    Nice work on the intervals.

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  21. Yikes...I'm glad you didn't get hit the cyclist.

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  22. what a rude idiot! Glad you're ok

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  23. Ouch! Glad you are OK. I agree that some folks really give cyclists a bad name ...

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