Riding, running, and more riding

Knowing that I had a 40 mile ride on the calendar for Sunday, I went out on my bike Friday with the goal of at least 10 miles.  11.3 miles later, I was back home and feeling pretty good.  Short rides like this always leave me feeling refreshed.

Saturday morning, met with a running friend for 5 miles on a dirt trail.  Ahhhh, heaven!  It's no secret that I am a fan of running on dirt, and I think I've converted her to dirt over the summer.  The prior weekend, she ran a half-marathon road race and one of her first comments to me was how much pounding her body took from the hard surface.  She actually asked me if we could run exclusively on dirt for the next few weeks.  No argument from me!

Side note, it's been about 6 months since my last round of Euflexxa injections in my left knee.  It's considered successful by the doctors if it gives me at least 6 months of relief. I'm hoping to extend the time between treatments closer to a year.  Running on dirt seems to help.  So does keeping my run distance no longer than about 7 miles.  Fingers crossed that this magic combination will keep me going for another several months.  I'm very thankful to have a training partner that is happy with this combination as well.

Sunday afternoon Husband & I went out for our 40 mile ride.  We decided to stop ever 8 miles for just a few minutes for hydration/nutrition/stretching.  Felt good at the first stop, but of course I did.  Those were the easy miles.  Next stop happened about six tenths of a mile ahead of schedule so Husband could replace his rear tube due to a flat.  Third stop was short, and I was still feeling okay.  By the fourth stop (mile 32), we had exceeded our mileage from last weekend I needed a longer rest to get motivated to finish the distance.  I was hurting all over.  Just past mile 35 we came upon a restaurant and decided to stop for a snack.  We were there for about a half hour.  Re-energized, we completed the final 5 miles to home, bringing the total to 40.1.

Next weekend we are doing a loop that should give us ~44.  I hope the small increase is easier on my body than the jump from 30-40 was.  Then we have another weekend targeted at ~50 and after that, it will be the bike event (54mi) that we are training for.