now i know my limits

my limit is about 27 miles.

unfortunately, i did 30.3.

i wish i'd googled "50 km to miles" before my ride, then I'd have bagged me a metric half century since i was already mostly dead by mile 29.

this wasn't a wimpy-ass flat metric half century either. after descending bunker hill, i retraced a tiny bit of polhemus to take de anza up a silly hill, followed by some gentle hills, and terminated at hillsdale by a ridiculous hill followed by an outrageous hill where i had to dismount for a breather. a dude came out of his house and i quipped, hilariously, because that's the kind of guy i am, "did i wake you with my breathing?" ha! ha!

it wasn't a cakewalk after that, either. well, descending hillsdale was even zippier than descending bunker hill, but when i got to alameda the idjit in me turned the bike to the right and up i went on the awful hill of alameda de las pulgas. at this point, i didn't have it in me to do the whole hill so i turned right half way up and farted around that hood for a bit, then backtracked, and ascended to 36th.

at this point, my HRM said I was at 165bpm which isn't really that much for me. I used to do 185 on the exerbike and i've observed 180 in the wild. but for some reason, i felt like i was dying. perhaps i had a little heart attack or something. meh. i decided that i probably could get away with 30 miles today instead of the 35 i was shooting for, since 30 would still be a PR and since those weren't 30 wimpy-ass miles of foster city bike path but instead 30 manly miles of zippy downhills.

so i turned back and did some more gentle, rolling, granny-geared hills, wondering all the while how people can bike up something like mt. hamilton. most likely, it helps to not weigh over 200lbs, and it helps to be soopah.

anyhow, i had to throw on some extra loops at the end to make my 30. i got home, had some cold water, stripped down, and lay on the floor. that would have continued for about an hour but i had to go and rub my eyes, which brought salt into them, and marked the end of my floor time and the beginning of showertime.

so it goes.

admittedly, it was much hotter than last week, and i'm still recovering from both the injuries and the exertions of sailing on friday, not to mention various other stresses in my life, but i think what really bogged me down was my lack of bicycle training.

since last sunday, i've run, climbed, and lifted weights, each twice (and sailed). note the lack of bike specific training. since i'm not training for running, climbing, lifting, or sailing, it's hard to count my biking as "cross training". i guess technically i'm training to lose weight (which will make me worse at my job of rail meat but maybe by the time i've dropped any real weight, i'll actually be pulling ropes). undereating 4-5 days out of the week doesn't particularly help any of those sports.