Exercising My Exhaustion
Been thinking over a few things again and again recently, and I simply would love to write something out about them. However, we still seem to be having a heat issue here in PDX and my brain cannot convince itself that anything more than diversions are possible on the computer in such temperatures. Melting brain? DVDs and Flickr will distract you! Ugh, give me autumn, please.
...
Since I have been feeling just a bit wishy-washy as far as outdoors and exercise, I decided to make a relatively near-term goal for myself. I want to bicycle from my house to Government Camp and, here's the kicker, I want to bike back the same day. Over 100 miles roundtrip and an elevation gain of about 4000 feet. A fairly serious feat.
So, last Thursday, I did a bike ride from home to Sandy and back, which is just about 50 miles and gave me a good feel on how the first half of the ride would go. Was definitely tired by the end, but it was not as thoroughly exhausting as I expected, despite the hot afternoon temperatures. Today, I looped up and down from downtown to Council Crest a few times to simulate the elevation gain up to Government Camp. Having never done this route more than twice in a day and never in a row, I really did not expect to complete all the loops. Yet, I did. And, I think I could have done it another time or two without collapsing.
The trick is forcing myself to build up my mileage and still be able to do climb. I definitely will not be able to get to that level for the Summit to Surf, which was an odd hope, but I think I can get there at some point in August.
...
Since I have been feeling just a bit wishy-washy as far as outdoors and exercise, I decided to make a relatively near-term goal for myself. I want to bicycle from my house to Government Camp and, here's the kicker, I want to bike back the same day. Over 100 miles roundtrip and an elevation gain of about 4000 feet. A fairly serious feat.
So, last Thursday, I did a bike ride from home to Sandy and back, which is just about 50 miles and gave me a good feel on how the first half of the ride would go. Was definitely tired by the end, but it was not as thoroughly exhausting as I expected, despite the hot afternoon temperatures. Today, I looped up and down from downtown to Council Crest a few times to simulate the elevation gain up to Government Camp. Having never done this route more than twice in a day and never in a row, I really did not expect to complete all the loops. Yet, I did. And, I think I could have done it another time or two without collapsing.
The trick is forcing myself to build up my mileage and still be able to do climb. I definitely will not be able to get to that level for the Summit to Surf, which was an odd hope, but I think I can get there at some point in August.
– Wednesday, 2008 July 16 @ 12:14 AM | 1 Comment -