Stupid Human Tricks (Vol. 2)

In April I did a number of things that has my cold, analytical, rational economist self scratching his head.

First off, I ran a marathon on my easy week. A friend of mine wants to run his 100^th marathon this year and needed one this month, on Good Friday. He needed 8 starters and 5 finishers to make it an “official” marathon so I got sucked into it. I did have the foresight to really ease up on the training the week before to pull this off without jeopardizing the next 3 weeks of abuse. The back of my right knee was a bit sore for a few days afterwards but I kept running on it and it went away. Sometimes it is good to be me.

Secondly, I rode a lot. I hooked up with Prairie Randonneurs for 200k on April 14 and 300k on April 28. The pace was a bit slower than what I would ride if left on my own (16 to 17 mph when riding) but I don’t care, I rode 200 and 300k in April. I never do this. I like the Randonneurs, they like to stop and eat in greasy diners. They don’t seem to mind having me along and seem to be willing to put up with aerobars, no fenders, dubious personal hygiene, and my asking the waitress at breakfast “if this is low fat bacon?” The difficult part of these rides is the temperature range. For the 200k ride, it was -2c to start and +20c at the end. This means freezing for the first few hours and over heating at the end if you run out of places to store extra clothes. My, uhm, “boys” (more specifically my “boy”) were awfully frosty for the first hour. I had no choice but to employ the zip lock bag containing my route card and cash as a hasty wind break. If any of the waitresses, cashiers, or gas station attendants who had to handle and sign my route card are reading this, I’m very sorry. 200k menu: I had a big, greasy bacon and egg breakfast in Fort Qu’Appelle and then grilled cheese in Southey.

300k menu: bacon and eggs, hash browns, and white toast in Fort Qu’Appelle and cheeseburger with fries and gravy in Raymore. I think I may have gained weight during this ride and somewhere along a cold, lonely wind swept stretch of road I lost my cycling vest, my self-esteem, my pride, and the ability to father children.

I’m not sure, what got into me on April 28-29. The next day I ran 60k. This, however, was not the stupid human trick. This comes when I slathered a bunch of Lakota (topical pain relief. It generates a lot of heat) on my tight calf to loosen it up. The combination of this, my sunburn from the day before, and the post run hot bath produced a lot of blood curdling screams.

Finally, I threw a lot of threshold and V02 max running at myself, on top of everything else. I could’ve been content with just jump in mileage, but no. In any case, it just felt “right” so it happened.

Training

April 2-8

Run 42 miles

Bike 100 miles

Swim 1k

April 9-15

Run 62 miles

Bike 224 miles

Swim 3k

April 16-22

Run 61 miles

Bike 164 miles

Swim 1k

April 23-29

Run 71 miles

Bike 284 miles

Swim 2k