I have a confession for the world: I am concerned about my Alpencross readiness. I knew that going on vacation would set me back some, and it has, but I’m not sure that is all that I can blame. We’re talking about six consecutive days of intense bicycling, and trekking, carrying everything I need on my back.
I am trying, and I do see some signs of hope. On Friday after work I bicycled into Karlsruhe and back, but with a twist: I carried the bicycle on my back up hill from Busenbach to my flat in Reichenbach. I am not one who has much, if any, upper body strength so I need to prepare myself for carrying the bicycled.
On Saturday I did a slightly shorter ride but with a few more up hills. I also intermixed cycling up hill with carrying the bike up hill. Come to think of it, I did get a little lost, which probably increased my total distance travelled. At the very least, it was a good 1.5 hours or so of preparation.
Something really great also happened Saturday: I crashed hard quite early–I think around 7 p.m. This is something that I did every 7 to 10 days about two years ago when I was preparing for the CN Tower climb and the Ottawa Half-Marathon. One might argue it’s not a healthy sign, but I like to think of it as pushing myself to the point where I need some recovery.
Sunday morning I left my flat shortly after 9:30 in the morning and bicycled to the famous Panoramastraße for the second Dobel tour of the year (for me). It was a challenging and difficult ride up hundreds of metres of height. In hindsight, the lack of dinner from the night before probably worked against me here but in any case my lack of energy after the first few hours was my own doing. There were a couple of necessary breaks thrown in for my sake, but I still didn’t get home until about 15:30–a full six hours after I left. Pleasantly, I felt okay after I ate some food, hydrated, and relaxed for a bit. But it was none-the-less an eye-opener.
Today was a holiday here in Germany–a holiday that I was quite thankful for after all the excitement I have experienced over the past number of weeks. I thought to myself: I am going to relax today and take the day for what it is. I got my office back in order, tidied up the kitchen, organized photos, etc. But a part of me really wanted to go for a run. And I didn’t just want to go for a quick or short run: I wanted to push myself and run further than usual. I somehow got the number “20 km” in my head. So, I picked a nice 20 km route and left this evening.
And I have to tell you: running on a holiday, in Germany, through the Northern Black Forest, as the sun as is setting is just great. The first 5 km flew by. I started to notice the heat after that (I left the forest and was running along an open path)–it was +21 or +22 at the time. But still, the first 10 km was no problem. The back 10 km were a little tougher, but I had some extra shade which made up for it. It was on the back 10 km that I decided I should push it a little further and add an extra 1.1 km to my route to make it an even half-marathon. And I did.
I now feel very great, despite a sub-par time (I think it was about 2h 2m). My legs are a bit stiff but I am really happy that I could do this the day after a Dobel tour. I hope I will be in fine order to bicycle to work tomorrow morning.
So, at least things are looking up! But I have five and a half gruelling weeks ahead of me so that I can survive another even more gruelling week. Wish me the best.