More Flagstaff Adventures.
I had the wonderful opportunity of heading up to Flagstaff to keep my girl Amanda company last Wednesday afternoon. Working from home certainly has it's PERKS!
Thursday morning we headed out for the infamous "snowbowl climb." It's basically a 28mile loop starting with a 7mile warmup, 7mile climb from 7000ft up to 9300ft, descend, and then head back home. I would say the grade is between 9mile hill climb and and Mt Lemmon. I spun my way up (love my compact crank!) and got to the top in just over 49minutes with a perfect zone 2 heart rate. The descend was great, and I even saw a couple of deer. Totally a must do in the Flag area. A couple hours later we loosened up our legs with a nice swim at NAU. What a refreshing change to swim in a COOL pool.
Thursday night was our play night. I only had to swim on Friday so we knew we could have fun and a few cocktails. We headed out for a happy hour glass of wine at the Wine Loft and then across the street to a wonderful little Latin restaurant. It was a perfect date night with my friend...
Friday after work, Shane drove up to join us for some weekend training. He's been sidelined with an injury for a week, so he was MORE than ready to get back at it. Our coach had a 5hr ride on the schedule for us, but backed Shane down to 2ish hours to ease back into it. We started out around 6am. The skies were cloudy and the wind was calm. PERFECT riding weather. I honestly could not have asked for better conditions.
Amanda, bless her heart, headed out my 5hour adventure. We rode out on Lake Mary road and did two loops around Morman Lake.
My legs were ready. My HR crazy low and I felt fantastic. Better than I have felt in months. My nutrition was SPOT on. After a long discussion about what we had been eating on the bike with our coach, I was trying her suggestions. More solid food, less gels. In 5 hours ate: A snickers bar, a mojo bar, package of GU chomps, 1 gel & a bottle of EFS drink. Around 900 calories. I logged 88.25miles with an average HR of 118, zone 1. I ended the ride feeling fantastic. I wasn't starving, I wasn't exhausted and my legs felt strong. It was a confidence booster I had been looking for, for months.
The 3 of us walked down to the wine loft for a glass and to pick up some wine to go with our Shrimp dinner!
Thursday morning we headed out for the infamous "snowbowl climb." It's basically a 28mile loop starting with a 7mile warmup, 7mile climb from 7000ft up to 9300ft, descend, and then head back home. I would say the grade is between 9mile hill climb and and Mt Lemmon. I spun my way up (love my compact crank!) and got to the top in just over 49minutes with a perfect zone 2 heart rate. The descend was great, and I even saw a couple of deer. Totally a must do in the Flag area. A couple hours later we loosened up our legs with a nice swim at NAU. What a refreshing change to swim in a COOL pool.
Thursday night was our play night. I only had to swim on Friday so we knew we could have fun and a few cocktails. We headed out for a happy hour glass of wine at the Wine Loft and then across the street to a wonderful little Latin restaurant. It was a perfect date night with my friend...
Friday after work, Shane drove up to join us for some weekend training. He's been sidelined with an injury for a week, so he was MORE than ready to get back at it. Our coach had a 5hr ride on the schedule for us, but backed Shane down to 2ish hours to ease back into it. We started out around 6am. The skies were cloudy and the wind was calm. PERFECT riding weather. I honestly could not have asked for better conditions.
Amanda, bless her heart, headed out my 5hour adventure. We rode out on Lake Mary road and did two loops around Morman Lake.
My legs were ready. My HR crazy low and I felt fantastic. Better than I have felt in months. My nutrition was SPOT on. After a long discussion about what we had been eating on the bike with our coach, I was trying her suggestions. More solid food, less gels. In 5 hours ate: A snickers bar, a mojo bar, package of GU chomps, 1 gel & a bottle of EFS drink. Around 900 calories. I logged 88.25miles with an average HR of 118, zone 1. I ended the ride feeling fantastic. I wasn't starving, I wasn't exhausted and my legs felt strong. It was a confidence booster I had been looking for, for months.
The 3 of us walked down to the wine loft for a glass and to pick up some wine to go with our Shrimp dinner!
Sunday morning I had 4hr ride/45min run on the schedule. My legs were a little tired, but not too bad. Shane really wanted to do the Snow Bowl climb so we headed out for the 2hr loop. We had a little bit of wind on the climb, but overall I felt strong. I managed to take a minute off my time from a couple days ago getting to the top in just over 48mins!
I felt more confident on the descend this time and just flew back down the mountain peaking at over 43mph. I HEART my road bike and HED Ardenes wheels. I love how much control I have and how comfortable I am with the cornering on the descends.
Shane needed to log about 3hrs so we asked some local riders about heading further out on the highway. They said it was a great ride so off we went. LITTLE did we know we would be climbing climbing climbing some more... We finally turned around when we hit 8000ft.
Shane's ride was over with after we headed back towards Amanda's house and I was on my own needing another 90mins. The wind was picking up and I realized I had not kept up on my nutrition. My legs were feeling the 90miles from Saturday and crazy climbing from the first couple of hours. I convinced myself if I got to 50miles I could head home a litter early. I ended the day with over 52miles in 3:25hrs(over 5000 total ft of climbing) and a 4mile run at the end.
Shane's ride was over with after we headed back towards Amanda's house and I was on my own needing another 90mins. The wind was picking up and I realized I had not kept up on my nutrition. My legs were feeling the 90miles from Saturday and crazy climbing from the first couple of hours. I convinced myself if I got to 50miles I could head home a litter early. I ended the day with over 52miles in 3:25hrs(over 5000 total ft of climbing) and a 4mile run at the end.
I was cooked. Done. Put a fork in me. I think the lack of or the right kind of calories caught up to me on this workout and I felt it. We headed out for dinner, and I had to do everything in my power to stay awake until 8pm. Even though I didn't sleep the whole time, at least my body got to lie down and rest for 10hrs.
Today was our last day in Flag and I had a 2:20min run on tap. Per the suggestion of the neighbor, he sent us on a 1hour trail loop. Note to self. NEVER LISTEN TO A MOUNTAIN BOY LOCAL. This was the hardest long run I've ever done in my life.
The first 2.5miles were straight up hill (over 500ft vertical GAIN). Then we descended so fast my quads were trashed. We had rollers for the last couple of miles on rocky terrain (I am NOT a trail runner). I dropped Shane off, refilled my water and headed back out on another hilly 1:20run. My legs were so trashed from the first hour I have no idea how made it.
I dug deep, turned up my music and ended the run with a few tears of complete exhaustion. It was an amazing 4 days of training, in perfect weather with the best company, but I was DONE.
I'm so happy with how my body has bounced back from being so sick, and gained a lot from this tough weekend. I'm so thankful for Amanda for inviting us up to stay with her, helping get such amazing training logged out of the heat.
A big thanks also to my dear friend Natalie for taking such great care of my babies. She spoiled them rotten and they had the best time ever playing with the girls. They came home freshly bathed and pooped out. Couldn't have asked for a better doggy sitter!
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