thoughts?

Message posted by: Sasha C.

Last winter in Malawi I was training hard and seriously to do Lake Dunmore. I got badly hurt and then sick a couple of times, the only pool closed and I got off track. Here in Vermont for a few weeks all our friends come on weekends, which is when the races are of course, so I didn’t get reinspired ’till about 5 days ago. I haven’t been training seriously, but I went and bought a cheap very old road bike and went out and did a fifty miler this morning. I haven’t been on a road bike for 10 years, but, being the ass I am I thought I could hit 2:30. I managed 2;35, which on vermont hills and road surfaces, on a bike with a kick-stand, I thought was pretty good. Now I’m thinking about doing an “Oly” (the distances are very inexact, and it seems quite short)in Lowell MA next week.

Do you guys think it’s worth buying bike shoes and peddles at this point? Everyone on the site keeps reccommending doing that and then switching to flats for running, but I only have 10 days to get ready, learn how to switch quickly and figure out how to use the shoes to advntage. I believe, after this morning, that I can manage 25 in 1:10 in my running shoes, and save maybe 30 seconds over changing. Peddles and shoes would also come to almost the cost of my bike, which might be hard to explain to my wife. I guess I’ve made up my mind in the asking, but will post anyway.

By the way, the workout that reinspired me is this, and I wonder what you think. I take the kids swimming at the Townshend dam, and normally swim about half a mile or a mile there, with a few surges. Then my wife bikes down and drives home, and I bike 8 miles all up hill to the house hard- about 30 mins. For whatever reason when I got home on Thursday I decided to do some speed (the first running speed in a year), and I ran 8 hard 75second runs. The biking hurt my legs on the first two, but after that I opened up and felt great. That suddenly made me think I might not be as out of shape as I thought. Anyone do intervals right off the bike?

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