A 'fat thigh' ride.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

I woke up thinking I was glad I hadn’t gone to the emergency room. There was no blood in the bed and although the bandage was kind of soaked in red stuff, it seemed to have stopped.

I was driving to work and looking at the thing when I decided it was time to pull off the bandage and check on the healing process. I mean…everyone knows wounds need fresh air to heal properly…at least that’s what I seem to recall. I peeled back the masking tape we’d used and started to detach the gauze…which was stuck. One good yank and…

“Oh shit…it’s still bleeding,” I said to no one in particular. I suppose I should have left it alone…or at least waited for a time when, oh I don’t know, I wasn’t driving? I tried to rewrap my finger with the crusted gauze lying on the seat and retape with the masking tape on the floor. It wasn’t going too well, but I managed to staunch the flow long enough to complete the drive and get into the office and grab a first aid kit.

The rest of the day was uneventful since I elected to leave the finger wrapped. I headed for the park after work to do my ride. I’d shoved the bike into the back seat of the Honda…no small feat…for a quick, hard ride. We were taking Savannah out for dinner since she’d be leaving for Ohio State in two days and would be having…pizza and milkshakes! I HAD to get in a hard ride with the way I was charging through calories lately. I figured I had about 90 minutes tops and planned to make the most of it.

I started from the parking lot at the bottom of Wilson Mills just before it intersects with River Road. My plan was to climb Rogers and head south on County Line for Pekin. There was a strong tail wind for the first half and I rode aggressively, staying in the large chain ring and getting out of the saddle to work the hills harder. In short order, I had fat thighs and was sweating profusely. I get what I call ‘fat thighs’ whenever I push the harder gears with less revolutions. Most good riders ‘spin’ at around 100-110 revolutions per minute. I tend to ride between 80-90 rpm’s, pushing harder gears to maintain the same pace. This is actually less efficient and in my triathloning days, would leave me with tired legs that rebelled at the idea of running. Old habits die hard, though, regardless of their stupidity. I kept pushing big gears none the less and my thighs, packed with blood and lactic acid, felt like they’d swollen to twice normal size.

I actually felt good though, and was moving at 20 mph, something I hadn’t been doing for some time (measured in years). When I hit the turn around, I worked to maintain the pace with the wind in my face and almost managed a negative split – only 30 second slower coming back than going out. I hit the car in an hour and 27 minutes pleased with the intensity of the workout and feeling like…yeah…maybe a little ice cream tonight.

We hit California Pizza Kitchen because Petti’s was closed. They don’t offer milkshakes…barbarians…and so I went with Diet Pepsi. Later that night, Holly and I went for a 25-minute walk, so it turned out to be a pretty good workout day.

Bike duration: One hour and 27 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 125.
Calories burned during workout: 1,300.