Today I start my grind again. I was really enjoying not having to drive to school after work but all good things come to an end. Today I have Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law; both of which I am excited about because I feel they have more of a historical feel to them and that’s right in my wheelhouse. Clearly I will be putting other reading on hold, but i am planning to do an awful lot of reading so I may have some pleasure reading time anyway. In line I have a few running books; Chi Running, Pose Running and the Tao of Jeet Kun Do by Bruce Lee. I figure I should kick ass at school, figuratively, so I should get inspiration from the beat-anyone-who-has-a-pulse-into-pulp man himself. Also I am attracted to his philosophy of martial arts because it applies to so many aspects of life similar to the Art of War, which I will be re-reading soon.
I finally tried GU (gel-pack), the espresso love flavor, and I was pleasantly surprised. It is 100 Calories and it pretty much is a composition of vitamins, sodium, and complex carbs so you can eat and keep going when you are working out or training. I decided to try them on one of my longest rides, 75 miles. I had one every hour and chased it with water. I was on the bike for 4:57:01 hrs. Imagine a thicker go-gurt that tastes like fake espresso. I didn’t bonk all through the ride. The hills and miles hurt, but I did not feel my blood sugar go to trash like I did the last time I rode north (60 mi approx). The GU got me through; I even expected to feel a lot sorer and fatigued than I am. I feel ok and not sore all over. I expected lower back and hamstring pain because of the time in the saddle but I have none of it. I am even planning on running tonight since I took Sunday off. Some observations; these do not replace meals, and you are still starving at the end of the ride. I did not feel the surge of energy some people say they get with these, instead I felt like I was adding a log to a fire, slow and steady. I liked the experience but I may switch flavors because the taste of coffee when sweating up a storm was not as appealing. The miles ticked away, my route was PCH up the coast, imperial hwy, and then la cienega for the last stretch. I left home approx 4:30 am. The road was fairly unforgiving around mid morning, but I got a good jump on the day early so my muscles still fired up to mile 55-60. After that point it was a grind and it sucked. Every turn of the pedals I thought my leg would cramp but it didn’t. One thing I was conscious of was to limit my sprints and surges to hills or down hills. I figured sprinting downhill helped my avg speed and kept my heart rate low because it was less work, and the surges uphill were calculated and taken only on hills I felt confident I could overcome with one surge and not multiple. I felt I was conservative and that I could have been faster, but better to build than go all out and get injured.
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