So I’ve been exercising like a champ lately. I decided my workout pattern will be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So that’s off Sunday and Wednesday, with the option of if I go play basketball on Wed. night then I will count that as Thursday morning exercise.

So this week I was able to do it. I ran my particular course (1.85 miles) around the block on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and Thursday I went to the Y and worked out on the bike. My long-term running goal is to do a sub-20 minute 5K by the end of the year. It’s an aggressive goal but I think it’s doable. My plan is to continue to run this 1.85 mile course until I can consistently do it without stopping (last time I only had to stop once), and then gradually work longer distances on my way to 5K and beyond.

Today after Carolyn got back from getting her hair cut, I went down to the bike trail. Rather than ride my way over there, I decided to put the bike on the rack and drive over to Miamiville. I was going to go to Camp Dennison but a) I wasn’t sure if there was anywhere to park and b) that wasn’t going to give me the amount of mileage I was shooting for.

Miamiville has a nice little parking lot right by the fire station, and going south to the new end of the trail (Little Miami Golf Center) is just about 16 miles (about 15.90 as far as I could tell).

Soooo, off I went. I could tell things were going well – I really enjoyed the relative lack of hills on the trail. That’s something that you don’t get a whole lot of when doing road biking (which is what I usually am doing). Since my cycle computer broke a bit ago, I don’t have a very accurate way of telling my distance or speed, but by using a stopwatch and calculating my intervals between the 1/2 mile markers painted on the trail, I could tell I was going around 16-17 mph.

I actually was not passed by anyone the whole time I was out. While some of this could certainly be attributed to my speed, a lot of it was just coincidental – I did pass several groups / individuals going what appeared to be faster than me – they were just going the other way.

I passed a fair number of people. The best part was when I passed 4 people right in a row. It felt cool to just belt out “On your left. On your left. On your left. On your left” like I was some sort of rock-star cyclist. Okay, 2 of them were kids and one of them was walking a dog, but still!! 🙂

They extended the bike trail south from Milford a year or two ago, but I had never been on the new section, so this was a nice opportunity. I wasn’t quite sure where the trail ended, but I just kept riding till there was just a parking lot. I took a little break and then headed back.

It was a bit harder. The wind seemed to be coming from the east, so that was a headwind to me on the way back (though it got a bit better once I turned north at Milford). Plus, following the river upstream did give me a gradual uphill through most of it. I had finished the first leg in 29:29, and so I was aiming to get back to Miamiville in under an hour. As I calculated my speed / distance, I knew it was going to be close. Where I parked was just shy of the 47.5 mile marker (maybe 47.3?), and each time I would hit one of the 1/2 mile markers, I gave myself 2 minutes to hit the next one (that’s 16 mph). I figured if I hit the 47.5 marker by 59:00, I could probably make it.

I was on pace to do it, but then I got stopped trying to cross OH-126 (again), and that 30 seconds or so stopped waiting for an opening to cross proved to be the difference as the final clock was 1:00:13. Still, all in all, I was very pleased with my workout. Gooooo me!