Great Week

As I've written, this week has been a week of pain. Oddly, this has also been a great week for training. Mentally, I feel better than I have in a long time. I got in a workout everyday and have been controlling my weight loss. Training has been a great way get my mind off of life, apparently as I am distracted I am happy.

Workouts this week have included:
Monday- First day of the hard phase of my weight training. I hurt the next day.
Tuesday- 3 mile recovery run
Wednesday- 10x400 speed work
Thursday- 5 mile run in just under 46 minutes. Maybe a new PR. I wasn't even trying. Weights. Still Hurt.
Friday- Rest day. Active rest with 30 minutes on stationary bike.
Saturday- 8 mile run and 8 miles mountain bike ride.
Sunday 3 mile run

Totals-
Run- 3 hours 30 minutes, 22.25 miles
Strength- 90 minutes
Bike- 2 hours 30 minutes, 8 outdoor miles

The overall highlight of the week was my ride yesterday. Even though I knew I had an 8-10 mile run single track was calling my name. It has been a long time since I have been on dirty singletrack, their is a learning curve for the skills it takes to ride. I realized that although I have better fitness, I no longer have those skills. By the time I was done with the ride I was doing a lot better though, as I hit some of the berms along the trail I noticed that my instincts were coming back. There were a few spots that would have lead to head over heels flips if they hadn't been there. The best part of the whole ride was being able to ride from the house to the trail and ride home with a detour to go see CB at a church event (you should see the looks from the old ladies when you show up wearing lycra, smelling of sweat, and covered in mud).

First Skinny I have seen in a long time. It used to ride taller, longer, more advanced ones. It only took me a few seconds to ride off the side of this one. If I keep riding it will come back to me. I could always go practice the obstacle, that's how I got proficient at them to begin with.

I fell 90% of the way up this hill. It has been a long time since I have had a climb that steep and short, and slick to bat. You can see some of the mud on me.

After the first fall I decided to walk this 12 inch wide bridge. I was worried if I fell I would end up hitting the old bridge laying to the left.

I was happy when I made it over that leaf covered bridge and up the hill without falling.

I decided to walk this hill, it was just after a sharp turn and was twice as long and steep as the one I fell on at the beginning.

I was often confused by the trail markings. There was only one trail yet often splits with up to 3 arrows.

Good thing I skipped the skinny bridge since I rode right off the side of this one. I found this just after riding a bank around a curve.

This is towards the end of my ride when I ran into a tree. As you can see one of my legs is still attached to the bike. With very narrow trails like this one sometimes their are trees on the side of the trails that are just wide enough for a bike to pass  through. This is one of the most hair raising obstacles for me and it is very common. As a big boy it has always been something that made me nervous. It this instance I did not hold a good line and I ate tree.

On the way home when I stopped to visit with CB and her friend I showed them pictures. They were questioning me about if I was ok from hitting a tree. They didn't understand when I said "it happens, no bid deal"

This takes some practice and getting used to again, but I loved every second of it. All it did was fuel my desire to be out on the trail. It's like a drug to me, I need more.