San Diego Training Week: Day 4

I'm feeling a bit better today but definitely nowhere near 100%. Today was the ride I'd been looking forward to since I planned this trip and now I was wondering if I'd be able to enjoy it. The weather had also come around and there was no threat of rain, the sun was shining and it was warming up so if nothing else I'd have a nice day to ride. I was also intending to run after the ride so I packed all my riding and running gear into the truck and took off. I headed inland, towards the hills and canyons and after a bit of trouble with my GPS I arrived at the starting point. I started out and the first thoughts were that it was a bit of an effort pedaling. I was confused because even though I wasn't feeling best I was on a bit of a down grade but I could only maintain 28-29 km/hr. The other thing I kept thinking was that I shouldn't be on a downgrade, the entire 1st half of the loop was a climb. Well maybe it was just a bit of a downhill before it started to go up. This kept up for 8 km and I was really confused so I tried an experiment. I stopped pedaling. If I was going downhill I should continue to coast. As soon as I stopped pedaling though I started slowing down significantly and came to a stop. Wow. Talk about deceptive. All this time I thought I was going down when I was actually going up. I got to the first turn and now the grade became apparent. I was definitely looking at UP from here on and as I went further it seemed the grade just got steeper. This was absolutely small ring territory. I continued for another 13 km of climbing and arrived at a spot that looked like it might be the high point of the ride because the road started going down from there but I wasn't at the midway point of the ride yet. I figured that it was probably a bit of downhill and I'd encounter another climb at some point but the climbing to this point had sucked a lot of my energy and feeling how I was I didn't want to get further out and bonk on another climb. I decided to turn back and add some mileage at the bottom of the descent so I turned back and headed down. What I hadn't realized was that the wind was at my back on the climb and I'd be heading back into it while descending and it turned out to be pretty stiff and tossed me around a bit. I didn't take a single pedal stroke for 5 km and was on the brakes the whole way. I'm going to have to check my brake pads to see if there's any left. When I got to the bottom, a LOT faster that when I got to the top, I turned onto another road to try and add about 10 km of what I assumed would be flat road to the ride. I don't know why I assumed this but needless to say, it wasn't flat. In fact, I encountered 2 short climbs steeper than any part for the initial climb. I only rode for 5 km and turned back (again, 3 km of no pedaling and on the brakes) and headed towards where I'd parked. I did 55 km total and averaged 25 km/hr but for the most part I was probably riding between 13-14 km/hr. At some points at 10 km/hr and under. My legs were sore but this was a good opportunity to get them running. I was originally thinking 10 km but that was before I got sick so 5 km would be my limit today. Anyway, I was planning a long run for tomorrow. I ran out along the same route as I'd ridden, this time knowing I was running on an upgrade even though it still didn't look like it. At the 2.5 km point I turned around and came back and I ended up with a 5:06 pace but I felt pretty bad. Usually as I finish my run I recover really quick but this time I had to sit down and wait it out. I felt weak and dizzy and I may have been a bit dehydrated too but mostly I think it was from the cold. I guzzled down some Gatorade and sat on some steps for a few minutes and then packed up and headed for home. This is a ride I'd do again easily and would really enjoy it if I was feeling well.