Riding with Carrie!

Having a streak of running, biking or meditating can bring a sense of accomplishment. When you change the word streaking to training then it takes a new meaning. In a  streak of training for an event the event sometimes eclipses the work, training, streak that made it possible.
My friend Carrie Stone is training for her first (she has hinted that she might do more) triathlon. She is a strong and fast runner, she is good with the swimming, but she does not like bicycling and this is what worried her most.  We have been training for the last few weeks on our bikes. At first her goal was to cover 13 miles in an hour or less. We rode 16 miles at a just under a 16 mph pace. She has gotten faster, but wanted to stay out of the hills until yesterday.

What I like about training with Carrie is that we push each other. Mostly our runs are about doing a run and socializing. When it is a training run her whole demeanor changes and she is a competitor in the best sense. She wanted a hilly course that included the Greenfield Triathlon course. This would be much harder that the Westfield course that she is doing in June. I planned one loop of the Greenfield course then some flat miles. She just wanted to battle the hills so we did two laps of very steep slow climbs and very fast descents. She attacked the hills relentlessly, and if I relaxed she shot by me and I had to work to catch her.

She is not comfortable going downhill at speed, and hard corners are a challenge for her, so when we started down a very steep stretch with hard switch backs, I told her it was very steep with sharp turns. I started down very fast and realized that I was pushing my ability in the corners (I used to be a bicycle racer), I looked over my shoulder to see how Carrie was holding up and saw her going off the road.  She came away with bruises on her knee, back and arm. Not much blood, but still...I did not realize she had even hit the ground she was up so quickly. No complaints, just back on the bike and rolling again.

In the end she suggested adding some miles, so we ended up with just under 18 miles, and averaged better than a 15 mph pace. While we put the bikes away I saw her bruises. She was mostly unphased by it all. Running and biking with Carrie is one the great joys in my life.