This was mostly a repeat of Kansas, only about 5 degrees cooler. More flats, more mind numbing flat and fast terrain.
However, what was a little different about this leg was that a little fatigue was starting to settle in. In the past, I always get really sore the day after some hard workouts in the heat, and today was no exception. My legs just couldn't really get going until a while into the shift. What I was also noticing was that I simply just couldn't push a cadence of 85 or 90 anymore, so I upped it to about 100-110, and this worked magic. By moving to a higher cadence, I was putting less strain on my leg muscles, and more on my aerobic system. This helped twofold, because for some reason, it was getting harder and harder to get my HR up near LT - making my cadence higher certainly got the HR easier and faster. The effects were certainly noticeable - I would go up about .3-.4mph just from spinning at a higher rate.
Also, mentally, since this leg was very similar to the previous, and b/c I had only amassed a mere 15 or so hours of sleep since sunday morning, things were starting to blur together. Even my riding partner, Larry "Nails" Bice was starting to make mental gaffs.
But, when the going got tough, I decided to do something that I had never done before in cycling - put on some tunes. This helped tremendously. I put in one ear bud from my mp3 player, and just started charging. I did this about 3 hours into the shift to get me over a hump, and it was huge. The speed for each 3 mile pull started going up and up! It was back to having FUN!
Here is my climbing some small midwest hill with the disk (which kinda sucked - not gonna lie!) on some shitty ass gravel road that we had to get re-routed on:
Although the previous shift was my favorite, this is the one that stands out the most.
The weather report was calling for triple digit temperatures, with just as much humidity. It was funny because the weather reports were saying "Do NOT go outside, and especially do NOT do any physical activity." HA! Whatever...
For as much good karma as we got the day previous by relieving Andrew, we zeroed that out by showing up an ungodly 45 minutes late due to getting lost in Kansas roads, even with a car garmin, and multiple edge 705's. Once we finally got on the correct road, Matt was flooring it - going apx. 80mph down these back country roads, running over snakes, and leaving me with a wet chamois!
We finally took over, and took over from about 10:45am-3:45pm (greg and ralph ended up being 45 minutes late as well), which basically meant the hottest part of the day. The temperature reading in our truck was able to confirm what the weather was saying about temperature - although after stepping outside, I didn't need a thermometer to tell me it was atrocious out.
I did a 4 mile pull, and after I got back in the car, I mentioned to Matt that Larry and I should move to 3 mile pulls, 4 miles at absolute max, just due to the heat. Larry agreed, and we did 3 mile pulls for the rest of the the shift. I also wasn't messing around today - I was rockin the desoto arm coolers. Here is the deal with them: once they are wet, and if you go fast enough - they work. But, if you are gonna cruise around with them (not us damnit!), and not sweat - they don't work.
At any rate, Kansas was mostly flat, straight, and if I didn't mention, hotter than hell. Heat Index was 105. Brutal. After every measly 3 mile pull, I easily put down half to an entire water bottle. Over the course of 5 hours - I put down over 2 gallons of water alone (not including other caloric fluids) - and only peed once (NOT on the bike believe it or not!) - but that was in the first hour, so it almost didn't count since that was mostly pre-hydration.
However, it really wasn't that bad - and dare I say - it was kind of nice. This was RAAM - gutting it out and laying it down in some tough ass conditions. This was one of the parts of the race that I was looking for - the world's toughest bike race. BRING IT.
If you have never been to Kansas, then I could sum it up in two pictures:
From Eagle's Nest, NM to just short of the Kansas border.
This was probably my favorite part of the entire race (however, not the part that sticks out the most), and the part where I started thinking about doing this again next year.
We stayed in a small town called Eagles Nest in New Mexico after finishing our leg in CO. We got there, and although I was tired, I had a few hours of sleep in me, unlike the rest of the people in the truck. I let them go to sleep, went and got some food, tweet'd, texted Michelle, and just kinda enjoyed some downtime to myself, without the constant go-go-go feeling that is still very apparent even when not cycling. I showered, and then caught some z's for about 4 hours or so.
Standard protocol (for us anyways) was about 2 hours before our shift would start, we would call the follow vehicle to see where the current riders are, and to get an ETA on an estimated destination. Much to our surprise, Tobias got lost in the little town on Taos, NM. Below are some videos documenting the whole melee:
I think this is the point where the race really became REAL.
Barrie, one of our crew members, started brewing some ideas. He called the follow vehicle 20 minutes later, and Tobias was still lost (but his driver was trying to find him). There was some discussion about Larry and I starting early to help relieve Andrew since he looking to take on a long pull. Even though we have 15 hours "off", there is a lot that happens in that time - especially mental recovery. He asked us both if we could ride - mentally and physically - even though our bags were far from packed. Without question, I said "YES - IN". This was one of the coolest aspects of the race - to be mentally and physically ready 90 minutes beforehand to help out THE TEAM. We took off within 5 minutes.
After driving backwards for over an hour, we found them, and Larry and I each did two 10 minute pulls to help Andrew out. We could tell he was suffering (by the look on his face, not his average speed, which was still amazing). Just as we were starting, we received word that Tobias was found, and on his way.
Andrew was more than happy to see us - both to relieve him, and to see teamwork happening. Tobias was in the same boat, and grateful that we made the charge in. Once we realized they were good to go, we headed back to the hotel, finished packing, and headed back out on the road to meet them.
It was a 180 degree turn from the cold night of Colorado. I went from a low point, to helping out the team, and feeling much better mentally, and physically. My first few pulls had me smiling from ear to ear (which is really hard to do at 170HR). As the shift progressed, I just fell into a groove. What was gnarly is we were started at 8200ft of elevation, and made our way down to about 7,000ft-ish, but I wasn't feeling the effects. It was mostly flat, temperatures were about perfect (80's and dry), and as the sun was setting, all seemed right with the world.
Except for the follow vehicle, which got a flat:
This wasn't too concerning for us at first, since we had about 90 minutes until "night time", as considered by the race, which is at 8PM local time. The whole deal with night time is all rider exchanges MUST take place within the beams of the headlights. Normally, this is not a problem, but 8PM came around, and the follow vehicle was no where to be found, nor could we contact them. So, that meant our truck had to serve as both the follow vehicle, AND rider truck. This became a minor PITA b/c each rider would do his 5 mile pull, then simply pull over to the side of the road, with the other rider hopping out of the truck, unracking the bike, getting on the bike, and then taking off. This caused considerable speed loss, but hey - you deal with the cards you are dealt. Fortunately, this only happened for about 20 minutes or so.
The bittersweet part of the whole deal was that for the time stations that Larry and I rode, we were only 1 minute behind Team Type 1, which meant that had the follow vehicle not gotten a flat, Larry and I would have beat them for the 2 time stations. It's ok - its still bragging rights that we were only 1 minute behind them, even with our lack of quick transitions at night!
From about TS#11 Mexican Hat, UT to just short of TS#13 Cortez, CO (I think). Somewhere around 108 miles, 21.5 mph.
I ate something shortly after getting back in the truck, and passed out for a few hours. I woke up near Flagstaff, AZ to what didn't look like AZ - lots of pine trees:
I also noticed I had a pretty consistent cough. Every few minutes, I started hacking every few minutes. Larry thought it was breathing in all the dry air. I thought it was breathing in all the dry air at such a damn fast rate! Woof! We got to our hotel around 9am, grabbed some Denny's, and crashed for about 5 hours. We woke up, I got interviewed:
and we made our way to start the next leg in Mexican Hat, UT. This is the mexican hat:
It was absolutely beautiful driving through Monument Valley in AZ:
I also couldn't help but think that the course for IM St. George (which I would know nothing about!) would look somewhat similar to some of the scenery I was seeing too, which was absolutely gorgeous.
Below is a pic of what was to come: Andrew is just past the far vehicle (right lights), with Andrew waiting to do an exchange up the road (left lights).
This is the exchange with Larry starting it off for us:
Larry and I barreled through the UT desert in 85 degree heat, and finally made our way to some way-out-in-the-middle-of-effin-nowhere-back-country-road and at some point ended up in Colorado. Shortly after getting into CO, things started to chill out a bit, and I am not talking intensity unfortunately. It seemed like every time I was getting out of the truck to do an exchange, it was getting colder. In hindsight, this falls in the "duh" category since we were riding later into the night, and also getting up in elevation. But, in the heat of it all, I was kinda confused. So, every time I was getting out of the car, I was putting another layer of clothing on: first it was knee warmers, then it was arm warmers, then it was stretching the knee warmers down to be leg warmers, then it was gloves, then it was the vest, then I was just screwed! It was getting cold. Really cold. I finally checked the temp, and it was in the 50's. Growing up in MA, I shouldn't have been bothered by this, but being at elevation, and being wet with sweat made for chills everytime I got out of the car.
Further, it was completely dark out at this point, and all peripheral vision was completely gone. Flats seemed liked downhills, and uphills seemed liked flats. This was very frustrating. Not to mention the headwind! Climbing the rockies into a headwind sucked! BUT, climbing the rockies was something I was always wanted a piece of, so here I had it.
But then, things started going downhill for me, while going uphill of course. I started feeling light headed. I started seeing spots, and stars. I was BONKING (for the second time in my life), and it was not cool. I saw the follow vehicle about half a mile ahead, and let me tell you - IT WAS TOUGH to try and get there. I tried to motion for the follow vehicle to come up and give me some sugar, but they had no liquid sugar, which was useless. I finally got to the exchange on fumes, and handed my bike to Matt to rack onto the truck. In the time it took him to rack my bike, which is about 90 seconds, I slammed 5 gels, a banana, and literally, crushed a red bull. He came in the truck, and was like "WTF is going on?!" This is the aftermath:
Within another minute, I put down 2 more gels, and another banana. We still had an hour left, and I needed calories stat. I followed it up with a full clif bar about 2 minutes. In total, there were over a THOUSAND calories consumed within 5 minutes. I then realized that my body needed extra calories to stay warm, and that was probably one of the reasons why this was happening.
We finished up the leg, and I was so spent. I was moaning in the back seat, freezing. Beyond hungry, unable to move, and no motivation or energy to eat! It was definitely a low point. We headed to Denny's (again, against my wishes), and I could barely eat. I was laying down in the booth, barely able to communicate. I am sure Larry and the crew were wondering how this 28 year old rookie, youngest on the team by 10 years, was going to be able to finish. We got back in the truck, and I feel asleep very quickly. DONE.
Below is a montage of Day 2 put together by our awesome crew:
From almost TS#3 (Blythe, CA) to a few miles short of TS#4 (Congress, AZ). Apx. 120 miles travelled, apx 24mph.
Larry and I took over from Tobias and Andrew just short of Blythe, CA at midnight, PDT. Larry was turning 55 at midnight, and requested for a birthday present, that I go first - I happily accepted!
There weren't the normal nerves like I have before a triathlon start (probably for a million different reasons). About 5 minutes before I started, Matt and I put a much more appropriate wheelset (that he let me borrow):
Planet X 101 deep front tubular wheel, with a PX disc. Bad ass.
As Andrew approached...
I simply got on the bike, and started pedaling mercifully. I had way too much adrenaline (expected), and way too fresh of legs (also expected). Matt said I started off at about 30mph for the first few miles, and finally settled in around 25-26mph. The next 5 mile pull was the exact same. After I finished my second pull, I actually had to take some antacid tablets because my stomach was ... way too acidic!! This had never happened to me, so I was really glad that I had some! This is Larry and I doing a (slow) exchange...
My HR for each pull was easily north of 170. I felt like a million bucks, and was having an absolute blast! Riding at night, in cooler weather, on butter smooth, relatively flat roads, with no one else on the road was just kick ass.
Because we were riding on the interstate, we actually had to ride longer than 5 miles sometimes because RAAM rules state that exchanges must take place on on/off ramps (in addition to being in the beam of the headlights at night). Coming from more of a distance background, I had no problem with that, and it also allowed me to settle into a more realistic pace, and more realistic HR (170 vs. 180. sheesh!).
At some point during the pull, I noticed a car pulled over in the breakdown lane, and it looked like to be Matt and Larry. I was a little confused at first, but after the exchange, Matt clued me in on what happened. He said "Dude, you'll never believe what happened." Below is Larry talking about what happened:
We crossed over into AZ, and right around 430AM PDT, I started getting a little tired. I finished off the leg at 5am, and handed it over to Greg and Ralph.
AZ sunrise...
The first leg of RAAM (for me) was in the books, and I couldn't have been happier! It was so cool to finally be doing it, and everything about it was just so freakin cool.
One of the cool parts about RAAM is that it is a pretty low profile event. It doesn't get the hoopla that Ironman does, and I like that. The start, and (anti-climatic) finish were no different. Below are some pics and videos from the start of this trans-continental endurance race (Thanks Jeff - I love that term)
Navy SEALS making an entrance at the solo start (a few days prior to the team start)
One of the dudes on our team was Andrew "Metal" Danly. I am gonna go on a limb and say that he received his "tough" nickname based on his cycling ability, or his preference in guitar strumming, or some combination of both. I had never met Andrew, except for one week prior to the race during our pre-race meeting. The next time I saw him, he did his own rendition of the national anthem. Check it out below. I was in tears laughing at how cool this was to start the race!
Yeah right, you think I can sum up a 3,014 mile race in one post?
Each leg is going to get its own post since each 5 hour shift was really it's own "race". But, below is the general gist of it all. WOW.
That was the hardest, coolest, longest, most fun thing I never thought I'd wanna do again, but sometime in the middle of the country, thoughts of wanting to do it again next year jumped into my head.
It really hasn't hit me that I was part of an 8-person team that just traversed the country via bicycle. Seriously. The week was a blur. When I was hanging out on the east coast, it really didn't feel like I traveled to the east coast. When I got back to San Diego sunday night, it felt like I left, but it certainly wasn't the usual feeling of leaving and coming back. Weird!
Race Across America marked the second time I have traveled from coast-to-coast, not by plane, and in the fastest manner possible. The other time was when I first moved out to San Diego, a little over 5 years ago, with my dad and I driving from MA to CA in 2.5 days.
There were 2 things I really wanted to do/experience during the race, and I got them both: climbing a part of the rockies (although, they got a piece of me too, which I will talk about later!), and riding my bike, at sunrise, while other people are too busy hitting their snooze bar or worrying about how much coffee they have to drink to start their day!
Obviously, there were many other things I was looking forward to, but all I kept hearing was "expect the unexpected" (which happened), so I didn't want to expect too much!
The video feed: Yes, I realize that the video feed wasn't working much. There are a lot of moving parts in this system, but one of the main limiters was line of sight to the satellite over florida. Mountains, trees, hills pretty much block the signal. There was considerable discussion over whether we are using the right satellite technology or not, and we definitely hope to get it better for next year. Personally, watching the video feed back in 2007 is what made me want to do the race!
Overall, the race was an absolute success. We averaged 22.23mph, beating last years time by about 4.5 hours with a total time of 5 days, 15 hours, and 53 minutes.
What an absolute incredible experience!
ps- This was my first official bike race! How 'bout that!
Sometimes, whether it be monotony, or just going at full tilt, I just needed a little extra oomph to get me through a 5 hour shift. Below are some of the songs that helped light a fire under the rear over the course of the week:
Start Time: 20JUN09 @ 2PM @ Oceanside Pier. I will NOT be starting at this time, but will be there for photos, hand waving, and seeing Ken and Jeremy off since I won't see them until we get to Maryland. My shift doesn't start until Midnight, so I get to go home, chill out for a few hours, before we take off for our projected start place, in Blythe, CA (talk about long day!)
My response upon receiving our Team Kits this past Saturday sounded very similar to the title of this blog post. After taking everything out of the bag, and then trying it all on - I am still dropping "Holy Kits" all over the place! Dude, these things are ridiculous/amazing! Check 'em out...
Jersey (we get two of them)...
Bib Shorts (two of these also)...
Back of Jersey...
Skinsuit (my fav!)...
and a vest, knee warmers and arm warmers to top it all off...
I realize that no matter how much I train (physically, and mentally), the adage "Expect the unexpected" will certainly come into play during RAAM. But, that doesn't mean not to at least attempt some conditions beforehand.
Last Sunday, Larry, Matt and I did a simulation ride. The route was about 80 or so miles (finished in under 4 hours) of some rolling terrain, complete with 5 mile "hand offs". I know when I described these hand offs before, it made some people say "wow, sounds complicated". It is, if you make it complicated, but it doesn't have to be.
I had two main objectives in this ride:
Practice the whole "hand off" thing. Both as a rider, but also planning when/where to stop. The rules of RAAM state that a vehicle must be completely pulled off to the side of the road during a stop. So, these 5 mile/20 minute-ish intervals aren't always 5 mile/20 minutes because there just aren't large patches of dirt at the same interval across the country. The 5 mile distances are just guidelines.
Pacing. These efforts are of the "very hard" variety, so I wanted to make sure I didn't blow up too early, and to gauge how sore I would be the next day (surprisingly, not much).
Below is a 15 second video that Matt took during "an exchange" between myself and Larry
The more elaborate 45 second video is here, complete with unracking the bike, and getting up to speed:
One of the main things I learned is at these intensities, I tend to have a little tunnel vision. It's not often one goes barreling through busy streets of Escondido with a HR above LT. I need to be especially careful of going at said intensity through towns/congestion, especially in the midwest where they simply aren't used to cyclists roaming the streets.
Tuesday, I knew, was going to be a long day at work, so I planned accordingly. I brought my bike, headlamp and tailight so I could ride home in the dark. It was wild! Even though I have driven and ridden the route a million times, it was hard not to be conservative, especially in the dimly lit areas. I ran it by some RAAM veterans, and they said not to worry because the follow vans' headlights provide a good amount of light. Definitely some good practice to get in for sure.
Oh, so when I said Clif Barhooked us up, I wasn't lying. I got my "delivery" on Sunday. Check out what I, and each rider, got (complete with... socks!):
Bars, Blocks, Gels, recovery stuff.. the whole 9. Damn!
In other news, about an hour ago, I had my first "Oh shit, RAAM is in 9 days moment!"
So, I recently learned that our follow vehicle is equipped with some outward facing speakers. Although I have never ridden my bike with music (via mp3 player), I definitely plan on taking advantage of the music when I need a little something (anything!) to get through the night, hard times, etc.
So, with that said does anyone have any recommendations for great get-up-and-go type stuff?
I do know that the first song I will play is Crystal Methods Trip like I do (original album version, not the filter remix)
Nothing training related, but definitely some cool stuff happening!
A big thanks goes out to Kenny Souza (Duathlon Legend, and RAAM solo finisher), clif bar rep, for hooking us up with a TON of product for the race!
I stoked to say that Matt Simpson, owner of Oceanside's Rivet Cycle Sport, will be crewing for Team ViaSat. Specifically, he will be driving for Larry and I!
Media Frenzy! After talking with Larry, I learned of a few bad ass things that we plan on doing during the race. We will be having a 4 person broadcast crew (really?!) that will be in charge of the 24/7 live video feed, a website, twitter updates on the site (who is riding and where), conducting interviews, and uploading videos to youtube.com. I finally activated a twitter account and will probably update my facebook and this blog with how things are going (if I can ever figure out how to do it). Hit me up if you know how to do it!
The second most commonly asked question I am asked after people hear word that I am doing RAAM is something to the effect of "So, how does it all work?" (or something to that effect. The first question is normally "Are you crazy?").
Here is how Team ViaSatrolls (Sorry, I couldn't resist):
We have an 8 person team that we split into 4 2-person groups. The group breakdown is:
Group1:Ken (Team Captain) and Jeremy
Group2: Tobias and Andrew
Group3: Larry and I
Group4: Greg and Ralph
Each group is "on" for 5 hours, and "off" for 15 hours. So, Group1 will ride for 5 hours, and group2 starts where Group1 finishes, and so on.
When a group is "on", each rider only rides for 20 minutes at at time, and the riders leap frog each other with the help of a car. Here is an example breakdown:
Larry starts our 5 hour on period after Tobias and Andrew finish
I am waiting up the road apx. 20 minutes from Larry starts
As Larry approaches, I start pedaling and get up to speed
The "handoff" is when we cross wheels
I then take over riding for 20 minutes
After the handoff, Larry gets off of his bike, racks his bike onto the SUV, and drives up the road apx. 20 minutes from where we handed off
Lather, rinse and repeat
The theory is that a cyclist can go very hard for 20 minutes, and recover quickly enough to go again shortly. This will be the fourth year we will employ this strategy. Each team is free to choose whichever strategy they want, so long as it is within the rules of the race.
As you can imagine, coordination, logistics, communication, and knowledge of the course are of absolute importance when determining when and where riders will finish - at the end of each leg, and each 20 minute interval. Meanwhile, there is a follow vehicle following the rider at all times. This is the cool part since we broadcast our race through a satellite uplink (an advantage to working for a satellite communication company), which I will give links to in the future.
Start time is 2pm on 20JUN09 at Oceanside Pier, with Team Introductions at 1pm (including Laird Hamilton doing it as part of a 4 person team!), with the team send off at 2pm!
Ride #2 at noon (no pictures). The instructions were as follows:
"Don’t be afraid to push and get competitive with some schmucks along the PCH. Just be sure you show them who’s boss."
I was literally salivating to crush some "schmucks", but unfortunately - not only could I find anyone to bite, I couldn't find anyone on the PCH. So, I "raced" myself for a while. Boo!
Ride #3 at 430pm (no pictures), 15 min warm up, 90 minutes at 155HR around Fiesta, 15 min cool down. Note to anyone reading this: never ride your bike around fiesta during the late afternoon on a holiday weekend. Way too many idiots out there.
Michelle then hooked up an amazing dinner with some indian curry chutney pork chops, with some good ass rice (I don't know the name of it, so "good ass" will have to suffice), and some sauted and buttered veggies in preparation for Sunday's ride...
Sunday: Over distance Ride
More nutrition and gear than should ever go in a bike jersey...
Pedal time! Yes, that's AM!
What's really cool about starting a ride so early on a holiday weekend is there were NO cars and NO cyclists to be seen at 6am! Greg, who joined me for the ride...
Doheny State Park road, which was 50 miles in, marked only the SECOND time came to a complete stop on the ride. The first being the entrance to pendleton.
Total ride time: 7+ Hours. Biatch.
Calories burned...
So, I showered, and did a recovery ride ...
(Total cycling distance during the day was over 120 miles)
Down to a beach front bar in PB where this was waiting for me...
Popular place...
The destination...
Because 1 sombrero wasn't enough, I needed ... 4 ... to compliment my visor.
Nick - beware. The geekiness of all this might make you lust for one of these things...
****
As mentioned before during last thursday's hill repeats, I finally saw one of the real values of using a power meter. Now, in no way am I suggesting the purchase of a four-figure gadget as a necessary training tool, but I am glad that I can finally find some value in it, rather than just my coach saying "Send me the data".
Right at the start of my first interval, I could feel the previous nights workout in my legs, and I knew right then it was going to be a tough workout (more so than usual) because of residual fatigue. The first three intervals were especially tough, but I felt better (although, I'm not sure I'd say "good") as the workout progressed. Without a PM, I would have chalked up my workout as one where I kinda wasn't feeling it, but pushed through just to finish the damn thing (to get me to the beer at the end!)
Below is the data over the past 5 hill repeat workouts. Note the following:
* The first 2 days were done in San Elijo, but there are too many lights on that hill, so I switched to Torrey Pines * All Torrey repeats are done in the big ring * The first 4 times I did this workout, I didn't do a hard bike workout the day before * All are done seated, standing, or aero, and are mixed up throughout the workout for (mental and physical) variety * Screenshot images of excel tables are freakin' sexy, and you know it
The data is showing:
* There is no discernable drop in power output, even though my legs were more fatigued than past workouts (this obviously is good for me since I will never have fresh legs during RAAM after day 1. Nick B - thanks for the comment in the last post - I had the same thoughts!). * The work done (power output), wasn't at a higher cost (HR) * Even though the times were a little bit longer during last weeks' interval versus prior ones, this doesn't necessarily mean that speed took a hit. I start my interval when my HR hits a specific point, rather than at a certain point on the hill (ie. the stop sign at the bottom). Because all I have a .5 mile downhill and flat to get my HR up from about 130bpm (recovery) to 165bpm, it takes a lot of hurt to get it, uh, up. However, I do always stop the interval at the same spot on the hill. Ideally, I would have the same start HR at the same start point for every interval, but I'll deal with the nuances that real life throws me!
Basically, all this means is that the data is objectively showing me that the workout went better than how I would thought it went had I evaluated it subjectively.
I realize that if I didn't have a PM, that I could probably check distance, HR and speed data, but that's just way too much work...
Ok, so the wildflower honeymoon/day dreaming/lala land phase is over. It took me a week and a half to get back in the swing of things (work, personal, diet, school), but I am back on a routine, and ready to deal with whatever CV throws my way (I hope!).
Over the past week, I had a hard 75 mile ride with some RAAM teammates, doing a modified TdC stage 8. Without going into details, it was a huge confidence builder ride! Sunday AM was weights (for the first time in about 9 months), later followed by a hard 75 minute hard tempo ride around fiesta. This hurt - a lot. When I was finished with the ride, I could barely walk, sit, move, bend over - anything! It had definitely been a long time since I just hunkered down in aero and hammered for this long. My sit bones and hips felt like they got beat the f up! Monday and Tuesday were easy days (thankfully), but wednesday greeted me with an 1:45 hour straight sesh on the trainer. No intervals, no bullshit - just steady state. Here I am sweating it out at the pad:
Thursday was more gnarly hill repeats up TP. For the first time ever, I realized the value of a power meter, and I will save the elaboration for another post.
This sunday, I have repeats up palomar mountain! Should be a "Fun"!
I am really looking forward to the next 5 weeks. As much as I enjoyed the balanced triathlon training for the last 4 months, I am looking forward to (hopefully) seeing some nice performance gains by switching over to single sport...
** I want to share my favorite quote from wildflower, overhead from the campsite next to us:
I can't believe I am writing this (on the wide open internets no less), but...
I was thinking about it yesterday, with all the cycling I will be doing in RAAM (apx. 375 HARD miles in less than 6 days), and with the minimal ability to recover properly (ie. sitting in a car, sleeping 5 hours, maybe, in a hotel room, eating fast food), I think I wanna get some compression pants for the race/event/week. (Holy run on sentence).
I know about all the non-conclusive studies, but everyone I talk to says they feel better the next day after them, and its a "risk" I am willing to take. (However, please don't be concerned that I would wear them in public like others do - maybe in the comfort of my own friends).
With that written, does anyone have any recommendations? So far, I have received nods for zoot or SLS3. I am willing to listen to "Save your money" recommendations too.
I accidentally published the in process version of this last week, so check the new stuff! ++++
Friends
The same as it ever was, hanging out with 25+ of my friends in a camping & racing setting was incredible. Even the rain that happened Friday afternoon was nice as it forced me to relax and just chill (take a nap!), and brought back good memories for fellow IMLP'ers Dan and Jeff. It also made it better for Saturday where everyone could sit around, hang out and chat about an amazing day. Big props to Marty and Pat for coming into town from Chicago, and Rhode Island, respectively. Even though Paul and Damian had some mechanical difficulties, bad races become good races such that you always learn from them (as was the case with me last year). It also appears that Nick Brown and I may have sparked a little friendly competition, and I am looking forward to throwing down in the future.
My Damn Foot
Remember when I said my right foot hurt when I screwed up my bike mount? When I showered later that day, I looked at the bottom of my foot and found this:
Look a little like I stepped on my big chain ring during the bike mount melee? EESH!
Light on my damn feet
After suffering through the run course during recon, I realized that we needed to make some changes to the next few weeks of training. I briefly considered purchasing race flats, but thought they were too expensive (this was before I just bought a new bike - ha!), and worried that changing shoes shortly before a race might screw something up.
After discussions with Marty and Coach, I made a few tweaks to my diet, and ended up losing a whopping 7 pounds in April to bring me down to my lightest weight in 10+ years .Yes, they were tweaks, legal (regardless of what Nick says) and hardly rocket science. I am actually in the process of writing a 6 part series on nutrition for endurance athletes for amateurendurance.com, where I touch upon a few things I did.The articles should be ready in the next few weeks, and are intended to be quite comprehensive (and debatable for some of you, I am sure).
Nutrition For the first time I think EVER, I absolutely nailed my nutrition (except for the swim, when I took in a gulp or two!). I can't say enough about Infinit. Actually, that's a lie. There really isn't much to say other than - it just works. Plain and simple.
Good Company
Shortly after I met Michelle, I told her "You need to come up to Wildflower", and I am glad she took my advice! It took me until my 3rd season to finally experience it, and I insisted that she come and join the fun - especially since she is new to the sport. I swear, experiencing wildflower should be about as mandatory as owning running shoes (and I bet she'd agree). Not to mention that in nearly exactly a year from now, she will be doing one very hilly triathlon that is Ironman St. George! Hill training starts NOW!
She made for a most excellent co-pilot to and fro, with a well strategized detour to Four Vines in Paso for a little wine tasting on our way up. I'll let the descriptions of the wine glasses tell it all...
Speaking of wine HUGE props to Nikee for stopping by some yet-to-be-met relatives of mine and getting me a a kick ass gift...
As if the name of the winery isn't great enough, check the name of the wine!
Coach
I can't begin to describe how big having Chuckie as a coach has been for me this year. When I first asked him to coach me for RAAM, I figured I had all the time in the world to do this. Then I made things twice as hard for him a few months later when I told him that I was going to school, and would be in class every other Saturday, and also that I wanted to do Wildflower as well.
Unfortunately, the best I could do is about 10-12 hours/week - minimal by his standards. Yet, somehow, on this minimal training, and with most of my "running" being jogs (ie. at a much lower HR than you probably do your long runs at), I was able to take over 20 minutes off my previous half marathon time - stand alone or in a half ironman. Hell, I can honestly say that it was probably the most enjoyable run I have ever done. He even said himself that I might be the perfect 10-15 hour/week athlete.
People say "The key to a strong run is to have a strong bike". I used to halfway agree with that. The other half, I believed, was to be a strong runner in the first place. Well, either am I a strong runner, or I don't know what I am talking about (probably the latter!), but it's obvious that what "they" say, is correct. I still can't get over how fresh I felt getting off the bike. I definitely know that a lot had to do with these gnarly hill repeats Chuckie has had me do over the past month. Holding nearly or exactly 300W week after week, hill after hill after hill after hill after hill definitely paid dividends on race day.
All I gotta say is:
"4:51 on 10-12 hours a week? It's gotta be the coach!"
HOWEVER - he did get my mind wandering when he mentioned "I still think you need to do another Ironman"...
