T4 - Gettin Better - Bike

Gainesville

Bike: 90 Minutes

2 Lipodrene
Well, I'm never circle swimming for anyone ever again. That's all I'm gonna say.

At any rate, I made good on my plan to ride first thing on bike days, so after breakfast and a little "Will and Grace" I got the bike ready to go. I got my computer fixed so I could actually monitor my speed, time, distance and whatnot. But my rear wheel kept catching for some reason, and I had to fuck around with the brakes for like 10 minutes to get them to line up properly. This happens every time I put my bike in the car (Saturns, not really made for bike transport) and is another reason why I'm glad I'm not taking the bike to Miami.

It had rained all night, but stopped by this morning, so the water was coming up like steam the whole ride. I mean it was like biking in a steam bath. No problems, though, as I kept a pretty steady pace the first half down Hawthorne trail. Got going 20 or higher through most of the straightaways and pedaled hard through the hills. Spent probably 60% of my time in Aero, which is good for this early on I think.

Then I hit the way back. At about the 1:06 mark, my low back started hurting. My low back is really my main problem on the bike, as my legs are not usually tired but my back wants to die. It got so bad I was going a steady 13 in spots where I'd been going 19-21 on the way down, and the wind wasn't even a factor. So I did something I rarely do and just flat out took a break at 1:14. The mosquitoes noticed this and pounced immediately, so it was a short break. I came out and was doing a steady 19 for 12 minutes until my back was killing me again. So I stopped AGAIN at the first street crossing for Hawthorne, and did a steady 19 on the ride home. Ended up doing 26 miles in 1:33. Not stellar by any stretch, but I've done worse.

All in all, I was pleased with my first half, but concerned that my back went out so fast. It did the same in the Orlando race, and I think that's a big part of why my bike split was so bad there. Not sure what to do here except keep cycling and hope it gets conditioned by November. I still need to find better bike motivation too, as after the one hour mark it was seriously just "Are we fucking there yet?!" Up early and off to Miami tomorrow.