Gainesville
Strange title, I know, but I'll get to it. Today was a run-bike session together which mandated that the run be done several hours later. So as it was I called Justin to see if he wanted to train, since I can do a swim/bike brick from Campus Lodge and he only wants to do short workouts in preparation for his Sprint Tri this weekend. So I met him a little after 5 and we got started.
Swim - 30 minutes, 1500 meters
2 Lipodrene
They have a nice outdoor pool at Campus Lodge, and today it happened to have some music going for the after-work tanning crowd. Justin was doing some sprints, but I kept a solid pace and got in the full 30 laps I'd aimed to do in the allotted half hour. Or so Justin told me. He also told me that I was bringing my right arm out way too far on my strokes, something I am consciously doing. So I'm going to have to try and modify this a little during my short swim in New York. Maybe bringing the arm forward and bending the elbow as I come back to eliminate the drafting effect while still keeping the arm in.
Bike - 1 Hour
Did a nice transition at my car and headed down Williston on the bike. I hadn't done this road in a while and I remember why, it's just all trucks and a very narrow bike lane. Not exactly prime biking conditions. I also have some bad, bad associations with terrible rides on that road as well. But after I crossed I-75 I settled into Aero and was doing a solid 22-25, even after yesterday's grueling bike effort. I mean, I know I have to show off a little when I train with Justin, since he destroys me in the run and is a slightly better swimmer too, but I was just straight flying. He kept up, but I was thinking "Damn, I"m just crushing this today." I looked at the plants for any sign of wind and saw none, thus assuming I was just that good.
Then I turned around. Justin had bailed at the 20 minute mark as he'd wanted to do a shorter ride, but at 30 minutes I turned around, having averaged about 22 on the way down. Crushing a short ride, I thought. Well, notsomuch. Despite my thinking there wasn't much wind, I couldn't manage to muster much over 18 at the beginning of the way back. I even slowed to around 16 before I said "Fuck this, I'm averaging 20 on this bitch" and pushed it all the way to the end. Made it just over 20 miles in just over 1 hour, averaging exactly 20. The gel I took at the 15 minute mark helped, but during the ride I sarted to think, ya know, wind is a lot like societal privilege. Could be racial, gender, socioeconomic, whatever. But here's my thoughts...
Like wind, when you have privilege working for you, you don't even notice. You breeze through not realizing that you have a great force working behind you. You usually just think you're doing awesome all on your own. Or, for some, you realize you have it and decide to take full advantage, pushing as hard as you can to get the best possible result. But really, you never notice it until it is working against you. When wind, or privilege, is not in your favor everything becomes twice as hard as it usually is. You spend a lot of time saying "This isn't fucking fair. This looks so easy but for some reason I just can't do as well as I want to." Then you either decide to let the force against you win and perform poorly (as I did most of last cycle), or say fuck it, work a lot harder, and get the result you want. Like I did on my ride today. Last cycle I was a nigger sitting in jail. This cycle I'm Barack Obama. You see what I mean?
Deeper than usual? Sure. But it can't all be gels and Cliff Bars.
Run - 45 minutes (treadmill)
In continuing with my theme of improving my speed with treadmill work, I opted to do today's short run on the treadmill at 6.4. Which was too fast to maintain, so I dropped it to 6.2 and did ok. My stomach started feeling a little weird, which I found odd since I hadn't had any more Lipodrene and had only a Cliff bar and PB&J. I felt a little strained going at that speed for 45 minutes, which some might call sad, but I think its an improvement that needs to be made. Yeah, this run was kinda pathetic, but I need to keep doing treadmill work on shorter runs until my speed improves. I did get to watch the end of the Mets-Marlins game. But for some reason the bullpen only seems to like to close out games quickly when I'm tryingto watch them during a workout.
Showing posts with label Justin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justin. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
T59 - A Personal Record Put in Perspective - Run
Gainesville
Run - 2.5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
Today was the longest I've ever run. Ever. In my life. And not that I needed to go all codependant on this workout to get in the 15-or-so miles I'd be doing, but I had mentioned that I was doing this run the other day to Justin, and he is training for the Space Coast Marathon, and wanted to come along. Fine. He well knows that he runs faster than me, so he'd have to pace himself accordingly.
I decided that much as I like training with the heat, a run this long needed to be done in the evening. So I got a good parking spot for the Saturn Aid Station right by the run-in on the first floor, and hit the road about 5. Justin waited a while so that he'd catch me at the end (he runs a slightly longer loop as well). I used the iPod as I did a lap of the campus loop. Started out striding well, but the heat started getting to me by the hill on 2nd and I found myself chopping steps there. Justin caught up to me right around the stadium, and flew ahead to finish the loop in the Jefferson parking garage well ahead of me. My iPod, which had been skipping a lot during the loop, finally froze about ten minutes from the end of this loop. Annoying, but you can't use those thigns on the Ironman course, so good to do a run this long without it.
Justin had run a little faster than me, obviously. So when I got back to the garage he was definitely still in recovery mode. I started talking to him and he said "You shouldn't be talking right now. You obviously didn't run hard enough." Yeah, probably. But I had another 8-9 miles to go, so I prefer to think I was pacing myself. I had a gel and suggested we get going. he did not like this suggestion, but I guess this was my way of pushing him. He kept the pace a little faster than I wanted as we began the first of three trips down to the Stadium and back. I lagged a little behind for some of it, but it was good having someone to talk to.
I really enjoy doing the half-hour loops after the big campus loop, because I'm never more than 15 minutes from my next turnaround, and every half hour you get an aid station at the car with Powerade and gels, and a little chance to rest. I don't even look at it as pussing out either, becasue on the course you actually get one of those every mile, and they have more stuff. It also makes the run mentally a lot easier. Oh, and it's flat too. But so is the IM course.
By lap 2 to the stadium, my legs started to hurt. I mean, I guess at the 12-mile mark, that's to be expected. But I realized this is what pretty much the whole run is going to feel like in November. Best get used to the pain. Lap 2 was, again, a little faster than I would have run otherwise, and I kept stride well. I think we got called "fags" by some guys driving by in a car at one point. I just looked at them and said "Really?" Ok guys. I can't even take anyone like that seriosuly at this point, my guess is they probably would have fallen out halfway into the first loop.
Lap 3, Justin decided to run ahead at his own pace, and looped around and caught me at the stadium as I turned around. I still kept the pace we'd been running when I ran alone, and at the end Justin had been clocking it and said I'd kept 10-minute miles the whole time. Which, slow as that sounds, is about my goal for runs like this. Yeah, I'm fat. Leave me alone. And on the way back, a carload of girls stopped on 13th (right where that girl stopped me and asked for my number last year) were whistling and hollering at us as we ran by. I think they were cute. So I guess running with your shirt off invites different reactions from different people.
All in all, the longest run of my life went pretty well. Yeah, the iPod fucked up. Yeah, it hurt. And yeah, I wasn't setting any land speed marks. But I never felt like I wanted to die, I never thought about quitting, and if I'd been forced to I could have run more. And I think that is about what I should expect at this point. I kept to the gel-every-45 rule, even when I took one with 15 minutes to go. And I downed 64 oz. of Powerade as well as about half a bottle of water. Couldn't get enough fluid for a humid day like this, but the nutrition and hyration worked well today. We got back to the apartment and had some giant Muscle Milk shakes. Protein after a run that long, probably a good idea.
This was a solid way to end the first half of training for the Ironman. Yep, this workout marks he halfway point of the training cycle, and I don't think I could ask it to have gone better. But like I told Justin, I'm glad I have 3 months until race day. Because there's no way I coulda done 11 more miles. After a 112-mile ride. Really puts stuff in perspective, ya know?
Run - 2.5 Hours
2 Lipodrene
Today was the longest I've ever run. Ever. In my life. And not that I needed to go all codependant on this workout to get in the 15-or-so miles I'd be doing, but I had mentioned that I was doing this run the other day to Justin, and he is training for the Space Coast Marathon, and wanted to come along. Fine. He well knows that he runs faster than me, so he'd have to pace himself accordingly.
I decided that much as I like training with the heat, a run this long needed to be done in the evening. So I got a good parking spot for the Saturn Aid Station right by the run-in on the first floor, and hit the road about 5. Justin waited a while so that he'd catch me at the end (he runs a slightly longer loop as well). I used the iPod as I did a lap of the campus loop. Started out striding well, but the heat started getting to me by the hill on 2nd and I found myself chopping steps there. Justin caught up to me right around the stadium, and flew ahead to finish the loop in the Jefferson parking garage well ahead of me. My iPod, which had been skipping a lot during the loop, finally froze about ten minutes from the end of this loop. Annoying, but you can't use those thigns on the Ironman course, so good to do a run this long without it.
Justin had run a little faster than me, obviously. So when I got back to the garage he was definitely still in recovery mode. I started talking to him and he said "You shouldn't be talking right now. You obviously didn't run hard enough." Yeah, probably. But I had another 8-9 miles to go, so I prefer to think I was pacing myself. I had a gel and suggested we get going. he did not like this suggestion, but I guess this was my way of pushing him. He kept the pace a little faster than I wanted as we began the first of three trips down to the Stadium and back. I lagged a little behind for some of it, but it was good having someone to talk to.
I really enjoy doing the half-hour loops after the big campus loop, because I'm never more than 15 minutes from my next turnaround, and every half hour you get an aid station at the car with Powerade and gels, and a little chance to rest. I don't even look at it as pussing out either, becasue on the course you actually get one of those every mile, and they have more stuff. It also makes the run mentally a lot easier. Oh, and it's flat too. But so is the IM course.
By lap 2 to the stadium, my legs started to hurt. I mean, I guess at the 12-mile mark, that's to be expected. But I realized this is what pretty much the whole run is going to feel like in November. Best get used to the pain. Lap 2 was, again, a little faster than I would have run otherwise, and I kept stride well. I think we got called "fags" by some guys driving by in a car at one point. I just looked at them and said "Really?" Ok guys. I can't even take anyone like that seriosuly at this point, my guess is they probably would have fallen out halfway into the first loop.
Lap 3, Justin decided to run ahead at his own pace, and looped around and caught me at the stadium as I turned around. I still kept the pace we'd been running when I ran alone, and at the end Justin had been clocking it and said I'd kept 10-minute miles the whole time. Which, slow as that sounds, is about my goal for runs like this. Yeah, I'm fat. Leave me alone. And on the way back, a carload of girls stopped on 13th (right where that girl stopped me and asked for my number last year) were whistling and hollering at us as we ran by. I think they were cute. So I guess running with your shirt off invites different reactions from different people.
All in all, the longest run of my life went pretty well. Yeah, the iPod fucked up. Yeah, it hurt. And yeah, I wasn't setting any land speed marks. But I never felt like I wanted to die, I never thought about quitting, and if I'd been forced to I could have run more. And I think that is about what I should expect at this point. I kept to the gel-every-45 rule, even when I took one with 15 minutes to go. And I downed 64 oz. of Powerade as well as about half a bottle of water. Couldn't get enough fluid for a humid day like this, but the nutrition and hyration worked well today. We got back to the apartment and had some giant Muscle Milk shakes. Protein after a run that long, probably a good idea.
This was a solid way to end the first half of training for the Ironman. Yep, this workout marks he halfway point of the training cycle, and I don't think I could ask it to have gone better. But like I told Justin, I'm glad I have 3 months until race day. Because there's no way I coulda done 11 more miles. After a 112-mile ride. Really puts stuff in perspective, ya know?
Sunday, August 9, 2009
T57 - Body Buzz - Run/Bike Brick
Gainesville
Well, you knew it was gonna happen eventually: The Hangover workout. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to stay out until 4, going hard the whole time up to and including chugging White Zin out of a plastic bag. And in addition to several drunk texts to various people, I somehow managed to text Justin "Hey, I'm pretty fucked up and going to bed now. So if you wanna go later than 10:30, that's cool." He was hapy to hear it, and showed up around noon for the workout. I drank a ton of water and Gatorade, and did my Advil/Sudafed/Lipodrene stack with breakfast, so I actualyl felt pretty good heading out to run.
Run - 60 Minutes
2 Lipodrene
2 Sudafed
I like running with Justin, because while he runs faster than I do, he keeps his pace with me as one I can keep too. I'm not sure if this is the case, or I"m just getting to be a better runner. Justin had to be at work at 4, so we opted to cut the run a little short. We didn't do the whole campus loop, instead running down University to 2nd past the Law school. This is usually my 45 minute run, but when we got to my usual turnaround, we had only been out 20 minutes. So the pace he kept it at was defintely a faster clip. As he said "I bet I save you a solid 2 minutes on the Ironman." If I keep up this pace, it'll be a lot more than that.
And the hill was tough going back up 2nd, but I didn't chop my steps at all so I could keep up. The heat wasn't feeling nearly as brutal as it has in the past, although the weather said it was just as hot. (Except that day it was 104). All in all the run went very well, and we got back in under an hour to do a quick bike transition.
Bike - 2 Hours
Took a gel and drank a bunch of Gatorade while we transitioned at the apartment. Again, because Justin had to be at work at 4, my dream of a shady, car-free Hawthorne ride was shot because he had to drop his shit off at Campus Lodge on the ride. Basically, we ended up riding Williston to 34th, then back to our old friend 441. After being off the bike since Monday, I felt great pedaling down. So great, in fact, I let Justin pull the whole way down to Micanopy, which made for a very pleasant ride. But I started feeling a little light-headed about 5 minutes into the ride.
First I though dehydration, but that wasn't it. Then I thought maybe it was my being a little sick, but I had no other symptoms. Then I started feeling a burn in my quads as we went up a hill, but oddly the burn felt good. The only time my body ever feels like this is when I'm on massive amounts of stimulants, or ecstasy. Serisouly, like every sensation just feels awesome. The wind on the bike course felt awesome. Any time my leg brushed the bike frame, it felt awesome. And let me tell you, biking with a body buzz is pretty fucking cool. We turned it around at Cafe Risque and here I took the lead.
Now my computer is broken, but as Trevor has told me you know your body and how certain speeds feel, and with my quads having orgasms every time I pushed them harder (kinda like those girls who get off on being smacked around, but slightly less fun)I'm pretty sure I was doing a solid 23-25 a good part of the way back. Really, it was incredible. Just pushing yourself faster every hill and every straightaway, and feeling great while you did it. It didn't hurt I got a good 50-minute warmup drafting behind Justin, and had enough energy to just go balls out for the ride back. I also might have had a little ephedrine in my system, I know. Justin kept up with me, which I have to say was a little surprising. I've dropped him on bikes before when I've pushed it, but he was right there behind me all the way back to 34th. He did tell me, though, when we turned "I don't think I've ever worked that hard drafting before." I felt a little bad, but I'm not gonna lie, I kinda smiled.
The slowdown actually kidna killed the body buzz, as I think I wasn't flooding my brain with adrenaline as I had been for the previous hour and a half. Still made it back from Micanopy in about 8 minutes less than it took me to get down. The whole ride ended up being slightly under 2 hours because of it, but whatever. If you're out there less time because you hauled ass back, you deserve it. Dare I say, this ride was up there with that hour I keep up with Trevor as my best ride of the cycle. And it came after an hour of running in the sun. Hungover.
Yeah, I'm definitely getting there.
Well, you knew it was gonna happen eventually: The Hangover workout. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to stay out until 4, going hard the whole time up to and including chugging White Zin out of a plastic bag. And in addition to several drunk texts to various people, I somehow managed to text Justin "Hey, I'm pretty fucked up and going to bed now. So if you wanna go later than 10:30, that's cool." He was hapy to hear it, and showed up around noon for the workout. I drank a ton of water and Gatorade, and did my Advil/Sudafed/Lipodrene stack with breakfast, so I actualyl felt pretty good heading out to run.
Run - 60 Minutes
2 Lipodrene
2 Sudafed
I like running with Justin, because while he runs faster than I do, he keeps his pace with me as one I can keep too. I'm not sure if this is the case, or I"m just getting to be a better runner. Justin had to be at work at 4, so we opted to cut the run a little short. We didn't do the whole campus loop, instead running down University to 2nd past the Law school. This is usually my 45 minute run, but when we got to my usual turnaround, we had only been out 20 minutes. So the pace he kept it at was defintely a faster clip. As he said "I bet I save you a solid 2 minutes on the Ironman." If I keep up this pace, it'll be a lot more than that.
And the hill was tough going back up 2nd, but I didn't chop my steps at all so I could keep up. The heat wasn't feeling nearly as brutal as it has in the past, although the weather said it was just as hot. (Except that day it was 104). All in all the run went very well, and we got back in under an hour to do a quick bike transition.
Bike - 2 Hours
Took a gel and drank a bunch of Gatorade while we transitioned at the apartment. Again, because Justin had to be at work at 4, my dream of a shady, car-free Hawthorne ride was shot because he had to drop his shit off at Campus Lodge on the ride. Basically, we ended up riding Williston to 34th, then back to our old friend 441. After being off the bike since Monday, I felt great pedaling down. So great, in fact, I let Justin pull the whole way down to Micanopy, which made for a very pleasant ride. But I started feeling a little light-headed about 5 minutes into the ride.
First I though dehydration, but that wasn't it. Then I thought maybe it was my being a little sick, but I had no other symptoms. Then I started feeling a burn in my quads as we went up a hill, but oddly the burn felt good. The only time my body ever feels like this is when I'm on massive amounts of stimulants, or ecstasy. Serisouly, like every sensation just feels awesome. The wind on the bike course felt awesome. Any time my leg brushed the bike frame, it felt awesome. And let me tell you, biking with a body buzz is pretty fucking cool. We turned it around at Cafe Risque and here I took the lead.
Now my computer is broken, but as Trevor has told me you know your body and how certain speeds feel, and with my quads having orgasms every time I pushed them harder (kinda like those girls who get off on being smacked around, but slightly less fun)I'm pretty sure I was doing a solid 23-25 a good part of the way back. Really, it was incredible. Just pushing yourself faster every hill and every straightaway, and feeling great while you did it. It didn't hurt I got a good 50-minute warmup drafting behind Justin, and had enough energy to just go balls out for the ride back. I also might have had a little ephedrine in my system, I know. Justin kept up with me, which I have to say was a little surprising. I've dropped him on bikes before when I've pushed it, but he was right there behind me all the way back to 34th. He did tell me, though, when we turned "I don't think I've ever worked that hard drafting before." I felt a little bad, but I'm not gonna lie, I kinda smiled.
The slowdown actually kidna killed the body buzz, as I think I wasn't flooding my brain with adrenaline as I had been for the previous hour and a half. Still made it back from Micanopy in about 8 minutes less than it took me to get down. The whole ride ended up being slightly under 2 hours because of it, but whatever. If you're out there less time because you hauled ass back, you deserve it. Dare I say, this ride was up there with that hour I keep up with Trevor as my best ride of the cycle. And it came after an hour of running in the sun. Hungover.
Yeah, I'm definitely getting there.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
T49 - The Escape From Campus Lodge - Run/Bike/Swim Brick
Gainesville
Today's workout called for what amounted to a reverse Olympic Distance triathlon. And thinking the only way to get these transitions in quick was to base the workout out of somewhere that had a 25-yard pool and a good bike course, I figured I'd see if my friend Justin (who live at Campus Lodge, which has both) wanted to train with me. Justin is one of my former students who I'd actually trained with prior to that who did last year's Florida Ironman. He's a good person to train with because he's a tall, lean fucker who runs a lot better than me. But I bike better than him. So we can push each other to a point. He was not too thrilled to be starting at 9 a.m., but I knew doing the run any later would be even more miserable than it already was. Because this was in essence an reverse Olympic Distance Triathlon, I thought I'd give it a cute name. And given every city seems to like to have a race that involves an "Escape," hence the title of today's "race."
Run - 60 minutes
2 Lipodrene
The run wasn't too bad, going from Campus Lodge on Williston out the back way up to the Planet Smoothie on 34th where he works then up Old Archer Road a couple of miles. No shade to speak of really, but because it was pre-10 a.m., it wasn't too punishing. I ran with Justin about 3/4 of the way to turn around before he got out in front, and the heat was definitely slowing me down a bit. We stopped at the Planet Smoothie on the way back and grabbed a quick Powerade out of the soda machine, as I took the opportunity to use the bathroom and have a gel.
The run was tough, but it didn't feel too labored. I was happy about that, but the sun definitely started kicking my ass. Started getting a real bad headache toward the end, and was wishing I'd brought along some Advil. It's hard to stay hydrated on a run like that since there's not exactly aid stations handing you water. I felt strong about the run, but the mild dehydration would not help my bike.
Bike - 90 Minutes
My car, where my bike was, was by this time in the middle of a blistering hot parking lot. So I got no relief from the sun. Changed over while Justin got his bike out of his apartment, and we headed out towards 441 to bike to Micanopy. 441 was the site of many a terrible ride last cycle, which I blamed on a lot of things. The one thing I forgot to blame those terrible rides on was wind. Hawthorne really doesn't have much wind to speak of this time of year. Not the case on 441. Not only that, but it has this washboard shit on the left side of the shoulder to keep cars from drifting into you. Nice for life-saving, I suppose, not so fun when you're in aero and don't see it and end up riding over a series of inch-deep slits in the road.
Anyway, I hit one of said washboards, and what do you know but my fucking computer goes out again. And, really ,with wind and heat, I was like "Fuck. this." The thing came in and out throughout the rest of the ride, but was more or less useless. I had to depend on Justin to tell me when we got to 45 minutes to turn around. The way down, because I had no way of knowing how far I had to go or when I'd be done, was highly unpleasant. Top that off with not a hint of shade and a continually-warming sun, and the first 45 was straight up shitty save for a little Aero race we had going through the "streets" of Micanopy. Justin stated asking me why I would pull harder than he would, but then when it was my turn to draft I would fall back. I had no idea, other than "I'm just getting lazy." Which is not a solid answer.
We turned it around (I had a gel here as well.) and it was like a whole new ride. I think mentally knowing how far I had to go made a huge difference, and the ice water from the Micanopy Country store didn't hurt either (I do need to remember to bring cash on all street rides, though). My speedometer came on intermittently and it was usually between 20-23. So that felt good. But man, the heat was just unrelenting. The air felt like steam the whole ride, and at one point when we hit Alligator Alley, Justin even remarked that it had all of a sudden just gotten much worse. Really, one of the hottest training days I can ever remember
I'm not sure if I'll ride 441 much more after this, I'm really not a fan. Especially with all the fucking cars. But even with the improved speed we got back in the same time it took us to get down there. Which makes me wonder. I think that included our water stop, though, so who knows. Point is, I'm taking the bike in tomorrow before I leave for Miami to get this computer unfucked once and for all. I can't have another ride get ruined by that.
Swim - 30 Minutes
Justin had warned me this swim was gonna suck. And suck it did for about the first 11 laps, but then I got into a groove and my shoulders weren't sore and I just kind of glided along, True, it was harder to push it having just been brutalized by the sun for 2 and a half hours, but when we did a time check at 25 laps it was only 25:44. So I did 4 more laps and got in 1450 in 30 minutes, which is certainly a solid improvement. The swim was even hot, though, as the water would get warmed evey time the sun peeked thourgh the clouds. That outdoor swimming was fun in Sac, not so fun here. But the swim wasn't bad, and while this wasn't my BEST workout, given the heat and the technical glitches, I't wasn't my worst.
I have to say, though, I've been disappointed with my workouts this week. I had hoped to really crush this reverse tri, and instead just had a workout I'd call "not bad." I think last week and even into Monday I got a little too into the old lifestyle of just drinking whenever and then training when I was sober, and that's just not gonna fly for this. I really need to realize that more than a couple of drink endeavors have to be few and far between now. Ice Luge this weekend being one of them, but still.
I also got a late-night text from a lady friend last night who came over at 1. We were done with things by 2, giving me a solid 6 hours of sleep, but I still have to wonder if the sex made me lose my edge a little bit. She was still in my room when I got home, and I was able to go again. I'm not sure if that means I didn't train hard enough, or I just really don't mind cramping muscles and exhaustion when it comes to sex. Probably, a little of both.
Today's workout called for what amounted to a reverse Olympic Distance triathlon. And thinking the only way to get these transitions in quick was to base the workout out of somewhere that had a 25-yard pool and a good bike course, I figured I'd see if my friend Justin (who live at Campus Lodge, which has both) wanted to train with me. Justin is one of my former students who I'd actually trained with prior to that who did last year's Florida Ironman. He's a good person to train with because he's a tall, lean fucker who runs a lot better than me. But I bike better than him. So we can push each other to a point. He was not too thrilled to be starting at 9 a.m., but I knew doing the run any later would be even more miserable than it already was. Because this was in essence an reverse Olympic Distance Triathlon, I thought I'd give it a cute name. And given every city seems to like to have a race that involves an "Escape," hence the title of today's "race."
Run - 60 minutes
2 Lipodrene
The run wasn't too bad, going from Campus Lodge on Williston out the back way up to the Planet Smoothie on 34th where he works then up Old Archer Road a couple of miles. No shade to speak of really, but because it was pre-10 a.m., it wasn't too punishing. I ran with Justin about 3/4 of the way to turn around before he got out in front, and the heat was definitely slowing me down a bit. We stopped at the Planet Smoothie on the way back and grabbed a quick Powerade out of the soda machine, as I took the opportunity to use the bathroom and have a gel.
The run was tough, but it didn't feel too labored. I was happy about that, but the sun definitely started kicking my ass. Started getting a real bad headache toward the end, and was wishing I'd brought along some Advil. It's hard to stay hydrated on a run like that since there's not exactly aid stations handing you water. I felt strong about the run, but the mild dehydration would not help my bike.
Bike - 90 Minutes
My car, where my bike was, was by this time in the middle of a blistering hot parking lot. So I got no relief from the sun. Changed over while Justin got his bike out of his apartment, and we headed out towards 441 to bike to Micanopy. 441 was the site of many a terrible ride last cycle, which I blamed on a lot of things. The one thing I forgot to blame those terrible rides on was wind. Hawthorne really doesn't have much wind to speak of this time of year. Not the case on 441. Not only that, but it has this washboard shit on the left side of the shoulder to keep cars from drifting into you. Nice for life-saving, I suppose, not so fun when you're in aero and don't see it and end up riding over a series of inch-deep slits in the road.
Anyway, I hit one of said washboards, and what do you know but my fucking computer goes out again. And, really ,with wind and heat, I was like "Fuck. this." The thing came in and out throughout the rest of the ride, but was more or less useless. I had to depend on Justin to tell me when we got to 45 minutes to turn around. The way down, because I had no way of knowing how far I had to go or when I'd be done, was highly unpleasant. Top that off with not a hint of shade and a continually-warming sun, and the first 45 was straight up shitty save for a little Aero race we had going through the "streets" of Micanopy. Justin stated asking me why I would pull harder than he would, but then when it was my turn to draft I would fall back. I had no idea, other than "I'm just getting lazy." Which is not a solid answer.
We turned it around (I had a gel here as well.) and it was like a whole new ride. I think mentally knowing how far I had to go made a huge difference, and the ice water from the Micanopy Country store didn't hurt either (I do need to remember to bring cash on all street rides, though). My speedometer came on intermittently and it was usually between 20-23. So that felt good. But man, the heat was just unrelenting. The air felt like steam the whole ride, and at one point when we hit Alligator Alley, Justin even remarked that it had all of a sudden just gotten much worse. Really, one of the hottest training days I can ever remember
I'm not sure if I'll ride 441 much more after this, I'm really not a fan. Especially with all the fucking cars. But even with the improved speed we got back in the same time it took us to get down there. Which makes me wonder. I think that included our water stop, though, so who knows. Point is, I'm taking the bike in tomorrow before I leave for Miami to get this computer unfucked once and for all. I can't have another ride get ruined by that.
Swim - 30 Minutes
Justin had warned me this swim was gonna suck. And suck it did for about the first 11 laps, but then I got into a groove and my shoulders weren't sore and I just kind of glided along, True, it was harder to push it having just been brutalized by the sun for 2 and a half hours, but when we did a time check at 25 laps it was only 25:44. So I did 4 more laps and got in 1450 in 30 minutes, which is certainly a solid improvement. The swim was even hot, though, as the water would get warmed evey time the sun peeked thourgh the clouds. That outdoor swimming was fun in Sac, not so fun here. But the swim wasn't bad, and while this wasn't my BEST workout, given the heat and the technical glitches, I't wasn't my worst.
I have to say, though, I've been disappointed with my workouts this week. I had hoped to really crush this reverse tri, and instead just had a workout I'd call "not bad." I think last week and even into Monday I got a little too into the old lifestyle of just drinking whenever and then training when I was sober, and that's just not gonna fly for this. I really need to realize that more than a couple of drink endeavors have to be few and far between now. Ice Luge this weekend being one of them, but still.
I also got a late-night text from a lady friend last night who came over at 1. We were done with things by 2, giving me a solid 6 hours of sleep, but I still have to wonder if the sex made me lose my edge a little bit. She was still in my room when I got home, and I was able to go again. I'm not sure if that means I didn't train hard enough, or I just really don't mind cramping muscles and exhaustion when it comes to sex. Probably, a little of both.
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