T87 - The Difference Between 90 and 100 is a lot more than 10 Miles - Bike/Run Brick

Gainesville

After four days off and a skipped fast on Yom Kippur (figured it wasn't a good idea to not eat the entire day before an important training ride. One year. I think God will understand) I felt ready to rock and roll for my first 100-mile bike ride. Ever. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, but not really hot, and my body felt good. I didn't sleep particularly well but other than that I felt well-prepared. And I needed a good ride to try and reverse the trend of bad workouts.

Bike - 5.5 Hours

2 Lipodrene
3 Advil
1 Salt Tab

I started out on this ride like gangbusters. Just flew down 2nd, then down Waldo, and hit the trailhead in under 7 milutes (a record). Then continued my speed down Hawthorne, hitting Nigbridge in 25 flat and getting to the end of the trail in 55:02. Remembering that this was taking me about 1:03 in the beginning, I felt this was a major stride. Just missed breaking 55 minutes, and averaged 19.9 on the first trip. I was a little worried abount nuking the village here, but in my experience you are generally just as tired at the end of a long ride like this whether you go hard the first 20 miles or pace it. So I went hard.

I took another salt tab and headed back up. I realized then that I had had a bit of a tailwind, and that may have accounted for my record trip. But whatever. I made it back up at 1:40, and my average speed was still 18.9, despite the wind. Here I took 2more Advil and another salt tab, and headed back down. I tought I'd have another great trip given the tailwind, but I noticed it had died down, and only made it to the halfway point at 2:40, meaning it was about 12 minutes slower than my first trip. I was losing speed fast.

On the way back on trip 2, I found myself gettng tired. Not my legs, or even my back so much, but just general fatigue. My back had been hurting from about the 1:15 mark, and despite flooding my body with Advil, I found myself having to take brief, 30-second breaks about every half hour if I was not stopping already. I'm not sure how this is going to work raceday, but it's one of those things that I get mentally fatigued and start going like 15 for a while. Then I'll stop and be able to hit 20 again. Anyway, this last trip I kept slowing down, and having to tell myself "You're better than this" repeatedly to get my speed back up. At the 3:30 mark I took a short break, and felt like taking a nap. It was then I realized I had 2 more hours left. Well, nobody said this was gonna be easy.

Turned around to make my third trip, taking my last 2 Advil and another Lipodrene. I now didn't feel like I needed to take a nap, but getting over 19 was tough. It didn't help that like an idiot I cruised right by the only water fountain for about 20 miles, leaving me with about a bottles worth for that entire stretch. So I think dehyydration my have played a part here too.

I had nothing left on any sort of incline, and was only able to hit 20-22 on declines. I think I averaged about 17 on this last trip, which isn't terrible, but is slower than I want to do. And it was one of those rides where I reeally felt done about an hour and 15 minutes before it was over. But, you perservere. I think that's what the Ironman is about, just keeping it moving when you feel like you're done. And I realized today how hard that is really going to be.

The 90 mile rides had been challenging, but not exhausting. This one had me wanting to stop 2 hours before it was over, which is a big mental obstacle. I talked to Trevor via IM about it last night, and he said I probably need to do at least 2 more to be ready for the big race. I am going to Panama City next Tuesday to do the course, then I think there's a Gainesville Century ride the next weekend. Much as I'm dreading it, I know it's something I have to do to have a good Ironman. Such is life.

I ended up back home at 5:29, having done 98.9 miles. So no, not quite a century, and yes, another mile wouldn't have killed me. But there's plenty of time for that. If you do the math, I averaged just under 18, which had been my goal. So I came just short of my goals today, but had some bright spots. Not a bad first century (almost) ride, but I'm definitely looking to improve on the next ones.

The ride also left my perennium incredibly sore, to the point I couldn't really sit down. Later in the evening I looked at it in the mirror and found I had gotten my first ever hemhorroid. Thanks Ironman! I don't see this hindering training much, but it does make me feel old. But really, after that much time on a bike, I figure it's more like a battle scar. I'm sure that's what fat-ass bus drivers say too. Anyway, hopefully it doesn't hinder training, but I'll keep you posted. The forearm, however, is fine now. Full aero a lot of the ride.

Run - 20 minutes (treadmill)

I got home and had my last gel (I'd done gels every 45 on the bike, with Cliff Bars at 2:15 and 3:50 or so. Still felt fatigued, so I may need to bring more food on my next century ride). Went upstairs, had a Powerade, answered a couple of texts, and went down to the gym at Jefferson. I put the treadmill on 6.2, faster than I usually do for post-ride runs, and it actually felt pretty good. I mean, I kept looking at the time, but the speed felt comfortable. Now, am I going to be able to keep that up for 26 miles? Hell the fuck no, I won't. But the fact that this wasn't completely laborious gave me a little glimmer of pride after an otherwise-difficult workout. That's it for Week 6. 5 weeks of training to go in 39 days. I'm staying in Gainesville until the Miami Beach Half Marathon to just train hard and get myself ready. Home stretch, and it will pay off.

T86 - Long Effort, then Some Rest - Run

Gainesville

No, I have not been neglecting the training blog. I just have a lot of extra days in my training schedule before the Ironman, and given my recent run of shitty workouts and my right forearm still missing some skin, I thought this would be a good time to use a bunch of them. Also didn't hurt I had the opportunity to go to the UM-Virginia Tech game in Blacksburg, which is a 10 hour drive from here. And I wasn't about to do my longest run ever on some strange course in the middle of nowhere where it was cold and they had hills. So I opted to do my long run Thursday before I left, and save the long bike for the day after Yom Kippur.

Run - 3 Hours

2 Lipodrene
1 Salt Tab

I know at some point I'm going to have to do a long run without the iPod, but today was not to be that day. I even made a new playlist called "Final Ironman Training Mix" that basically combines all the songs I don't skip on my other playlists. At any rate, I ran the campus loop in just over an hour. It was hot, but it was nice to see that even though I was feeling a little sub-par, the heat is still a source of energy, rather than kicking my ass as it had early on in training. First loop, went well, although I chopped steps up the hill. I still felt strong through most of it. I wasn't bounding, but again I realized this was going to be at least 18 miles, so I needed to pace myself.

Then I started the first of 3 and a half down-and-backs to the stadium. Some might think this gets a bit monotonous, but I vastly prefer it to being far away from an aid station, and it breaks the run up nicely. The first one I flew, getting it done in about 28 minutes. This was a faster pace than I was running on the loop, which I found encouraging. Although there are also no hills, which may have played a part. I got back to the Saturn aid station the second time, took another salt tab and another Lipodrene, downed some Gatorade and hit round 2.

My stomach was starting to hurt from all the gels and sugar in the sports drinks, but it went away within about a mile of each lap. I also think this is something I'm going to have to get used to, as I feel like a 12-hour day whose dies consists of only Cliff Bars, Gels, Powerade and Water may lead to some stomach discomfort. At any rate, lap 2 went a little slower, but I still felt like I could run more. I was taking my gels every 45 minutes, and wasn't lacking for energy.

Took my 3rd salt tab here. By round 3, my legs were starting to tire. I realized that this was a much shorter run than the Ironman run (I would have been at about the halfway point here) and I hadn't even biked. But I also realized that the race will be a different mental condition too. I still felt as if I could run, and really only got tired when I stopped. By iPod froze just before round 3 too, which I didn't even notice. Like I got pissed when it froze (2 hours seems to be all it can do without fucking up) but the last 5 miles went by fine without it. This was also encouraging, since I can't use it in the race.

At the end, my legs were tired, I was tired, but I wasn't flat out done. Partly because I started the run at 4, so by the time I hit about 2 hours the sun was going down and it had cooled off (also not unlike race day) but also because I paced myself. By my calculations I did about 18 miles in 3 hours, which is the pace I want to run. God knows if I'll do that race day (doubtful) but I was happy with the effort on this run. I didn't exactly crush it, but it didn't crush me either. I wasn't exactly up for more at the end, but I didn't collapse in a heap either.

After this run, I took 4 days off. I'm sitting here Monday and I feel basically 100%. So the 5.5 hour bike ride tomorrow should be a good test. The arm is healed up for the most part, and I'm ready to go for a solid final month.