Gainesville
With the long swim coming up Monday, I wanted to get a training day in before jumping right back in to Iron-distance training days. The Recovery week has a short bike and short swim scheduled for one of the days, so that looked like the perfect day to transition from rest into the final phase of real training. I felt better Sunday. Not 100 percent, but a lot better. And the weather has cooled off. A lot. So I actually had to bust out the long spandex.
Bike - 90 minutes
2 Lipodrene
As I said before, it was fucking cold Sunday. Maybe 70 degrees, which meant this was the first time I'd have to train in cold all cycle. And, after seeing the brutality of the wind on the PCB course, I decided that my rides from here on out need to be windy. I fucking hate wind, but what am I accomplishing by avoiding it during training? So I opted to head down 441 to Cafe Risque, my favorite 90-minute ride.
I knew I was in for some shit when I found myself doing a blissful 24 through Alligator Alley, and not really dropping below 22 the whole ride down to the Cafe. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed the tailwind but at the same time, I knew that trip back was going to suck. Made it to the parking lot (pulled in the same time as one of the dancers. I hope she's into spandex) at 41:20, and figured if I made it back in under 90 minutes, good for me for going so fast.
Yeah, notsomuch.
The wind on the way back was brutal, and my speedometer, once again, decided to be sporadic. Like I would be going 17, then 12, then 7, then 19. It felt like 19 in most of those spots, but I'm starting to get massively frustrated at my computer doing this shit after every time I clean the bike (which I did before the PCB ride) and this time it didn't help my speed at all. The wind was tough, and cold, and I fought it with little effort. I've realized this is going to have to be my strategy on the Ironman course, as I can't just fight it hard the whole time. If it slows my speed, it slows my speed, but I need to finish and killing my legs to maintain 18 in a headwind is not going to help that.
I made it back in 1:33, taking me almost 7 minutes longer to get back than get down. My average speed ended up at 16.8, not exactly blazing. Yeah, the wind kicks my ass. But this is why I'm training in it. Hopefully I can improve it a little before the race. But thus far avoiding wind I think has been my major misstep in training.
Swim - 4x300 (300 easy, 300 kick, 300 easy, 300 kick)
1 Lipodrene
I wasn't feeling super energetic after the bike, but I had planned to separate the workouts anyway. I ended up passing out for about half an hour, then headed out to GHFC at about 7:30. The swim felt good, and I think mentally I'll be able to do the 2x2000. My muscles felt ok, but the long kick sessions were not fun. I think I even said out loud at one point "This is fucking ridiculous!" 12 laps of kick?! I mean, ok, I did it and it's a good training value, but while my swim times have gotten better, my kickboard times have not and as such I spent 2/3 of the time on that. But I felt ok in the pool, and when I got out. Agian, didn't crush the swim but it was good for a first day back.
All in all, a decent first day back, but I need to get back into that ultra-distance mode. Monday's swim will be telling, as will the Century ride Saturday. I have a lot of dual workout days this week as well, which will be tough to fit in given my scheudle. Seriously, no idea how anyone with a real life does this stuff.
Showing posts with label wind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wind. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
T91 - Improvment can Throw you Off - Bike
Gainesville
I had to get my oil changed Tuesday, and for whatever reason every single shop in Gainesville takes 2 hours to do it. Even Jiffy Lube. So I figured that window would be a perfect amount of time to get in a bike ride while I waited. I took my car to a shop by my old apartment in Duck Pond so, for old times sike, I decided to bike up Waldo Road to Waldo and back. That used to take me about 2 hours from my old apartment, so I figured it would be close enough.
Bike - 2 hours, easy spinning RPE 3
2 Lipodrene
I immediately remembered why I never bike Waldo anymore. It's not so much the constant parade of semis once you hit the highway, but the street crossings at the begining. Waldo has this nice greenway bike lane park thing (usually populated by Gainesville's finest meth addicts and homeless) but when it crossees a road, it almost always includes at least one 90-degree turn. And despite all my time on the bike, I still can't do those. So I'd have to either slow down to an almost-stop, or stop completely, unclip, and start up again when I got to the straightaway. I even off-roaded a bit to avoid one turn. Basically, the course sucks.
But I did find myself going a lot faster than I used to. I was going probably 22 the whole way up, a fact that forced me to lok over at the plants on the side of the road and see I had a pretty nice tailwind. I'm not a fan of tailwinds on the way out either. Because I had to be back to the shop before it closed at 6, I had to bike by real time instead of road time, especially on Waldo where theres a lot of lights and stopping you don't want to do. Anyway, I left at 3:38 so I figured I'd give meself an extra 8 minutes to get back, accounting for the wind, so I'd turn around at 4:34.
Problem was, it doesn't take me an hour to get to Waldo anymore. I rolled up to the Hardee's at the junction to U.S. 301 at about 4:22. Well, there's no bike lane on 301, and i'ts a pretty crowded road, so I opted to turn around. Had a gel, and headed back, pruposefully going 25 through the area where I got my school zone speeding ticket. Sadly, there was no school zone today.
The wind on the way back was not fun, and even though I didn't feel tired, I felt achy and fatigued. Like my shoulders got sore immediately, and my hips were aching for some reason. I even felt a little dizzy and tired and found myself standing up at about the 55 minute mark (in the saddle, I didn't stop). I'm hoping this is just residual sickness, but who knows. I fought the wind ok, I guess, but my average speed dropped from 19.2 on the way out to 17.9 by the time I finished. I seem to be coming up just short of all my goals lately. I finished in 1:42 minutes of real time, which included stopping at the turnaorund and the endless parade of lights on Waldo. So the increased return time didn't concern me a whole lot. And for whatever reason once I've biked my planned course for the day, I don't extend it. If I got it done too fast, oh well. I have plenty that take longer than expected too.
What did conern me was the fact that I felt tired on a pretty short bike ride. I'm not sure if I've just lost my enthusiasm for short, non-intense rides like this one, or if I still feel sick. But I'm not sure how this bodes for Panama City this weekend. I gotta do 112 miles on Friday, that's no fucking joke. And the fact that I felt realy ytired and lathargic after the ride is not a good sign. This is a new thing, and maybe it is just part of the virus still lingering. But I need it to go away and go away fast.
I had to get my oil changed Tuesday, and for whatever reason every single shop in Gainesville takes 2 hours to do it. Even Jiffy Lube. So I figured that window would be a perfect amount of time to get in a bike ride while I waited. I took my car to a shop by my old apartment in Duck Pond so, for old times sike, I decided to bike up Waldo Road to Waldo and back. That used to take me about 2 hours from my old apartment, so I figured it would be close enough.
Bike - 2 hours, easy spinning RPE 3
2 Lipodrene
I immediately remembered why I never bike Waldo anymore. It's not so much the constant parade of semis once you hit the highway, but the street crossings at the begining. Waldo has this nice greenway bike lane park thing (usually populated by Gainesville's finest meth addicts and homeless) but when it crossees a road, it almost always includes at least one 90-degree turn. And despite all my time on the bike, I still can't do those. So I'd have to either slow down to an almost-stop, or stop completely, unclip, and start up again when I got to the straightaway. I even off-roaded a bit to avoid one turn. Basically, the course sucks.
But I did find myself going a lot faster than I used to. I was going probably 22 the whole way up, a fact that forced me to lok over at the plants on the side of the road and see I had a pretty nice tailwind. I'm not a fan of tailwinds on the way out either. Because I had to be back to the shop before it closed at 6, I had to bike by real time instead of road time, especially on Waldo where theres a lot of lights and stopping you don't want to do. Anyway, I left at 3:38 so I figured I'd give meself an extra 8 minutes to get back, accounting for the wind, so I'd turn around at 4:34.
Problem was, it doesn't take me an hour to get to Waldo anymore. I rolled up to the Hardee's at the junction to U.S. 301 at about 4:22. Well, there's no bike lane on 301, and i'ts a pretty crowded road, so I opted to turn around. Had a gel, and headed back, pruposefully going 25 through the area where I got my school zone speeding ticket. Sadly, there was no school zone today.
The wind on the way back was not fun, and even though I didn't feel tired, I felt achy and fatigued. Like my shoulders got sore immediately, and my hips were aching for some reason. I even felt a little dizzy and tired and found myself standing up at about the 55 minute mark (in the saddle, I didn't stop). I'm hoping this is just residual sickness, but who knows. I fought the wind ok, I guess, but my average speed dropped from 19.2 on the way out to 17.9 by the time I finished. I seem to be coming up just short of all my goals lately. I finished in 1:42 minutes of real time, which included stopping at the turnaorund and the endless parade of lights on Waldo. So the increased return time didn't concern me a whole lot. And for whatever reason once I've biked my planned course for the day, I don't extend it. If I got it done too fast, oh well. I have plenty that take longer than expected too.
What did conern me was the fact that I felt tired on a pretty short bike ride. I'm not sure if I've just lost my enthusiasm for short, non-intense rides like this one, or if I still feel sick. But I'm not sure how this bodes for Panama City this weekend. I gotta do 112 miles on Friday, that's no fucking joke. And the fact that I felt realy ytired and lathargic after the ride is not a good sign. This is a new thing, and maybe it is just part of the virus still lingering. But I need it to go away and go away fast.
Monday, August 24, 2009
T65 - The Unrelenting Hills Of Kona - Bike
Kona
There used to be this Gatorade commercial with this guy who passed out 500 yards from the finish line at Kona, and they showed that to demonstrate how proper hydration can prevent such things. It featured venerable College Football commentator Keith Jackson saying that “the unrelenting hills of Kona” were too much for this world-class athlete, who later went on to win some other Ironman in Idaho because he drank Gatorade. But as I biked about 70 miles of the Kona course, Keith Jackson’s voice kept running through my head, telling me about the “unrelenting hills of Kona.’ Keith Jackson does not lie.
Bike – 4 Hours
2 Lipodrene, 3 Advil
I would have liked to have gone 2 hours down the Ironman course, and then ridden back. This way I could see over half the course, and get a good feel for the race. Sort of. But the thing about the unrelenting hills of Kona is that the miles upon miles of lave fields are not exactly conducive to any commerce. As in there’s no place to buy water between the Kona airport and a resort 25 miles away. Which was a solid few miles off the course anyway. Point being, I decided it would be wiser to bike up about 19 miles, go back 15 to a coffee shop on the side of the road, refill, and head back out onto the course leaving enough time to get back in 4 hours. Again, I had no computer, so I had to just be on the bike 4 hours, essentially meaning I probably only got in about 3:45. Whatever, it’s Kona.
I left from the old airport park where I’d run 2 days ago, where I parked the rental jeep and headed out to the course. It was 6:45 a.m., and the road was considerably less crowded. And since I knew the course, I felt a lot better on this ride. I’m not sure how fast I was going, and couldn’t really pay too much attention to it since I was just focusing on the beautiful ocean view and the lava fields. I imagined how this race must be, especially hitting the airport hill with a fierce headwind at mile 104. Seriously, that would suck.
But as I did the ride, I realized that Kona, while unrelenting, is not as impossible as the Gatorade commercial made it look. I managed to get the only sun of my Kona trip on this ride, meaning that not only were the hills unrelenting, but so was the wind and the heat. I got to the top of several hills and tried to freewheel and couldn’t because the wind was pushing so hard. But it didn’t feel deadly. Maybe I was going on Kona adrenaline, maybe I just wasn’t going hard enough, or maybe I just am a better cyclist than people who had told me how awful the course was. But any way you cut it, the ride felt strangely good. I even let this Irish guy draft behind me for a while (he asked), maybe the island mentality was rubbing off. And when I stopped for water these people from Colorado asked me if I was training for the Ironman. “In Florida,” I told them. “We’ll see how that goes then maybe I’ll come back.”
At the 2 hour mark I took another Lipodrene and 3 more Advil, and had 3 gels (every 45) and a Cliff Bar at the 2:15 mark. The last hour I started to fade, as HPD had put up one of those “Here is your speed” signs on the highway, and I was going a solid 16 down a hill. I was getting insanely thirsty by then as the lone water break wasn’t enough for the lava-field, sun and hill combination. The thirst probably slowed me down. My back felt ok, and my legs got sore. But I’m sure the Advil minimized those effects. The views on this ride were amazing, and I even stopped a couple of times for a few seconds just to take them in. once you get out of town, the ride really is pretty amazing.
But the ride made me realize that I can have another goal after November. If this one doesn’t kill me, I want to do Kona. I would have to train in Kona, though, staying at my uncle’s house and basically doing nothing but preparing. But it’s a dream that I could probably make happen. And being on this course made me realize Kona is no more impossible to me now than an Ironman in Florida was to me 2 years ago. Kona 2011? Definitely a possibility.
There used to be this Gatorade commercial with this guy who passed out 500 yards from the finish line at Kona, and they showed that to demonstrate how proper hydration can prevent such things. It featured venerable College Football commentator Keith Jackson saying that “the unrelenting hills of Kona” were too much for this world-class athlete, who later went on to win some other Ironman in Idaho because he drank Gatorade. But as I biked about 70 miles of the Kona course, Keith Jackson’s voice kept running through my head, telling me about the “unrelenting hills of Kona.’ Keith Jackson does not lie.
Bike – 4 Hours
2 Lipodrene, 3 Advil
I would have liked to have gone 2 hours down the Ironman course, and then ridden back. This way I could see over half the course, and get a good feel for the race. Sort of. But the thing about the unrelenting hills of Kona is that the miles upon miles of lave fields are not exactly conducive to any commerce. As in there’s no place to buy water between the Kona airport and a resort 25 miles away. Which was a solid few miles off the course anyway. Point being, I decided it would be wiser to bike up about 19 miles, go back 15 to a coffee shop on the side of the road, refill, and head back out onto the course leaving enough time to get back in 4 hours. Again, I had no computer, so I had to just be on the bike 4 hours, essentially meaning I probably only got in about 3:45. Whatever, it’s Kona.
I left from the old airport park where I’d run 2 days ago, where I parked the rental jeep and headed out to the course. It was 6:45 a.m., and the road was considerably less crowded. And since I knew the course, I felt a lot better on this ride. I’m not sure how fast I was going, and couldn’t really pay too much attention to it since I was just focusing on the beautiful ocean view and the lava fields. I imagined how this race must be, especially hitting the airport hill with a fierce headwind at mile 104. Seriously, that would suck.
But as I did the ride, I realized that Kona, while unrelenting, is not as impossible as the Gatorade commercial made it look. I managed to get the only sun of my Kona trip on this ride, meaning that not only were the hills unrelenting, but so was the wind and the heat. I got to the top of several hills and tried to freewheel and couldn’t because the wind was pushing so hard. But it didn’t feel deadly. Maybe I was going on Kona adrenaline, maybe I just wasn’t going hard enough, or maybe I just am a better cyclist than people who had told me how awful the course was. But any way you cut it, the ride felt strangely good. I even let this Irish guy draft behind me for a while (he asked), maybe the island mentality was rubbing off. And when I stopped for water these people from Colorado asked me if I was training for the Ironman. “In Florida,” I told them. “We’ll see how that goes then maybe I’ll come back.”
At the 2 hour mark I took another Lipodrene and 3 more Advil, and had 3 gels (every 45) and a Cliff Bar at the 2:15 mark. The last hour I started to fade, as HPD had put up one of those “Here is your speed” signs on the highway, and I was going a solid 16 down a hill. I was getting insanely thirsty by then as the lone water break wasn’t enough for the lava-field, sun and hill combination. The thirst probably slowed me down. My back felt ok, and my legs got sore. But I’m sure the Advil minimized those effects. The views on this ride were amazing, and I even stopped a couple of times for a few seconds just to take them in. once you get out of town, the ride really is pretty amazing.
But the ride made me realize that I can have another goal after November. If this one doesn’t kill me, I want to do Kona. I would have to train in Kona, though, staying at my uncle’s house and basically doing nothing but preparing. But it’s a dream that I could probably make happen. And being on this course made me realize Kona is no more impossible to me now than an Ironman in Florida was to me 2 years ago. Kona 2011? Definitely a possibility.
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