Start-Mile 16
Woke up at 5 am to ride out the front door by 6am, on to the west hills I went. I'm not sure about "the more you do it the easier it becomes." I have climbed the west hills (avg elevation gain from house is 900-1100 ft) within 30 minutes of waking several times now and it NEVER gets any easier. My quads are always yelling at me "WTF?! Woman! WTF?!" I thought my quads might enjoy a little serenade, even if I am tone deaf...so I sang as I climbed. "I was born in a crossfire hurricane......but it's alllll riiiight now, it's a gas." Hehe, even got the roosters to sing with me. I reached the bottom of Newberry Rd 10 to 7 and made my way over to Sauvie's to meet up with another rider.
Mile 16-Mile 25
The Pac Grove TNT team was doing a 25/4 brick on the island and I had the fortune of seeing Pascal and Julie - love you guys! After a little catch up Jeremy and I rode off out to Scappose to meet up with David and Clay, two others fella's training for IMC. A quick water stop and we headed out to Vernona.
Mile 25-Mile 47
Most of the way out on Hwy 47 I rode alone. I really wanted to make sure I conserved enough energy to conquer the *little hill* I had planned around mile 75, plus I wanted to have a successful run. I stayed in my saddle, in the back and went about my climb. It felt like I climbed forever...but forever is an exaggeration, reality was about 13 miles - some moderate, some steep.
The descent at the end was badass, I'm getting much better at these.
Mile 47-mile 74
Jeremy and I bid farewell to David and Clay, wished them luck and safety and turned back around. The climbing at the beginning wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined during the descent. I was very grateful to go down the 13 miles we had just climbed - it was starting to get hot. Another quick water stop in Scappoose and we're back on the road again.
Mile 74- Mile 76.5 Logie Trail 1090 ft of gain in 2.6 miles
http://legacy.lclark.edu/~kolitch/cycling.html#Logie
This is by far the hardest west hill climb I've ever done. Every time I do it I ask myself "WTF were you thinking?" Today was no different...but I had a reason why. I wanted to get some kind of feel for what Yellow Lake at mile 90 at IMC would feel like. I'm hoping it won't be as difficult as Logie, but if it is....I am READY for it. Lol, I once made a comment that I would buy a 6 pack for any person I saw climb the whole thing in the saddle. Jeremy decided to accept the challenge and rocked it - so with that being said next time I see him I'll have a 6 pack in hand :) That is seriously badass. Anywho, back to the climb. The first mile came pretty fast and not too difficult, but the again it never is. The 2nd mile is a major BITCH. Switchback after switchback, up, up and up some more. Once again my quads started a cursing fest. My HR started soaring and I was roasting like a pig at a luau. Eventually I made it up to the top and didn't do as bad as I felt, I was only a minute or so behind Jeremy. It was time for my cycling buddy to depart and for me to finish the last 25 miles on my own. Let the mental toughness begin!
Mile 76.5-102.1
Logie crest's the Skyline rollers which was a nice break from climbing. Most of the rollers I was able to descend fast enough to hit the top of the next....except there were a few mother$#%$# that made me climb again. The rollers lasted for about 10-12 miles. I thought Logie's wrath would have affected my legs more but it didn't they felt ok. I descended upon Springville making my way home...until I looked at my Power Tap and realized I was only at mile 91. Agh! I hit up West Union for an additional 4-5 miles of rollers and then back again to finish at 102.1
Transition -
I put my bike away and decided to change. I wanted a fresh pair of socks, shorts and top. Grabbed my fuel belt (not that I needed that much water for the distance I was going but I need to start replicating race conditions), visor and I was out the door.
Run - 34 minutes - 4.25 miles
Oy! This was MUCH harder then I was anticipating. I started running at 1:30 in the afternoon and it was HOT, 88 to be exact. My legs weren't really feeling the run, my posture sucked and the fuel belt was too heavy. I was not happy at all. I kept telling myself that this would be the worst part. I never like the first 20 minutes of running any way, why would this be any different. On I continued. Good lord it was HOT, I felt like I was in the fiery depths of hell. Since I run without music I decided to sing to myself again. "How does it feel? How does it feel? To be on your own, with no direction at all, a complete unknown....just like a Rolling Stone." The guy sitting at the bus stop told me to "rock on!" this made me smile. My plan was to do a 6.6 loop which I can usually do in 55-56 minutes. 10 minutes in my left quad started to knot up. Not like sodium/electrolyte muscle cramping...this was like the quad/abductor knot I had in the other leg a week or two ago. WTF? Why does this keep happening? I must have some kind of muscular imbalance. I decided 20 minutes in as the knot grew worse to turn around. I'm close to 30 days out from my A-Race and this is not the time to risk a potential injury. I figured if the knot worked it's way out when I reached home I'd go out for another 10 minutes and back. 30 minutes in I started to feel a little better. My posture was now tall and I ran with my shoulders back and my chest up - kind of like a proud peacock :). The quad pain never went away but never got any worse, I decided to call it good when I reached home.
Techy data stuff
Ride 102.1 miles
Riding time 6:35:25 - this scares me. All of my long rides have been so slow. I can only hope the LSD rides are like LSD runs and on race day I'll cut that time down. Then again I've never done a century rested.
Caloric expenditure based off of wattage - 3168 kcal
Caloric intake on bike - 1180/w 2700 mg of sodium
Max Speed 32.68/Avg speed 15.4 (ugh!)
Max HR - 175 (damn you Logie Trail!)/ Avg HR 142
Max Torque 49.15/ Avg torque 7.79
Max watts 359/ Normalized avg watts 155/ avg watts 134
Max watts per kg 5.91/avg watt per kg 2.2
Run data -
4.25 miles - 34:30 - 8:05 pace
1 GU Roctane right before run and a swig of pickle juice
Post brick I had no desire to eat, blah...food sounded gross, I think the heat had something to do with this. I drank a chocolate Endurox and took a nice long shower. An hour later I felt pretty dead to the world and fell asleep. 45 min power nap felt like I had been sleeping for days, I work up to my legs twitching. Lovely. My appetite returned so I decided to eat my weight in sushi.
You know you've done it too :) Post sushi I took a much needed ice bath and got out looking like half lobster half human. It took a good 30 minutes for my legs to regain feeling, I'm hoping this is a good thing. Foam rolleing, Zoot compression tights and Yogi time tea might be my only saving grace against the evils of RLS. Wish me luck!
What I tested and learned from this workout -
*I know my nutrition. I took my malto/salt at 20 min intervals and my energy stayed consistent. No dehydration or bloating :)
*Tried riding without gloves - this works, even with crappy road conditions
*Tried a new pair of TYR Tracer tri shorts. I have to say these are the FIRST tri shorts I have ever been able to wear that don't give GI pain. I'm shaped like a boy, meaning my waist doesn't really curve in...I'm very straight waisted and have a long torso BUT my tail and legs are small and I like to receive compressive benefits in my quads while riding. For me to find a comfortable pair of bike or tri shorts to fit right I need them to not have elastic in the front waist and from what I've found there are no tri shorts like this. TYR's Tracer short on the other hand has a draw string but doesn't create a squeezy feeling, and the legs are uber compressive which was awesome to ride in. Plus the fabric is so slick and luxurious, I kept wanting to touch myself. IF I were to wear a tri suit for IM I would go with the Tracer but I think I'm going to take my time in transition and put on cycling shorts and a fresh run top and shorts. Changing after doing that long of a ride felt really good and I'm all about comfort 7 hours in.
*The run was MUCH more difficult then I had imagined. I know this was mostly due to heat. I can only pray that IMC will be as cool as it was last year, but know I can't rely on that. I ran too fast too soon. I have a goal of a 9 min pace, there is no reason I should be running 8's straight out of the gate. I won't be able to hold it, I know that. Today I ran easy, I never felt like I pushed myself other then fighting the heat. I think what I might do is a run/walk program at IM. Run 10 minutes walk 30 seconds...this should give me the recoveries I need. I'll be testing this idea out on a few more workouts. I'm also not so sure about running with a fuel belt. All I need are my salts and GU. I can take water at every aid station. I need to find a hat or visor that will hold my GUs and I should be set.
*This brick was a mindf%^# at the end...this is something I need to work on.
Originally I had intended on doing this ride alone. I'm really happy I had the fortune of having Jeremy, David and Clay's company for portions of the ride. 100 miles of talking to yourself can be a brutal thing.
2 comments:
When I want to be able to carry a couple things, but don't want a full FuelBelt, I've had luck adding one of the FuelBelt pockets just onto my race belt. Can hold a couple gels, but don't feel like I am carrying around too much junk. :)
wow impressive ride.
Post a Comment