10 Weeks To Go

In the past I had done a small number of my training sessions early in the morning before work, and then a second one later that evening. With ten weeks to go almost every day is now a split training session. I'm getting up at 4am each morning during the week and doing either a run through the neighborhood, or riding my bike indoors on the computrainer. Depending on which one I do in the morning, my evening session is either biking indoors or swimming at the gym. I've tried to keep the majority of my runs early in the morning to avoid the heat, but I still seem to get hit pretty hard with the humidity. I've also limited my outdoor bike riding to the weekends when I have more time, and to take advantage of a few group rides. The temperatures will probably start to change in the next few weeks so I might do some of my runs in the evening soon. Until then I'm just trying to buckle down and get as many quality workouts in as I can. I still feel a little under-prepared for what I need to accomplish, but hopefully my confidence will grow in the coming weeks. I have my half ironman race coming up and several weekends of very long bike distances ahead, so I'm looking forward to seeing some improvement.

Vacation Training

I recently returned from vacation at the beach where I was able to take a break from my job and concentrate on some triathlon training. I was looking forward to training at the beach because the terrain would be exactly what I could expect at the ironman in November. The only downside for this trip compared to the upcoming race was the humidity. My long run for the week was supposed to be 14 miles, so I grabbed my ipod and a large bottle of gatorade and started running down the beach early in the morning. The plan was to go seven miles down the beach, turn around, and come back. Going out I was running into a headwind and the sun was at my back. The air was very muggy so I didn't mind the wind too much since it was helping me feel cooler. Within the first mile I was already soaked with sweat and the high humidity was not allowing very much evaporation to cool me down. By the time I got to the five mile point I had already drank more than half of the bottle I was carrying, and I knew if I kept going to seven miles before the turn around that I was going to be in trouble with staying hydrated. I decided to turn back at the five mile point and make my long run a ten miler instead. Once I turned around the wind was no longer blowing like a fan in my face and the sun was bearing down on me from the front. The last few miles were miserable as I could tell the humidity was taking its toll and I ran out of gatorade with a mile left. At least the bike rides that I went on didn't feel as humid as my runs. My long bike ride for the week was 60 miles. I mapped out my route and decided to stay on light to moderately traveled roads that were a little further inland from the beach. I was looking forward to seeing how well I could do on this ride because everything was flat just like the race will be. All my previous training rides back home had some hills, so there wouldn't be any opportunities to coast on the downhills this time. This would be constant pedaling and a lot of time in the aero bars. For the most part I think the ride went well, but I was surprised that my pace wasn't any faster than some of my previous rides that included hills. The one thing I did learn from this ride was that long rides with no hills require a lot more mental focus. The continuous stretches of flat road can really test your ability to fend off boredom from a lack of changing scenery. Doing my swim training was an even bigger battle against boredom. The condo we stayed at did have a pool for swimming laps, but it wasn't nearly as long as I would have liked it to be. I measured it the first day we got there so I would know how many laps I would need to do for each workout. It turned out to be 12 yards long which was less than half the distance I'm used to doing. Trying to swim a couple hundred laps without losing count was definitely a challenge, but it turned out to be less confusing than I thought it would be.

Tour de Furniture Report

• Distance: 100K (62 Miles) Ended up being 63.9 Miles
  
• Time: Approximately 3 hr 25 min, averaged 18.5 mph
  
• Weather: Sunny, 10-12 mph winds, air temps in the low to mid 80's

Going into this event I didn't know what to expect. After completing it, I'm pretty sure I won't do it again. There were maybe 75 people that chose to do the 100K distance like I did, and except for a few at the back, everyone rode off in a large draft pack to start the event. After having done several group rides in the past I was well aware of the energy saved by staying in a large group of riders, so I chose to go with the pack. There were police stopping traffic at all the intersections until we got outside the city limits. One motorcycle cop stayed with the lead pack and would ride ahead to block traffic at any intersection we were approaching. I wasn't really paying much attention to the pace, but instead concentrated on not colliding with anyone that was surrounding me on all sides. Everything was going relatively smooth until around the 20 mile mark. I could tell the pace was starting to pick up, and when we made a left hand turn I found myself getting dropped off the back of the pack. I looked at my speed and saw that I was going 23 mph while the pack was pulling away. For the ironman I'm hoping to average somewhere around 19 mph, so trying to catch up to the pack which was going several mph faster than that was not going to help me in the long run. I decided that I would let that lead pack go and I would continue the rest of the ride at the pace I was more comfortable with. I looked behind me to see how many people were in the same situation as me and was shocked to find that there was no one in sight. Apparently the few people that chose not to go with the lead pack at the beginning were now miles behind me and I was all by myself. The bad part about being dropped from the pack was that there were no more motorcycle escorts to stop traffic. I had to stop for all traffic which further increased the distance between me and the pack. I rode the next 12 miles thinking that I couldn't believe I paid to do a solo bike ride which I could have done for free. When I got to mile 32 I saw one rider up in front of me and I wasn't totally convinced he was even participating in the event. I just assumed it was some random guy out riding his bike. As I caught up to him I was able to determine that he was part of the event. He was apparently glad to see someone else because he wasn't familiar with the course and didn't have a map of which way to go. The two of us rode together for about 10 miles before we reached a designated event rest stop that I had planned to stop at. When we arrived there were several other riders there, but most appeared to be doing the 50 mile course instead of the one I was doing. I picked up some food and water and decided to head back out by myself after a brief stop. This part of the course was where most of the shorter distances were starting to come together and we would all be on the same route back to the finish. I was a little relieved that at least I would see a few people on the way back, and I was able to pass a lot of the slower riders from the shorter distances. I got back to the finish and "checked in". I was informed that since a lot of the riders from the shorter distances had already finished, the event organizers went ahead and gave away all of the door prizes so everyone wouldn't have to wait around. To make matters worse, I noticed that the event bike jersey which I purchased at packet pick-up the day before the event was now being sold for $25 less than I paid for it. I asked one of the Red Cross employees that was in charge of running the whole event why I was charged $25 more and I was told "you should see what we charge for them on Monday". One of the volunteers overheard the conversation and said "at least it's for a good cause". Apparently with that logic this volunteer would be ok if someone stole money from her as long as they used it for a good cause. I think next year and all future years for this event, I'll keep my money and ride my bike by myself for free.

Tour de Furniture Preview

The Tour de Furniture is a cycling event that benefits the American Red Cross. The organizers have scheduled at least four different distances to choose from for this event, and based on my training schedule I selected the 100K (62 Mile) distance which was the closest to what I need to do for this week. I have never done an event like this before so I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I was a little disappointed to find out that this event is not a timed "race". Instead everybody can ride the distance of their choice at what ever pace they feel comfortable. Basically this will be like the group rides I have done in the past except instead of 3 to 8 people there will be a couple hundred people. The added benefit will be that the major intersections will be policed to control the flow of traffic, and there will be several aid stations along the route. The event is so low key that I haven't been able to see an exact route that the 100K will cover. It seems to change slightly from year to year, but the general areas are some of the same as what I've done in previous group rides so I'm expecting the usual rolling terrain. The weather forecast looks to be warm with only a slight chance of rain. Overall, I think this event will make a 62 mile bike ride a little more enjoyable than it normally would be with a smaller group of riders.