87 Miler Bike Today...
Sheesh, that wasn't pretty but I averaged just under 19mph for the hilly 87 mph ride this morning and we even braved a huge thunderstorm. I can barely walk right now. :)
Heh, run a marathon after biking that distance? Hah hah. Whataeveh! Not today!
I posted this on the main forum earlier tonite by accident. Not that anything is WRONG with the main forum but I rarely visit or post there because it's just degraded to surgery wars, relligion (or lack thereof) wars and high emotions (both male AND female). It's sure nice to have a little oasis here on the exercise forum where none of that ever comes into play. :)
Great job on the ride, Chad!
I totally agree about the main forum. The grads forum is just as bad, that's why this is the one I visit. I love you guys!
I'm not sure I can quite imagine that length of distance yet, but then again I just bought a bike yesterday. It's just a low-end road bike for $600, but it should be fun to ride next weekend. I'll actually get on it for a while tomorrow to try to get used to riding a road bike with clipless pedals. I do it in spin classes all the time, but this will be the first time on the road. I'll post tomorrow.
It's almost time to sign up for the half iron in Boise next June. Sure hope I'll be ready. I really want to do it!
Linn
Few questions-since you said you can barely walk...
1. What did you eat/drink and how much/how often? You wanna do an Ironman...nutrition is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo important.
2. Did you monitor your HR on the ride?
3. What kind of gearing did you use on the hills? Go to front bottom ring, or stayed and powered out on the big front ring?
4. What kind of cadence were you pedalling on the flats/hills?
I'm thinking if you couldn't barely walk after that distance/terrain, you coulda had trouble with one of the aspects above.
Did you attempt a brick?
It's not the fact that I want to do the full course but rather when I WILL do it which, as of right now, will be next year at IMFL in November. I'm volunteering this year to get in line the following morning to sign up. Qualifying for Hawaii looks like it's something I won't be able to do but never say never. Everyone in my age group may get a flat on the bike and I get a slot. Hah hah. Like THAT would ever happen. It will be the lottery for Hawaii if I can get in.
Now, "barely able to walk" was more of a subjective quote. Maybe a better way to describe my feelings after dismounting yesterday is I didn't WANT to walk, much less run! :) Even though my body was saying NO, I ran a 5K brick after I got off the bike yesterday and did my 3 sets of transition training (20 minute ride, transition practice, 10 minute run X 3) today. Heh heh. My neighbors were looking at my kinda funny, especially when I attempted my flying dismount which didn't go so well. At least I didn't crash. :)
For nutrition I've been sticking to mostly my own special blend of peanut butter with some protein powder mixed in although I didn't use it yesterday. I drank a 32oz bottle of Gatorade on the course and ate a couple granola bars. No gastric distress but I was feeling a little iffy after the run. Infinit sponrors my tri club now so I'm going to get them to blend up a special formula for me to test out in the next couple weeks. If that works for me then I will be moving to that exclusively since gels, shot bloks, and pretty much everything else I've tried other than the peanut butter sends me running for the woods and having to sacrifice my socks.
I stay in the big ring most of the time. I get confused between the terminology for high and low. I go to the hardest gear going down the hills and hammer to get going as fast as I can and then I switch to the small front ring when I get to the beginning of the bottom of the hill. Most of the time my speed is great enough that I am able to shoot up most of the hill and I then hammer my way to the top changing gears as I go. My only problem is I only have two front rings on my new bike. My old bike had three front rings. One big one, one middle sized one and a tiny one. I was NEVER in the tiny one but I can see that it would come in handy on some of the BIG hills. I've never run out of gears with the setup I have now but I came damn close at the Heart O' Dixie tri a few weeks ago. Those hills were the steepest and longest I've been on but I still managed to pull out a 22mph split on the 30 mile course.
I do wear a heart rate monitor but I couldn't find it for yesterday's ride. I try to keep my heart rate, at my tri coach's insistance, below 125 - 130. My watch beeps at me if it goes above that on the bike.
Are you doing any full distance races next year? Or any 70.3s? My first 70.3 will be Holy Toledo next month (the race director is gonna hook me up with my own 'special' extended course since the 'official' race is just under a half.) My first official Ironman sanctioned event will be the first annual New Orleans 70.3 in April. If your schedule is clear you should come race it! I've been on the course a bunch in the last couple months and it's EXTREMELY flat! A.J. if you are reading this you are invited too!
I will race next year as long as my body allows...depending if I'm preggers will dictate what I sign up for.
I want to do St. Anthony's as my first Olympic distance!
Ok, for the hills, you've got a few options.
1. Get a compact crank
2. Change out your rear cassette. For IMLP I switched to a 12/27. It's heavenly!
Now that I'm changing to IMAZ training, I'm gonna buy a 12/23/
The thing about the NO 70.3 is that the swim is in Lake Pontchartrain. They almost cancelled a race I did there earlier in the year because the fecal coliform levels were too high. Nothing liek swimming in poo water! Yay! Strangely enough that was my most difficult race of the year too.(it was just under a half) The difficulty was not because of the distance but rather because I had to run into the woods 5 times during the run. I finished that race with 1 sock. :) I've done the bike and run course numerous times now and while they have some 'questionable' sections they are still good, flat, fast courses.
