AHHHH What a week. The week before a rest week is always very intense. I was able to hang with it though even through a very difficult and challenging bike ride on Saturday. Here’s the update on the week:
Swimming I clicking along very well. I had a 3100 yds swim scheduled for Monday which went very well and with these longer swims it’s great to have access to a lake. I have distances between docks on the lake plotted on my gps so I know where I have to swim to in order to get 3100 yards in (1.76 miles). It would be very hard to do this in a pool; I would have to do 124 laps. I would absolutely lose count, and lose my mind!!!!
So the swim went very well and finished up with a nice easy endurance pace at 1:02:00.
The Run, no problem. My long run this week was 15 miles and that was done very easy. No problems at all. Nutrition was good, hydration was good, temperature was about 70 degrees for the first hour and then warmed up a bit but not much. Obviously, it will be much hotter in Kona but as Coach Sonni said, it’s better to get the run in during cooler weather and get the conditioning instead of just trying to survive a training run in the heat. I agree whole-heartedly.
Now the bike. I always consider the bike as my strong suit and I have proven this in short course tri’s. but this weekend I was scheduled for a 90 mile ride again and deciding to do the Lake Norman Excursion which had about 600+ riders and you could choose between 10, 40, 65 and 100 miles. Well 100 miles sounds like the distance I should go, so I went after it.
There were only about 50 people who did the 50 miler.
Did I have problems on the bike, yes but it was a lesson learned, big time!!!! I learned I may have a bike ego. I have been so accustomed to going fast on the bike for 2 hours and then the race is over I felt the same way on Saturday. So when the excursion started after about 5 miles it school out and we had a group of about 20 riders who were flying in a pace line. I was right in there with them and having a great time no matter what it was costing me. I just figured that some of the cyclist who were in the pace line with me, if they could hang I surely could hang with no problem.
Even though my heart rate was up, my speed was beyond where I really needed it to be (5 mph more than I needed it to be), I was having fun but not riding according to plan. I was having fun until we got to a part of the course where the signs said the people riding 40 miles and those riding 100 miles had to split off. It was a lonely feeling when the whole pace line split off doing the 40 mile loop and I still had the 100 mile loop to go. OUCH!!!!!
So I linked up with other riders from time to time throughout the course and, yes, often riding beyond where I should have been riding for a training ride. We had water stops about every 20 miles and the last one was 28 miles from the finished line. I stocked up on some water, and not feeling overly energetic to say the least, I took off solo towards the finish line. Now at this point we had some very large hills to conquer and it was hot! As Matthew Broderick said in the movie “Beloxi Blues”, it was “Africa Hot.” Of course, since I had blown my legs out, sapped my energy and was trying to deal with extreme heat, it was only natural that I run out of water with 10 miles to go.
There was nowhere to stop and get water, I was out in the boonies and I was heading toward Mooresville where the ride began but I didn’t see anywhere to get water until I got into the town of Mooresville. So with 2 miles to go There was a red cross water stop at the library in Mooresville and I stopped and took 5 minutes just to get water, Gatorade and ice in me. WOW was I over heated.
I rode the rest of the way to the finish line and I spent the rest of the day drinking by my calculations 5 lbs of water over the next few hours. Dehydration is nothing to play with!!!
So here are the lesson I learned in this ride that I hope everyone will learn from:
Don’t ride beyond your plan on long rides
Drink often according to plan. I limited my fluid intake the first 90 minutes due to the intensity of the ride and the speed of the ride.
On a hot day, don’t be afraid to intake more water than you usually do
100 miles on flat ground is NOT the same as 100 miles on a hilly/mountainous course!!
Do not pour water over your head unless you are certain where the next water stop is. I did this to cool down and that’s why I ran out of water.
There are some scary places in North Carolina when riding a bike 100 miles through the back roads around Catawba, NC. There were also some great views as well like the herd of deer at mile 10, the horse farms at mile 85 or riding along the Catawba river at mile 76.
Yes, I am so glad I am in the middle of a rest week right now. I only had a 7 mile run this morning which was like walking to the mail box and back…how much fun is that!!!
See you next week!!
Swimming I clicking along very well. I had a 3100 yds swim scheduled for Monday which went very well and with these longer swims it’s great to have access to a lake. I have distances between docks on the lake plotted on my gps so I know where I have to swim to in order to get 3100 yards in (1.76 miles). It would be very hard to do this in a pool; I would have to do 124 laps. I would absolutely lose count, and lose my mind!!!!
So the swim went very well and finished up with a nice easy endurance pace at 1:02:00.
The Run, no problem. My long run this week was 15 miles and that was done very easy. No problems at all. Nutrition was good, hydration was good, temperature was about 70 degrees for the first hour and then warmed up a bit but not much. Obviously, it will be much hotter in Kona but as Coach Sonni said, it’s better to get the run in during cooler weather and get the conditioning instead of just trying to survive a training run in the heat. I agree whole-heartedly.
Now the bike. I always consider the bike as my strong suit and I have proven this in short course tri’s. but this weekend I was scheduled for a 90 mile ride again and deciding to do the Lake Norman Excursion which had about 600+ riders and you could choose between 10, 40, 65 and 100 miles. Well 100 miles sounds like the distance I should go, so I went after it.
There were only about 50 people who did the 50 miler.
Did I have problems on the bike, yes but it was a lesson learned, big time!!!! I learned I may have a bike ego. I have been so accustomed to going fast on the bike for 2 hours and then the race is over I felt the same way on Saturday. So when the excursion started after about 5 miles it school out and we had a group of about 20 riders who were flying in a pace line. I was right in there with them and having a great time no matter what it was costing me. I just figured that some of the cyclist who were in the pace line with me, if they could hang I surely could hang with no problem.
Even though my heart rate was up, my speed was beyond where I really needed it to be (5 mph more than I needed it to be), I was having fun but not riding according to plan. I was having fun until we got to a part of the course where the signs said the people riding 40 miles and those riding 100 miles had to split off. It was a lonely feeling when the whole pace line split off doing the 40 mile loop and I still had the 100 mile loop to go. OUCH!!!!!
So I linked up with other riders from time to time throughout the course and, yes, often riding beyond where I should have been riding for a training ride. We had water stops about every 20 miles and the last one was 28 miles from the finished line. I stocked up on some water, and not feeling overly energetic to say the least, I took off solo towards the finish line. Now at this point we had some very large hills to conquer and it was hot! As Matthew Broderick said in the movie “Beloxi Blues”, it was “Africa Hot.” Of course, since I had blown my legs out, sapped my energy and was trying to deal with extreme heat, it was only natural that I run out of water with 10 miles to go.
There was nowhere to stop and get water, I was out in the boonies and I was heading toward Mooresville where the ride began but I didn’t see anywhere to get water until I got into the town of Mooresville. So with 2 miles to go There was a red cross water stop at the library in Mooresville and I stopped and took 5 minutes just to get water, Gatorade and ice in me. WOW was I over heated.
I rode the rest of the way to the finish line and I spent the rest of the day drinking by my calculations 5 lbs of water over the next few hours. Dehydration is nothing to play with!!!
So here are the lesson I learned in this ride that I hope everyone will learn from:
Don’t ride beyond your plan on long rides
Drink often according to plan. I limited my fluid intake the first 90 minutes due to the intensity of the ride and the speed of the ride.
On a hot day, don’t be afraid to intake more water than you usually do
100 miles on flat ground is NOT the same as 100 miles on a hilly/mountainous course!!
Do not pour water over your head unless you are certain where the next water stop is. I did this to cool down and that’s why I ran out of water.
There are some scary places in North Carolina when riding a bike 100 miles through the back roads around Catawba, NC. There were also some great views as well like the herd of deer at mile 10, the horse farms at mile 85 or riding along the Catawba river at mile 76.
Yes, I am so glad I am in the middle of a rest week right now. I only had a 7 mile run this morning which was like walking to the mail box and back…how much fun is that!!!
See you next week!!
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