Well, I certainly don't have any stories as crazy as Chen's 5.5 hour trainer ride. This week I had a pretty equal mix of great workouts and completely terrible workouts, but fortunately I (think) I learned something from all of the bad ones. Even though I just took it slightly easier last week, I feel like this week did me in and I'm really excited to start taper! Here's the recap of my week.
Monday
am- commuted from Santa Barbara (the morning after a wedding) all the way to work. This pretty much excluded any chance of doing a workout. You know you're going to have a long week when it starts with a hungover 5 hour commute!
pm- Trainer Road Bird. This is an interval workout and I usually have a hard time reaching my interval power, but it felt great that day. The wonders of a step back week!
Tuesday
am- 4200 yards. A great swim where I nailed a bunch of 500s, including the last two sub-6:45 on a 7:00 interval.
pm- 9 mile run total, but FAILED at tempo. The plan was to do 2 x 3 mile tempo intervals, but it was really hot so I thought maybe I'd just do them a little slower than usual. I managed the first set at 7:30 but it completely drained my legs. The second set I managed 2 miles @ 7:48 pace but couldn't go on. I turned off my watch and jogged slowly to finish up the 9. The slow jog seemed ok, but I learned my lesson: the heat will own you. SLOW DOWN!!
Wednesday
am- Trainer Road Kingsbury. I liked this workout, and I did it in the morning because I had a work dinner after work. Felt good for a morning ride.
Thursday
am- 3600 yard swim. I did 9 x 200 on a pyramid interval (1 @ 2:40, 2 @ 2:50, 3 @ 3:00, 2 @ 2:50, 1 @ 2:40), and although my arms were tired, the paces were good.
pm- 7 mile run with easy/steady effort at 8:13 pace. I was so relieved that my legs worked, since on Tuesday I had one of my worst runs of the year.
Friday
110 mile bike ride, 8400 ft climbing, 13.3 mph.
Originally I was opposed to doing this ride because starting Mt Diablo at mile 85 seemed like a sick joke, but I was the only one who didn't want to do it. I didn't really want to ride alone for 8+ hours, so I decided to suck it up and do it.
The first adventure of the ride was being rear-ended by Chen (refer to her blog post). It really sucks to see your friend crash and be banished to a 5+ hour trainer ride, but we had to go on. I'm so glad you're ok, Chen!
After a couple hours of riding, it started to get hot. As we rode through Livermore, it was 94 degrees and even the headwind was HOT. In hindsight I'm not sure how we did it but I'm glad we did because it's entirely possible that it will be 90+ degrees the day of the race (ugh).
Riding through the wineries of Livermore. Way too early for a fist pump of victory, though.
I am riding so slowly that Travers is able to take pictures while riding at my same pace
As the day went on, we did a great job of hydrating. I paced the ride smart and I was so proud of myself for riding within my limits in the heat. We made it over halfway up Diablo (~2200 ft) to the water "rest stop" and I still felt good. Ride executed!! Or so I thought. In the last 4 miles, we had 1800 ft of climbing left. I was running out of food, and between improper fueling and beginning the steepest climb of the day at mile 91, that last 4 miles to the top DESTROYED me. I was shaky from a calorie deficit and Diablo had conquered me. To top it off, I had developed a nice saddle sore (eww/ouch). Have I mentioned that I cannot WAIT until we don't have to do billion mile bike rides anymore?!
View from the top of Diablo. Probably more enjoyable if you've reached it in a motorized vehicle, at least on this particular day.
Luckily, it was mostly downhill from there and I started feeling better as we rode back to BART. We made a game time decision to go to the a different BART than we originally planned (it was closer and had mostly off-street riding), and when we got there we were greeted by an oasis of food trucks!!
Glorious food trucks
After scarfing 3 sliders each and fries, the day was FINALLY over. After all this training, I'm still not sure how I'll run a full marathon after that. I calculated that I only had 234 cal/hr which I know is too little, and I think I need to fuel extra going uphill. Hopefully with more fuel, taper, and fingers crossed for lower temps, a marathon will seem possible?
Saturday
3000 yard lazy swim.
Sunday
20 mile run with Chen/ 8:56 pace.
This was another brutal workout... my legs really just weren't feeling it. At all. It was my slowest long run of the year by 15+ sec/mile and I couldn't have gone any faster. I don't really want to say much about it because it just wasn't that fun. But as always, brunch, iced lattes, and vacation panning saved the day!
Huevos rancheros for the win
Iced latte, shaken not stirred
I'd say I'm ready for taper.
Sorry again for rear-ending you in the butt :P. Glad I didn't cause you any harm, and even gladder that the two of you conquered that ridiculous ride! Something tells me you'll be happy you have that ride under your belt as you're going up the last climb in Whistler... And most glad that an oasis of food trucks appeared at the finish. What luck!
ReplyDeleteAlso good to learn now that more fuel will be needed on the bike during the race. 300cals/hr it is, and maybe even more before big climbs. EAT ALL OF THE THINGS.
Boo to a tough long run today, but yay for surviving and brunching! Just think - soon we'll be like those hipsters who brunch on Sundays without running 20 miles first! Except without the hipster part :P.
- Chen
I love a good food truck oasis! What a ride, I'm sure it'll help come race day. I'm definitely aiming for over 300 calories per hour as well, 230 sounds too little for sure.
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