Finally Racing

Training's been great recently. My volume's gone way up so I'm hovering pretty close to 20 hours now. This week is recovery/mini taper as we head toward the Waco Triathlon this weekend. It's been 5 weeks since Hy-Vee so I'm looking forward to getting into a multisport race. The competition should be pretty good so it looks to be a lot of fun.

I think the biggest challenge recently has been the heat. Doing hard and long afternoon workouts when it's over 100 degrees is tough! I don't know if it's possible to drink enough. So far it's been 80 when I wake up in the morning and the temp only goes up from there. Weather aside, everything's been great. All three sports are definitely coming along. I'm feeling a lot faster in my quality sessions, especially on the bike. All the long rides and hard interval sessions are already paying off. I adjusted my seat height yesterday because I've been feeling a little cramped, then I realized it's been two years (two years!) since I moved my seat up. I did a short, fast trainer session yesterday and it felt a lot better. I think this is going to have a big impact on my race performance.

I'm heading down to Waco with Jacquelyn tomorrow and we're staying at a friend's apartment so as to avoid the hotel fee...should be fun! Thanks for reading!

Hitting Pavement...Kind Of

This weekend's Peach Pedal was definitely interesting. After carefully positioning myself to get into the lead group, I found myself in a bit of trouble after less than four miles. Going down a sweeping descent to a bridge, a few seemingly inexperienced guys at the back of the group slid on the wet pavement. I watched in horror as their brakes locked and they skidded across the road, bodies piling up everywhere, bikes flying. I had no choice but to slam on the brakes and aim for a fallen rider so I'd have a soft landing. Fortunately, I only banged up by right calf/knee a little bit and was able to finish, albeit mostly alone.

Austin and I trekked on together but he started to fade a little around 23 miles and I went by myself through 35 where I picked up Mark Whittier and his sister-in-law's boyfriend (JT). We stopped at the 40 mile rest stop where Austin caught up then we continued on. After 55 we lost JT and Mark stayed with him. After another mile Austin stopped at the final rest stop to pee and I continued on. Once I reached the finish I turned around and went back to look for Dad who was riding with a friend and didn't take part in the racing. All in all I recorded 69 miles, my farthest ever!

Yesterday I went to the Iron Brothers Sprint Triathlon with Jacquelyn and witnessed a pretty spectacular Team Ironhead 1,2,3 on the men's side and 1,2 on the women's side. If only I'd raced maybe we'd have gotten a 1,2,3,4...

This week is another build week then recovery next week leading up to the Olympic distance event at the Waco Triathlon. Looking forward to it!

Recovery Week and Bike Racing

Last Week was a recovery week which meant testing once again. My performances were not great, probably due to increased fatigue from hard training. My first test was the bike, where I averaged 270 watts for 20 minutes, which, after a Wednesday race, Friday intervals, and Sunday long and hard ride, I was pretty happy even though I did 272 last time. The run was the next day, Thursday, where I was able to average 5:28 for 4x1 mile with 90 seconds rest. I started out conservatively in 5:33 and tried to bring it down from there. The swim was Friday, and was probably my most disappointing effort. I swam an 800 time trial in 11:02, 23 seconds slower than last time. I am buoyed though, by the knowledge that I hadn't shaved my legs for a couple weeks and that swimming in the boiling hot water at the Y is a lot different that the cool water at TCU where I can see my splits on the wall clock under the watching eye of Marcin.

Saturday was the Firecracker 100K. After a hectic start left me off the back of the main group, I found myself sitting in with the main Broken Films women. I'm happy to say that we fought hard and they earned second and third in the women's race.

After a Sunday long run, Tuesday brought the beginning of another hard week. I biked to the track at Aledo Middle School and immediately proceeded into a run of 16x400 @ 82-83 on 2:00. But I didn't do 82-83. I felt good. Just cruising I was able to average 79.04. It was great! I was just rolling and felt comfortable the whole time.

Wednesday was the return of the Wednesday crit after a week off for the 4th of July holiday. I attacked several times with Caleb of Lone Star but we couldn't get away. My only consolation was a relatively useless prime for an overly expensive bike fit. Next week I'm going to go for it and try for every prime, sprinting like it's the end. Today it's a hard swim and run then the Peach Pedal tomorrow. It's going to be great!