Tuesday, June 8, 2010

45 min TT- Bike

When in doubt, head to Hains Point. First test ride on the race setup- Zipp 808's and new Sidi's. Covered either a little more than 5 1/2 laps, averaging right around 24 mph, or 6 1/2 laps averaging 27mph. Like an idiot, I forgot to mount a magnet on my rear 808, so I had to do the math and I lost count.  Assuming it was 24mph, I was actually hoping to get another mph or so, but there was a fairly stiff wind on the back straight, so I'll be happy with it. If it was 27mph, I'm ecstatic.

My foot held up fine with the new shoes, and I love the sound of those wheels. All in all, a pretty good ride.

I need sleep

T-19 days. For those of you who don't know (which is probably all of you), in addition to this little IM thing, the wife and I are in the process of prepping a condo for sale (dealing with tenants, playing general contractor, cleaning and fixing like there is no tomorrrow), trying to sell a boat, going to school (finished my last paper for the year a little after midnight last night- giddyup), reserve duty, packing for a trip to Italy (leave tomorrow but haven't actually packed anything yet. mental note- find passports today), and need to have our bikes and bags dropped off for shipping by TBT before we leave tomorrow. Oh, and somewhere in here we actually have to work. It's been a bit crazy lately, to say the least.

So with that, here's whats going on:

I had reserve duty this past weekend out of state, and I couldn't bring my bike. I did find a 50m pool though, so that was awesome. DC also opened up the outdoor 50m pool at HP last weekend. All of a sudden it feels like I can actually swim. Swam 1000m (not yards) on Sat, and then did my 4x400m in 8:02, 8:17, 8:17, my last one was cut short when they pulled us out for thunder- it wound up being 200m in just over 4min.

Yesterday I had 5x5 back squats. My foot has been acting up, so I kept it light- all 5 sets at 185#.

Lots of "stuff going on with the bike as I try and figure out a comfortable set-up. Using only water and gel, and with water points every 10 miles on the course I really don't need to carry bottle cages beyond my aero bottle. I think I am going to opt for gel flasks (1 on the bike, 2 on me, refresh at special needs), so really, as long as I can come up with a satisfactory way to carry my spare tubular/CO2/razor blade, I can take the rear bottle holder off. Still working on it...

On Sunday I had my cleats mounted to my new Sidi's and a final bike fitting to correct any imbalances. The shoes feel great and I'm praying they are more friendly to my foot. I had a Zipp emergency yesterday- after having my tires re-glued I took off my DA 12-25 cassette to replace with my SRAM 11-23. When I did, I noticed that the DA had put some pretty significant grooves into the freewheel, enough so that the SRAM wouldn't mount. After a quick trip to the bike shop (I get a little nervous working on race wheels) and a lot of filing and banging w/a plastic mallet, the problem was solved. Brought it home, mounted it up, cleaned and adjusted the bike, and will get it out for a test ride this afternoon.

And then I will nap (after packing and eating, of course).

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Too much to remember

I've had a lot of workouts the past week- too many to recall for this post. Yesterday I swapped my workouts for a 2+ hour bike to re-check my nutrition plan. It was good news and bad news. First, the situation:

-Afternoon ride, starting about 5 pm
-Ensured my diet was at least "acceptable" for 24 hours prior
-90 deg and humid at the start
-15 min ride to Hains Point to warm up
-HR to be kept below 130 whenever possible, and never exceeding 135

Starting at 30 min I consumed 1 eGel every 30 min (300 cal/hr), and starting at 45 min I took one saltstick cap every 30 min. I drank right at 24 oz of water per/hr. The good news is this worked just about perfectly. I was a touch hungry after about 45 min, but that went away after my next gel. As for the heat, I think a little more water (28oz/hr) would have been appropriate. Right on cue at 1:30 I needed to take a leak. I suspect last time around (as Max suggested) I started from a caloric deficit and went downhill from there. For the ride I averaged just over 20mph with an avg HR of 128, which made me pretty happy. So, that's the good news.

The bad news is that my foot was killing me. It started to burn (uncomfortable but managable) at about 45 min, and by 1:30 it was downright flippin' painful. I think this might be due to the inordinate amount of time I have spent barefoot recently, even though it didn't bother me at the time.

Other notes- I'm digging my bike setup. I've added my aerobottle and behind the seat cages. For the race I may get rid of my downtube cage as the two cages on the back will be plenty to refill my aero bottle from (water stations every 10 miles). The only thing I'm not digging is the bento box I'm using to carry my gels. I might switch over to a couple of flasks. My 808's are getting glued and are set to be picked up tonight. I'll put them on for a few test rides over the next week or so. While at the shop I'm also going to try on some new cycling shoes. I've been using Specialized tri-vents for years, but I think the metatarsal button is assisting in the aggravation of my foot. I'm thinking I may go back to Sidi, which I love.

Ariel- good luck getting into CdA or another race!

Anyway, that's it for now...