Originally, my plan had been to include 3 fifteen mile half iron pace efforts in the bike leg, but because some of the roads were unfamiliar and I was constantly checking my cue sheet I decided to change it to 60 miles easy with the last 40 miles building up to HIM pace.
Lastly, the biggest variable playing into this bike ride was a fierce wind out of the west, sustaining over 20 mph by late morning. Though I keep all kinds of goals and pace markers in my head on every training session, I had allowed myself to scrub all of them as the wind coupled with the hills would put a severe strain on the ride, especially given the mileage as this was to be the first 100 miler of the year.
The ride in the wind was brutal, but I found some great country roads with waterfalls, super hills (I caught myself screaming, "Woohooooooooooo!!!!!" on more than one occasion bombing down some of 'em!), yard salers hogging the roads, and big rocks (We don't have rocks in Greenville. Just swamps. I found myself mesmerized by boulders sticking out of the ground. It's the small things sometimes.)
After 50 miles, my back was starting to hurt a bit. I'll have to monitor whether my handlebars are set too low for this kind of mileage or if maybe I just need to cowboy up and strengthen the lumbars a bit more. But I figured I better take a moment to relieve the strain before I start the 40 mile return effort, so I pulled off into a beautiful field overlooking the spring time green fields of wheat, propped the bike against a telephone pole and did some stretches in the grass. Mostly, I was working the ol' child's pose and the upward dog. At one point, as I was stretching on this lonely middle-of-nowhere field on a country road, a car came by as I was in mid upward dog. Aware of how silly I probably looked in this pose wearing tights and an aero helmet, I can only think how weird the folks in the car thought I was. I think I kinda looked like I was humping that field.
Okay, this guy looks pretty cool doing upward dog, but picture me doing this with the aero helmet on and tights in freakin Deliverance country. Not cool.But the back felt better and I set off to finish out the ride. The wind had gotten much stronger by then, and even though I was pushing harder I was making no impression on the average pace showing up on my bike computer. No matter, I thought, I had given myself a reprieve from the usual mandatory goal pace inside my head.
The 100 miles took me 5:12, which is about 19.4 mph. That's nowhere near IM KQ pace, but there's still a lot of time and this was the first 100 or more in the hills this season.
Tired as my legs were, I set out on the 8 mile run at a good clip. Just under 7:30 for the first mile. And it got better. By mile 5 I was at a 7:15 average pace. At some point some blooming idiot skipped a stop sign and aimed his Nissan POS right at me. He came within inches, to where I threw up my arms and hollered, "WTF?" I regret saying that, but WTF? He said he didn't see me, but then he didn't even stop at the stop sign so how could he have? Whatever.
I finished the 8 miles in an easy 7:15 pace. Great workout.
This morning was my long run - 15 miles. I'm right at the threshold of real long miles. Up to 15, ahh, that's half iron training. Beyond 15, now we're training for IM. I did the first 10 with the usual Sunday morning 10 miler crowd from Green Springs Park. What a great group we had today! Choo was there - always someone I can count on to run with. He's got Boston in 2 weeks. Blake was there on a short visit from Indiana where he trains with a sponsored running team. He was nice enough to run easy with us today, even though the pace must have been boring for him. Frank was there today! So glad he's able to get some running in these days, as he's been battling some issues with his hind leg.
The 10 miler was glorious as usual. Wisteria is in full bloom and smells great. At the 10 miler mark we were right at 1:12. I didn't stop at the park with the guys. I kept on for home, which was another 5.5 miles away. I felt I was gradually slowing down, but still running at a great pace - under 7:30. By mile 12 I could feel a blister developing on the pad of my left foot. Whatever. But I gotta find a way to keep that from happening between now and IM. The new Asics SkySpeeds were doing marvelous (Grandma, please forgive me. They only come in orange, and there's lots of it on 'em.)
I like to take a moment in the last mile or 2 of my long runs to assess how I feel and how I would feel if I had to run 2 miles further, or 4, or even 10. How much more could you go before the wheels come off? My answer to myself was one more mile, but not sure after that. I was definitely getting tired despite the pace holding steady. I finished the run in 1:52. A 7:13 pace. I'd have settled for 8:00/mi to be honest. I'm guessing this new all-time low in my current weight is making the running feel super easy compared to years previous. Pure elation to be done!
I'm high on life, and loving it out there! 3 months to go! April will be a big month. But this weekend sure is a great start to it!
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