Memorial Day Weekend Tune up

As I write this I'm setting at home enjoying a cup of coffee after a great weekend of training. I took Friday off from work as I had a huge weekend planned and I wanted to be able to enjoy Monday with my wife instead of training all day. So what was on tap? A century ride each day. Followed by a run on two of the days. The idea here is that we are really trying to build the bike fitness as we can't push the run miles up too much. So here is how it played out: Friday - Luckily, a teammate and friend of mine was in town and had Friday off as well. He is also coached by Muddy so we had similar weekends ahead of us. We slept in a bit and rolled out of town around 9am. We hit the climbing right away. I was astounded with how great my legs felt. The rest of the ride was either flat or rollers. We stopped at a really cool state park to get some water (which ended up being tough to find!). The park is right along the Willamette river south of town in the country. Lots of green space, etc. Anyway, we made our way back to Portland area and dumped the bikes and took off for our 30 min run. It was supposed to be easy and did feel easy except for the hills. However, at one point Jonathon asked me what we were running. I looked down and said 7:20-30. We both laughed about it...as that pace would not really be considered easy :) Saturday - Big team ride that left from our main sponsor's shop, Athletes Lounge. We had a good range of athletes on this ride: 9:10-9:30 guys up to 11 hour guys and gals. As we rolled out I was definitely curious to see how my legs would react. We rolled out about 90 minutes of flats until we started a 12 mile climb (gradual grade). I was very happy to be climbing with the front of the pack with relative ease. That being said, the pace was not pushed. If it had been I wouldn't have been towards the front. I could now feel the fatigue in my legs. Despite that, I still felt pretty decent. We basically made a giant loop out towards Scappose, Vernonia, Timber, Banks, and then back into town via West Union with a final climb up the backside of Thompson. That final climb hurt, but I felt ok going up it. I didn't try to push the pace, just to relax and stay seated. That day ended with 101 total milage, about 4500 feet of climbing. Sunday - I rode by myself. It started off pretty interesting as I ended up on gravel roads. It was about a 20-30 minute stoppage (well just REALLY slow riding/walking) to get back to main roads. It was pretty frustrating. However, I did make it out finally and was able to resume my ride. I was definitely feeling fatigued on this ride. It was more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge however. And I know that is what Muddy wanted. Obviously there would be physical gains, but the mental gain was just as important, if not more. So I rode along trying to enjoy the beautiful Oregon country side. I ended up with about 4k of climbing so not a ton, but I had to ride mostly flats the second half of the ride to make up for all the slower parts earlier. It all worked out in the end. I hopped off the bike and put on my runners for a quick five mile run. I was happy with how it felt. My legs werre heavy, but I was able to get into a nice rhythm and click off the miles pretty easily. So there you have it. 300 mile weekend with some solid runs on top of two of the rides. I am happy with how the fitness is progressing! Thanks for taking the time to check in!! T

Cycling

Coming up on 5 weeks until CDA. Amazing how fast the time has flown by! This morning I had the pleasure to get in my long ride with a good group of teammates. These guys like to ride early so we were rolling by 6:30am. The nice thing is we were done by 12:15pm! Ended up being another 5 hour day in the saddle, 90 miles in the bank. The ride felt great. I'm getting stronger each week. I'm finally starting to feel like my old self again on the bike. In fact I lead a nice pull for about 10 miles that apparently was done at a pretty fast effort. To me it felt like it should on the flats and rollers, get down and get your heart rate where it needs to be an crank the miles out. We ended up with 4k of climbing so not too bad, but there was a nice climb toward the beginning that I felt pretty good on. So, all in all I'm feeling pretty good about where I am at today. Despite all the forced time off, I feel like I'm starting to enter into that "Ironman Fit" stage. Where you crank out 5-6 hour rides without thinking about it. 2 hour runs become common place. Etc, etc.

That's a good place to be in for me. There was a lot of doubt as to where I would be come the start line of CDA. I know I won't be 100%, but I will be as close as I can get. I'm really enjoying the time back in the saddle as well. It is tough to explain but after going through that wreck, there were definitely moments when I thought about "what if that had been worse and I couldn't ride again?" Or worse yet, didn't want to? Luckily the wreck has just helped to remind me of how much I love this sport and has definitely made me even more aware on the road (if that's even possible). Well, thanks for taking the time to check in.

Be safe out there.

T

Slogging away!

Been a few weeks since I signed in with an update. Not too much going on. Been building the disciplines up in volume and intensity. The last few weeks have been pretty similar: couple swims, bikes and runs during the week (one interval workout for each discipline). Come the weekend it has been an 80-90 mile ride Saturday. Now the new thing for Sunday is I've been focusing on a longer brick. Basically I head up into the hills with my bike and ride for 2-3 hours at low intensity and then run 60-90 minutes off of that. It has been interesting. Since the volume is still relatively new post accident, the first Sunday was BRUTAL. This last weekend was much better. Felt stronger on both days than the preivous week. The climbing is no joke either (5700ft the first week, 3500ft this past week). Come this week though I was ready for some rest. Luckily my coach knows me best and had already scheduled a recovery week this week. Man he is good. I'm already feeling ready for the next 6 weeks. And let me tell you, I'm all in these last 6 weeks! I know it is going to be incredibly hard at times, but I also know it's going to be worth it in the end. I'm fortunate to have one of the best coaches in the business in my corner and the most supportive wife and family I know of. This is the home stretch. CDA and IMC are what I've been working towards for the past 5+ years. I have done both races previously, and have done both with respectable times (10:47 and 10:43)...however I want 48 and 44 minutes faster on each course. CDA will be somewhat of a crap shoot. A lot depends on how much volume I can take without injury or illness with the shorter build up time due to the surgery and crash. Despite this, I know it is possible and I will work my ass off to make it a reality. Thanks as always for checking in. Be safe. -T