So far, this week has blown concerning prime cycling weather. Today was looking to be no exception. Every forecast I checked put Hoover/ Homewood at like 50%, and it even said to expect heavy rain. When I got off work, however, the skies were blue and it looked promising outside. The radar showed some crap coming towards us that I was pretty sure was going to hit us, but it still looked good outside.
As I was still pissed off from riding in the rain on Tuesday and spinning on Wednesday, I decided to chance it and go out...and it paid off! The weather was perfect and I enjoyed a 2 hour 15 minute 35 miler with absolutely no rain and blue skies. I checked the radar an hour or so after I got back...
Whatever, I'll take it. I don't know how it didn't hit, but I'm not asking questions.
One week late, but better late than never. It was a pretty good race. Kendrick and I drove to his house in Guntersville on Friday night and his dad grilled out some monster steaks while his mom prepared some homemade-picked that morning-plum cobbler. We drove up to Chattanooga the next morning, got our motel, and met J on the race course and picked up packets, etc. There happened to be a cheap movie theater downtown, so that killed the rest of the afternoon.
The race started on Sunday morning at 7:30 am, so we got there at like 5:30 am or so to go through body marking, warm up, and put our bikes in transition. At about 7:10 am, a shuttle took our age group down to the swim start. Since the race was so big (1200 racers I think), they started in age reverse order, so the younger racers were at the end. About 20 minutes before our start, it started raining. Great. I hate racing in the rain. Actually, I hate cycling in the rain; it's just dangerous with some real slick race tires.
Anyways, the swim started off good. You could feel a little bit of a current, and I was trying to lengthen out my stroke in order to take advantage of it. The only downside of the swim was that there was no warm-up time, which sucks because it always takes me like 300 meters to get my arms loose. Oh well.
The bike started out crappy. I had the worst mount ever, haha. I just got some tri shoes and I had only practiced a few times, but apparently that wasn't enough. Not a big deal though, probably cost me 15 seconds or so. It had quit raining during the swim but it was still pretty wet, but nothing dangerous. However, after the turnaround on mile 14 or so, it started pouring! It continued to pour until about mile 24 or so.
Overall, the run went pretty well. I had previously been doing 7:30's off the bike for a 5k, so I was kind of hoping to hit around 8 min/mi average. I started off the first 5 miles hitting around 7:45 to 7:55's. However, with 1.2 to go, there was a nasty hill that slowed me down a little bit, which sucked. Oh well. I think I ended up with slightly under and 8 average .
My final time was 2:33 something, and I was 11th out of 31 in the 20-24 AG. This race was a special qualifying race for Age Group National Championships; the top 33% in each age group qualified...(do the math)...I barely missed out. They even round up, but 33% of 31 is 10.23, which is .27 away from rounding up to me, arrrghhh!
I really am enjoying this recovery week. However, I did get in a little bit of a hard effort at the Tuesday night ride that meets at the Botanical Gardens. As soon as we hit the slight incline towards the end of our trek on Highway 78 I started pushing the pace a little bit and quickly opened up a large gap on the group. After turning on Old Leeds, I still had a pretty good gap, but for some reason my bike was being gay and I was having trouble shifting into the big ring. I messed around with it for while as I slowed down substantially, and finally came to a stop and manually did it.
I sat in the line of about 5 of us all the way until the incline at the end of Old Leeds. About 1/4 of the way up, I attacked and opened up a gap. Two of the other riders bridged up to me, and when they did, I moved to the side to let them take a pull. They both refused, so I stayed up front. I pushed it a little more at the end and left them both.
A decent group headed down towards Lakeshore, and I was anxious to defend my sprint title from the past 2 weeks. With about half a mile to go, the guy on the recumbent made a move and I quickly hopped on his wheel. Because of the physics and whatever else, those recumbents can haul on the flats (they suck at hills though). I looked down and we were doing 33 right after we took off. As soon as I saw him start to fatigue, I hopped out and started my sprint and edged him by less than a bike length. Hurt like crap.
So far this week has been easy. Besides the 3 efforts on the Tuesday night ride and a moderately hard effort swim on Monday, the rest of the work has been low/recovery HR type stuff. I did buy some new shoes today. I was sick of using my cycling shoes in triathlons so I finally broke down and bought some tri shoes. I suppose I should practice some mounts/dismounts before the race on Sunday.
Today was my busiest day of work so far since I started in January. I barely got a chance to breathe before noon, because my boss's boss gave us a ton of stuff that he wanted done for a conference call at noon with the big boys from Houston. Seriously, who schedules a call at noon?
I did find time to schedule an eye doctor appointment, mail some stuff, run by the bike shop, go for a swim, buy groceries, and watch a little of the Tour de France.
I have finished my third week of training while officially being coached. So far, I have notice a dramatic improvement in my swim, mainly due to an increase in volume and more of a structured workout. My run is improving, although my IT band is still not completely healed. I think 20 miles a week spread out is the most I can do without putting too much stress on it. My bike has also improved a good bit. Overall, I'm pretty optimistic about how the rest of the racing season is going to go. So far, I've taken 4th and 3rd in the 20-24 AG at Buster Britton and McMinnville, and I hope to continue with even better results. This weeks starts a recovery leading up to the Chattanooga Waterfront Tri next weekend. I've heard the bike is hilly, so that will definitely play to my advantage.
Anyways, here are the numbers so far:
Week 1: Swim: 9550 m Bike: 121.24 mi Run: 16.28 mi
Week 2: Swim: 8650 m Bike: 93.4 mi Run: 15.88 mi
Week 3: Swim: 11100 m Bike: 145.17 mi Run: 20.05 mi
Total: Swim: 29300 m Bike: 359.81 mi Run: 52.21 mi
What looked like an excellent day for cycling in theory turned out to be a nightmare. I awoke at 6:50 a.m. to meet a group at the BBC for a long easy ride. We turned pedals at 8 a.m. and not 15 minutes later, the bottom dropped out. Pouring rain. So much for today's mileage.
I went home and waited for the thunder to pass so I could go make up a swim that I missed yesterday due to the Hoover Rec being closed on the 4th. The swim went well, 4K total, except for this idiot Asian man and a crap ton of kids were invading my lane. I was on my main set, 3 x 400 meters, and during the first 100 meters of my last set this dude decides to camp out in MY lane. I mean, what? I ran him over, stopped for a second, said something mean (I think) and then went on my way.
After I got home, I checked the radar to see if there was any chance I could get any more mileage in on the bike because it was actually sunny outside. There was a cell a little west of Tuscaloosa, and using my judgment (which is usually pretty good), I estimated that I had at least 2 hrs. Although I was supposed to do 3 hrs, I would settle for 2 given the circumstances. I headed out east towards Mountain Brook and Irondale, hopped on 78, and then started back in on Old Leeds Road. About halfway down Old Leeds, the sky almost immediately turned dark. Great. At this point, I just knew that I was going to get rained on again. I made it all the way back to Brookwood Mall before the bottom dropped out. It was ridiculous. I definitely got some weird looks form some cars driving around, probably saying "what is this idiot doing in the middle of a thunderstorm?" I just wanted to respond "riding my bike more in 1 day than you will in your life!" Haha.
Apparently, its supposed to rain for the next 7 days. Crap. Good thing next week is a recovery week for the upcoming tri in Chattanooga.
After another blogging sabbatical, I feel the need to start back again! Some things that have happened since the last posting
1. More projects at work
2. A few cycling races and triathlons
3. Road trip cross-country to Vegas
4. It's really hot in Alabama
5. We finally finished our study of Wild at Heart
In other news, I got on the stand in the 20-24 age group at last week's McMinville City Triathlon.
Total Alabama Triathletes domination! That's Kendrick in first, some dude who ran a 16 something 5K in second, and me in third. Next time I need to wear my Alabama stuff in order to represent though.
