Friday, April 8, 2011

Oh Happy Day!

Today was all-in-all a good day.

The North Carolina State Budget is not in a good place (not as bad as the fed), so there is no over time for anyone at my work. For this reason a number of us were sent home early today. I was sent home at 1:30 and was home shortly after 2. My training plan called for a 60 mile ride and I had been wondering how I would get that in after getting home at 5:30. Since I knew I would have limited time I sat all my stuff out last night.

It was a beautiful day, about 75 degrees with on and off clouds and breeze due to some thunderstorms that were moving in. I got home dressed, grabbed gels, and made two half sandwiches. I left feeling good- I feel like I look like a cyclist wearing my favorite jersey, my red and while Pearl Izumi jersey-
Ignore the broken/crooked mail box
It is my favorite jersey because it was the first name brand jersey I fit into. I bought and it was too small but I lost weight and it finally fit as I documented here- ****. Now it is baggy

I also was wearing the matching socks..

The first 10 miles I spent in the granny gear riding a few times around the meat of our local tri course. I figured the slow ride would get me warmed up and a some time getting extra aquainted with the course wouldn't hurt for next month. I also spent some time trying to figure out how to make this turn at speed.


I get over 30mph on this decent which makes the turn hard. Slowing down for it is hard, I often go too wide or I cut off the opposing lane. Also I don't want to come to a stop to turn because 200m after making the turn you start climbing for almost 2 miles. Keeping my momentum for the climb would be nice.

After my warm up I spent the next 15 mile or so building speed. I held 22mph or over for two separate, rolling 5 mile stretches. I found that if I stood and mashed for a few seconds then once the speed was up I could spin and keep it for long periods of time. I was proud of myself for making many climbs at 20 mph or over.

By 34 miles I was hurting, my butt, my legs, and my neck (neck hurts often on long rides, I can't figure it out), but i had no problems keeping going. This was also about the time I ran out of water, I took 60 ounces with me and it wasn't enough. I think I drink more now that I have an aero bottle.

At 54 miles I wanted to quit I was hurting so bad, but I think the lack of water was making it worse. I got home at 55 miles even but rode around the block a few times in order to round out 60. I was determined to hit 60 because this was my longest ride ever, and so no less.

After I was done I headed to the tub for a COLD soak while I had a recovery drink and then a hot shower. My sweat was burning. I am still trying to figure out how to best recover from the harder workouts so I thought I would mention it in case anyone has better suggestions.

Since I also asked about nutrition in a recent post, I thought I would share mine for this ride, 20 oz of water followed by 40 oz of nuun. I drink when thirsty but make sure to have something ever 15 minutes on the dot. I had a gel every 45 minutes and ate a half sandwich at 20 and again at 40 miles (while riding). Again, if you have any other suggestions please share.

The only time I stopped on this ride was to take the below picture. I stopped, but never got off the bike. I talk about being near the mountain, if you are familiar with the east coast, you have probably heard of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Only a n hour drive from my house to the parkway, but you could see them clearly on this ride since I was a but north of home.




3 comments:

LB said...

good job on the distance PR! where do you carry all that fuel??? sandwich....really? BTW, i googled bento box and it kept bringing up japanese lunch boxes until i finally put in keyword "cycling"...ah ha, that must be where you stash all that food. REI didnt have them, so guess what i ended up with...some sweet komodos! totally frivolous purchase, but happy!

Patrick Mahoney said...

Nice Luke. PR's are always awesome. Well done.

Patrick said...

Way to go on the PRs Luke. looking forward to getting after some of my PRs this spring myself. Been resting on last falls performance too long.