HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!

Three days in a row, I am making an effort!

Yesterday's 30 mile ride/5 mile run brick was a partial fail. We had very odd weather yesterday, at 5:30 When I got home we were under both a thunderstorm and tornado watch. Despite that it was bright outside, oddly bright, except you couldn't see the sun. There was a thin layer of light grey clouds as far as the eye could see. It was thin enough that the sun was still piercing through. Despite it being 100 degrees, I had every intention of riding outside until I heard about the watch on the radio. I got dressed, tweeted, and debated. i finally decided that if I got 15 mile from the house and there was a tornado, it wouldn't be good. I set up the trainer and popped in a disk of the Big Bang Theory to watch for a 2 hours spin.

After an hour I started thinking about how much i hate the trainer without doing a guided workout like spinervals, and about the church dinner I was missing. I usually do not attend the church dinners as it is always the old people from the church and the food is always horrible and they run out. Of all the ones to go to the May dinner is the best because it is the done by the old men's sunday school. When the women's groups do the dinners it is covered dish, not good, and not enough. When the men do the dinner it's catered by a local chicken and bbq joint. I was miserable on the trainer and starving despite my first gel. I decided to call the hour on the trainer a bonus workout and do the workout today since I am working 2nd shift. I had a good time at the dinner; I played volleyball, dodge ball,and football with the kids. They like me because i will play with them.

I was up all night thinking about race strategy for my first olympic, because of this I overslept by an hour this morning. Despite that, i still got up and got my workout in, but I only left myself 15 minutes to drink my FLUID recovery drink, shower, dress, and feed the dogs.

This workout is my longest brick ever. It didn't kick my ass, but it was no walk in the park. I was looking at it as a good dress rehearsal for my race next weekend. Similar distance and similar weather. I wrote three key goals on and index card and put it in my bento box. One of these was to do the bike in Zone 2 for the first half and zone 3 for the second (source). I was using last winter's HR zones as I have not retested. I put a note on the fridge that I need to reassess. Giving these zones the goal was to stay under 144 for the first half and above 144 for the second half. My other goal on the bike was to drink 4 ounces of Heed every 10 minutes (source). Last night I got out a measuring cup and marked my aerobottle at 2oz intervals.

The bike went smooth and was very enjoyable, I rode comfortably for the first 15 miles and watched my HR for the second. I found it hard to keep my HR up at times. There were descents that no matter how hard I pedalled in my biggest gears, my HR continued to drop. It would go all the way to zone 1 over a matter of seconds. Not sure how to remedy this or if this needs a remedy.

After the bike I made a decent transition. I wore bibs to ride so I changed in the foyer and headed back out. My goal on this leg was advice from Andy Potts in one of the same pages as above. I gave myself three minutes to find my rhythm and then closed my mouth and tried to breathe through my nose. If I couldn't do it, I was going too fast. Considering i was running at near my 5k pace, i new it was too fast. At that moment is felt good, but i needed to remember to pace myself. After a mile I got to a good rhythm and the effects of the bike were gone. Even with my rhythm, hills still floored me- dropping me to a 10 minute pace. In the end I averaged an 08:45 pace and my coach had called for 9:03- I am happy.

Today's workout is 6 x 1:00 for speed. I may put this off until tomorrow AM in order to clean up the house. I still have a bike and clothes in the foyer, heed and gel wrapper in the kitchen, didn't make the bed, and I am hoping I make it home before CB tonight.

Any olympic distance race strategies to share?