What are you training for? What happened to HHH?I'd love to be able to post a 20 in a training ride. Did something unusual today and decided to get in a morning weekday ride. Figured I'd do 40 miles but carry liquid to get me to 60 miles. I was at 19.4 mph after the first hour, 2m14s off the 20 mph pace. Other than four races and weekly interval sessions, I have been on the road exactly once in the last two months.This morning: Just did a 22 mile bike ride. I struggled to maintain 20.0 MPH (ended at 19.9). The humidity was high, but I expected much more out of the ride. My legs really had little to nothing in them, and I have no clue why. Every time I tried to up the pace, my legs said.
I was putting out zone 1-2 effort but seeing a zone 3-4 HR level. Two thoughts here....lack of training and my legs are holding on stronger than my cardio OR my gut issue is causing a problem. Good news was that I was pain free the entire ride as I didn't spend any significant time above my lacate threshold.I was feeling pretty good at the 20 mile mark and decided to stretch it out another 5. 5 came and went and I decided to shoot for 30 before turning around. The next 1/2 hour had me improving the average as I only lost a handful of add'l secs to the 20 mph pace. Well my add'l mileage put me into some uncharted territory and evidently I missed a turn on the way back and got lost. Not just a little lost, turned around and riding the wrong direction lost. I finally figured things out when I saw a sign for an interstate exit that was a long ways from home and paid attention to the location of the sun. I don't take maps, phones, or gps when I ride. I kind of enjoy the edge of having to figure out your own way back if you miss a turn. Eventually I'll hit a major road and know where I'm at.Well the downside of the detour was hilly roads. My avearge started to sharply erode and the temps pushed into the 90's and my lack of miles on the legs. I hit mile 45 and figured I'd be between 56-60 miles taking the most direct route home. My average dropped below 19 mph somewhere between here and mile 50. At mile 55 I heard a pop from the rear wheel and was experiencing nasty wobble. Spoke was busted and I had to hitch home. It was so bad the tire was rubbing the frame. A pick-up truck stopped within 5 mins and got me to a bike shop in town. They didn't have time to fix so they loosen a few other spokes to eliminate the rub and I limped it a mile home to finished up at 56 miles, with an average of 18.8 for the first 55.I'm very happy that I was able to complete a 1/2 century plus with minimal difficulty and no cramping. #### and foot arch soreness was probably the first thing that would have given. Can't say I'm happy with the average, but this is base building for me. I'm going to try to make some changes to my body that makes me a better fat burner over the next 3 months. What is sad is that I averaged 22 mph over this distance a couple of years ago and 20+ mph over a solo century ride including stops. Best part, I really enjoyed the time on the bike today. I never ride in the mornings and it was great. Traffic was almost non-existant at times. I only got buzzed by a car once which is well off the expected knucklehead to miles riden ratio. Temp started off in the 70's and finished in the 90's.
Great to hear so far - GL on the blood work results!
I think all of us who have been out there putting in the hard work during this ungodly summer (Baltimore just set an alltime record with 58 days hitting 90 or higher) are going to reap big rewards if/when the cool weather gets here.
Needed to get the bad taste out of my mouth from last weekend, so this morning I did the "JustRun 2010" half marathon in Stevens Point, WI. I'll try to add more later, but it was nice and cool (but windy) for the race, and I ran 1:27:52 (6:42/mile), a PR by more than 2 minutes. Placed 7th overall and 1st in my age group (30-39). Started out nice and slow (6:50, 6:54, 7:08, 6:52 for the first four miles) and then picked it up. Had miles of 6:33, 6:33, 6:39, and 6:34 thrown in there. In the interest of full disclosure, the course might have been a little short, but it was close, and even if it was, I still would've PR'd easily. If anything, I figure it makes up for all the other races that I've run long.
Would you hate me less if I'd said "nice and easy?"
