Bounce

Got home a few hours ago from a pretty good training weekend.

Friday -- 4,000 yards in Trousdale.  Longest swim to date.  Did pretty well, left shoulder a touch tender.  Friday night I drove over to Sunset Inn in Panama City Beach -- the Tallahassee Triathlete's home in PCB.  So why did I head over?

Well, it is three weeks to Ironman Florida, and I am in the middle of my last big training block.  On tap for Saturday -- 100 mile bike ride (w/a 20 min brick) and Sun -- 18 mile run (longest run to date).  All.  By.  My.  Self.  Not a bad thing, just different, and with no SAG support.  But probably pretty important for the race, b/c I won't have a paceline for IMFL.

I was a little apprehensive about both, but for different reasons.  For the bike -- well, I was hit by a car a few weeks ago, still mentally struggling.  Run -- well, last time I ran close to that long, 16 miles, I trashed my achilles tendon and put myself out of commission for a few months.  So, how did it turn out?

Saturday.  I woke up to wind, wind, wind, wind, and wind.  Temp was cool, and windy.  Not breezy, but windy.  Weather Channel said wind out of the ENE at 15 mph, with gusts up to 25.  Yeah, that unfortunately got that right.

The Bike:   http://connect.garmin.com/activity/119964235   First mistake of the day -- not eating a powerbar before the ride.  I usually do, but forgot.  Guess I was jacked up.  So I decided to try and spend the entire ride below my aerobic zone -- basically in fat-burning land.  Below 134 hr.  Really 125-130.

Also, this week, I took the cateye off my bike.  I decided that for these long endurance rides I do not want to know my speed, b/c it will just piss me off and I will speed up and ruin my day.  Also, did the ride with just two water bottles.  Meant lots of stops, but I didn't want to put a rear water cage on my bike.

Did I mention it was windy?  OMG.  On front beach road, especially around the high rise towers, it was like a hurricane.  I seriously thought the wind was going to blow me over.  Had to spend a lot of time on the brakes.  Luckily traffic was light.

Turns out I didn't worry too much about cars.  Part of that was traffic being light until my return trip on front beach road.  The other part, was that I knew I wasn't in Tallahassee.  Different venue.

Note -- that pot-hole road in front of Boardwalk has been redone and it is smooth as silk.

So, the ride North on 79 was a little tough.  Winds coming at me from 1-3 o'clock.  Steady and non-stop.  I quickly learned that: (1) to stay in my hr zone I would have to go slow; and (2) it was going to be a lot longer than the last time I rode this course with a group (mostly in a paceline).  Last time, we hit hwy 20 in about an hour -- this time about 1:20.  Turning East on Highway 20 was pretty much into a headwind, and seemed like pretty much nonstop up a slight hill.  It was here that I learned that I needed to delete the term "race" from my brain, b/c there isn't anything race-like in an IM.  Just long, slow, endurance.

At the 2 hour mark, I hit the gas station to refill my two bottles, and turned South on 77.  It was nice.  Able to ride at a good clip, but I kept wanting to "race," and after a few minutes had to reign it in b/c I knew I would otherwise implode.

Then I turned NE on 388.  Oh shit.  This was horrible.  This was truly a headwind.  I was probably riding at 10-12 mph a lot on this road.  It took forever.  Finally crossed Blue Springs Road, and the bumps began.  It took so long to ride into that headwind, that I decided that I had to ride to Youngstown to refill my two bottles.  So a whole lot of bumps to go with the incredible headwind.  After what seemed like an eternity (and a hr spike due to a dog trying to catch me), finally hit Youngstown and refilled.  This was right about at 4 hours.  Also, took a minute to post on FB how much I hate that freaking road.  I am going to e-mail and FB Bay County Commissioner and call them out.  I cannot see how they can let 2000 people from all over the world ride on that damn highway.  Tell you what -- get a phone book and put it up against your boys.  Then let a friend hit the phone book with a softball bat about a dozen times.  Then see how you feel and how pissed off you are.  The people I spoke with in Youngstown say that the county is responsible for the road, and continually diverting $$ for repaving it into slush funds.  I call BullShit on Bay County.  Honestly, if I had to design a bad road, I do not think I have the creative capacity to design a road this shitty.  So, to make it worse, I had to ride back down 388.  At least I had a tailwind.  So instead of bump... bump... bump... bump... bump.... it was bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, etc.

Finally turned North on Blue Springs Highway.  Whew, crap -- crosswind.  This road is pretty and nice, but still had to keep my hr low, and it was hard to do that with the hills on this road.  Of course, that was just a primer for Westbound on Hwy 20, because from the turn onto 20 until the intersection at 77 (where I previously turned south -- about 12 miles) is pretty much big-ass rolling hills.  Fun for a short ride.  HR killer for the longer rides.  Finally get to the gas station at 77, refill my two bottles (for the 3rd time).

Meet a guy and girl who lived near the airport, they were riding their tri bikes, getting ready for IMFL as well.  They were really nice, should have gotten their names.  Girl was pretty cute to boot.

So anyway, get back Westbound on 20 for the ride to 79.  This went pretty fast b/c it was with a tailwind and no real hills. Finally turn South on 79.  Whew.  I was super excited b/c I knew the ride was getting close to being finished.  Of course, I had to reign it in b/c by then my hr was starting to continually creep over 134.  And the wind was coming out of the E instead of ENE, so it was a solid cross-wind.  Long story short, lots of breaks in my cadence to get my hr under 134, lots of sitting up on the brakes.  Turned down the appendage road, felt the tailwind and said screw this, I don't want to do a u-turn and fight another headwind.  Plus I did go all the way to Youngstown on 388 so that counts for something.  So I skipped the appendage and kept going south on 79.  Right before the big bridge, the cute girl passed me.  She hauled ass up the bridge.  Show-off.

Finally made it to front beach road, and stopped at that gas station for a coke and one last refill.  Coke tasted great.  Ok, time to hit the road.  Oh shit.  I'm headed East, right into the headwind.  Oh shit again, this road is crowded with cars.  So a looooooong 6 miles or so back to the Boardwalk and back to the hotel.  Sucked, but had to be done.  Felt like my head was on a swivel, in between looking for cars on the road, cars turning off the road, and cars trying to get on the road.  And the vortex created by the big towers.

Did the 20 min brick after, and it actually went pretty well.  HR was on track (under 154) and pace was pretty good.  Guess I learned something after Augusta after all.  Once I was done, showered, etc., hit Mellow Mushroom for some BBQ chicken pizza and picked up a 6 pack of XX, and headed back to the hotel to watch Kona on the laptop.  Nice ending to a tough day.  Windiest, and most non-stop wind I have ever faced.

The Run:    http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120152107   Woke up, still windy.  Great b/c it kept my body temp down.  Wore compression socks.  Carried a Nathan fuel belt with 2 10 oz. bottles.  For 18 miles, it meant lots of stops to refill.

So basically, my plan was to follow the course (well, hoping to b/c I didn't have directions) down to the Jetties and back, repeat until I hit 18 miles.  Luckily some kind soul painted orange arrows and the turns, and I saw all but two -- worked it out though.

First four miles, hr was 140 or so, pace a touch slow, but I wasn't stressing it.  Nothing but a gentle warm-up.  This put me at the State Park.  20 minutes till it opened, but there was a guard there and he wouldn't let me through.  So I turned around and went back to a gas station a few minutes up the road to refill.  Ran back to the park, still closed, turned around to run back to the gas station, and ran into Shannon Coates and one of her friends (sorry, forgot his name).  We chatted, suprised that each other was there, and then jogged back to the st park.  They had to turn around to get cash (cash only, dangit.  They hadn't brought any and I didn't have enough for all of us)  Miles 5-15, my hr picked up to 145-150, about where it should have been all along, pace worked out also.  I can see how the State park will get hot in the dune and trees -- the wind was so strong that it never stopped blowing, but did decrease some.

Saw lots of does and yearlings.  Really neat.

So I ran one loop (backwards), and then did the loop again the proper way to make sure I knew what it felt like.  By this time, I was getting tired, but kept chugging along.  Left the park, hit the gas station and refilled my bottles (a third time).  Retraced the race course.  About mile 15, I saw Shannon and Co coming my way. They were hauling serious ass.  Impressive.  Got me so motivated that I decided to push it back to the hotel to maybe mimic the last lap in the race.  So I jacked my hr up in the 160's and my speeds went down.  This hurt.  Ragged breathing, ankle sore, achilles tendon sore, hips sore, etc.  But I hung in there, and re-learned something I had forgotten.  The body can hurt, and be tired, and be sore, but still have the energy/strength to push on.  It is mental.  Intervals taught me that last year when I was knocking my 5k time down to 21:48.  This morning made me remember.  I was tired, sore, etc., but could tell that b/c I had run within my limits, I still had the energy to push.  Very important lesson.

Finally made it back, and the last few minutes were a cool down.  Hit a double-dose of endurox (did the same thing the day before), cold soak in the tub, compression socks and tights, packed up and checked out and hit the All American Diner.  Yum.  God I love coffee, and eggs, and cheese grits, and bacon, and pancakes.  Not fried apple critters though.

So, what I have I learned?  Physically, I am coming around.  Mentally too.  I feel like I am working on a giant jig-saw puzzle, and have just figured out what picture I am putting together.  Now I have an idea of what it will look like and where the pieces will go.  I just have to fit it all together.  Little more here, little less, there, etc.  The parameters are gelling, now comes the trial and error fine tuning.

So, I know there is no way I will turn in the time I want to at IMFL.  I'm not at proper race weight or as healthy as I need to be.  One day, perhaps two years from now, I might.  Until then, I do think that considering my weight, health/injuries, and what I have learned this year -- I think I have the potential to put together as good a day as my physical limitations and weather conditions will allow.  This has been an eye opening experience.  This is a totally different sport than a sprint or olympic, and probably even a 70.3.

This should be pretty fun.