Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Bikin' up a storm
I went for a 38 mile bike ride today, following this route. Not quite the climbs of the last two rides, but the elevation looks more like an EKG or something (arrhythmia) with about 10 climbs ranging over elevation changes of about 260 feet. The bike is getting very comfortable. I fixed my rear spindle today, which was a little loose and caused my tire to rub the frame yesterday. I thought I fixed it yesterday, but I was mistaken, so I did it right today. Also pumped the tires back up to 120 psi, which I can't do at home, so that helped quite a bit too. I'm rolling smoothly now. I was in the aeros a lot today, and it felt great. I can't praise those things enough. I wonder why it took so long for them to catch on. Oh, I also bought a couple of Power Gels and squirted one into some water in my water bottle for this ride. This gave me about the equivalent caffeine of 24 ozs of Diet Pepsi without the fizz and bulk. If I stay addicted to caffeine until the race, I will be doing this again. At least one before the start so I don't fall asleep in the water, and another on the bike, in the water bottle. Maybe more, who knows? Is that doping?
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3 comments:
Looks good. I was reading in the Eric Harr book that if your event is longer than hour you shouldn't eat, over an hour start eating at the 45 minute mark. Then do 200-300 calories for every hour.
I did the Blue Goose hill climb yesterday. It was close to 380 ft vertical. Had a real nice steep part 3/4 the way up the hill. I thought I had remembered it to be longer in the car. I don't think I hit it hard enough on the climb. I averaged just over 17 MPH whole ride, but if I took out the whole hill, I was closer to 19.5. I keep looking at the MPH on the Mooseman and can't believe the number of people over 20, which I haven't seen for a 1/2 hour ride yet. I probably should worry more about the swim, which by the way the times look fast. I should just start taking the approach to worry about myself and not the others.
As for this average MPH thing, I am also somewhat taken aback when I look at these. There are certainly sections of my rides where I average 20 for a while, but the hills are so frequent and steep that I can't get a real steady thing going. I would love to average 20 at the Mooseman, but I am doubtful that it will be possible for me. I'm just going to try to keep up with you. If I somehow get ahead, you can catch me on the run. You are right that we should stop worrying about everybody else. We can't do much about them (except grab their ankles in the swim). We have one month to make ourselves into the best athletes we can. No slacking.
I just went back and checked the gmap-pedometer route for the Mooseman bike.
Here is is again:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=696028
I then compared that to my ride from yesterday to see what kind of elevation differences there were. The total play at the lake is around 340 feet, give or take a few. It is not quite as constant as what I get around here, but there is one section between mile 15 through 21 where you are climbing from the low point to the high point, including Devil's Hill. Somehow, it doesn't look as bad as what I'm used to. Most of the hills on the race course are around 100 feet, and there are lots of places without many ups at all, like between 7 and 10 (three miles, woohoo!), and between 11 and 15 (4 miles!). Craig, you and I have to take full advantage of those sections. 40 mph on every down hill. I am very excited to be reminded that the last 5 miles of the course are essentially downhill or flat, with one little bump in there, which we will be able to coast up due to the excessive speed we build up on the plummet into town. Having those 5 miles will be a big help in the transition to the run. We shouldn't be blasting our quads moments before hitting the bricks.
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