On Friday I had a 30 minute recovery ride scheduled....Since it was going to take me longer than that to change clothes after work and drive to a good spot for a ride, I decided to skip it....No guilt, since I give myself permission to skip Friday's zone 1 recovery rides as I see fit :)
I find it interesting that I'm up earlier on the weekends than I am during the week. Kind of makes Mondays a bit more bearable, knowing I get to sleep in. Saturday I was up at 5:30 so I could be running on the beach at sunup - one of my favorite things. Unfortunately it was cloudy and the sunrise was rather uninspiring.
Regardless of the sunrise, it's nice to get a long run done early, before it's ridiculously hot, especially when it's a slightly harder zone 3 workout. I ran for 2 hours at low tide, an hour out and back, with the clouds keeping the temps in check. Total distance: 13.56 miles, averaging 8.50 / mile with a heart rate of 161.
Not an easy run by any stretch of the imagination, although I felt pretty good when I was done. Nothing like running slightly more than a 1/2 marathon on tired legs.....
Sunday's plan was for a 3.5 hour ride, and I knew I'd be miserable on the saddle that was currently on my bike, so opted for trying something new.
I had been reading some great reviews about the new adamo saddles. With nothing in the middle, there's no pressure in certain places where pressure isn't exactly wanted. The intelligent thing to do would have been to try out the saddle on some short rides, but what fun would that be? My plan was going to be to test out the new saddle on my old bike. Lucky for me, Drew at Bike Fitters was kind enough to let me test out the new saddle on what's going to be my new bike (minus the $2200 race wheels in the picture)
Those guys really went WAY above and beyond setting up the bike for me, transferring all of my measurements from my fitting and putting on the speedplay pedals, computer, saddle, etc.I'm really glad they did, since it made Sunday's ride much more bearable. Speaking of, on Sunday it was once again up at 5 something....
I had planned on joining a 7:00 "B" ride, yet accidentally ended up with the "A" ride. The difference between a 20-22 mph ride and a 22-25 hr ride is significant. As it turns out, I'm glad I joined the A group, even though I knew I would get dropped at some point, which I did.
I really enjoyed the first hour of the ride with the group, where we kept a pace of 23-25. Then we got to the Palm Valley Bridge...That's where I got dropped and the group went bye bye....I made a half hearted attempt to catch back up, but one triathlete has very little chance of catching a group very strong dedicated cyclists. At first I was a bit pissed that no one came back to pull me back into the group.
The reality is I'm glad they didn't, since I could now hang out on my aero-bars for the next couple of hours. Riding in a group at 25 is very different then spinning in an aero position, and this was a perfect chance to see how the bike would perform in it's more "natural" environment.
I'm happy to report that it performed flawlessly. On flat roads before the wind picked up I was cruising along at 21-23. The new seat was great, putting pressure in much different, and much less uncomfortable spots. The last 45 minutes or so I was riding straight into a pretty strong wind, and went from 22 mph down to 14 in some spots, giving me a good chance to stay aero and spin through the wind. All in all, I had a great opportunity to put the bike through several different conditions and it was great.
On my old bike I would have been completely miserable after 3 1/2 hours; on the new bike I definitely could have kept pedalling for quite a while longer. I'm sure biking nutrition helped a bit was well.
I had mixed a pretty strong bottle of Perpetuem (1000 calories), went through 3 gels, and two Uncrustables (YUMMY) Gotta love a buffet on the bike.
Unfortunately the same wind the gave me a much more challenging workout on the bike was enough to cancel the ocean swim. Lori & I took Kramer to the beach anyway and found out very quickly why the swim was cancelled: the waves were HUGE!!! Even the surfers were getting beat to hell. Speaking of, I have to admit to enjoying watching stupidity at its finest. There was a guy trying to swim out with a sea kayak, getting absolutely pummelled by the waves. FUNNY!!!
What would a weekend of hard and long running and riding be without a bit of indulgence? We wrapped up the weekend at THE place to indulge....that's right....The Cheesecake Factory....On the menu? Avocado eggrolls, a shrimp and bacon club, and Dolce du Lece Cheesecake.....YUMMY. I know, it wasn't quite Ucrustables, but you gotta have some variety in life......
Ok...the week in review.......
Plan was for 13.75 hours, made up of 4.5 swimming, 5.5 cycling, 3.75 running.
Totals were 11.22: 2.75 swimming, 4.72 cycling, 3.75 running.
Swimming: Swimming got cut short by the masters group meeting to discuss a new coach, the UNF pool being closed for a swim meet on Saturday, and the ocean swim getting cancelled by the wind and waves. I had planned on doing a 2500m continuous swim over the weekend. Even though UNF was closed, I could have gone to another pool....Knowing I have the 2.5 mile ocean swim coming up I really should have found a way to get in the swim.....oh well......
Cycling: Cycling was a little short because of skipping the 30 minute Friday recovery ride - not a problem......
Running: Right on target.
Over the course of the week I swam 3.08 miles, rode 85.35 and ran 25.75. Today's really good news? THIS IS THE START OF RECOVERY WEEK. YEA.
Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure.....
2 comments:
That saddle looks awesome! Did it really help in the pressure points? I'm not a guy, but definitely have some sensitive areas that I'm trying to keep happy!! Great job this weekend.
LMAO...buffet on the bike.
I almost bought that seat but opted for a girlie one instead.
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