This week was going to be a little harder to plan out. For just under a year, I had a trip to Starkville, MS for Super Bulldog Weekend. At the time, I didn't know I would be doing Ride the Rockies, Ironman Wisconsin, and looking for a new career. Well I guess, you adapt, overcome, and mange.
With the spring weather, it's been hard to pick which days are best for long riding. We have had some really windy days here lately and sometimes riding in the wind is not too fun. On Monday, I decided to see if anyone was riding at 5:30 from the local ride spot on Country Club and Tyler. As luck would have it, someone was there. We decided to ride the south loop with Scenic hill. This was a good ride and a great way to start the week.
I took Tuesday off from riding and just swam and ran. The plan was for a big on Wednesday. The wind was supposed to be light and out of the west. I decided to ride out to Atkins and climb Crow Mt. as an OAB and then add another 20 miles to make 80. The ride started out really well. The wind was in my face, but I was making good progress keeping the HR and Power in Zone 2. I reached the climb and went up. The climb was not that hard. I wish it was closer to Conway because it would make for some great hill repeats. It was long, but not very steep, so you could go up easy or crush it if you choose to. On the way back, I had the wind at my back and everything was going well until I realized that I still had 20 miles left. At that point, I had underestimated my nutrition. I went out with 2 bonk break bars and 4 Clif Gels. With 20 miles to go, I knew I was low on fuel and it would be tough. I pushed through and got 80 in solo. This was my longest solo ride ever. One thing I learned is that I need to eat more if I'm going to be running a marathon afterwards in September!
Thursday was another easy day. I would have liked to have gone for a short spin, but the wind was 20-30 and said I'll just take it easy with a run and swim. Friday was an off day as I made the trip down to Mississippi.
I still wanted to get my rides in so I brought my bike down with me and went on 27 mile ride on Saturday and 20 on Sunday. It is always nice to ride in new places because you don't know the distances so the time seems to go by faster. On Saturday, I pushed the power on the bike to 80% max for the ride. I felt good and afterwards ran 2 miles at a 7:57 pace. The rest of the day was followed with crawfish and baseball. Sunday morning, I went ahead and rode in Starkville. One, I knew it might rain in Arkansas and it was going to be windy there. It was a nice ride out on Old West Point Rd. All the roads from the weekend were nice rollers with no climbs or true flats.
So overall, I had a great week of training. I'm still lacking on the climbing, but the distance is going well. Also, this was my biggest week of running since Feb. The legs held up well through the week. I still need to focus on keeping the run easy and light while still building the distance. Also, had my biggest week of biking.
Totals Week 5
Bike -176 miles
Run - 12.3 miles
Swim - 3.61 miles
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