Sunday, June 14, 2009

Triathlon Training Day 57: 26.2 Mile Cycle

I got my bike back from the LBS (Local Bike Shop) yesterday and it is all repaired and ready to go! I decided I wanted to go do the 26.2 Mile Trail I found online, the same trail I tried to do last week when I damaged my rear tire.

Anyways, I got up early this morning, grabbed a protein shake and whole wheat bagel, and made the 20 minute drive to the trail. I wanted to get up even earlier but fell asleep reading a book last night and forgot to set my alarm -- dumb! The reason I wanted to get going in the early AM was because the temperature was supposed to be 97 degrees (again) with a heat index of 104! I got to the start point around 8:30am and it was already 87 degrees!

I started out the ride at around 20mph for the first 5 miles. The wind was blowing but it was blowing at my back so I was okay. Until I made the first southward turn -- wind in my face! And it was a blowing hard. I averaged about 14 mph for the next 8 or so miles. My legs were burning up! It went this way back and forth for the entire ride. The good news is I finished and my legs still felt very good. I probably could have done the entire course again, except the temperature was at 93 degrees and I seriously could have been melting.

Overall, I really enjoyed biking on the open road. Only about a dozen or so cars passed me the entire 26 miles and I came across at least 20 or so other people cycling. Nice course. According to my Garmin, I burned 1385 calories. My top speed was 23 mph and my average speed was 16.1 mph. My average heart rate was 145 bpm. The total time on the bike was 1:40 and my butt was a little sore towards the end!

I cannot wait to get out and do this course again. I was using my Garmin as a GPS since this was my first time on the course and I missed a turn two different times. The Garmin beeped at me when I missed these turns - very cool. I'll do better the next time since now I know where I am going! I also am happy that I was able to get through the 26 miles and still feel relatively fresh at the end. For my Tri the bike distance is only 13.8 Miles. This gives me the confidence to pedal hard and fast and leave it all on the course because I will still have enough left to do the run.

I am really enjoying training!

Not sure what I am going to do tomorrow yet. Since Annie and I are leaving for vacation this coming Friday night I need to try and coordinate this week's schedule with that. We are driving to North Carolina and it will take about 23 hours. We are going to stop in the ATL for a night to rest but I will basically be unable to train for 2 days (unless I have the energy to hit a treadmill at the hotel in Atlanta). However, we are staying at a Beach house with my family and they are all very active so workouts will be part of our schedule. The house we are staying at is in a community that has a full gym and pool that we have access to so I will probably get more work in on vacation than I do at home!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

4 comments:

  1. Wow, excellent bike ride! Gotta love the Garmin. It has become a one of my important training tools.

    You are really inspiring. When I get back to Hawaii I need to take a long bike ride.

    Good luck with your training schedule while you are on vacation. I think the impact to your tri training will be minimal. As a matter of fact, it might actually be good for you.

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  2. Dude, you burned almost 1400 calories? Whoa...I'll bet half of those were on the headwind portion of your ride. That's an unreal number to burn!

    Have a safe trip to NC. On your way up I-85 around the Sugarloaf area of ATL is my neck of the woods!

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  3. Boomer - The Garmin is so cool. It makes me want to train just so i can see the stats afterwards. I've always been a geek like that with numbers and statistics - i read Bill James books about baseball and have been playing fantasy baseball for about 15 years - I am a geek!

    Also, I cant wait to swim in the ocean while on vacation! OWS here I come!

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  4. Steve, That was way more calories than i thought I would have burned but the headwind was probably the reason. It was fierce!

    We changed our plans already and will be by-passing the ATL on the way. I have a real good buddy (and triathlete) in Charlotte we haven't seen in a while so we are going to take a detour and head north when we hit Columbia, SC and spend the night at his place.

    However, we will be coming back throught the ATL and and find a Courtyard somewhere ... I have a ton of Marriott points from the days I used to travel alot!

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