Back in the Saddle!

It's been quite a while since I've had time to post, but I am happy to announce - as said best by Aerosmith - that "I'm back in the saddle again!"  The past couple of months have been extremely busy for me.  I completed my final two surgical rotations in orthopaedics at Wake Forest, and wanted to leave the department with a good impression, so I tried my best to work as hard as possible during the 8 weeks.  Overall it was a fantastic experience and left me completely certain that I made the right choice in deciding to pursue orthopaedic surgery as my future vocation, but it left me with little time for other things like posting on this blog!

I did manage to get some solid training accomplished in my garage (AKA the "pain cave") on the trainer and the treadmill, despite being rather busy, and I feel that I have made some solid gains on both the bike and the run.  My training has really started to "ramp up" lately as I am making the solid march toward Rev3 Cedar Point on September 11th.  My approach to training for this (my first) iron-distance even has been relatively high(er) intensity and low(er) volume than most programs out there, so it has been very challenging mentally to get "psyched up" for hard interval sessions on the trainer or the treadmill multiple times per week, but my body feels great.  The fitness gains have definitely been substantial and I feel fast.  I just need to really listen to my body over these next weeks prior to Rev3 and stay healthy!

I made my return to racing this week on Tuesday night at the "grand finale" of the Mock Orange Bikes MoSpeed TT series.  The final race was held at Pilot Mountain, just about 25 miles north of Winston-Salem.  Pilot Mountain is one of the best climbs in Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina and gains approximately 1400 feet of elevation in 2.26 miles (average 11.7% grade).  The time trial was simply from the base of the mountain to the parking lot at the summit.  Only 2.26 miles...easy, right?  I knew that I would be at a slight disadvantage in a mountain time trial as compared to the other races in the series, which have been flat time trials, because as cyclists go, I am on the larger size (80 kg), but nonetheless, I knew it would be a fantastic substitute for my normal Tuesday night lactate threshold workout on the trainer and a good chance to set some new mean maximal power (MMP) records.

In the end, I am very pleased with how I performed.  I finished 3rd in the B Category, which was good enough for 9th overall.  My total time was 16:10 and my average power was 355 W (4.4 W/kg).  I think I paced the race well and I am very pleased with my average power.  Sustaining a power output much over 4 W/kg for intervals lasting greater than 15 minutes has been a major barrier for me, and I feel like I finally completely obliterated it!  I ended up setting new MMP's for 15, 10, 5, and 4 minutes.  My new 4 minute MMP was set during my last 4 minutes of the race, so I was very pleased with my final "kick".

Tomorrow morning is the re-scheduled Valdese Sprint Triathlon.  250 yd swim, 9 mile bike, and 5k run.  I haven't really been focusing on short-course racing lately, but I'm hoping I can really nail the short bike leg at a high power output and have a solid run!  I'll post a race report when I get the results back.