6 Hour Race Simulation Brick Done; Time to Taper for Rev3 Cedar Point

It's hard to believe Rev3 Cedar Point is almost here.  Only 3 weeks from today and I will be racing in my first full-Ironman distance triathlon!

Today was a big workout for me.  I've had it marked in red on my calendar for the past few months.  It was my official "race simulation" bike/run brick.  I woke up at 5:00 AM and ate the same breakfast I plan to eat on race day.  I gathered my copious amount of water bottles together (as pictured above!) and headed out for an 85 mile ride at 7:00 AM.  Thankfully, the weather stayed pretty cool (65-75 F) and overcast throughout most of the morning and I had a fantastic ride.  I nailed my target power output within 1 watt of my planned race pace.  I felt great as I finished the ride and am confident in both my pacing and nutrition strategy for the bike leg of the Ironman.

At the end of my ride, I rolled into the garage at home and made a quick transition and jumped on the treadmill to start my 15 mile run.  Unfortunately, the clouds disappeared and the temperature quickly warmed up to the upper 80's F.  Despite the fact that I was in the shaded garage with a big fan blowing directly on me, it sure was hot!  Nonetheless, I still had a great run.  I didn't have much problem hitting my target pace for the 15 miles.  As I neared the end my run however, I realized that it is going to take a significant amount of "digging deep" on race day to suffer through the rest of the marathon.  After working out for 6 hours straight, I was certainly ready to get of the treadmill and go inside to take a snooze!

Tomorrow is a complete rest day and then I'll begin the first of my 3 taper weeks.   This volume for this first week of taper is only dialed back a bit, but it is still a nice feeling to know that my longest workouts are behind me!  In general, as I taper I will be incrementally decreasing the volume but keeping the intensity relatively high.  I will still be throwing in a handful of lactate threshold and vo2 max intervals on both the bike and the run to keep the "snap" in my legs until race day.

T-minus 3 weeks!

Race Report: Hanes Park Classic Criterium (Second Crit Ever...First DNF Ever)

A couple of weeks ago, Mock Orange Bikes hosted the 33rd annual Hanes Park Classic Criterium series.  I hadn't really planned to race, but I was getting a little burned out mentally from the monotony of training for Rev3 Cedar Point, so I decided to substitute my normal weekend long ride for an "easy" 30 minute criterium.  I got an ample warm up in on Sunday morning of a bit over an hour and then rode over to Hanes Park in the West End Village of Winston-Salem and registered for the Cat 4/5 race.

As I wheeled up to the starting line, I knew in my mind that there was probably nobody in this race who had logged as many hours as me on the bike over the past 3 months.  I knew I was ready to drop the hammer in this race.  I admittedly have essentially no experience in criteriums, but I was hoping that I could use my better-than-normal conditioning to "muscle" out a podium spot.  The gun went off and I took a good position in the top 10.  I rode a couple of laps of the 2 mile course in this position to get a feel for the turns (and also to stay out of all of the congestion in the back of the peleton).  Over the next few laps, I took plenty of turns pulling at the front and comfortably started to ramp up the pace.  Riders were slowly beginning to shed off of the back and I could feel things starting to thin out up front.  I sat back a couple more laps and then took another turn at the front.  I pulled hard to thin out the remaining riders.  My legs felt incredible and I knew I was going to have a lot of "matches" left to burn at the end of this race.  I mentally planned to make my break with 2 laps to go in order to avoid any chance of a sprint finish.  I eased off the gas a bit as we rounded the last few corners until we hit the line for 2 laps to go.  As we came around the last curve before we crossed the line, I heard somebody coming up hard on the outside.  The guy was riding erratically and made a sharp cut in front of me as we came out of the curve.  I knew in an instant that my race was over.  As he cut me off, my front wheel got completely mangled in his rear skewer.  I heard the shearing of spokes and felt my front wheel start to lock up.  I remember thinking, "man, this is really gonna hurt", as I expected this to end in me hitting the deck HARD.  Thankfully, I managed to stay up, but unfortunately, my race was over.

Despite the fact that this race was my first DNF in any sort of race ever, I'm glad that I raced in this crit.  It reaffirmed for me how important smart riding technique is in criteriums.  You certainly need a strong "engine", but strategy and technique is so much more important in criterium racing than any other style of racing I have done.  Criteriums really give me an adrenaline rush that is different from what I experience in triathlons or running races.  I think that I see a few more crits in my future...