More Hours, A Near-Bonk & the Longest Post Ever

Week 7 is in the books. I had two doubles this week, and will follow that schedule for the next few weeks before adding a third double and making the Saturday long rides bricks. [Translation: Double means two workouts in one day, separated by at least a few hours. So I might swim and bike on Tuesday - swim in the morning, bike in the evening. A brick is when you do two disciplines back-to-back, usually a bike ride followed immediately by a run.]

The week went well. Wednesday's 8.8 mile run accidentally turned into 9.25 miles because I had my watch on the wrong setting at the beginning. I did really well staying in the right heartrate zone, and my knee/IT band issue is still improving.

Thursday morning's trainer ride will be a recovery spin from here on out (fast cadence, low resistance), which is good because it's only 12 hours after my long run and my legs are a little tired.

Friday's swim included a 1,000 yard time trial. I'll use the results to plan proper training paces for swim workouts. That swim had some short, hard segments as part of the warm-up, and I reached another Swolf score PR: 34 and 35! Again, these were for just 25 yards at a time, but I believe that ANY progress should be celebrated. YEEEEEHAW!!!

I had my bi-weekly ART appointment with Dr Awesome, and he agreed the knee/ITB/adductor/hip flexor gang is coming along nicely.

Yesterday I was supposed to ride 40 miles in Zone 2. For the first time in many weeks, I rode alone. I feel like I need to ride alone every once in a while to mentally prep for the long, lonely bike ride in Texas. I mapped out my route and emailed it to my mom and my sister (JC was out of town) and texted them when I was about to start. This gave me a little peace of mind that if anything were to happen, someone would have an idea where to look for me.

One of the roads I had planned to ride turned out to be a dirt road, so I took a detour and discovered Caney Branch Road. I had never been down there, and it looked nice and curvy with a smooth surface, so of course I had to go explore. I'd come around  a curve and see another one and think, "I'll turn back after I see what's around the next curve." But then after the next curve, I would tell myself the same thing. It was just so alluring! My curiosity added 7 miles to my route, so I ended up with 47 miles.

I kept in touch with my mom via text during my ride so she had a pretty good idea of where I was, even when my route changed. With just a few miles left, I saw her drive by me on Hwy. 1 - she just came out to find me and make sure I was okay. How sweet is that? Thanks for loving me and caring about me, Mom. <3 <3 <3

Lots of the houses on this route have loose dogs (this is out in the country) but I think the dogs are used to seeing cyclists, so they don't give chase. However, I rode a part of Lewie Road (between Windmill and Hwy. 378) that I hadn't been on before, and there were two very large dogs who were NOT happy to see me whiz by. They barked menacingly and took off after me. I grabbed my water bottle and was ready to squirt if they got too close. Fortunately, that was at the top of a hill, and I dropped them on the downhill. They were fast but couldn't run very far. Here's hoping they don't start training to increase their endurance! I won't be riding past that house again.

Overall, I felt really good on the ride. I found the "sweet spot" on the saddle and had minimal discomfort. My hip flexors felt stronger - I think the drills on the trainer are helping. I tried to stay in Zone 2, but I failed miserably as far as my heartrate monitor was concerned. My RPE on the bike (Rate of Perceived Exertion) often doesn't match what my heartrate monitor is telling. I decided to take that into account and let my heartrate creep up. Overall, the average for the ride was at the borderline of Zone 2/Zone 3, but my RPE was low most of the ride. And my heartrate was much lower than many previous long rides since starting IM training. I also did a good job of staying in the small ring and keeping my cadence up and effort down when climbing hills. My average pace has picked up about .3mph at Zone 2 effort. Yay!

Another thing I like about riding alone is that stopping is reduced to a minimum. I believe that part of endurance training is getting used to going for a loooooong time without stopping. I'm not going to stop and chat at every intersection during a race, am I? So I need to have some rides where I don't stop, or minimize the amount of time stopped, at least. Unfortunately, this means I miss a lot of great photo ops. I passed so many beautiful sights - lazy cows, weathered chimneys standing alone in the woods, hawks circling above me, charming farmhouses atop rolling hills... But I won't let myself stop for every single thing that tickles my fancy. (Too bad, because I would love to put these pictures in this blog! Maybe I need a photographer to accompany me.)

What I failed at yesterday was nutrition on the bike. I brought plenty of fuel and liquid, but I didn't eat enough calories while I rode. I remember thinking to myself around mile 38 (right around when the dogs chased me), "I haven't eaten enough. But I feel really good." Famous last words, right? A mile later, I stopped at an intersection, and I felt a little woozy. It was the beginning of a bonk. I quickly downed some gel from my flask and prayed I could make it back to my car without having to call my mom to come pick me up from the side of the road. All the way up Pineville, I kept my head down and pedaled in the small ring and channeled my inner Swim Bike Mom and told myself to Just. Keep. Moving. I thought about the race and what I will do if/when I bonk. Better to learn now than in Texas. (Yup, another learning experience.) I made it back and looked at all the fuel I still had left. Shame on me! I brought it with me and didn't eat it. Dumb. I think I took in only about 125 calories per hour. Not enough.

Today I had a 40 minute recovery run. It was Zone 1, and I wanted to see if I could do it without even touching Zone 2. I drove to the dam and started very slowly, and my heartrate was solid Zone 1. Then all of a sudden it jumped to Zone 3. WTF? Mark Allen says that early in your base phase "you have very little ability to burn fat as a source of fuel for exercise and your heart rate will jump up very high at a relatively slow pace in an attempt to kick your metabolism into carbohydrate burning." I wondered if this was what was happening. Just to be sure, I took my heartrate manually. It was 20 beats lower per minute than my monitor was telling me! So something was interfering with my monitor/watch connection: power lines, static electricity from my shirt rubbing the monitor, who knows. But this gives me a little more confidence that I need to trust my body's signals and RPE, and not be a complete slave to the heartrate monitor.

So, Week 7 is in the books. I didn't experience much fatigue with the increase in hours, but I understand it's only been one week, and compared to the number of training hours coming up in the next couple of months, this is a drop in the bucket. I did take a mini-nap after supper Thursday, though. Appetite has increased slightly.

Speaking of food, I had made a New Year's Resolution to increase the number of home-cooked lunches and decrease the number of Lean Cuisine lunches I eat at work each week. I normally eat a frozen meal for lunch every day (or, depending on the training load, two lunches in one day). For the past three weeks, I've had home-cooked leftovers for lunch one day a week. Baby steps! I'll give it a few more weeks at this level before I commit to switching out a second day. I don't think I'll ever quit the Lean Cuisines entirely, but limiting the processed food will certainly be a good thing.

Having said that, I'm ordering pizza right now!