After doing my 2 hour brick Monday night, I was oh so happy to have an entire day off yesterday. My knees were still hurting after 3 non-stop days of long and hard workouts. Today, they are much better.
All winter long, I kept thinking, when I get out to West Creek for the first time, it's going to be so easy. We'll, it wasn't. I'm glad I trained all winter, and I'm sure it is easier than it would have been, but the Farm Bureau hill is still the Farm Bureau hill. And no matter now much I wanted to do the 8 mile loop at jack-rabbit pace, it still came in at 30 minutes....putting me at a very slow 16 mph average. Luckily, I was able to keep that pace up for the entire 24 miles.
Lesson learned -- the only way to train for hills is to do hills. You can't simulate that on a trainer, no matter how much you stand up out of the saddle (or sit down for that matter) in level 10.
And, speaking of standing up out of the saddle, I just want to say that it doesn't translate! I wish someone had warned me...standing up on the bike while on a trainer is just a TAD bit easier than on a real and actual hill...considering that the bike actually stays sturdy.
Much to my surprise when I tried to stand up going up a hill at West Creek, the bike sways way back and forth....with each pedal stroke. Something more to practice I suppose. And nothing is ever easy when you are training for a half Ironman race.
At least now I have a bunch of TRIgirls to watch me as I sway my way up the hills and down again.
And another thing: A brick is only a true brick if you are doing real actual biking. For a few months now I thought, I'd finally trained my body to not feel that stick leg --icky feeling of biking and then running. What I've realized is that I haven't trained my body for that at all. For some reason biking on a trainer just doesn't wear out your legs like true and actual biking does. So, when I started that 30 minute run, ,which ended up being a little shorter due to the coming darkness of the night, I was in for a real treat!
Bike, Run, ICK! All over again...and this is where the true season starts.
2 comments:
you looked like lance to me. especially down hill - sheesh how do you coast down so quickly!!! i feel like i have to push to go downhill. one day i will keep up with you out there lady! you're doing fabulous.
Ah yes - this sounds like my workout on Tuesday. The reality of off-season training meeting the real world. You looked great this morning on the run - even after this tough workout. You rock!
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