I have been afraid of this ride ever since I went out Christmas Eve morning with my husband and almost froze to death (not really, but I seriously have never been so cold in my life - shaking and losing control of my limbs on the way down!) -but that's another story for a different day. It's a 40+ mile bike with A LOT of climbing up steep mountain roads - approx. 6000 feet of elevation gain in those 42/43 miles.
I also have never done this ride completely and knew going with my husband was not the best option for my first time, being that he is so much faster than me and I don't want to hold him back when he is trying to get a good training ride in.
So, my neighbor across the street is actually the only other girl I know personally who is as into these triathlons as I am. And fortunately we are both just starting to get into the longer stuff. She is doing the Cozumel Ironman just 3 weeks after my Florida one. Both of our firsts. Because of that, our training timeframe is pretty similar.
Yesterday we headed out at 5:30am to hit this ride, and then run an easy 6. I have a race on Saturday, so I was not sure how smart it was to do a ride and run like this 3 days prior. But in the big picture, it's more important for me to do these tougher rides to get ready for my bigger races (1/2 IM in Aug, and then Florida). We drove to Aspen Grove (about 10 miles from here and 10 miles to the start of the ride), there is a great flat running course right at Aspen Grove that travels along the Platte River that we would hit when we returned from the bike.
The ride was actually, surprisingly, great! I was very relieved to have it feel doable. The first few miles of climb are a steady slight climb that got me all the way to my smallest gear. That worried me a bit, knowing I had nowhere lighter to go! But it worked out, I alternated between staying in, and getting up out the saddle once we got to the steeper stuff. It is a beautiful ride. Gorgeous mountain scenes. And most importantly, my legs felt great getting off and starting the run. That may be due to the fact that the second half of the bike was mostly coming back down! That was fun! The ride took 3:17 of ride time. MPH average was 12.9.
The view at the top of City View - a bit hazy, but that's Denver down there.
Same spot as the above picture, but facing the other direction
I just had a bike fit riding instructional on Monday from my husband's tri coach. Steve Pye - I leaned a ton and hope to be able to implement what I have learned over time. I felt better on this ride than I have in awhile (if ever) - I am hoping the bike fit (and my new knowledge of how to actually sit on the bike) are to credit for this and that it will continue. I do still have the numb foot issue, it is worse when I climb, and hopefully time and improvement in my pedal stroke and climbing technique will be able to alleviate that.
The run was an out an back on the Platte River trail and really felt great. It takes about a mile for me to get into the run and feel good. We took it easy and maintained about a 9 min average. I felt great on the run and knew I could go faster if I wanted to, but was happy to keep an easy pace. With a race on Saturday, the last thing I needed to do was push it hard on either the bike or the run.
Overall, a great day that has helped boost my confidence in my ability to climb on the bike.
No comments:
Post a Comment