Sunday, May 4, 2008

Thoughts on a Ironman training day..

Listen people-when "they"say the sun comes up at 6:15 AM, they mean on the west side, not in the eastern foothills of the great Southwest. I had this bright idea yesterday to leave out east side house at 6:30 AM yesterday morning for our 5:45 hour bike ride, followed by a 30 min. brick. I thought the sun would be out as Flamin' Mo, H and I made the trek down a pretty steep graded 5 mile hill near our house to meet the others on the west side. All I can say is that is the coldest I have ever been on a bike. I have ridden in colder, but since I didn't want to be carrying around heavy gear after the sun came out, I was traveling light. It was in the 30s to begin and 70s in the end. The ride was fairly flat the first 72 miles. Then we came back upon the cold hill from earlier and ascended it at the end. It was much easier, dare I say, than I thought it would be. We eek-ed out 83 miles, then I did a 2 mile run afterwards. The rest of the day was spent catching up on SRTV (stupid reality TV), specifically Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Yep, I admit it. I Tivoed every episode and sat literally in front of the TV watching the whole thing yesterday. That was the end of my productive day.

Just some notes:

1. So sad about the poor filly that they had to put down yesterday at the Kentucky Derby. That is just awful!

2. I guess someone died on a run that many of my friends did yesterday. I was suppose to do it but Coach said no. S. Baboo was there and tried to help-I don't know the details yet..

3. This is a little disturbing: Something I read on our Ironman Blog by someone who trained on the course yesterday (he was doing the bike course):
"I was talking with an IM CDA official today and he mentioned that plans are being formulated in the event that Lake Coeur d’Alene does not warm up significantly prior to IM race day. Officials are planning on setting up a couple of warming yurts on the beach. These yurts will be readily available for swimmers as a part of T1 to combat the brutal chill that may affect many."

Gosh I am thinking at what point is it just plain "too cold"? Well, I survived the Lake Mead freeze-zone so guess I will this one..

4. My brand new Cervelo is at the bike Doctor here getting a new crank to hopefully fix the "chain slipping" issue, otherwise known in the Cervelo world as "ghost riding", I had at Rage and continue to have intermittently. So I haven't been able to train on it for 2 weeks (waiting for a part to come). My old Specialized certainly hauled up that hill quite nicely yesterday!

5. H & I are off to "Triathlon Camp" on Friday. I am really looking forward to it in Boulder!

5. On a positive note-the key to our Lake house in Coeur D' Alene is being sent as we speak!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great job on the ride. My plan was to get out the door by 6:30, too, since my garmin said that would be sunrise time. I didn't get out until 7:15 though. It was chilly at first! At least there was no wind :)

Unknown said...

I was really sad about the filly yesterday too. I cried about it. Three times. :(

Scary and sad that someone died on that run yesterday. :(

IronWaddler said...

Awesome job on the ride.

I was so sad to hear about the filly and the runner.

the Dread Pirate Rackham said...

Eep! IMCDA is gonna be that cold?

that was a fun ride - I only got 58 in, you did well!

LBTEPA said...

How cold does it have to get before Ironman people need yurts? Eeek.

Calyx Meredith said...

The news about Eight Belles and the posts by Geek Girl/S. Baboo struck surprisingly melancholy chords in me, too.
The phrase 'warming yurt' makes me chuckle (though if I had to swim in water cold enough to need a warming yurt afterwards - I'd cry!) Good luck!

Vickie said...

I'm like you after long workouts or races. All I want to do is sit. For hours. And not get up or be bothered! Do you think its an age thing? I saw poor Eight Belles and was rooting for her and then, we know the rest. Lake Coeur D'Alene. How cold is cold? When we were there 2 years ago it was COLD, like 58 degrees cold.

The Stretch Doc said...

Holy freeze batman, how freakn cold is Lake CdA???

good job on the 83, hey we did the same, but you get bonus for the brick!

rockon`