32 days till Orangeman! To be honest, I'm still feeling a
little nervous about my first Half Ironman distance triathlon. I've done the distances - 1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, and a 13.1 run. It's just a matter of putting them together. We've been training on a hill twice as steep and my running has felt more and more comfortable. I'm keeping a steady pace on the first half and negative splitting the last half for an time I'm okay with. I know on race day there's a million factors, but one of the positive race day only factors is the excitement and adrenaline that come with racing!
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| Note: Not mine, just a random interweb image. |
I kicked off the weekend with a Friday night bike fit with Damon Roberson of
DamonFit at
Surf City Cyclery. Adam kept telling me that I had to schedule an appointment with Damon and that he was a really good guy. Sure enough, he not only
is a good guy, he's a great bike fitter and a wealth of knowledge on all things cycling. He hooked me up to the Computrainer and I began to pedal away. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself as I assessed the little diagram on the computer that was clearly showing each leg pedaling 50% and a little infinity symbol showing how
even my pedaling was between my left and right legs. Ignorance truly is bliss. Damon swiftly brought me back to reality by advising me I was only 50% efficient OVERALL on the bike and that my "infinity of awesomeness" was really a "peanut" (of shitty cycling). Damon re-fit me quite a bit on the bike and advised me on a number of mandatory cycling efficiency drills to help my peanut become a smooth circle of awesomeness. On a good note, that means there IS room for improvement and I can get faster on the bike with a little work! Had I been perfectly efficient, I'd be screwed as to how to get faster.
Last Saturday we woke up feeling like we hadn't even slept. We opted for a slower start and hit the pool for 1:15 swim instead of the ocean. The swim went well and it was nice to get some quality time in practicing my stroke and breathing. Since the last not so nice ocean experience, I have really been emphasizing my breath to keep myself evenly paced and focused on swimming. We headed out around the Back Bay for our run and I ran 11 miles! It feels good to finally be adding on mileage and enjoying my time outside. No knee pain, no foot pain, just running.
Sunday we headed out on a 4 hour ride with a training buddy we haven't seen since Alcatraz! The boys took off at warp speed, but I held my own thanks to my sweet bike fit. What a huge difference a professional bike fit makes! My legs were a bit sore from Saturday's run as I hammered up the hill on Jamboree, but I was able to push it through the first rollers of Santiago Canyon and felt like I was still pretty strong. We turned down Silverado and headed up into the quiet, winding canyon. It's absolutely beautiful back there! After hitting the 2 hour mark we turned around and headed back home! Another great weekend in the books!
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