The ride I'll never forget. A 120-mile ride report.

I've had a few "epic" rides during my cycling and triathlon days but last Saturday's July 4th ride topped them all.

It was the peak bike weekend for my Ironman training which meant a 120 mile ride "in the mountains" per my training plan. Being in NH the White Mountains were the natural choice, plus there is a century ride already mapped out. All I had to do was find another 20 miles to do.

So, the route was taken care of. Now to actually ride it.

I used Map My Tri to plot the route. A great feature of the site, besides being free, is the elevation information. It told me the ride had about 5,300 feet of climbing. A little short of the 6,000 I'll face in Lake Placid but it's the closest thing to mountain climbing I can find and not make a weekend trip of it.

The route included

• Bear Notch - approximately a 3 mile climb
• Crawford Notch - long gradual 15 mile climb that gets steeper the longer into the climb you get and concludes with a 1 mile section at 13% grade
• Franconia Notch - a comparatively easy 5 mile climb and then a long downhill into the town of Lincoln.
• The Kanc - a very challenging 11 mile climb that includes a few switchbacks and no respite to the steep grade. But, the reward is a very fast 20 mile descent into Conway.

I did the ride with my buddy and Ironman training partner, Paul, and was happy to be able to experience the ride with a good friend. It made for a different and better experience.

As hard a ride as it was, it wasn't what really made the ride "epic". Here's why:

• The ride started in the sun, probably around 60 degrees and little to no wind.
• As we began to climb Crawford Notch we go through our first of two July 4th parades and it also begins to sprinkle. The further up we go, the harder it rains.
• After the Crawford Notch peak, its a nice flat ride past Bretton Woods and the Mount Washington Hotel. Normally there would be beautiful views except we were focused on staying up right as the hail started to come down! That's right, it hailed!
• After the hail it "just" downpoured for a while. We stopped at Fabian's country store across from Bretton Woods to refill our water bottles, which we definitely needed. However, being soaked to the bone, not moving and creating internal heat and then starting back up we were shivering and absolutely freezing in our tri-shorts and tri-tops.
• After making the turn on Route 3 towards Franconia Notch the rain slowly came to a stop and held off during our descent through the Notch into Lincoln. As an aside, having the sun made this a gorgeous ride. I've never cycled through this notch, only driven, and being able to bike by Cannon Mountain and the site of the Old Man in the Mountain was a special thing.
• As we roll into Lincoln towards our last big climb (the Kanc) we go through our 2nd July 4th parade and then see the clouds, hear the thunder and see the lightning. I'll ride in some pretty tough conditions, but one thing I don't mess around with is lightning so we played it safe and pulled under a store awning and watched the skies open up for about 30 minutes. It was some of the hardest rain I've ever seen. Thankfully it was warmer than up near Bretton Woods and we weren't quite as cold from not moving.
  
• At this point we've been riding for about 5 hours and still have 35 miles to go including 15 of it uphill. We are anxious to get going again. After 30 minutes the thunder and lightning appears to have stopped (even though its still raining pretty hard) so we head out. Even though my legs are spinning I'm absolutely freezing. I think the storm brought in some colder air. Paul and I said to eachother we'd actually like to start climbing just to get our heart rates up and warm up.
• After about 5 minutes, we hear thunder again and have to pull under an awning for about 15 more minutes :-( Finally we said screw it and started the last 15 mile climb even though it was still pouring.
  
• While it felt good to climb and begin to warm up, after being on the road for 85 miles, going uphill at that grade was a physical and mental challenge but we made it to the top.
• The problem with making it to the top is now we had to go down, fast, and though the rain had slowed the roads were still very wet. I tried not to think about the thin tires on wet roads hydroplaning at 35 MPH but it was not easy.
• As we traveled down the mountain, the sun came out, roads dried up and by the time we got back to the car it was beautiful.

How did we celebrate finishing our epic ride? We went for a short run :-) Afterall, Ironman is only a few weeks away!

The Tune Up Race - Patriot Half Ironman

My first race of the year was this weekend, the Patriot "Half Ironman". I put that in quotes because the bike is two miles longer than a typical 1/2 Ironman distance, and, the swim was shorter than the 1.2 miles it was supposed to be. Either that or I should be swimming in the 2012 Olympics. I normally swim at about a 1:30 pace for 100 yards and my pace was just over a minute at the Patriot...the course was definitely short.

Overall I was happy with my race. The swim gave me an artificial boost of confidence when I clocked a time of 22 minutes instead of the 32 minutes it took me last year. Even thought my time was artificially short, I know I was having a strong swim when I passed some of the racers from the wave that started 10 minutes ahead of me.

My bike computer died at mile one of the 59 mile ride so I just rode on "feel" and by heart rate. I ended up going a full 1 MPH faster this year and never felt like I was really out of my comfort zone.

The run was also good overall. My goal was to finish the 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours which I did by about 1 minute. This was after feeling pretty crappy for the first couple of miles. However, my trainings have been paying off. I recently had a long run in which over a 15 mile run my coach had me go at about 85% for the last 30 minutes. When I first read it I thought she was crazy, but I did it, and suffered. But it paid off as my last 3 miles was my fastest of the day!

Now for the results. Overall I came in 20th out of 40 for my age group, 92nd out of 318 overall. My highlight of the race for times was my 35th fastest swim out of 318. It's the one triathlon leg where my larger than average frame isn't a disadvantage.

Now comes a relatively easy week before a "monster" week of training that includes a 120 mile ride in the mountains.

P.S. - I've been woefully neglecting this blog as I try to balance training, work, family, etc. But as we come into crunch time I hope to update all of my readers (which really just includes my parents and my wife) with more frequent posts.

Training begins...

I had a great run yesterday. Temperature in the mid 50's gave me the opportunity to run in shorts and short sleeves, the legs felt good and my mind was racing with what seemed like a million thoughts on the upcoming year.

Not having run much over the past five weeks I didn't have the chance to have that kind of flow of ideas that clears my head every once and a while. It was good to feel that again.

I realized that I missed it so much that I'm moving my formal Ironman trainig up a little bit so I can begin to take advantage of the momentum I built up yesterday. Suzan isn't going to have my first training block ready until mid-January so I'll be winging it a bit for the next couple of weeks. I dug up the first month's training block that Suzan gave me for the 2006 Ironman race so that will give me something to work with.

Not only will I begin to track my training again but I'll also begin tracking my nutrition today. I've taken a break from both since doing the Green Mountain marathon. While it's been nice not keeping track for a while, I have to admit that I'm looking forward to the structure and focus that will be required.

Indian Head Trail

Indian Head Trail

Yesterday I did a hike with Suzan and some of the athletes she coached this year.  We did a relatively short hike up the Indian Head Trail in Lincoln to Mount Pemigewasset.  We ended up with a perfect day that started out in the mid-30's but climbed to the low-40's by the time we got to the top.

Last year Suzan had a similar gathering but we did a trail run.  Having  just finished the Green Mountain Marathon a couple of weeks ago I was secretly glad that she wasn't doing a run this year, but rather an easy hike.  Or so I thought.

It ended up being more of a power walk than an easy hike.  I don't think Suzan could help herself - she normally either power walks the trail, or runs up it.

I knew many of the others on the hike but it was great to catch up with some other athletes and talk tri.  We were treated with the pleasure of seeing Suzan's new bike.  A Guru Crono with customized purple paint job and lettering. I didn't get a picture but here is the model.  

The afternoon was topped off with lunch back at Suzan's house before the drive back to the NH seacoast.  I ended up being more beat than I thought I would and crashed on the couch for the rest of the afternoon.

Seeing the bike, I got the urge to get out on mine so I'm hoping to get a ride in tomorrow even though it is supposed to be pretty chilly.

The case for a coach and speed work

I've had a triathlon coach for the past few years. She's awesome. Great plans, really cares about the athletes she coaches, very responsive and accessible. I've only used her plans for triathlons and I'm wishing I hadn't waited so long.

Ever since my first marathon I've had a goal to break the 4 hour mark. My time that race was 4:17:49. My best time prior to the Green Mountain Marathon was 4:14:53 the first time I did the Disney Marathon - a 9:44/minute mile pace.

Before Green Mountain I always just followed a plan I picked up in one of the Tri magazines. Heavy cross training with the core long runs on the weekend. They got me to the finish line but never prepared me for a PR.

Determined to break four hours this year I asked Suzan to help me out - Thank goodness. The plan had a much heavier run focus with cross training still in the mix. Also more speed work and track work than I've ever done - what a difference. Her help led me to a new PR by about 25 minutes - a full 1 minute per mile faster than my best time!

So, while long slow distance may be at the core of your training plan, don't leave around the speed and track work. And go hire Suzan.

Vermont City Marathon - 4:17:49 - 9:50 min/mi
Disney Marathon - 4:14:53 - 9:44 min/mi
Disney Marathon - 4:19:51 - 9:55 min/mi
Manchester Marathon - 4:30:28 - 26.2 mi - 10:19 min/mi
Green Mountain Marathon - 3:49:31 - 8:46 min/mi (first marathon with Suzan's help)