Holy Hills

This morning I met Amy at Centennial Park.  I had first met her at the Rock Hall Olympic Tri.  She and I chatted before the race but I didn't see her after the race.  I ran into her again on Monday at the MMTC monthly meeting.  She was planning to ride some of the Half Full course so I thought that would be good training for the IronGirl.

The one thing about riding in Western Howard County is the hills.  There are lots and lots of hills.  Now I'm getting better at climbing the hills, but I'm still kind of stubborn and sometimes tend to muscle up the hills more than I should.  But with this many hills, there was no way to muscle through them.  We had to spin up the hills and save our legs for the next one.

We rode just over 37 miles and I felt like it was double that distance.  I was totally spent.  Amy and I are pretty evenly matched on the pace.  She's a much smarter rider than I am...she is really good at pacing herself and at nutrition on the bike.  She gave me tips on both that I will use.  For example, I didn't know that I should be eating every 45 minutes on the bike.  I really need to start doing that...I don't eat and just drink Gatorade.  It's not enough and lends to my exhaustion for the run portion of the triathlon.

I noticed that my knee was really bothering me for the last 10 miles.  I think that the hills had really gotten to me and my knee (as is normally the case) was what was affected.  Another bit of advice that Amy gave me was since my bike for the half Ironman is flat, I should be training on flat roads.  She said that the muscles that I need for flat riding are different than the muscles I need for climbing.  It makes sense...looks like I will be heading over the Bay Bridge for some more flat rides between now and November!

So except for the last 10 miles where I felt pretty bad mostly because of my knee, I am pleased with my ride today.  According to my Strava app, my average speed was 14.7 MPH and my top speed was 36.9 MPH.  Yes, you guessed it, that was on one of the monster downhills!  I am getting better about not being scared of the downhill speed because it helps some on the momentum going back up!  14.7 MPH is something I'm pretty happy with, especially considering how many hills we encountered today. 

So the funniest thing that happened on the ride today was actually during the last 10 miles when I was really suffering.  To go back a little bit, when Amy and I met at the parking lot, she told me that there was supposed to be at least one other person joining us.  We looked for him before leaving, but couldn't find him.  So 25 miles or so into our ride, along comes Rusty riding up next to us.  He and Amy chatted for a bit while I struggled behind them.  I was really trying to ignore my knee.

To add some extra mileage, we did the Mt. Albert loop twice.  Mt. Albert is a hill that I've heard a lot about from John at Spin90.  So the first time we rode Mt. Albert, I wasn't too impressed.  The second time, with my aching knee, I was really struggling to get up the hill.  About halfway up, I heard Rusty's cell phone ring...and he answered it!  He talked to the caller the rest of the way up the hill!  And he didn't sound totally out of breath!  Are you kidding me dude?  Obviously Rusty is a much better climber than I am!  No way I could have said "hello" much less held a conversation going up that hill!  Although looking back on it now, I realize that my reaction was tainted a bit by the pain I was experiencing.  I probably wouldn't have had such a strong reaction if that had happened the first time up that hill.  But regardless of which loop it occurred on, I am still a LONG way from talking on my phone as I go up any hills.