Confused??? What if I told you the "office" was a bike, some running shoes and the road. That's right we completed an 8 hour workout; 105 mile bike ride followed by a 70 minute run. And today I feel great!!! We finished a great 4th of July weekend with the biggest workout of the year, probably of our lives (to date) as well.
So what does it take to do an 8 hour workout? Well, a lot of patience, some grit and a lot of Clif bars. A lot of Clif bars....I'm so sick of Clif bars....The day started with a planned Century Ride (i.e. 100 mile bike ride). We took the classic route up to Copper Harbor and back, with a little refresher Copperman bike course mixed in the middle. In classic Ironman fashion the bike was done at a nice easy pace. A good Ironman bike should feel like you are not working hard. It was a little slow at times, but you keep telling yourself that the slowness is going to get you through the day. I felt really good. I didn't start to notice any fatigue in the legs until mile 85, I'm not sure about Rick. This was Rick's first 100 miler this year, and I think he did awesome! This was my second Century ride and I felt very strong. We took it slower than I did on my first one, but I also wasn't able to run for 70 minutes after that ride (though I did manage 30 minutes the first time).
Something I learned during this ride was that I need to figure out how to mix up what I eat. I only had time to grab a bunch of Clif bars, and usually I have something else to mix in like a banana or peanut butter and honey sandwich (one of my favorites!). Even though I had a good variety of bars, they still all end up tasting the same. I had some GU, but I am kind of sick of GU as well...particularly the Espresso flavor, probably because during my Half-Ironman race I took an Espresso GU at a bad time and made my stomach hurt (see previous post about that...). All in all a really good bike. It is such an invigorating feeling when you hit that 100.00 mile mark! I always want to fist pump or something at that point.
We transitioned into the run and I felt really good. I think I can officially say that my body is so used to running after biking that I never feel weird off the bike typical for triathlon. We just started running, and we were what I would be really happy to do during the marathon portion of the Full Ironman. Maybe a little slower than what we really ran. Feeling that good also made me realize that it is going to be way way better if I take my bike slower than I would think I can do. My original goal on the bike was to average 17-18 mph for the whole bike. I don't think that's impossible yet, but as of right now I think what I should do is more like 16 mph. I still have a couple of months, and I very well could get up to 17 mph. Doing 16 mph puts you right around a 7 hour bike, which would still be pretty good, and even better if that means I can do straight 10 min/miles for the whole marathon! So my new plan is to do the bike in 7 hours and if I happen to do it a little faster than 7 hours great, but as long as I feel great on the run.
We finished the run pretty strong. I was definitely glad to stop, but realized that I could have continued at least for a little bit more if I needed to. I think with regular aid stations I could get through at least a half-marathon at this point. We did that whole run on just a couple of gulps of water in the middle. I felt a definite need for some nutrition and Gatorade by the end. It was a great day!!! Maybe the best part is that I feel great the day after! I know that my legs are tired and that any kind of physical activity wouldn't last too long, but I know that I could at least get an easy recovery jog in and feel good about it.
It's amazing that I could even do an 8 hour workout. It hit me at the end of the run....that last year it would have been absolutely impossible to do something like this. Its a real testament to consistent and structured training. For all of you that thought it would be impossible to throw down an Ironman without having done a strong base of marathons, half-ironmans and everything in between, I am well on my way to prove you wrong. Keep this in mind....I have not even run a full marathon yet, and will not until Ironman Race Day (September 25, 2010)!
