Sunday, May 31, 2015

Peak is Done! - 4 weeks to go

This weekend capped off a 3 week peak as I'm zero'ing in on Coeur d'Alene.  After Ironman Texas 70.3 on 4/26, I went into a recovery week then into my peak training for CDA.  The weekend after the half ironman recovery week, I did a 16 mile run followed by a 101 mile ride.  One of two that I'll do in the next 3 weeks.  This ride took me up Palmer Lane/Ronald Reagan to I35 north of Georgetown.  Once back to Jolleyville and Oak Knoll, I went to 620 and 2222, u-turned and and then headed to my house at Braker and Jolleyville.  Below is the mapped ride.  During these 100 milers, the goal is to practice my goal pacing and my nutrition.  After this ride, I did a quick 15 min, marathon pace run just to gauge the pace I want to start off the marathon with in CDA


The next weekend, on Memorial Day I raced the CapTex Olympic tri in downtown Austin.  Obviously, b/c of all the rain, the swim was cancelled, so it turned into a Duathlon.  Which was ok with me.  I did a 10 mile run on Saturday, and a 50 mile ride on Sunday (recovery from the 16 mile run and 100 mile cycle the week before).  My goal in CapTex was to hammer the bike.....it's a 26 mile time trial so it's a perfect opportunity to go balls out and check my power numbers on a true time trial.  I wasn't concerned with the run, but ended up running really well after pushing so hard on the bike.  I was 7th/85 in my age group.  I'll take it!


After CapTex, it was the start of my last week of Peak that would end with another long run and another 100 miler.  On Saturday, I did an 18 mile run followed by 100 miles on the bike again on Sunday.  This time the bike consisted of double looping the Dam Loop......jolleyville through balconies, 620 to bee caves to 360 back to Jolleyville.  Turn around, and go back the same way I came (map below)  Physically, a lot of hills and climbing, but the mental challenge of turning around and heading back out to do the loop again was very difficult!  But I just had to settle back in and get at it.  It was a very nice day today so once I got going it was actually a nice ride today.  This ride will be more like CDA than the previous 100 miler b/c of the hills.  CDA's 112 mile bike has 5700 feet of climbing.  Today was 100 miles with 5700 feet of climbing.  After doing 18 miles yesterday, I felt really good after today's ride.



I'll do a little recovery week this week to recovery from this weekend, then start my taper to CDA.  Still a little work to do, but at this point, it's down hill from here to Race Day.  I'll check back in as the race nears.