Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Looooooooooong Ride

If you haven't been keeping up with Amanda @ 5 Miles Past Empty, she just recently finished her first Half Ironman.  (*applause*).  She rocked the White Lakes Half Ironman II and has been publishing her multi-post race recaps HERE, HERE, and HERE

I had a chat with her recently about the race and she told me that the bike really blew her away.  She was surprised at the effect that the bike had on her legs.  For myself, I have my own first Half Ironman in July and was looking to Amanda for some advice going into these last weeks of training.  Given her experience at White Lakes, I knew I had to hit the bike and be more confident in being able to ride for a full 56 miles.

In my first Sprint distance, I had never ridden 10 miles before.  In my first Oly Tri, I had never ridden 25 miles before.  As much as I've started a trend, I vow that I will break that trend this time around.  So last night - given that it was STILL raining here in CT - I hopped on the trainer and rode!

I didn't push the pace.  My goal was simply to keep my legs moving around in circles for two hours.  While I did that, I first watched the second half of The King's Speech (I had watched the first half on Monday). 

Source

Thanks to Richelle @ Running Towards a Higher Calling and Jo @ That Girl Who Sang The Anthem for that suggestion!  It was a g-g-g... F*#@ F*#@ F*#@ great movie.

Then I popped on Rocky Balboa thanks to a suggestion by Coy @ First in Philly
Source
At what I felt was about half way through Rocky Balboa, I hopped off the bike and checked the computer.  2:08:32.  I had ridden over two hours straight!  Check that off the list.  On top of that, my legs felt great.  Now, the trainer is always easier for me, so a portion of that I'm not surprised at, but after 40.5 miles, averaging 18.9 mph, I was happy.  Next, I'll have to do it outdoors.  I'd bet my pace would be more around 15-16 mph the first time out.  Then I'll work up to 2.5 hours and 3 hours.

I do have to say, I have spent some time fiddling with my seat position (height & tilt) over the last couple weeks and my bottom very much appreciates the time I put into that after two hours in the saddle!

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Questions
1.  Do you train up to the full distance of your races?, or do you fall short?
Since I'm a swimmer, I swim my full distances, but I have yet to train up to the full distance of my races.  This season I vow to change that.

2.  What's the longest ride you've ever been on (distance OR time)?
Last night was my longest @ 40.5 miles and 2:08:32, though it was on a trainer.


Stay fit.  Stay healthy. 

13 comments:

Coy Martinez said...

Rocky! The ultimate motivator! Or a good one anyway :)

I've been following Amanda's Ironman and it's on-the-edge of your seat good. I could feel my legs hurting when she got off the bike! The way she made it through was the best!

My longest ride has been 20 miles. My speed is crappy though. 14-15 mph. Sucks. I need practice, no two ways around it.

Coy Martinez said...

Rocky! The ultimate motivator! Or a good one anyway :)

I've been following Amanda's Ironman and it's on-the-edge of your seat good. I could feel my legs hurting when she got off the bike! The way she made it through was the best!

My longest ride has been 20 miles. My speed is crappy though. 14-15 mph. Sucks. I need practice, no two ways around it.

5 Miles Past Empty said...

Oh yes!! Awesome awesome job!!! That is a very competitive pace you got there! This will certainly help but like you said, getting outside is a must. I was nit prepared for the wind theat I rode into most if the way. And one other thing I should have done more was run right off the bike, even for as little as 20 min.

You got this though!! You're gonna blow it out of the water!!

My longest rude was 40 miles. Not far enough by a long shot. Lesson learner though...next time... =]

Anonymous said...

I learned very valuable lessons in my first half:

Go into the run having run at least 13-14 miles 3-4xs before the race.

Go into the bike having biked at least 70-80 miles.

SWIM! For you swimmers not a problem. For us land animals, problem!


Good luck on your half. Looking forward to the race report.

Runners Fuel said...

When I trained for my 1st 1/2, I trained for 13 miles and it worked great! I want to make sure my body know what I going to do to it!

Karen said...

Honestly, for my first few tris I had done the bike distance either. For a half ironman, I think you kind of *have* to or pay the price. I am thinking probably do more than the distance. For running, my first half marathon I went up to 11 miles before race days. For my first marathon, I went up to 22 miles in training.

I really do believe the mental aspect of having done that distance before race day has got to help. I know for my half, I am planning on doing the distances and then some before race day.

it's all about pace said...

what Shelby said...

to add to that... it's almost impossible to ride too much.

Question to you... are you just looking to finish?

Matthew Smith said...

Nice work on the long ride! I think you'll be find on the HIM if you keep logging rides like that. Keep cranking them out!

Dr. said...

Ummm, considering that when I get on the bike I require a chin guard, helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads my longest ride is pretty much down the street to DQ and back. That counts, right?

Kurt @ Becoming An Ironman said...

@ Pace - I haven't talked about it yet, but while goal A is to simply finish, I have sat down and figured out estimated times for each leg, so I do have an overall goal B of finishing in a certain time (I'll reveal that at a later date) as well as time goals for each leg. I do agree on the bike though - it's hard to put in too much.

@ Shelby - given my current hiatus from running due to my arch, I'm not sure I'm gonna' get around to multiple 13-14 mile runs. I got a 9 miler. That count?

@ Ali - Counts in my book.

Richelle said...

I'm glad you liked The King's Speech. My fiance and I loved it. We're still hoping to see The Fighter soon.

Since the longest race I've ever done is a half-marathon, I usually do not do a full 13.1 miles before the race. I top out at 10 miles. It has worked so far for me and I hope it continues to do so.

Longest run has been around 14 miles. I got lost during one of my long runs and ended up running much longer than I wanted to.

My Boring Triathlon Blog said...

I would practise lots of BRICK workouts. Running after long bike rides to get used to the feeling.

I just did a marathon and my longest run was about 23 miles

Kevin said...

For my first 70.3 (last weekend) I did about 3 full bike/run race length brinks and a few small ones.

My longest run was a 30 miles. My longest cycling ride was 100 miles. My longest swim is 3K.

If you have any questions email me.

Kevin
HalfTRIing.blogspot.com