It Turns Out That I Was Sick

I went back into work Tuesday and found that three of my co-workers were sick over the weekend, one with my same symptoms. Looks like I was sick after all so no swim on Tuesday, no hill ride on Wednesday (too bad because I got my light back), probably no swim on Thursday, and a very easy bike ride on Friday (I have it off) and maybe Sunday, too. I don't think a run this weekend is such a smart idea, either. I'm big on giving illness plenty of rest.

I Don't Think I'm Sick

Yesterday's plan was simple: an easy two hour ride. Except for the two Woodleys, I did take it easy. I was even passed by a guy that normally wouldn't have caught me and, even if he did, I wouldn't have let him get away from me. But it was easy day so I let him go. I came in several minutes slower than usual. Easy day.

I quickly fueled up, showered and shaved, took my daughter to a concert, had some lunch, and came back home. I was pretty tired so I went to take a nap. I woke up some three hours later and I thought I had the flu. Funny thing, though: I had all the aches and fatigue of the flu but none of the other symptoms. No runny nose, coughing, or congestion. Just way tired. I spent much of the remainder of the day/evening in bed reading or sleeping.

I woke up today less tired and a bit less sore and still no other symptoms. Very odd. Perhaps I am fighting off some nasty cold. In any event, no run or bike today, that's for sure. Combine this with my lousy swim workout last Thursday and I am going to re-think what an "easy" swim workout is. I think it involves slow 100-200 yard sets, reduced yardage, and no sprint sets. Easy week in the pool this week.

The Assault on Santa Clarita

The first time I made the ride into Santa Clarita it took me 3:39. The last time it took me 3:20. This time I wanted to come in under three hours. Not only that but I wanted to do it by taking a slightly shorter route which includes a steep hill up a narrow road that I actually couldn't make the first time I tried. I figured the shorter would be offset by the steeper. No breaks, except to strip off layers, and I would try to power up hills the best I could. Fueling up would happen while riding, every 45 minutes.

I woke up yesterday and it was still pretty cold-ish. Even though the forecast said it would reach 80, I decided to go with the long-sleeved jersey and arm warmers. Felt good as the ride started but I had to drop the arm warmers a half hour into the ride. The jersey was warmer than what I should have brought but it wasn't unbearable. Lesson learned: dress for the warmest it's going to get, add layers if you need to, and just put up with the cold for a little bit.

Because of the sunny weather I did see more cyclists on the road than usual but very few people going my way (and none of them passing me). At one and two hours into the ride I was on pace to come in under three hours. However, the last hour involves two big climbs and they slowed me down considerably. I was pleased that I could get out of the saddle as often as I did and it made the hills more interesting. I knew the roads better than before so I did not have to use the brakes going downhill as much as before (at all, for the most part).

I was pretty toasted by the time I was ready to cross back into the San Fernando Valley. That first steep hill I mentioned is on quite a narrow road and I'm not convinced it's such a smart route to bike. First thing in the morning is one thing, because of the lighter traffic, but it was after 9am and I thought it would be safer (and, to be honest, less brutal) if I skipped the hill and took the slightly longer way around. Looking at the clock it didn't look like I was going to make it back in time but better that than being run over.

Even though I wasn't going to make it back under three hours I still wanted to see how close to it I could get. As I got closer to home, though, I started doing calculations it looked like I actually still had a chance. I'd have to really hustle but I might be able to make it. So hustle I did. Bigger gears, faster turnover, and worry about being tired later. I pulled up in front of the house, stopped the timer, saw that I had made it, and sorta collapsed on my bike for a minute.

I then petted the dogs, went back into the house, and hooked up the Garmin to the iMac and saw a few interesting things. First, the trip came in at 2:59:45. Talk about cutting it close! Second, I hit 42.6 mph on one of the downhills! The last time I did this ride I hit 37.3 mph and I sure didn't plan on going 5 mph faster this time. Wowzers. Another thing I noticed was all the salt around my eyes from the tears as I'm flying downhill. Later I finally broke down and bought some sunglasses for riding.

While this isn't going to be my last ride into Santa Clarita, as I have mentioned before I feel I am ready to try something different so in a few weeks I am going to try rides with the San Fernando Valley Bicycle Club. I'm sure it will be a blast.

Switchback

And no, I don't mean the song by Celldweller (though it does rock mightily). I mean that thing you do going up a hill where you work your way up by going across.

I did my usual 29-mile ride today but also included another assault on "Big Woodley" (I really need to take a picture--next time). I start heading up and I think I'm farther than before but I know I'm not going to make it to the top so I'm thinking about how I want to bail. I turn to the left and go across to see if I really want to bail now or what. At some point I decide to switchback and go back to the right. I quickly find The Secret to Uphill Switchbacks(tm), which I will share with you. First, I'd like to mention that I did try switchbacks last week but they weren't as good as The Secret to Uphill Switchbacks(tm).

Okay, the way switchbacks are usually done is you ride across the hill, angling up slightly so you slowly make your way up. You can even ride straight across one way, then angle up coming back, then ride straight across again, etc. Slower but it works. However, none of that is The Secret to Uphill Switchbacks(tm). The secret is this: as you ride across, when you get near the end angle your bike down so you catch a bit of speed. Use that momentum as you turn up to get up the hill just a bit and even angling up. That's it: head down to go up. Sounds dumb, doesn't it? However, I made such progress and saved so much energy that as I got near the top of the hill I stopped switching back and rode straight up. I still want to ride "Big Woodley" straight up all the way but The Secret to Uphill Switchbacks(tm) will help me as I get stronger.

So I woke up this morning to rainfall, which meant I was going to get soaked. As you might imagine, rains in L.A. are usually not that big of a deal so this was going to be a fun ride. However, as I started the ride the rain had gone. About 2/3 of the way through the ride, though, the rain came back so I pulled over and put my rain jacket on. What fun! By the time I reached home I was completely soaked and didn't think I wanted to do my run in such soggy weather.

I fuel up, warm up, and shower off. Then I made breakfast for my daughter and notice that it's now sunny outside. Crazy spring weather. I decide that I will do a run so after serving breakfast I get my running gear on and head outside. Hey, where did my sun go? Dark clouds were working their way across the sky but I run anyway. A half-mile into the run and the rain starts again. This can only mean one thing: when I finish my run the sun is going to come back out. I get nice and soaked but I do finish my 3.5-mile run without stopping and, yes, when I get in the house the sun comes back out. Today, I was a rain magnet.

Next weekend is my 46-mile ride into Santa Clarita but this time I want to do it in under three hours. Not as easy as it sounds with the reasonably big hills so we'll see.

From One End of the Valley to (Almost) the Other

Today's ride went from the far east end of the San Fernando Valley to, almost, the far west end for a total of just over 39 miles:

Not a bad ride and I kept nice and fueled up. It's funny riding places you've only driven to before.

It occurs to me, though, that I have reached a point where I need to learn more routes to keep things interesting. That's where the San Fernando Valley Bicycle Club comes in. Checking their ride calendar I see that their ride into Newhall is shorter than mine and they rate it as intermediate so it looks like I have reached the point where I can hang with them. They have introductory rides the first Saturday of each month, which is perfect because next weekend is my aforementioned ride into Newhall/Santa Clarita so I will be needing a shorter ride the following weekend. They have many interesting rides listed and, while I do not plan to make them all, this could be really helpful for me.

I will be visiting my parents in early May. They live, and I grew up, in the San Joaquin Valley where it is flat, flat, flat. I have plotted a couple of rides to neighboring towns which should make for an interesting weekend. One ride is 40 miles r/t and the other is 48 miles r/t. The plan is to leave early, ride into the town, eat some donuts, then come back to my parents' house for breakfast. I am curious to see how I perform on long, flat rides.

Endurance Nutrition

Been so busy this week. My bike light hasn't come back from Blackburn yet so no hill ride again this week. I'll make up for it on Sunday with another (futile) assault on "Big Woodley" this Sunday.

So last Saturday's ride was okay. The aforementioned "Big Woodley" is the second hill heading north on Woodley Ave., just past Rinaldi. I tried going up it but I didn't get very far. I'll try and get a little farther each week. When I reach the top of that, I'll know it's time to try an assault on the hill on Lopez Canyon. Anyway, after failing that I went hard up Balboa and did quite well. Made me tired for the rest of the day, though.

Later on Saturday I was reading and a bit about fueling up more often on long rides caught my eye. On Sunday I decided to down a gel every 45 minutes instead of every hour and even have one just before the ride, like I have seen recommended for race day. I was feeling pretty tired from the day before but ended up with my second fastest time on that route--and that's with doing one-legged drills. What's up with that? I will be keeping a closer eye on this fueling up stuff in the future. What occurred to me was that I have been thinking of fueling up in terms of my usual "endurance" workouts, which were usually runs of 30-60 minutes. When you do that you can get away with eating nothing during the workout. However, as Alberto Contador's bonk during Paris-Nice demonstrated, riding for two, three, or more hours is not the same thing and I need to put fuel in the tank.

Regarding the one-legged drills, near as I can tell they're both working equally. That was a disappointment...either that or I did them wrong.

Last week's swimming workouts were wonderful. This week I felt a bit more tired but still had decent workouts. I only have two swims a week but I really work myself. I am so tired today. On the bright side, I think my shoulders are getting bigger or maybe it's just fat loss. I am doing 500s as my long swim. I have this mental problem where I don't like distance swimming so even though I could go farther, I am working on the mental side of things by doing these long swims until I can get over my dread. I had actually forgotten about feeling that way in high school. I'm getting better, though. Once I'm done with the 500s I'll probably start breaking the distance into sets of 200 with short rests between just to break up the monotony.

IronBruin Times and Photos

The times for the IronBruin Triathlon have been posted. They weren't broken out by age group so I did some calculations on my own. Plus, age groupers were broken out separately from collegiates so when I write "overall", I mean the age groupers.

My swim was 8:09, which is over a minute slower than it would be without other bodies in the water. However, it was those bodies that slowed me down. I should be able to get my 400 under six minutes for next year so I will be in a faster group that, ostensibly, won't get in my way as much. I got out of the water in 12th place in my age group.

T1 was my time to shine. I had the 13th fastest T1 overall and I can easily go faster. I left T1 in 6th place in my AG. It was all downhill after that (literally).

I did the bike in 59:55, averaging 13.4 mph which, for a course with a steep, long hill like that, is about right. A lot of people didn't have the bike times posted so I don't know how far down I fell in the AG.

T2 was 2:22, which is pretty bad. However, I purposely wasn't trying to blast through it so I'm okay with that. Next tri, though, will be screaming fast. Speed laces and running while putting on the race belt.

The 5k run was 34:53, which was dead last in my age group. I actually anticipated that and am plenty okay with it. In fact, I think that's my fastest 5k. I can only get faster, right? I ended up with a time of 1:46:35 which was 184/258 overall and about 30/36 in my AG. I can live with that.

The race photos have also been posted and I found three of me:



Do you have the courage to zoom around a college campus for almost two hours in spandex? I think I need to wear a shorter swim suit to do something about those tan lines on my legs. And what's up with my arms in the cycling photo?