Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Midweek Update....

The countdown continues for the Great Floridian. Maybe 15ish days to go. I have been tweaking my road bike and tri bike. I have added larger cassettes and now compact cranks. All this for one measly bike ride. I have only two long rides left to decide on which bike to use. I have read blogs and posts and listened to others about this. A road bike is better for climbing but the tri bike may help your legs and upper body for the run. The best comment was, "ride what you feel comfortable on the most."

Last Sunday I took my road bike to Clermont and rode the bike course. All 112 miles and felt damn good when I was done. I will admit that I did not run but could have if I wanted to. I just sat in the shade and drank some orange Powerade and reflected a little. Well actually reflected a lot.

This ride was all about pace again. And I definitely had to ride how I felt because my speedometer was not working. I was wearing my Garmin and tried to do the math to figure out what speed I was averaging. 112 miles in 6:29 hours. Good I suppose. Now I did stop at my car at the end of laps one and two to refuel and eat something. I still felt that on the third lap I was gearing out on some of the climbs. I am currently having a compact crank put on my tri bike. This will give me a 50/32 and an 11/27. This should be perfect for this course.

I have now moved my long run to Saturday morning so I can start adjusting to race day. I ran 10 on Tuesday at an 8:20 pace. Felt good for that run. Still doing most of my running alone. Just works out that way. I have managed to bring Tiesto with me. Not sure if I will be able to sneak him in on the race though. No DJ's allowed. Silly rules.

This morning I did my open water swim. I used my wetsuit, temp was right on the verge, just to make sure it fit properly. For some reason, it fits better now than it did back in April. I swam 2 miles with Jan and Karin. We joke about how we end up talking for a bit before we swim and then again at the mile point when we turn to go back. It seems our conversations at the half way point have gotten longer. I said pretty soon we will have to pack a lunch. I also asked them that since the GF is a two lap swim, could they show up and let's have a chat just before my second lap. You know, race like you train. All in fun though. I thank them for driving the hour to meet me once a week to swim.

I am starting to feel more and more confident about this race. I am not making any predictions because my only goal is under 17 hours. That will be my PR and I will go from there next time around. And there will be a next time.....

2 comments:

  1. glad you are feeling more confident. the cooler temps are probably helping, i know they are helping me. best of luck.

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  2. good job, Walt! I'll need to figure out that swimming thing sometime.

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