Saturday, a few of us doing Chesapeakeman decided to do a 70.3 locally to get a good workout in, and see how our fitness was. The course was a 1.2 mile pool swim, 56 mile bike (tough) and a two lap 13.1 mile run. We were basing T2/run out of my house, so we had everything setup for transitions, water, food, etc.
We got to the pool and it was packed, but the masters group let us take a lane. We took off and I felt well. My tri shorts were a little loose, so pushing off the wall was tough. From 1300 yards to 1700 yards I took it a little easy, but came in just over 32 minutes. Joe came in a 50 behind me and Angela was a 100 back.
I waited for them and then we all changed and took off for the bike. The route was hilly for 13 miles, then a rolling 30 mile out/back section and a repeat of the 13 mile hills. I wanted to hold 200 watts, but realized my gearing wasn't gonna let me hit my watts downhill. I focused on keeping my watts down on the uphills and quickly found out I was going to be in a better situation for the ride. My pace out on the first 13 mile section was about .5-.7 miles slower, but I felt great.
The 30 mile loop felt perfect. I was able to keep my target watts most of the time, focused on nutrition and feeling good. I averaged 20.5 mph with no aero gear/slow setup. I did this ride last year and hit the turn back home (13 miles to go) and felt horrible. This year was different, I knew I could keep it going. I was at a 19.9 average and felt I was at my 3/4 IM pace...not as hard as my half, but not as easy as a full.
The last 13 miles are tough coming back, but I made it. My tri shorts were chaffing bad, so I just wanted to get out. The sun was coming out and it was getting hotter, and I hit about every light possible.
Hit the house and changed into running gear. I was feeling good when I started the run, but hit about every light in the city losing a good minute. I felt like I was at 80%, but the heat was getting to me. I hit the 3.25 turn around just over 23 minutes and was a little concerned I was going too hard. By now, I was starting to overheat and was pouring all the water I had over me. The way back, I did a run/walk and came in at 50 minutes for the first lap. At that point, I decided to go hit the shower and cool off instead.
Joe and Angela finished the run and called it a day. I felt great and put my compression gear on.
Sunday, my dad and I did the covered bridge metric century ride. I wanted to take it easy, but since I was feeling good threw in some hard efforts. I took some pulls, attacked some hills, and had to do a chase for 1 minute to catch people who turned off (500+ watts :) ).
Yesterday I was coming down with something, but it feels like it was gone. Starting to catch up on my sleep and hoping to get back into 2 a day workouts for the last push. Feeling good about the race, just hoping that the weather cooperates.
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