Long ride #8!

OK, in every respect but one that was an absolutely lovely ride. Weather much more humane this week than last - it's only just up to low 80s, and humidity not terrible, definitely some breeze. I rode out through Haverstraw (definitely desensitized to the terrain there - I still don't like it, but I felt much less physically anxious than last week) and then all the way almost to Bear Mountain - turned around at the bait shop just past the Cove Deli, and stopped at the deli for Gatorade before heading back towards Nyack. Added on a bit extra, somehow missed riding past the Runcible Spoon (I still haven't figured out why I sometimes do pass it and sometimes don't, it is the hazard of having a poor sense of direction!), stopped at a deli in Piermont instead for more water and Gatorade.

I was determined to make a stab at crossing the bridge home, so I rode past the observatory (where shuttle bus drops me off - I've been getting bus home from there too, but it would be more time-effective if I could ride all the way home instead). Rode down the Alpine Hill and along River Road - forgot QUITE how hilly it is, in both directions. Came up the wrong path out of the park (in retrospect I should have paid attention to the big sign with a picture of a bicycle and a red slash through it, but I was worried about whether there would be another exit!) and found myself not, as I'd imagined, just south of the bridge and with a direct route to the bike path, but instead in a very trafficky bit of 9W. Kept my cool very well, really, riding in traffic - I am definitely acclimating. Then the bridge was looming and I couldn't at all figure out how to find the path - got off my bike so that I could investigate.

Had a longish walk to path entrance, but there it was, I got on my bike and all was well until I came to the first bollard. The path is very narrow and it takes three sharp turns to get round - I lost my nerve, got off my bike and then just could not quite persuade myself to get back on it, though honestly it is much quicker on a bike than walking (death grip on bicycle!) - it is a long bridge! Felt very anxious but considerably on the right side of actual panic. Very relieved to get off on the other side, though I was too frazzled to ride properly all the way home - the route takes you through a very congested bit in front of the hospital, too many vehicles with conflicting priorities, so I walked some more before getting to a quiet enough bit of Riverside Drive that I really could ride the rest of the way home.

I was shooting for 5hr and almost made it - it was about 4.75hr when I got off my bike in Fort Lee. Added a little extra time en route home, but didn't want to keep turning Garmin off and on (convinced that of all reasons to have an accident, "I was turning on my Garmin" must be about the worst one!). So the numbers are a little odd, it was stop and go at the end without turning off watch obviously, I rode some bits that didn't get logged, and there were a lot of hills in the main ride.

I am sorry I am not a faster rider, but really I am riding well and I am pretty optimistic that I can make race cutoffs in Wisconsin!

Re: bridge - it was informative, I clearly do need to continue with the shuttle-bus workaround in both directions. I am left more just with a sense of amazement that so many people can tolerate that path! (Quick internet trawl gives me this video by a more fearless rider than I am - the place where I got off comes at 1:38, really it is very stressful! Though less crowded on a weekday than it is there....)

4:53, 62.05 (13mph), avg HR 130, max HR 156

Tri bike!

OK, I love this bicycle. I am admittedly still riding it ridiculously, in upright position half the time and slowly and easily when I am in aero. But it is a beautiful piece of machinery - I can feel how good the components are! - and it is more similar to my road bike than I would have imagined.  I didn't ride as long as originally projected, but only on the sensible grounds that when trying something new and a bit daunting, it is a good idea to stop while it still feels genuinely easy and fun and enjoyable.

Will do my long ride tomorrow on the road bike, then ride Thursday on this one again, doing some hill repeats on River Road (mostly traffic-free).  My road bike has a triple, so this definitely will take a little getting used to for long steep hills.  Also saddle v comfortable in aero but hard under sit bones upright. I have another pair of shorts with better padding there. Will wear those Thursday!

21mi, 1:45 (slow from caution rather than timidity, and much easier effort than my standard ride - this bike will be fast one I get used to it!)

Minor yoga

Final meeting this evening of the very good eight-week mindfulness meditation class I've been taking this summer. Yoga has been integrated throughout, and we did half an hour this evening that was strenuous enough to get logged here. (The sweat was pouring off me, though admittedly it was a somewhat warm room!)

Then I got even more overheated en route home - waited on an infernally hot subway platform through substantive delays. I am hoping to ride tomorrow on 9W, which means getting the shuttle, but I think it will be more sensible to shoot for the 9am than the 8am - otherwise I don't get enough sleep, I need to restore my core temperature to normal before there's any point lying down! If thunderstorms are looming, I may talk myself out of it, but I really would like to get it done....

.5hr yoga

Spin!

OK, that is great, I have really had a modest but lovely day of cycling! Rode my road bike down to Chelsea Piers for Joanna's spin class, which was super as always. It is not as hot, but disgustingly humid - raining on and off. Thunderstorms on deck for tomorrow, but I am hoping late enough in the day that I can do a serious morning ride on 9W.

:45 round trip
:55 spin

Test ride!

Just took the new bike out for a cautious spin along the west side path. It is an AMAZING bicycle! It will take a little bit of getting used to, but we set it up in a fairly conservative position for now, sort of halfway between road bike setup and proper tri/aero positioning - more psychologically challenging than practically not to be able to have hands resting on the brakes, as really once you're going quickly slamming on brakes would almost always be counterproductive....

:45 test ride!

Run!

Had a very nice birthday morning run with S. The weather has returned to more normal summer pitch - still not lovely, it's 80 and humid/overcast, but MUCH better than it has been all week. We did the Central Park loop, at her easyish and my moderate-hard pace. Wasn't wearing Garmin, took slightly shorter route to park than I sometimes do, so call it 7.8mi, 1:22.

I wanted to get out for a test ride on the new bike, but have lost momentum - instead am going to shower and then perhaps go back to bed for a short nap!

Training this week somewhat limited by heat, but a fairly solid week regardless. Three runs, three swims, three spins plus a 4:15 long ride, one yoga class and a couple round-trip rides to Chelsea Piers. Total hours for week 7: 16.

(I'm shooting for this coming week to be HUGE! We will see if I can execute that. I'd like to ride 3hr Tuesday, 5hr Wednesday, 3hr Thursday, like a sort of mini-'camp'....)

Spin/run

SUPER morning at Chelsea Piers! It started inauspiciously in that I fairly dramatically overslept - I had initially set alarm for 7, with intention to do a couple hours of work before going to the gym, but I was awake for a bit around 4 and was really so shatteringly tired yesterday that I decided to turn off the alarm and set one for a more realistic 8:15 instead. However resetting alarms when half-asleep is always a dangerous business - I woke up of my own accord and found it was 9:15, indeed almost more like 9:20! However it was certainly for the best, it's the first day all week that I actually felt reasonably well-rested when I got up.

Just about made it in time for 10am spin (I was a couple minutes late, but not horribly so), we did a series of climbs and then a speed workout along lines similar to others we've done recently - this is an amazing set, 5 x 2min in not-easy gear at 100rpm, 105, 110, 105, 100, then 1min at 110 and 1min at 115. True "red zone" heartrate at the end of that (5b in the Friel system, albeit only briefly in conclusion)!

I'm not keen on the current 11am spin class (the teacher is nice, but it's not suited to endurance training), so I indulged myself and instead went to the run intervals class. Unfortunately that teacher had also overslept! (I think it's the heat, it's messing everyone up.) So we all ran for a while on our own on the track (air-conditioned! I must do more of my summer running there...), then had an excellent substitute who got us started on a conditioning routine that involved running 400s at 70-80% and then doing three minutes of ab work on mats in between - the 'real' teacher then got there and finished things off. I really love this kind of class - I have been denying it to myself as the double spin is more to the point, but I was glad to indulge myself today.

After refueling and showering, I then spent the afternoon at the BIKE STORE getting fitted on my new bike - which I am going to take out for a short spin tomorrow morning, weather permitting. I am extremely excited about it!

:50 spin
1hr run/conditioning (c. 3.5mi.)

Spin!

Good midday spin class, and I also had a productive day of work (one more pass through style manuscript, to try and reduce excessive length of some of the quotations!) in high-quality air-conditioning at Chelsea Piers. Rode my bike home just now through such heat that I am soaked to the skin with sweat - I am going to have to take another shower once I cool down....

1hr spin

Swim/yoga

Met up with new friend S for a swim session. She is a strong runner and cyclist who wants to get her swim up to speed.

Then J's gentle yoga, v beneficial.  Now I slightly need to go back to sleep - alas, not an option!

C. 1000 drills

1hr yoga

Swim!

I have an irrational and aggrieved sense that the world is conspiring to overheat me! (Actually I feel better now I ate something and drank some water.) Getting to swim workout practically killed me with heat - it was bliss bliss bliss to get in the cool cool water, and I quite enjoyed the workout (low yardage, though). But getting home killed me with heat AGAIN - I just missed a train, and then it turned out after a long hot platform wait and one stop that all trains were being held/stopped - I walked home from 125th St. By this time it was almost an hour since I'd stopped swimming and I was starvationally underfueled and underhydrated.

Can't reproduce details of set, but 2 main bits were 1650 total (lots of 50s of kick and stroke at high intensities with lots of rest, though I was unfortunately at the back of the lane and a faster stroker than those ahead of me - it was fine, though, I didn't need a sprint workout). Maybe 600 warmup before that, call it 2250 yards total.

Defeated by heat!

That was frustrating. I thought that if I kept a really slow pace, I'd be OK for easy 2 hours (c. 10mi.), but it was a bit of a disaster! I'm not sure if I just subjectively misremember - it is also possible that the large number of trees that have come down in last couple years of storms has made a difference - but the Central Park loop seemed much, much less shady than I thought it would be. I was doing a mix of walk-run, but I felt increasingly dangerously overheated (it's 94F, not too humid & not bad in shade but brutal in sun). Back of neck in particular just seemed overwhelmingly hot. I stopped when I reached the north end of the park and decided I'd turn off my watch, walk up the (hot, steepish) street back to 'my' more shady bit of Riverside Park and finish there. But the walk didn't make me feel as much better as I thought it would - I bought and drank a Gatorade, but by now my neck felt clammy and I was even a little bit cold, so it seemed clear that I had better just come home and recalibrate! Not quite lightheaded, but pre-woozy, and definitely having to concentrate to hold a straight line!

I can do a two-hour run indoors on the track at Chelsea Piers after 10am Saturday spin class - I had wanted to go to the 11am run intervals, I will either do that and an additional hour or just run steady for the entire 2. Arghhhh, this week and next week are my big training weeks, this extreme heat is frustrating....

1:11, 6.21mi., walk/run (11:26/mi.)

Postscript

(I didn't run yesterday evening after all - my eyes and nose and sinuses were just streaming with pool-chemical irritation, and I felt flattened with heat and fatigue - no point doing it if the body isn't going to absorb it.)

Week 7 long ride

That was a tough one - it came in a little short, but I was DONE, I didn't have it in me to do one more over-shoot and return! It is 95 degrees, not particularly humid but the sheer heat is intense! Gosh, glad to be done with that - it will go better for me in the two long rides I have scheduled for upcoming Wednesdays if it is not quite so hot. First couple hours lovely (and I finally got the exact route right - I have been wondering why this highwayish stretch and bridge seemed so unfamiliar, I now realize it's because there's a detour that is the proper way that Lauren and I used to take!). After that it was a slog. I rode past Haverstraw - I've been avoiding it because there's a junction my reptile brain really isn't happy about on the way back, but I dimly recalled that I like the terrain on the other side of that, and it was indeed very nice - there's a marina and the roads are ridiculously quiet.

My Garmin battery died early on, and though I now have a functioning bike computer (yes!), I didn't look at the starting mileage until after the other device went down, so distance is approximate. Hot, hilly - I came back a slightly wrong way, parallel to what I really wanted - it took me into Bergen County - then I followed signs back to Alpine and 9W, but it was the HOTTEST and STEEPEST long hill imaginable - so I did a loop rather than strictly an out-and-back. I suppose I was at the 3:45 mark when I came within sight of Lamont - rode back out north on 9W, but when I came to the turnoff, I just didn't have the heart to take it, I turned around even though I knew I'd come in short!

Notionally I have a second three-hour ride in the week, but I've decided I want to do them outside rather than indoors (the current Saturday 11am spin class isn't suited to endurance training purposes), and I think this week I'm just going to have to let it go. Heat is too much and I need to do a long run tomorrow morning rather than ride on 9W again - I've been rightly emphasizing cycling over running, but that can be taken too far. Hopefully next week will really be a primo perfect training week? (Just saying that threatens to jinx it....)

4:15, c. 58mi, c. 13.7mph (will try and get more accurate pace for next couple)

Swim!

I meant to do my long run this morning and go to masters swim in the evening, but I couldn't fall asleep till late, and it was clearly the case that I needed to sleep as much as I could. It wasn't super-late when I got up, but I didn't get out the door expeditiously, and heat persuaded me that I should switch up the plan and instead swim the midday workout at Chelsea Piers and run in the evening. I think that was the right call - nice to get in a little bit of time on bike, it's a good plain workout and running at dusk/dark seems wiser when the weather is so extreme.

Not sure this is exactly right, but workout along these lines:

600 warmup as 300 pull, 200 swim, 100 kick

6 x 50 descend in 3s

1 x 300 pull (pace/steady)
2 x 150 build by 50
3 x 100 descend
6 x 50 strong on 1:10

200 triathlon practice - 50 moderate, 50 hard & trying to overtake leaders

100 easy

2400 yards total

NB I heard something fall off my bike in Sunday's race, but it is neither safe nor sensible to stop and attempt to retrieve - it was indeed my frame pump! Hmmmm, better replace that....

Recovery spin!

You know you are training for a really long race when your recovery ride is almost two hours! Rode bike down to Chelsea Piers and did an easy spin at Joanna's class (capped effort at top of zone 2). Must rush to be showered, dressed and fed in time for a series of meetings that start at 3....

:45 round-trip Chelsea Piers
:55 spin