On Saturday I am joining my nuun/feedthemachine.com teammate Cyril Jay Rayon for an epic ride in the San Gabriel mountains. We will start at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and climb up to Wrightwood, which unfortunately is about 66 miles away. All in all, the ride should be around 135 miles long, with over 13,000 feet of climbing. With 7 weeks until Ironman Canada, this will be one of my longest rides of the year. These are the types of rides that separate the men from the boys. Most people training for Ironman triathlons will do several rides in the 100-120 mile range, but few will go over 130, and even fewer will do those miles at a steady pace in the mountains, climbing around 2.5 vertical miles.
Cyril and I have logged hundreds of hours together over the past couple winters, mostly in the Santa Monica mountains. While training for adventure races we typically would knock out 5-7 hour rides with 20 mile brick runs in the mountains. That makes Ironman training much more palatable and exciting. It's all relative!
We are both peaking for our "A" races. Cyril is getting ready for Primal Quest, where he hopes to improve on last year's 4th place finish. Cyril recently won the 24 Hours of Laguna Seca mountain bike race, setting a new record. It was his 2nd mountain bike race in about 6 years. A month prior he did the 24 Hours of Hurkey Creek, but crashed badly and finished 2nd with his injury. Nice!
If I am motivated and lucid enough I will get off the bike and knock out my standard transition run before making the hour-long drive home to Huntington Beach. Rides like this take all day, over 7 hours ride time, so I will barely make it home before dinner.
Sunday's Torture du Jour is a 20 mile run at MAF Pace, which I believe is around 6:49/mile right now. In the 2 weeks post-Ironman, it is difficult to determine your true aerobic pace, as you are carrying fatigue that artificially lowers your heart rate. So while I may think I have a "jump in fitness" while running 6:30 pace at a heart rate of 149, it is more likely that I am not recovered yet.
After the long run I plan on a long Ocean Swim near San Clemente with HotWheels. If I am still alive we will do an easy spin together after the swim. Easy as in EASY!
All systems are go for a fast race at Ironman Canada.
I picked up some great information today on a Webinar held by Gordo Byrn/Endurance Corner (www.endurancecorner.com) Today's topic was Mental Conditioning for Ironman triathlon. I will share what I learned in my next post!
Stay Moist,
SC
Team nuun-feedthemachine.com
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