This morning I did my final hard bike ride before the Whisky Dick triathlon next Sunday. 26.4 miles, including 16.5 miles of hard hill repeats (12 total). This is the third time I've done this ride in as many weeks, and I wish I could say it felt easier. Today, for some reason, it felt pretty frickin' hard! My legs might be a little spent after Friday's run/hike in the mountains and Saturday's hard interval ride...both of which felt great. I'm actually looking forward to an easy 20-miler (or so) on Wednesday, then nothing until the race. Right now, a taper sounds great, but I know I'll be getting antsy a couple of days before the race and second-guessing my preparation & fitness level. Don't most of us do that? Having never raced on a bike before, I have no real time goal. I can't really go by my training times, since this course starts off with a 12-mile uphill section. I guess my goal would be to survive the hill and race the rest. My teammates (David Dick and Arthur Martineau) will be well prepared, so unless I suck the gas pipe, we may have a shot at placing well in the team category. Should be fun.
Oh, one other bit of trivia - I finally hit 40 mph on my bike on this particular training route (downhill, of course). I always try to hit that every time on one particular hill, but before today I could only reach 39.5. So that was kind of cool.
Anyway, after the race, I'll (happily) transition back to running. I'll be training for a September 10k and an October half-marathon. I'm really itching to run again! It'll probably take a week or two to get my running legs back.
Good luck next Sunday
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