Perfect Fall Training Day!

After a fair to good night's sleep, I headed out to Barrington for my ride. Surprisingly, the weather was PERFECT! When I started out, it was maybe 60 degrees, and then the sun warmed things up just enough. If I had to guess, there was a high in the mid-60s. I felt really strong going out and was ready to take my first solo 50+ miler.

When you train for long distance triathlon, you are usually with fellow teammates for long rides- mostly for safety in unfamiliar territory and also to hold yourself accountable. An obvious plus is that your friends are there along the ride to break up the monotony. A less obvious minus is that you often get grouped by speed. This is great if you are on the fence of the next level up and they pace you (or you draft off them!); however, it's easy to lose sight of the skills you're out there to work on. Long distance riding requires a completely different skill set compared to renting a beach cruiser on the lakefront for a few hours. You train your cadence, speed, HR, shifting, and estimated power if possible. You must even train your nutrition. Sometimes these skills get lost in the shuffle if you're just riding to keep up with the person in front of you. It's an inefficient way to train if you don't ever take a long ride on your own. I learned this today.

I love riding with Lindsey and Mark, but in order to keep their pace sometimes I wind up wildly hammering away, mistiming my shifting and avoiding my aerobars because all I can think about is riding as fast as possible for 3 hours. Today was completely different. I started out strong and wanted to finally finish strong after 50+ miles. Even though I know all the training I did this year should technically allow me to feel confident at this intensity, I never really had the opportunity to say, "YEAH! This was the greatest 56 mile training ride for Ironman 70.3 EVER!!" I was ABOUT to say that on July 6th, and did up until mile 31 when I crashed training on the course in Michigan, but I never got to finish it and know "for sure" that I could ride strong on hills for 56 miles. But I knew I could. It's not that I haven't had good 56 mile rides, I have...But in Chicago on a flat course. Let me just put it this way- up to this point today, I registered for Madison based on my confidence only that I am "that close" to mastering the 56-mile distance with hills. If I could feel confident at that level, then doubling it for a 112-mile ride in Madison would be possible. Gratefully, today was that day. I finally felt like the second half of July 6th came through for me- being able to have a great strong first 30 miles and also having a great strong rest of the ride through the end at 51 miles. I rode steady and strong anticipating 95% of my shifting on the hills. I paid close attention to my cadence the entire ride and felt the benefit of pacing in my muscles. I watched my nutrition and paced with 2 shot blocks at 25, a small Larabar at 30 and plenty of fluids to take me through the 3:25.53. I hadn't even planned the notorious 12% grade climb on Blackhawk Trail for today's ride but I was feeling so good that I added it on a longer loop- twice-without the "kill me now" feeling. I mentally prepared for it and timed not only my cadence but also my shifting much better since I was just worrying about myself.

I learned a lot today. When I woke up and saw the sun instead of rain, I was reminded what a good idea it is to go to bed thinking, "I'm doing this ride tomorrow rain or shine" because then at least I won't toss and turn losing sleep wondering if it's going to rain. I not only woke up pretty rested, I was ecsatic the sun was out! Second, I learned to pace myself on a 56-mile long ride with wind and hills. Paced my cadence, speed, nutrition, HR, and mental endurance. Third, I learned that even though a solo ride is good to check yourself once every few weeks, it's much more fun to be with your teammates!

Below is the revised ride I created thanks to a great training day.