Finally back below one hour!

Afer spending a few hours at work today, I sneaked off to Tyler State Park to get in a quick ride.   This was my 6th time to ride out there this month and my 6th time to ride out there, since March 2008?!?!?!  Wow!  Before the two rides in March of '08, the only other time I rode out there was September of 2007.  My times were much worse.  

So anyway, I finally rode loops A, B, C and D in less than an hour!  I turned 59:15.  I know that's not as fast as some, but it's a milestone in my mountain bike training (Remember I promised to get faster and stronger on the bike, after our Big Chill Adventure Race???).  

I didn't feel all that energetic today and my legs felt a little dead, but I could tell that I still had some pretty good strength left.  I did work out with weights and run this morning, so I'm sure that had a little to do with feeling a little drained.

I'm very excited about not having a significant injury going into this year!  My back injury in February 2007 REALLY slammed me.  Knock on wood, I feel GREAT!

The duathlon is in two days, so my plan is to work out pretty hard tomorrow, take off Friday, while setting up the course and then have a good dinner.  Hopefully, I can have a good, strong race on Saturday.  I plan to push myself pretty hard.  GOTTA MAKE IT HURT!

Mock Duathlon Training

Katrina, Tom, Lesley and Susan met at TSP today to do some duathlon training, since the race is coming in two weeks.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so I'm glad we did it.

My first 2.5 mile trail run took 21:10, which was okay for me, but not fast enough to win :)

I felt pretty good on the run and had a relatively fast TA to the Bike.  My total 9.7 mile mountain bike ride took 1:04:05 with the transition time.  This was my third day in a row to mountain bike at TSP.  My legs were a little tired, but overall, I felt pretty good. 

On a side note, I converted my tires to Stan's No Tubes yesterday.  I have to say, I'm a fan! I had about 30 psi in my tires on the ride and it was pretty smooth.  I think it made me a little faster too, because, even after running 2.5 miles, my actual ride time was 15 seconds faster than yesterday!

On the last run, let's just say, I should not have had a HUGE Mexican lunch yesterday.  My stomach was giving me fits, so I walked a few times to "maintain".  My last 2.5 mile trail run took 26:02, including my transition from the bike.

This was a good training day for me. I have run in the Heartbreak Duathlon for the past two years and this was my fastest time, by over two minutes.  

2007 Heartbreak Duathlon Results My time, 01:53:26

2008 Heartbreak Duathlon Results My time, 2:09:51

Today's time, 1:51:17

I hurt my back pretty bad September 2007, which affected my 2007 and 2008 races, so I'm looking forward to racing injury free this year *fingers crossed*.

With that time, 2007 would have gotten me a 4th place age division finish.  In 2008, it would have been good enough for 3rd, in my division.  We'll see what this year brings!

Thanks for reading!

Rodney

Bike Training

We had a good time at Big Chill Adventure Race 2009, but you can read Katrina's and Justin's blogs on the team site for details.  For me, I felt good for the race, except I had NO power in my legs on the mountain bike on the way back from Rocky Hill Ranch.  This could have been due to slight dehydration, but I think the main reason was not enough bike miles in training.

To remedy that, I have committed to put in many more miles, before the next race.  I have also added some tough hillls on my normal route.  Here is the elevation profile for my new route:

You can click on it for the bigger picture.  It actually has similar climbs to those we encountered in Bastrop, with the exception that Bastrop's hills are longer, steady climbs.

I spoke with a friend of mine yesterday (Tom E.) and he was just coming back from running and biking at Tyler State Park.  I plan to train with him next weekend at the park, so that should help my mountain biking legs too :)