Time For Some Happy Posts!

The last few posts were a bit depressing! Injury, sickness and the darkside. Time to get some positive posts back into our blog. I had a good ride yesterday. This is the last big training ride for me before my half ironman in 2 weeks. I tackled Pilot Mountain from home by myself. Temps started in the low 50's but by the time I finished were in the mid 60's and as you can see from the picture at the top, the mountain was fogged in. Round trip was 60 miles. I made it non-stop from home, not even stopping at the ranger's station just before the climb. The climb, although still difficult, felt the easiest it ever has for me. I never felt completly challenged. The only stop I had was for this quick picture. Didn't even need to refill liquids. After the ride I did a 4 mile run at a pretty good pace for this old man.

The last time I attempted Pilot Mountain I was exhausted afterwards. Strangely, this time I didn't even need a nap. I wish I knew the difference. I don't think my fitness level was much different from the last attempt. The speed was nothing shattering. I averaged exactly 15 mph on the way up and reset my odometer for the return trip. I averaged exactly 18 mph on the way home. Of course the way home includes a nice 3 mile downhill stretch at about 26 mph so it will be skewed, plus it does seem that the trip there is mostly uphill the last 10 miles and therefore downhill the first 10 miles coming home. Anyway I'm happy. Feeling good today and want to ride again, but I'm going to take it easy today and begin my taper to my half ironman over the next 2 weeks. 3 Mountain Madness is just about 6 weeks away and I will be concentrating more on biking after I recovery from the half.

Out for awhile...I am down, feel sorry for me!!!

I have been terribly sick for 12 days and unable to do anything and will not be for another week or so. I have been diagnosed with Bronchitis and pneumonia; are you serious. Went to the Doctor yesterday for I was not getting better. Tried riding one day last week and felt like I had the flu. I told David while we were riding ( you don't understand) and turned around and went home. Don't know my time frame, but I will be starting all over for it will probably be a total of 3 to 4 weeks before I am better. I am tired just typing. I hope I can catch up for the 3 mountain madness. I am really sad by this lack of exercising for it really does release stress and makes you feel better. I can't even drink during this time for one beer makes me feel like I have the flu. This really sucks. When you don't exercise, it is amazing how you think about everything too much. Enjoy your training guys. Drink one for me since I can't even do that, no joke.

The Dark Side of Training

Coming back from an injury can be a wonderful experience. I was so ready to bike and run again after my knee surgery. I am starting to see the dark side of training now. I have been going at it pretty hard for about 6 months. Building up my endurance of biking, running and swimming, but not following a real plan. Sure, I downloaded a plan for a half ironman to follow. But there is no way to follow that plan. There is so much you have to do. If you have a job and a family (and want to keep them) it's next to impossible. So I resort to just doing as much as I can do, when I can do it. However, the plans usually call for 3 hard buildup weeks followed by 1 week to with less stress to let your body recover. When you don't follow a plan, and do all you can do, you tend to not incorporate that down week. When you do that you become an A**hole. That is what I have become. I am pissed off at everything and everybody right now. I have done too much training and need to rest. Fortunatly no physical injuries, just emotional and mental injuries. Rest is the ticket for me for a few days. Half Ironman is in 4 weeks, so I should be just about over the hump. My max weeks have been the last few and maybe one more, then the taper starts.

I did a 45 mile hard bike ride on Thursday followed by a 2000 meter hard swim on Friday, then a 5 mile tempo run (tempo pace to me is almost as hard as I can go - just below race pace) and a 52 mile bike ride including a climb up Sauratown Mountain on Saturday. The run had me winded before I even started the ride. The ride averaged 16 mph on the way out - I still think something was wrong with my bike. I stopped at mile mile 17 to check to see if the tires were flat or the brakes were sticking - but they weren't. I was just worn out before starting. Interestinlgy enough, the climb up was easy. I climbed Sauratown like it was flat - not sure how that happened after being so tired in making it out there. I averaged just under 19 mph on the way back. Not sore at all today, just incredibly tired. Really strange how I was able to actually get better even though I was worn out. I think that is a good thing physically, but again, I need to recover.

So the dark side of training can be physical - inuries that can prohibit you from cointinuing, but they can also be emotional and mental, such as what I am experiencing now. Hopefully this type of injury is shortlived. A little rest and I hope to be good as new. Only my wife can tell for sure. Sorry I'm such an A**hole, honey. And thanks for putting up with me!

4 gap yes not 3

Well,

I managed to do 4 gaps instead of only 3 gaps. I had only ridden once in the last 8 days due to inclement weather so decided to do the gaps. Not smart I know but so what, I have been making some stupid choices lately so why not make another one. After the first gap I felt good and coasted down the other side of the mountain to head to the second gap. Well in a split second decision as I was doing about 40mph I decided that I would not take the turn to do the 3 gap loop but go to the bottom of the seven mile down hill and go right back up. I figured if I were going to do 4, this was the best and really the only way to do it. If I did an extra gap it would add 20 miles and almost twice the altitude of the ride. I did it, I am pleased and feel really good. Maybe taking the week off really helped. Total ride was 50.2 miles and took 3:30 to complete.

I really cool feature that I purchased is an Iphone, what I great computer and will not go into that for I will go forever. I downloaded a program on my phone for $5.99. It gives altitude, speed, avg speed, graphs of my ride, keeps the history of my ride, keeps the map of the ride etc. It does everything a $500 GPS system does but for a fraction of the price. There are few programs like the one I downloaded that are the same price or more that you may be able to download on other smart phones, not sure. I downloaded Pro Cyctastic. Check out the Ap stores, some really cool programs. I am going to love this to see how I do on each ride and compare my progress. Its awesome.

Philip