Today was the last of the Tuesday Time trial rides. From here on out the rides will be easy. Well, maybe not easy, but they will be at a more reasonable pace. I’m sure I will push harder once and a while during the last few rides but it won’t be for very long. Now it’s all about staying loose and getting to Ironman with no injuries.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98626531
Weight: 162
Went out for my tuesday morning 20 mile time trial this morning. I wasn’t sure what to expect after the long ride and run over the weekend. I did take it easy yesterday and just swam 2.5 miles to give my legs a bit of a rest. I really wanted to make sure that I pushed hard the entire ride, the hills I was going to stand and power over today instead of spinning up and I wanted to focus more on pushing on the downhill and flats. Sometimes I work so hard to get up the hill that I just coast down the other side or I don’t push hard enough on the flats. I kept an eye on my power meter the entire ride and tried to make sure I never went below 200. It was harder to do than I thought it would be. Overall it was my fastest ride of the year, power was a little lower than I wanted. Must have been the extra air in the tires that gave me the higher speeds at the lower power output.
After the 20 mile ride, I did an easy 10 mile ride through town for a cool down.
I tried something different this morning on the bike. I wanted to start out with a hard effort going as fast as I could out and on the way back ride at a more comfortable pace. Well, I accomplished the second part by not the first. I should have been paying more attention to my powers numbers than my speed. My speed on the way to the end of Middleton Rd. was 20.5, which seems good, but really is not that great considering my average watts were 223 and should have been closer to 250. That tells me I need work on pedaling harder on flat or slightly downhill grades.
The ride back felt good, and I was able to relax my hands and upper body in the aero position. It’s surprising how much faster you can go when you are able to relax.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/92751867
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/92751861
Weight: 163.2
Did my 20 mile Time Trial again this morning. Have been looking forward to it since last week. It was much cooler this morning than last Tuesday so I wasn’t sure I was going be as fast as last week. I was more interested in seeing the average watts for the ride. That would tell me if I worked as hard as last week regardless of the weather conditions. Happy to say that I increased the my average Watts by 7 from last week.
Overall I average just over 20 mph at 20.1 for the ride. At the 10 mile point I was right at 20.1 and was able to maintain that for the ride back. I think the first 10 miles of my ride is a little more erratic than the second 10 miles, with more high and low speeds. On the way back I think I maintain a steadier pace with the exception of the Main st. hill. Cadence was good today too, averaged 95 and the felt good. When I keep the Cadence high like that I don’t feel like my legs get tired or heavy.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90768719
Weight: 165
Outside on the roads this morning. The weather is finally starting to cooperate a little bit. I think only two cars passed me over the course of an hour ride. One of the nice things about riding through Boxford. Had an ok ride this morning, I was hoping to go a little faster than I did, but just didn’t have the legs. Maybe the long ride on sunday finally caught up to me. Most likely it was just the large waffle cone of Cherry Vanilla Chip that did me in.
I’ve done this ride plenty of times in the past and used to be able to do it in under an hour, of course that was almost 10 years ago, so being off by a minute or two isn’t too bad. Hopefully I will get there by the end of the summer.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89186691
Weight: 166