Day 5- Wind & the bike course

Bike Setup




View of the lake @ 7am- the lake is larger than Singapore

Short message for the day.


Had a swim this morning at 7am in the lake. There was a mini competition for a 1km or a 3.8km (race distance). I signed up for the full distance, but at the last minute Aquasphere had wetsuits to demo. As I don't have a suit at the moment, and may be needing one for race day, I tried one on. The swim went well, I drafted off a guy for the first 700 and then passed him to win the non-pro event. Anwyas, I did well enough in the race this morning that I have informally been offered a sponsorship for a wetsuit. Great news! The only problem is that with my barreled chest I can't seem to find a suit that they make that fits well. I'll check in with the race director tomorrow to see if a wetsuit is actually mandatory. I can't see why it would be mandatory, the water is 22 degrees. Or maybe BlueSeventy makes a suit I can make work.


After the swim, waiting to win some sweet swag







After the race I waited until the awards- once again this week I was empty handed; was 1 number off from getting the free wheel bag. Marcus and I got our gear together and set off on the bike to see what the course is like in the early morning.





We started out fairly easy with a few fast 60-90 second speed work stuff thrown in to keep fresh. Despite the poor road conditions- virtually no shoulder, slightly aggressive drivers, and poor pavement, I felt quite fast and the most comfortable on the bike that I've been this year. I rode just under 60km; the race involves a 2 lap, 45km loops. We rode the first 30km of the ride and turned back.

The bike course- rode the first 30 km & from 60-90km on here today

Training data from todays ride. No powertap with me, so I'm relying on RPE & HR during the race.

I've been training with TrainingPeaks, and using Joe Friel's work this season. A lot of his work talks about the importance of comparing multiple variables to maximize effectiveness of training and results. My PowerTap is not here with me, so will be training without power over the race, so rely on RPE, and heart rate for the bike. Because of cardiac drift, HR will mean very little to me on the run.
That being said, in the first 4 hours of the race I can use the results from my most recent VO2 max test to establish HR zones. For those interested, these are given in a 5 zone friel format on a previous post.


Today's data showed some me a few things. 1. This race, if there's no wind could be very fast! Today I was holding 35km/hr below my aerobic threshold (150 bpm) on the flats. 2. These months of training on the bike have paid off as there wasn't a significant increase (+166--> lactate threshold) in my HR on the inclines. 3. I hope to be off the bike by 1pm- on most days the head winds start picking up around this time. This means more energy expended and less speed.

As has been the case with all my days here it's been a great one! Have a few more short practices this week, lots of rest, and maybe a few more adventures, then I'm off for a great day (and then back to a mountain of school work).


Cheers,
Pw.