Another one for the book

Did a race sim ride yesterday.  4 hours on the bike + 1 hour run.  The bike was spectacular, windy, very windy.  Ended up with 83.8 miles in 4 hours. – 20.9 average – my fastest training ride ever.  I rode it similar to how I plan to ride in Kona.  135 soft HR cap, 145 hard HR cap.  I only exceeded 145 once – was going up a long moderate incline hill into the wind, and I looked down and saw 150.  I backed off immediately and all was good.

The run afterwards went really well.  Started out running really, really strong – the first four miles were sub 7 average – way to fast actually.  Not sure of the exact distance, but right around 8 miles.  Last couple miles were ~7:40 – a good pace, but would have rather done 7:15s straight across.  Gonna have to watch those first few miles in Kona.  I also had a little bit of stomach issues on the run – took in to many gels in to short a time.  It was the strategy I’ve used in the past with success, but today it gummed me up pretty bad.  Not sure how to address that as I know the key to my success on the run is equal parts bike pacing and keeping the calories coming in.  Overall I was pretty happy to cover just over 8 miles in 60 minutes, including a bathroom break.

The coming week is pretty mild – an hour run on Tuesday, the usual 3k-4k SCM swims, and then some easy biking and running.  Key workouts this week are a tough 90 minute + 30 minute brick on Wednesday, with a 2 hour + 30 minute brick on Saturday.  After that it’s stay loose and then race like a bat out of hell on October 13th.  Kick ass and take names.

I’m actually starting to feel just a little prepared – anything can and will happen during the race, but my key sessions this past week have been a great mental and (hopefully) physical boost.