Four Weeks to Go/Taper Begins
Yesterday was the end of my hardest training week this season and today marks the beginning of a four week race taper. (Even though my taper officially begins this week, other than a day off today, I’ve still got some tough work ahead of me for the next couple weeks.)
Since the middle of May when I decided not to drop of Lake Placid I have taken exactly one day off (the day before the Harriman race). Over the last five weeks, I’ve worked my way up to my longest and hardest workouts of the season, all of which happened between Wednesday and Saturday last week: Wednesday’s 4,500 yard swim, Thursday’s double run day for a total of around 21.25 miles and Saturday’s hard 109.7 mile bike ride.
Saturday’s ride was a pretty epic one. Since I was scheduled to go so long and since we have a car for the summer, I decided to drive up to Harriman State Park and start my ride from there. I knew that I could really challenge myself with all of the hills in and around the Park. And challenge myself I did. I have no idea how to calculate exactly how much climbing I did, but it felt like I was always either climbing or descending. This will all probably be a lot of gobbly-gook to anyone not familiar with the area, but I started with one counter-clockwise 14 mile loop of the Park, then did a clockwise loop (this is the way the half-ironman goes), then I left the Park to climb up Perkins Drive to the top of Bear Mountain (beautiful views!), then back to and through to Park for a nice 70 mile ride through the Hudson River Valley, through Sloatsburg, Tuxedo and Sterling Lake before turning around and coming back. Beginning about five hours in, I really started questioning both my sanity and my physical ability to stay on the bike. My original goal was 6 hours and as I got close to that I realized that I would be very close to the Ironman race distance of 112 miles. I got back to my car after about 104 miles and my watch told me I’d been riding for 5:40. I turned around and rode part of the Park loop (avoiding the big hill by Lake Welch) and really wanted to hit 112. But I got back to my car at 109 and as much as I wanted to stay on the bike for another 10 minutes and get those last three miles in, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I have never been so happy to be off my damn bike!
I am physically and mentally exhausted, but also feeling strong and excited and ready to be ready for Lake Placid.
Bike – June 21
Distance: 109.7 (longest of season)
Time: 6:03
Average heart rate: 124
Course: Harriman State Park, Bear Mountain, around the Hudson River Valley
Conditions: Sunny, started in mid-60’s, ended up in mid-80’s
Indoor bike – June 22
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 117
Run – June 22
Distance: 5.25 miles
Time: 45 minutes
Average heart rate: 132
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: Some sun, humid, mid-70’s