Apparently the song "Bicycle Race" by Queen has taken up residence in my head this week.
This past weekend I had another triathlon, but this time it was just a sprint. The swim and the bike were pretty short followed by a nice 5K run. The race was fast and fun. This week I'm finally getting back to my 12+ hours of training per week after two back to back race weeks. Training is always lighter on race weeks. This week my training consists of four hours of swimming, two hours of running, four and half hours of biking, and two hours of strength training. I must say, it feels good to be back to a full training schedule.
After each race I study my results and compare them to the other racers as well as my previous results. It helps me to see where my strengths and weaknesses are. I just learned to swim a few months ago, so I was surprised to see that it tends to be my strength. Since I've been cycling for 3 years my bike should be stronger than it is. I would like to see 18-19+ mph average on my bike. My coach suggested that I might be too relaxed on the bike when I race. I do tend to enjoy that part of the race the most. I'm always looking out for people I know so I can cheer them on, admiring the bikes of the other competitors, and thinking about how much fun I'm having. Perhaps deep down I don't want the fun to end so I don't go as fast as I can. Perhaps not!!
This week I did interval training and hill work on the bike. I was happy to see these on the training schedule this week, even though I wasn't looking forward to doing them. These types of workouts are great for building strength, which I need, so bring them on!
I did the interval training at White Rock Lake. I usually make the trip down there if I have to ride alone, and I'll only go in the morning during the week to avoid the crowds. This week I brought my new tri bike out there. I learned two important lessons that day. #1 - Don't do interval training in your aero bars on your tri bike at White Rock Lake. #2 - If you have new equipment, make sure it's working BEFORE heading out for a training session. WRL is a popular place for runners and cyclist. I warmed on the portion of the trail I would be sharing with runners, and saved the actual intervals for a stretch of road on the west side of the lake. What I didn't think about was how curvy this road it. I think interval training would work better on a straight road next time. I did the best I could, and make a mental note to find another place for this type of workout. When I bought my new bike last week I had a new computer installed that measures cadence since some of my workouts, like intervals, requires me maintain a certain cadence for a given period of time. I hadn't tested this feature before hand, so I didn't know that it wasn't working. I should have checked this out earlier. Lessons learned.
Yesterday morning I got up early and met a fellow triathlete, Sharon, for some good ol' hill repeats on Windhaven Hill. Sharon and I have the same coach, and we just happened to have the same workout. We had 12 hill repeats that were broken up into six sets of two. This type of workout can be a beat down, but having someone doing it with helps. I did notice improvements on this hill workout vs the last one. For a long time I viewed this hill as my enemy, but I am determined to make it my friend. We're getting along a little better than we used to, but our relationship still needs work. To be honest, though, this isn't the hill I'm really interested in having a good relationship with. If I can get Windhaven to quit kicking my butt, then maybe, just maybe, the hills of Austin will have mercy on this 70.3 first timer in October.
"This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else." -Lance Armstrong
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