This past week was a pretty good one, with some serious miles put in. Looking back, there was a 3km running time trial, 2 big sessions in the pool and over 500km's on the bike. The big challenge was the 200km bike ride Saturday which was I was using as a measuring tool..Do well on the ride, another tick....have a bad ride, and I wouldn't be looking forward to the bike/run at Ironman.
Well, the ride was a one way ride out to Mooloolaba from Brisbane, going through the mountains. 3 main climbs and a number of rollers. My focus was to ride it at a consistent pace and to ensure my nutrition was a main focus. So I took:
8 Gels
2 Nutella sandwiches (on white bread without crusts)
2 breakfast bars
1 rice crispy bar
a bag of snakes (candies)
6 bottles of sports drink
Well I ate it all...yes I'm a pig and proud of it.
I started off well and kept a constant pace. When I got to mount Mee, I kept a steady pace and made it up feeling good. Then it was a constant roll through to Peachester where I went up the next hill with the same effort. Got to the top, all good...
Now the big hill... a 4km climb of a 10% grade. I could really feel it and just kept the legs turning over...The worst part was a good 1.6km section straight up. You could see the long hill and it was relentless. Everytime you looked up, there it was, still in your face. Head down, keep pedaling. Everytime I looked up, it's was still there. Consitency was the name of the game. It was hurting but I kept going. When I got to the top, I'd done it, now a quick turn in to the aid stop and I was off again. My only hope was I hadn't pushed to hard going up the hill. As I kept going, Mooloolaba was getting closer. The top of the range was fun with a 10% and a 12% grade hill to tackle which I did. Into Mapelton and a sharp down hill to get us closer to the finish. Once I was down the hill, I knew I'd be okay going into the home stretch. So much so, I started singing. Don't worry, I won't start a singing career, but I was very happy to have a solid ride which would give me more ammunition for IMA.
For shits and giggles, here's the elevation profile.
Brisbane to Mooloolaba ride
Well here's the month so far:
| Mileage Totals: | |
| Cycling: 545 km | |
| Running: 32 km | |
| Pilates: 0 m | |
| Swimming: 6 km | |
| Time Totals: | |
| Cycling: 20:50 | |
| Running: 3:24 | |
| Pilates: 0:30 | |
| Swimming: 3:15 | |
I well deserve "morning off" on Monday and back at it again.
All the above made me forget about my dummy spit on Thursday morning which was my long hilly run in Mnt Coot-tha. That was no fun at all. About half way through, I had nothing left. Everytime I tried to call on my legs to get me up the hills, there was nothing there. This did not go well and there was a few choice words said and a couple of gestures to the hill and I made it through. The rest of the day was not good but did end up on a good note, with a solid swim. Enough so, it picked me up for the weekend.
That's about it for now, hopefully the IMA channel will have a few more posts this week so check back from time to time.
Cheers
Richard
1 comment:
Richard, I'm truly inspired by what you've put in over the last year - and you are almost there - what an accomplishment. Keep up the good work, I know you are going to rock IMA.
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