Monday, June 26, 2006

Bricks, and, Ummmm, Stuff

It was a good weekend around the Fox Cities. The weather was nice, with moderate temperatures. The High Cliff Triathlon (sprint and half-IM) had beautiful conditions, with low winds, around 75F as the high, and overcast skies. If the lake was calm, the racers should have had a great day.

Saturday morning, it was an early start to training. Mrs. Pol needed to had plans to leave at 8:30, and I had a 30 mile bike, 7 mile run brick scheduled. So, I was out the door around 6 a.m. The ride was beautiful, except for the brutal hill about the mid-way point. I am on good speaking terms with the course planner, so I told myself off about the route. Of course, the good thing about an out-and-back course is that a tough uphill on the way out means a great downhill on the way home. I maintained a good pace, doing the 30 miles in just over 90 minutes. I had to break my committment to do all small ring when I went down the big hill, but kept a good spin going the rest of the trip.

The run following the bike went very well. I actually completed the 7 mile route two minutes faster than Wednesday, when I ran it without the 30 mile bike ride as a precursor. All I have to do now is complete the same thing with a 3/4 mile swim in front of it, and I'm ready for the Olympic triathlon. Oh yeah, the swim has to be in open water.

Sunday was a valuable lesson. The old addage is "train how you race." Well, apparently I won't be doing any racing shortly after dining on pizza and cantelope. Let's just say that I'm thankful new apartments are being constructed along my route (can you say Port-o-Let salvation). The near GI disaster was averted, but my second half pace was affected. Even so, I completed 12.1 miles in 1hr 45m, a pace with which I'm satisfied. And I learned that pizza and cantelope, though good for carbs, is an explosive mixture that should be saved for rest days.

8 comments:

Veeg said...

The TMI things I read on these tri-blogs. . . . ;)

Anonymous said...

Belated kudos for gutting it out at the Trinity Tri. I understood your refusal to DNF.

It doesn't sound like you could be persuaded to return to Waupaca to "redeem" yourself on the Waupaca Area Triathlon course Aug. 19. Sounds like you're wedded to the Oshkosh event.

But if you change your mind, let me know. (I'm on the triathlon board and editor of Silent Sports magazine -- which isn't to say I have any pull or even free entries to offer, but only that I was interested in your story.)

Keep up the training ....

Iron Pol said...

Thanks for the compliment, Joel. And I am a bit wedded to Oshkosh, as in ball-and-chain, spent the money, no backing out because there aren't any refunds wedded.

I stopped by and looked at the website. Nicely done. Online versions of print magazines are awesome. Though I get Runners' World at home, I tend to hit their website, too.

And Veeg, I agonized over how to minimize the traumatic impact of the entry. In my head, it was much more graphic.

Veeg said...

No worries. Compared to TriMama's foot pic, it was positively Disney-esque!

Cliff said...

Oh pizza...my diet has no pizza until after my HIM (July 9th)...

once that race is done...beer + pizza + ice cream + chocolate :D.

Ellie Hamilton said...

Oh, my.... your 12.1-mile time was the same as my 8-mile time yesterday...

Love your music. One of my favorite current country songs.

Stop by my blog... I'm a runner-turned-tri-turned-iron too. But I think your son is the age of my youngest grandchild....

Nancy Toby said...

I'm pretty sure that God inhabits construction site portapotties.

Deb said...

Have the last 2 tunes you've played on my iPod. Good taste! Check out Jennifer Knapp (A Little More). prior to a run is NOT the time to get creative with your fuel! EASY does it! LOL...