big weekend! (big ride/race report)

I haven't blogged at all this weekend because I wanted to wait and do a recap once this weekend was over. This was probably my biggest training weekend so far this year. On Saturday I had a 4 hour ride with the last 90 minutes at tempo pace, with a 30 min T-run at 7:45 pace afterwards. Sunday I had the Flower City Challenge Inaugural 1/2 Marathon. I was to run this as a training run to practice pacing and nutrition. More on this later.

Friday evening I did a breakfast-for-dinner carbo load at Jines. I ate 2 chocolate chip pancakes (I can only eat pancakes if they have choc. chips in them!), 1 egg, hash browns, and 2 slices of toast. Yummmm.

Saturday morning I had a protein shake 2 hours before my ride and some shot blocks 1 hour before. I met Ken and Kim in Victor at 11. We rode through Bristol, around Canandaigua Lake and then back to Victor. It was the perfect weather - 70 degrees. I wore shorts, a jersey and armwarmers. Pulled the armwarmers off maybe halfway through. I ate shot blocks every 45 mins and drank Powerbar Endurance throughout my ride. Kim gave me some salt tabs to try and a mini Snickers bar. I'm going to start riding with both of these things. I also am going to experiment with what I'm drinking as I still think I'm not taking in enough calories. Let me tell you, I think I need to pick it up on my training rides. Kim toasted me and I usually feel pretty confident on the bike. I think I'm doing my E-rides too slowly. This is the great thing about group rides- they motivate you to HTFU! I also hit my tempo pace for the first time ever (on the bike) and got in a good hour at tempo effort. Then we hit Victor (arriving 30 mins ahead of schedule) and that's when I started to unravel. I think it was a combo of losing "the zone" on the bike, and having to go past my car which is where I thought I'd be stopping, and probably not having enough calories. I need to figure out how to tough it through this because I need to be able to ride strongly past the 3.5 hour mark! Lake Placid is only 3 months away so that's like 10 or so long rides left for me to figure this out on!!!!! Did about 70 miles at 17.2 average mph or so. Then I was a mess on the run. My legs were dead and I only pulled an 8:15 pace. Left me feeling discouraged after what had started out as such a good ride. It was sooo good to ride with people.. even if we were spread out at times due to Ken's and my tempo and our slightly differing paces. I'm hoping to make riding with teammates a regular thing on Sundays! So things I learned: need to put in a little more effort on Zone 2 rides, need to eat more on the bike, need to be more confident towards the end of the ride so I can finish strongly.

I ate pasta for dinner and relaxed on the couch (with the cat of course) with my legs up!

I got up at 5:15 this morning, ate a protein shake and some toast for breakfast. Had some shot blocks at 6:30. I picked up Andy and we drove over to the War Memorial. Race started at 7:30. I wore shorts, short sleeved shirt, armwarmers, and a visor. I was feeling pretty sluggish so I did absolutely no warmup. I had a gel at the start. I was instructed to go out at 8:20 pace and then maintain an average pace of 8:05 - 8:35 throughout the race. I went out in about 8:00 (opps). I was feeling pretty crappy for the first 5 or so miles - my legs were super tired. Good thing I had gotten the idea of a PR out of my mind when I saw my race plan because even if I was told to go race my ass off, it wouldn't have happened today. I saw Mary M. on the course a few times and she is an awesome cheerer! I drank a few sips of Gatorade at every aid station. Jason W. caught me on Park Ave. and we ran together til the cemetary. I took some of a gel here but then at that point I had to go to the bathroom (of course) so I picked it up to try to get to a porta-potty. Had to run through the entire cemetary before finding one at like mile 9. In and out in a minute or so. Then I tried to make up some time. Caught back up with Jason and finished feeling pretty good. I dropped my 2nd gel after only having a little bit of it. I really need to switch to shot blocks on the run - it might make me do better at eating. This was my main goal for the race and I did not execute that very well. My chip time was 1:50 but my Garmin says 1:48:something. I think overall pace was 8:14. Other than the first mile I think my pace was pretty good. I started a little too fast which is easy to do. The race was well organized and I loved running through the cemetary! I wish I could have enjoyed it more instead of worrying about a porta-potty! Running with Jason was nice but I think we both slowed down a little, but there were hills when I was running with him so it could have been that (up Goodman and then in the cemetary). It was a nice distraction from my achy legs! I got a nice finisher's medal and a plastic beer cup thing. I am all for supporting the city of Rochester!

So all in all..

Nutrition: I sucked. I HATE gels. I need to stop trying to force myself to eat them and switch to something that I know I will eat. I did that on the bike and maybe I will have to do it on the run as well. Gels are convenient but they are horrible.

GI Issues: This also wasn't good. I couldn't go before the race and that was my problem. If I could have gone I would have been fine for the race. I was out of applesauce which is totally my fault. I will try the applesauce thing next time.

Pacing: OK, but could have been better if I had gone out more slowly.