4/9 & 4/10 -- Another Weekend Clash of the Powers

This weekend was another one of heavy training with Hendrik de Heer, aka THE BEASTMAN. Also, The Lordman, since his last name DOES mean Lord. It was destined to be another weekend where heads would be butted and clashes of competitiveness in all 3 sports would take place frequently. Who would emerge on top?

We joined forces for an easy 10mi on Capital Crescent. About halfway in though, Dirk's stomach yearned to do it's own thing, so the run required a couple pit stops. Still, 10mi is 10mi and it felt pretty decent, legs felt pretty good, but I had a bag of popcorn for lunch so they weren't exactly ready to fight. I followed the run with an easy hour spin on the trainer, 102-109 rpm, L1/recovery power. Just to, you know, shake out that junk. I had to be fresh and ready to end a soul or two for the next day which laid in wait.

We reunited Sunday morning for masters swim at Prep. Mark divided the group into 2 -- those tapering for Zones, and those not, which included myself, Dirk and a lady who once swam 12 miles if I heard correctly. I'm actually racing at Zones, the 1000, but it's not as much a priority to me as it is to the swimmers in our masters groups. The workout today included a main set of 20x50 (10 on :50, 10 on :45) followed by a wicked 4x500 descend. That went pretty well, and I averaged 6:20 for the 4x500s, a 1:16/100y average. That seems to bode well for both Zones and triathlon season. I would LOVE to average 1:15-1:16/100y in a long distance swim. I didn't descend very well this workout, but I'm pleased with the effort and times.

After practice we rocketed to Centennial Park for a Columbia course ride/run. There, to my utter fear/terror/horror, was MICHELLE, who was waiting patiently for our arrival. I wasn't surprised to see her as this was the original plan, but the sight of her always causes me to shiver in trepidation, as she could end my life at any moment in time, and she knows it. Ronald McDonald McGrath, some of his Baltimore triathlon/running pals were there too. Lindsey and SNOW showed up soon after as well. It was around this time that we discovered that DIRK forgot his front wheel... when we were stuffing his bicycle into my car we both failed to notice that the front wheel had not gone in with it. OOPS. Fortunately he was able to borrow a wheel from a local bike shop, so the ride went on as planned.

The course ride was very solid. I did 8 miles out and back (to the homewood circle) while waiting for Hendrik and when we reunited, we started the course ride in earnest. We pounded the hills both up and down. I was told by Todd to elevate the effort on the hills, and so I was pushing close to 400w on some of the shorter ones. We finished the 41k in 1:10 or so, which is barely slower than what I raced on the course on race day last year! I think this is pretty cool. And this was with several stops or slowdowns. Added on another 10 miles to get to 41mi total on the ride. Averaged around 227w for the ride, which is pretty strong, maybe my highest ever for a 2 hour ride.

The run afterward wasn't so hot. Actually it was hot. I was hot, and not in a good way. 12min into the run I started dehydrating and feeling overheated. Because of the wheel mixup I didn't get Heed in my body until we finished the course ride, about 31miles after we started. That didn't work well for my body. I waved Dirk ahead and trundled in a minute or two after. I'm not sure of my pace, but the first half must've been under 6:45 pace... the second half probably was closer to 8:00 pace. Oh well. The most important part was that we charged up the first hill at the beginning of the run... that one is pretty brutal. I need to be smarter and have more foresight about my nutrition. It seems like a small deal but it's NOT!

I feasted well afterward. That was an intense weekend. My body craves rest... but an even more brutal week is ahead, finishing with TWO races. The 1km at Colony Zones swim meet at George Mason on Friday, and the Pike's Peek 10k on Sunday. Good lord. This is the most crucial training period and I need to answer the bell.