3 miles per hour all out - on the bike!

Now that the daylight hours are getting longer, I'm getting serious about my triathlon training. I admit that I lost a lot of motivation over the winter/spring season, as I was way off running form even with a half marathon thrown in there, and I was working a lot on my incredibly terrible swimming. Now however, the season is fully here to maximize outdoor training, and I'm ready.

A lot of the motivation undoubtedly came from a long group cycling ride I did 2 weeks ago with LATriClub. I've become very complacent about my cycling ability, as I found that I became one of the fastest, if not the fastest person on a semi-regular basis in the intermediate cycling group that rides from 35-60 hilly miles on the weekend. However, on a friend's advice, I stepped it up to the advanced group, which actually only has about 5-6 regular riders. I hesitated to join this group not because of my fear of matching their top speed (I'm pretty fast on a bike), but rather, the insanely long distances they ride. A typical ride for this group is nearly double hills and distance of the intermediate group, and at an overall significantly faster pace. Needless to say, I was duly humbled (as expected) on my first ride out with them, and had to drop off the back after 65 hilly miles, as I had no more gas left. (This was pre-maltodextrin fueling as well.)

With the exception of group swims, I haven't been humbled so badly on the run or bike in quite awhile. And I'm supposed to be good at running and biking! This defeat was more than enough to get my competitive juices flowing, and it feels really good to get back to training for some PRs again. I really feel like I was just spinning my wheels for past 3 months, but now I'm back on the attack.

Since that week, I've put up some good running and cycling numbers. I've ratched up my runs to 15 hilly milers, and will shoot for 18-19 in a few weeks. My cycling is just starting to ratchet up, but last week's 75 miler went great (the maltodextrin fueling definitely helped.) I've got a new set of insanely expensive Assos bike-bib shorts to ensure that my butt can take the distance on these long rides, and now I've got the fuel to match. I'm looking forward to having a rematch with the advanced cycling group after a few more weeks of solid training.

Today I rode part of the "Ring of Fire" loop in Palo Alto. It's named such because it's got some hellacious hills - my fiance's house is actually situated on the peak of one of the nastiest of them. Interestingly, I've never ridden all the way up to her house because it's so steep. So today was the day. I threw down a surprisingly fast climb on a nearby climb known as "Old La Honda Road" which I paced out at 25 minutes on a fastish long distance pace (not all out). Apparently, according to the Western Wheelers cycling club, that sort of pace is fast enough to put me into a fast cycling category. According to their non-racing grading system for their group rides:

Old La Honda Climb:

B(40–60 minutes), C(30–40), D(25–30), E(20–25), F(<20)

I don't think I can quite muster an "F" speed on that climb, but for sure, I'd be close if I raced it. Not bad for cycling less than a year.

The killer part today though wasn't this climb. It was the final climb to my fiance's house, which is on the "Ring of Fire." It's the steepest hill of the Ring, and wow, it's a killer. I knew it would be extraordinarily difficult because my gearing on my bike is not set up for hills (standard non-compact gearing), so I'd have to really push hard. Sure enough, the climb started, and it was really, really hard. I was going all-out, with heart rate near 170-180, and my Garmin noted that I was averaging 3 miles per hour on the entire climb. I bet I could walk faster than that! Still, I managed to stay alive and got all the way to the top without a dismount. Felt great to get to the top - but I'm not sure I'll be trying this one too often in the future - it's a killer!