A Good Week of Cycling

Before last weekend's "Heart of the Lakes" Triathlon, I had a pretty normal "pre-race" week. I didn't bike much (just a 45 min spin on the trainer on Wednesday), I didn't run much, and I took the day off before the race:

Only 13.42 miles of running all week. Lowest amount since
between 2 races in March (where I went 14.8 miles).

Then the following week (this past week), we were on a family vacation! Actually, when I did the "Heart of the Lakes" Triathlon, I got up early at the cabin to head to the race, and then went back to hang out with family for another 5 days. I'll have just a few photos from our vacation in the next few days, but first here's what my training looked like these last few days:

Post-race rest day on Monday, then some (easy) runs and (harder) bikes.

That week also looks like vacation because there's little strength work. Just some heel exercises on Wednesday, some core in the cabin on Thursday, and some physical therapy leg exercises on Friday before coming home.

On Tuesday (my first workout post-race), I did a long ride. I didn't push TOO hard because it was still close to the race. My wife and I took off together from "Big Ole" in Alexandria, and we headed down the trail:

When I turned around on my ride, I saw my wife coming a mile later. I pulled up to stop at an intersection in the middle of nowhere, and a pickup pulled up and we started chatting. He reminded me of my late Grandpa Clem - just easy to make friends. "How far ya going? Oh wow! So are you halfway yet? Heading back? Hey, you know this lovely lady?..."

That ride was 33 miles with a 20.4 mph average. "Out" into the wind slower, and "back" with the wind a bit faster. (One of my 5-mile splits on the way back averaged 22.7 mph.)

Then 2 days later, I went out for my favorite bike workout: 3x5 mile intervals. I went the other direction from town, and it was move open and quiet trail:

During my warm-up.


View after my first interval.

The wind was a side-wind, so I didn't know what it would do to my splits. It turns out that I don't think it affected it much. I rode "out" for the first full interval and half of the 2nd. Then I turned "back" for the rest of the 2nd interval and all of the 3rd. Here were my splits:

- 13:28, 22.3 mph
- 13:40, 21.9 mph
- 13:11, 22.7 mph

That was better than I expected! But I'm also used to trying to find a place in the city to do this workout, and doing it on the FLAT with just a few roads to cross helped my times. For sure.

I rode through some SWARMS of gnats! I didn't know I had some in my
teeth until I snapped this photo. Gross. (Note more flat trail in my sunglasses.)


Armful of gnats.

Those 2 rides gave me a 61 mile week, which is the most all year (and the biggest week since May of 2018). And add in the race 2 days before, and I covered 73.61 miles in 5 days. I know... I don't bike much.

Back with some more about last weekend's triathlon shortly.