Redemption after Quassy disaster
REDEMPTION!! I am standing here beside myself in disbelief (80's movie joke). After a demoralizing Quassy where I fell apart on the run I spent a couple weeks still training but really was wondering if I should even continue this sport at all for how badly I sucked that day. And then there was today. It was supposed to be a full rest day (sorry, Coach) but I swapped it out for a Friday rest day.
Today was the 7th Annual Mapso Riders Father's Day Century. A big group ride of more than 70 riders. A good solid century with 4000 ft of climbing from Millburn, NJ down to Princeton (which unbeknownst to me knows how to have hills&hellip
and back in some big crazy loop. I figured I would try to ride it steady but no sooner than we got out of Millburn at 5:30 AM the group was cooking along at 20+ in big pace lines. Oh, and since this was a big ride and not everyone along was a triathlete, tri bikes were strongly discouraged.
Man, after lots of time exclusively on the tri bike the road bike posture really felt strange and let me tell ya, that got old really fast. Not everyone in the group was a watt monster and many of us fell off the back - and who wants to be out there where you have to actually work? Yeah, lots of people wanted help getting back to the group but not many of them wanted to work. So after more time pulling in Z4 than I want to remember I finally felt the lights go out around mile 85, right as we came back through Summit, NJ. There's a reason the town is called Summit and it's not because of some old dude named Josiah Summit who fought in the Revolutionary War lived there. I got home okay with an average speed of 18.6 mph for 102 miles and very little of it behind someone. I don't know my power numbers because my Quarq battery must have cut out after about an hour but I'm pretty sure my VI would have come out to something like 17.9. Or maybe 1.5. I dunno.
I planned on making this a sort of race rehearsal day when I was planning it out in my head (counting on the steady riding thing, uh huh&hellip and figured I'd try to go out for a one hour run at my supposed IM marathon pace. I got home and since I needed to recover a little I hung out for about 30 minutes putting the bike away, changing to run clothes, petting the dog and getting some nutrition, etc. What surprised me was even being willing to head back out in the afternoon heat but I was truly stunned to find that I was ABLE to ring up one whole hour of running at a sub-9 pace on a moderately hilly course.
I also want to give a shout out to whomever it was that started the thread asking about Hoka One One shoes. I've been struggling with finding something to use that will accommodate my bad left foot. That foot's troubles have seriously curtailed my running volume and I am very worried about ever being able to do long course events successfully. Even with a sore foot after almost 6 hours in the saddle I was able to run in my Stinson EVO Tarmacs. I might just be in love with a pair of shoes.
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