Week 16 Long Ride Question
Hey all,
So this past weekend, a few of us did the Louisville Camp. This weeks schedule shows a race rehearsal. Say it ain't so!!! But if it is. I need some major help here. I am screwed, screwed, or screwed. So here is my issue:
Option 1:
1) Swim in the AM - cannot start until 9:00. The pool does not open until then.
2) if i do the full swim, i will then get out of the pool and back to my apartment around 11ish.
3) i live in NYC, traffic sucks!! i really dont have a park to ride in, so i head over to New Jersey (that is 120 blocks of city streets to get to the GWB). Kind of a headache to say the least. Takes about 1:05 minutes to go about 11 miles.
4) Ride new New Jersey, there is no sag. So i am hitting up bike shops to cafes on the way out and back. (ive done it and its not bad)
5) then ride home on the city streets.
Option two:
1) Swim at 9:00 (do the full swim)
2) come home and Sit on Zwift for 7 hours.
3) 7 FREAKING HOURS!!! I have done 4 hours and survived. And i do not have to worry about bathrooms, food or drinks. So no Sag required.
Option 3:
1) Swim friday.
2) just bike and run on Saturday. Getting up earlier enough to avoid some traffic on the way out and less headaches.
Thoughts?
Comments
I'd do option 3...
Get up EARLY on Saturday morning and be wheels down at daybreak and you'll be across the GWB before any of the traffic slows you down. Then ride straight up 9W to the tippy top of Bear Mountain, flip it and come back. Plenty of gas stations on that route to refuel and bathroom breaks. If you're carrying ~3 bottles, you shouldn't need to stop more than 1 or 2x max (there are also bathrooms and a vending machine that sells water and maybe Gatorade at the top of Bear Mountain).
+1 Option 3. Thee is zero value in doing the swim ending more than about 30-40 minutes before starting the bike. The point of the swim RR is to get you tired enough starting the bike that your HR will more closely mimic what you will see on race day. By the time you would be starting the bike, you'd be fairly well recovered from the swim, so there's not much point in trying to string all three together.
Full disclosure - I;ve done at least 30 EN IM Race Rehearsals. I have NEVER done a swim before the bike/run, and I've had pretty good success in many of the subsequent races. You'll do fine if you just focus on (a) getting a good, tiring, non-stop 3800 meter swim the day before and (b) paying close attention to your nutrition and pacing during the bike/run the next day, attempting to get as close to race day effort as possible, to learn what works and what doesn;t.
Finding the right location which allows a fairly uninterrupted bike and a place to run right away is key, of course. Many of my RRs have been at a spot where I could park, and then do 3 x 35-38 mi out-n-backs or loops, with a cooler in the car to switch out nutrition/fluids. On the runs, I;ve even done 3 x 2 mi out-n-back or loop, so I didn't have to carry a lot of fluid while running, mimicking race day as much as possible. [The place I stage from allows 3 different routes so I don't get too bored, but 3 x the same route is also sensible, IMO. There's also a toilet there 😎]
+2 for Option 3...
But first, you said "So this past weekend, a few of us did the Louisville Camp. This weeks schedule shows a race rehearsal."
At the Louisville Camp, did you do a race rehearsal type camp? Usually Camps involves a race rehearsal ride/run brick, a second long ride and a long run on day 3. If so, I don't think you need/should do another race rehearsal this weekend. You can do next weekend's workout this weekend, if that's the case.
Yes adding to what Derek said, if you did a full camp week your good, just recover for your Thursday long run and the weekends long rides.You can move the first race rehearsal around and it’s still ok.
I’ve done my first RR/camp week in week 15 before with no down stream effects, it’s just about messing up with enough time to fix it before the final RR. I just did the normal long rides the following weekend(wk16).
So, yes and no. I ran into some major dehydration issues on friday bike. So i ended up doing just over 80 miles on friday. Then saturday, we hit some major rain and crazy drivers, so we called it around 40-ish miles for safety reasons.
So its race rehearsal this weekend. Yup, i know i need to do it.
I say yes to RR this weekend @Jonathan Brown
Your 80 Friday and 40 Saturday seem like the normal Long ride and ABP for last week so you should be in fine shape for a quality RR- option 3
Move the swim to Friday, and just do the bike/run on Saturday.
@Jonathan Brown, I'm in for option two with the exception of 7 hours. Why so long? No more than 6 hrs or 112 miles, right?
I plan on doing the swim on Friday and dialing in the bike/run brick on Saturday. As mentioned above its only 6 hours or 112...dont make it any longer than it needs to be!
@Jonathan Brown
Can you go out to Long Island to Bike/Run?
Take your bike on LIRR and get out a bit... you may have more luck.
Great News all!!! I do not have to pick how i am going to do my race rehearsal! My bike has still not made it back from Camp last weekend. Fedex is having issues with Labels and could not read my two labels on the bike case and the bike sat in IN the whole week. Now the delivery is scheduled for Monday.
Did i bring up my smelly bike shoes are also in by bike box!!! they are going to be ripe!!