Sunday, May 21, 2017

A Somewhat Slow Sprint (Steelhead Build: Week 4)

As of this week, I'm half way through my Steelhead training plan.  It certainly hasn't been perfect, but I never expected it to be.  When you write a training plan, it represents what would happen in a perfect world - you know, that place where life doesn't occasionally happen!  That said, I've been missing a few more workouts than is reasonable, so I'm going to try very hard to improve on that for the second half.

Build Week 4's highlights included:

Racing the sunset on a new-to-me bike route with Mr. R&R on Thursday night:





How have I lived in this area for 37 years and I never knew about this?!?!

We also made a stop at Emery's to pick up a veritable buffet of hydration options.  I've learned that my stomach doesn't tolerate Gatorade at all, so I'm going to have to bring my own electrolyte replacement to Steelhead.  A while back I tried Nuun at the recommendation of one of the guys at the bike shop and it was foul, so that's out.

Also, I need to feed myself some calories on the bike, and while I really like Clif Shot Bloks, I wanted to see what else was out there.


I mixed up the Skratch Labs raspberry when we got home and I'm glad I did it before I was riding.  I hated the taste.  It sort of tasted like a less sweet version of Lipton Raspberry Iced Tea - it's not going to work for me.  Mr. R&R mixed up a bottle of Skratch Labs Pineapple for himself and that was much better!  I'll get back to you on the Lemons & Limes flavor and the HEED at a later date.

Sunday brought a whole lot of sweat and a chance to test out Skratch Labs in action. My training plan called for either a sprint tri or a triple brick.  Since it's a little early for triathlon season here, I went for a triple brick with really long transitions!  Mr. R&R and I hit the pool in the early afternoon for a swim.  I swam 1800 yards (my Garmin skipped 25 yards, so I only get credit for 1775 yards) in 43:29.  A sprint tri would have only required 400-500 yards, but I figured if I was going to go to the trouble of getting wet, I'd do the swim equivalent of an Olympic triathlon.

We headed home, changed into tri clothes, got our bikes set up, and got down to business.  Since the weather was overcast and windy, we opted to ride indoors and run outdoors.  I rode for 75 minutes (about 15.5 miles) and consumed an entire bottle of Skratch Labs and the GU Stroopwafel pictured above.  The Stroopwafel was really tasty, but it was really messy and difficult to eat on the bike.  I think it would be better suited to hiking or as a pre/post race snack.  When the ride program ended, I shut off my computer, hustled upstairs to put on running shoes/hat/jacket and got out the door.  The first mile felt pretty good (along with a stop to stare at what was likely a mink swimming in a retention pond).  Mile 2 was a little more uncomfortable since my route turned into rolling hills, but it was still my fastest mile of the day.  Mile 3 was rough, but I got through it.  When I hit the end, Mr. R&R was waiting for me and we walked the chilly mile home together (with another stop to admire the mink)!

12 weeks down.  12 to go!

Week 4 Stats:

Swim:    1775 yards (1.01 miles)
Bike:      40.26 miles
Run:       7.38 miles
Strength: 1 session (30 min)

Total Time:       5 hours, 18 minutes
Total Distance: 48.65 miles

Cumulative Distance: 924.9 miles - approximately the distance between Milwaukee and Denver, CO. And as of this week, I've officially surpassed my total mileage for 2016 - and it's only May!


2 comments:

High Country Gal said...

Wow - You have definitely got a lot of training in! You're doing great. I hadn't thought about it before, but trying to find something you can eat(rather than end up wearing)while on the bike can be a quite a challenge.

Mary said...

I end up wearing a lot of things on the bike...water/Skratch, food bits, bugs!