Work in Progress--today's surprising ride!

I'm now turning my attention to dedicating the next 110 days to getting my bike fitness in enough shape to be competent when I tackle the Silver State 508 in September.  today was the 5th Wilmington Grand Fondo--a metric century, which is quite hilly--relentlessly so.  I rode with the 450 or so other riders and really enjoyed all those feelings that come when one pushes out towards the limits on a bike.

My numbers came in quite strong--I was very surprised, given how little I've ridden, compared to my normal program.  The total ride was 62.32 miles and it took me 4:06:08--just 15.2 mph.  However, I averaged 204 watts with a normalized power of 221 watts--those are the type of numbers I'd expect to through down in reasonably good Half-Ironman bike!  If you had asked me before hand i would have guessed i could do somewhere between 160-180 watts--these extra 40 watts or so tell me that I have a very good base to start layering in the bike mileage I'll need to tackle the 508--yeah!!!!

I still have in my Garmin that my FTP is 265 watts and if that is still true (I need to test it) then my intensity factor was .834--right in the .80-.85 sweet spot for a half-Ironman ride.  My TSS was 227.4 (so you can imagine I feel a little worked over tonight--a good IM ride would have a TSS around 280 or so).  I burned 2404 calories and hit a top speed of 38 mph.

Here is map of the ride (and yes it was confusing):

Below are also charts of my power, the elevation and my speed over time:

Tough ride for sure, but very encouraging.

I'd also be remiss if I didn't publish some pics from the boy's fishing trip this week as well:

The trip was a real blast.  Great company, good food at the end of the day and a good test of my surgically repaired left elbow.

Onward and upward!

Comeback week 1

Really enjoying getting back into the swing of things.  Sitting here on this Monday night, I'm tired in that way that 3.5 hours of working out feels like.  It's a nice feeling I've missed for quite a while now.

Less you think I've quickly lost my way and I'm Mr. Ironman training demon again, let me highlight the week:

-2 swims of just 1000 yards each.  My elbow is still sore post surgery so I'm being cautious here.  I'm also not in good swim shape after 4.5 months out of the pool (which is the longest such period since i started triathlon back in 2001).  My intent is to build to 2-2.5 hours/week of swimming spread over 3 swims--I'll be doing my open water thing starting in about a month or so.  this is less training oriented and more enjoyment focused swimming....

-3 runs totaling just 2 hours.  I'd like to build to the point where I run 2-3 hours per week and generally not more than an hour at a time.  I intend to run them faster than normal and might do a 5k or two and a spring trip later in the summer if I'm so inclined...

-8 bike rides totaling about 10 hours.  I do intend to use May to rebuild my bike base and then focus on long distance riding--eventually building to 12-15 hour rides as I build my long distance biking capability in front of the 508 in September--should be a fun experiment!  I've already got a bunch of cool rides planned...

-I'm just starting on my core/stretching stuff.  I need to dial up yoga and pilates classes in the very near term.

Having fun and not missing racing at the moment.  I'm still very diet focused and am down about 17 pounds--yea!

Looking forward to week two!