29/30

I fell one day short on my 30 day April bike challenge.  I don't recall what happened on that particular day, but I'm sure multiple forces were at work to keep me off a bike.  Some notes:

- Rode Wilson (my tri bike)16 times for a total of 382 miles.
- Rode Bel (my mountain bike) 6 times and about 52 miles.
- Rode Blue (the single speed) 7 times for 48 miles.
- Ended up putting Wilson back on the trainer for two days when the weather was particularly shitty.
- On two days my only riding was to the park and back for little league practice, a mile total.

Good biking month, 482 miles.  Good balance.  Love being out on the trails.  Love tooling around town on the SS, especially with the kids.  I may try this again for May.  30 days.  I'm on track so far, but I see many obstacles along the way, including a turkey hunting weekend I'm much looking forward to.

If I could just get running and swimming on track I'd be set.  Schedules, combined with a running funk to end all funks, have conspired to make regular training difficult at best.  Frustrating.

J-Hawk

J-Hawk Early Bird triathlon was this morning.  Small local sprint tri.   500 yard pool swim, 13.7 mile bike, 5k trail run.  Nice short race to start the season, and also my first multisport event in over 2-1/2 years.  To that end, let's look at all the dumbass things we did today:

1)  Lost my timing chip, within 15-minutes and 50 yards of receiving it.

2)  Had to get new chip, and rebodymarked just moments before getting in the pool.

3)  Struggled to get my shoes on coming out of T1, even though I do this nearly every time I ride.

4)  Started running out of T2 with my helmet on.

5)  Put my shirt on backwards coming out of T2.

6)  Found said timing chip in sweatshirt pocket post race.

That out of the way, let's move on to the race.

Swim was largely uneventful.  Three to a lane, seven seconds apart, with me leading it off.  Went out to hard (this will be a recurring theme), then settled into a steady pace.  Eventually got passed by both of my lane mates, but repassed the first one a lap or two later when he grabbed the wall mid lap.  The second one passed me several laps later and I attempted to hang onto her feet the rest of the way in.  Total time was 9:18.  Not exactly what I hoping for, as I know I can go sub 9:00, but perfectly acceptable.

Somewhere mid swim.

Video coming down the last 25.  I knew my hair was long, but I didn't realize quite how long until the very end of this video.  I think the next heat wave will result in all of it coming off.

T1 - Chatted a bit with my lane mates, threw on socks, leg warmers, coat, helmet, glasses and we're off.  Was in the 40's and breezy, this seemed like the bare minimum.  Gloves were in coat pocket.  1:43

Heading out of T1 attempting to get my shoes on.

Bike - Apparently it is possible to go out to hard, even in a sprint.  Prerace I had visions of putting it in the big ring and leaving it there for the entire ride.  That thought ended half way up the first hill.  East winds at 15ish on a primarily north south course.  Couple miles with a good tail wind, couple straight into it, but mostly a steady cross wind.  First ride with the disc cover on the back wheel, didn't notice a difference.   Good overall ride, passed 5 or 6, not passed at all.  With the pool swim and the wave starts, not many people out on the course.  Could have used more rabbits.  42:46, little slower than I wanted.

Coming up the last hill prior to T2.

T2 - Shoes off prior to dismount.  Run to the rack, jacket off, shoes on, shorts on (with race number), shirt in hand, run out.  Turn back, helmet off, resume.  1:02

Putting the shirt back on after fixing my wardrobe malfunction.

Run.  Speaking of rabbits, could have used one here.  Other than one person I passed just out of transition, didn't see another runner for the entire run.  Sucked ass.  Only thing I don't like about this race.  Trails were good, legs were cooked.  Biked too hard, or perhaps just pushed the few hills too much (see above picture).  Ended up walking two short steep sections of the trail.  26:26

Early on in the run, less than a mile in.

Coming into the finish with P hurdling the cones.

Overall time was 1:21:12.  52/196 overall.  9/20 in age group.  Not terribly pleased.  Dream goal was 1:15, really thought I could have broke 1:20.  So be it.  Learned a couple things, had some fun.  Was good to get out racing again.

Jet Pack

As I was getting ready to ride home from work today, I got Tim Wilson's Jet Pack song stuck in my head.  I really didn't feel like riding home, I just wanted my jet pack.  In fact, for the first five or so miles of my ride, all I could repeat was, "Where the fuck is my jet pack?"  I never did find it.



The ride wasn't actually that bad.  My feet are still cold, but otherwise it was pleasant enough.  I'll likely be wanting that jet pack again in the morning when it's time to ride back up.  40ish and into the wind. Joy.

30 Days

In a recent post, Steve linked to the site 30 days of biking.  The premise, ride a bike somewhere, anywhere, every day in April.
I like the concept, and apparently need some sort of motivation to kick start by summer biking.  The bike came off the trainer at the beginner of March and hitting the road was a very rude awakening.  I expected to be rocket ship after a winter of interval torture on the trainer. 

I am not.  Not fast, can't climb like a billy goat, and to top it off, no endurance to speak of.

I did manage 333 miles on the bike in March, but it was highly erratic.  100+ miles a week ago, maybe 50 this week.  The weather played a part in the variance, but that's just an excuse.  Need more regularity.  To my biking.

So 30 days of biking it is.  No joke.  In addition to riding everyday, I'm also going to attempt to ride each of my three bikes every week.  Ironman training can get a little monotonous (trinotonous?), mixing in a mountain bike ride and an SS ride every week should keep it a bit more interesting.

The weather today was again uncooperative, by the time it came around I was no longer in the tri bike ride mood.  So to start off the month I headed out on a 10ish mile ride on Blue, my single speed mountain bike.  It was a nice change of pace, riding on fat tires and gravel trails.  29 days to go.