Tour de Truth
I spent the Labor Day weekend holding a self-imposed training camp on myself and Nick Frank. The plan was to ride 100 miles a day and run off the bike at least once. We would ride a course that Nick and I have developed over the last year; we cheery picked all the 11 climbs with in a 30 mile radius of Banner Elk NC, and linked them together for a 105 mile trip we term The Loop of Truth. My plan was to ride easy between climbs and cap my Heart Rate while climbing at 150bpm. If I felt good at the end of the day I would push 1 or 2 climbs to LT. Basically I wanted to focus on muscle endurance first but push the pace just enough so that coming home I would get a jump in fitness 5 weeks out from my A race Kona.
Climbs:
George’s Gap 1(front side) 1.85 mi (7.91 ave grade)
George’s Gap 2: (back side) 1.92 mi (8.09)
Rominger: 1.98 mi (8.6)
Clarke’s Creek: 1.25 mi (13.3)
Shulls Mill: 4.82 mi (7.28)
Parkway: 5.76 mi (3.23)
Hickory Nut Gap: 4.39 mi t (3.86)
Beech: 2.84 mi (9.82)
Pinnacle Ridge: 1.93 mi (14.01)
Pinnacle Add On: 1.07 mi (9.08)
Back of Beech: 5.83 mi (7.21)
Valley of Death (between Beech and Pinnacle) total 11.67 mi (9.14 ave grade)
Pinnacle + Add On combined: 3.0 miles (12.25 ave grade)
Total Ascent 18,500 feet and the toughest course on the East Coast (that I know of)
Going into this weekend I was finishing up one of my larger weeks volume wise but felt good about my strength. I am in a race specific interval phase and have been holding some good numbers for these sets (2×1 hour @ 235 watts on 1hours rest). That is what I would like to avg for Kona. If I can hold that number I believe that I can ride a 5:10 no matter the conditions.
Nick and I did exactly as we set out on day one. We rode under control but even riding “easy” that much ascent takes a toll. We averaged approximately 14mph; total ride time was 7.5 hours.
I must say I was not looking forward to day 2 but surprisingly my legs felt good and again we stayed under control for the first 80miles. Beech Mountain comes at mile 80 and that is really where this course starts. The last 22 miles take almost 2 hours to ride and are the toughest climbs off the day. Just before Beech I told Nick I felt the same as I do 10min before the gun on race day! I was nervous about what lay ahead because on steep climbs it’s easy to become very exposed. Nick had bonked slightly on Beech the day before so he was looking for a little redemption. I on the other hand was just trying to keep him in sight. We both rode at LT -5 to LT (Lactate Threshold) and we both set a P.R. for that climb this year (3rd trip). After finishing the ride we had a quick transition and ran 52min. Total work out time for day two, 8:20:00. I felt good all day and gained some much needed confidence going forward.
Dave Hornak (Spider Monkey) joined us for day 3. Nick and I spent most of the evening before trying to scare him with details of the course but it should have been us who were scared! The demands of that much work are tremendous not only muscularly but nutritionally as well and Day 3 would prove to be a roller coaster. One minute was up the next I would struggle to just keep pedaling. It took some work but I was able to right the ship some what but never really felt great. Dave was the man on day 3…note to self, people with fresh legs will make you look weak…very weak! Good work Dave! Nick and I both looked cooked at the end of it all but felt feel very good about the accomplishment. That is the first time we were able to finish that course multiple times without a major mechanical and a ride out.
To sum it all up, I’m the strongest I’ve been since last year. I’m a little concerned about my run speed but feel confident that if my stomach works on race day I should be able to keep running at the least. I’m not looking to crush it at Hawaii but I would like to have a much better day than last year.
I plan to actively recover for three days and then start the final phase of my Kona plan. That plan is to roll down the volume slightly but start holding half Ironman and full Ironman specific speed more and more during my work outs. If all goes well I should be ready by race day.