It's been a long time since I've posted here. There really hasn't been anything of interest to write about. Back in January my father past away and I continuted training. I managed a 1:45 hour run two days after he died when it was -25 Celicius. That was the hardest run of my life, and not because of the cold.
I signed up with a new coach in the hopes of a) minimizing injuries through specific strength training programs and b) beating 2012 IMMT time. New coach's philosphoy of training is rest and workouts based on resting heart rate. While that sounded good at the time, but its lead to a different training approach of slow zone two rides. And to think I complained to my ex-coach that her bike workouts weren't tough enough. These slow rides were quite evident when I started riding with friends and promptly got smoked and left behind. While the goal of minimzing injuries has worked (most mileage run year to date, ever), I have siginificant doubts about the second goal. My average bike speed as been an embarassing slow 25 km/hr on long rides. Not sure if anything can be done now as IMMT is less than two months away.
This morning ride was for 5.5-6 hours. I headed out alone and rode east to Pickering/Durham town line about eight km away before heading north and then west to Aurora. My ex-ex coach was meeting at 8 am for a 160 km ride with a bunch of athletes that he coaches. It was about 45 km ride to get there and my plan was to ride with them for a while and then head back home by myself. We headed west back to where I started and then head north to Beaverton. I had zero intentions to ride that far north. Initally I found them to be riding too slow and they rode pretty tight together. Admittinly, my pacing was quite brutal as I surged forward and then fell back as they passed me several times. We had a short break at Zephyer and ex-ex coach said "well ride with us for another hour and then turn around." When I got to that point, he said, "well ride with us to Beaverton and then head back. Its only another 15 km north" I looked at my watch and I've been riding for more then four hours and was a long, long way from home. Stupidly I agreed and by the time we reached Beaveron, I was pretty wiped out. I emailed Tammy as it was 11 am (now riding for 5 hours) and said I'd be late. I told her I'd be home by noon but I was more than 80 km away. It was going to be a long ride home as the rest of the group was going along (west) Lake Simcoe and there was no way I was riding with them as that would put me over 220 km. They tried to explain how to get back to Zephyr (40 km away) but I must have had a stupid look on my face as their directions wasn't sinking in so they rode part of the way back. We got to the point where they were going to turn north to the lake and I was going south but again their directions weren't sinking in. Finally they decided to ride back to Zephyr with me. This was going to be painful as I was already falling behind.
Once we got to Zephyr, I was already about 500 meters behind and we had a very hilly ride back. I was wolfing down my salt pills and gels but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. I was running out of calories and it showed on every single hill. I got further and further behind. They waited a couple of times but by the time we got to Goodwood (25 km away from home) they were completely gone. I stopped at the go cart track looking for water when I heard my phone ring. I tried to answer it but couldn't get it out in time. Uh oh, four missed calls. three from Tammy and one from my brother. And the email I sent from Beaverton wasn't sent. Doh!! I called home but the line was busy (no we don't have call waiting on our house line) so I called Tammy's cell. No answer. I called several times before I gave up and called my brother. He told me Tammy was freaking out (it was 1:30 pm) as I was over 90 minutes late. I told him to call her and I was about 45 minutes away. I started to ride and was worried about running out of water as it was quite warm (+25 degrees C). I finally hit Stouffville (less than 15 km away) but was totally out of water. Normally I'd avoid the town as the traffic and stop lights are brutal but I was close to bonking. I stopped at a gas station and was going to get a Gatorade but they had a chocolate protein drink. I grabbed that and drank most of it while waiting in line. Immediately I felt it kick in and the shakes disappeared. I reloaded one water bottle and rode the rest of the way home feeling almost normal.
Tammy was outside with the kids playing. She was talking to a neighbour as I pulled in. I looked down at my Powertap and I rode for 201 km. I went inside and changed to my running gear. This run was going to hurt. I ran for about 20 minutes (3.5 km) but my legs were like rubber. I couldn't imagine running another 38.5 km. I ran back home and had to sit down for a couple of minutes. I couldn't move.
Checking my Powertap data, I burned over 4,200 calories but counting my calories consumed, I figured I was over 1,000 calories short which explained why I couldn't keep up and why I immediately felt better after drinking the protein drink. Lesson learned
