Welland: Post race

So what have I been up to since I finished my first triathlon?

Um...

Yeah, that's a half iron distance tri. 2k swim, 90k bike, 21.1k run.

WHAT HAVE I DONE???

I've been thinking about this for a while, from back last fall when I decided I was going to pursue triathlon this year. Granted, my original thoughts were roughly along the lines of OH HELL NO.

But my thoughts on the subject gradually changed along the way. The main sticking point, of course, being that whole business of having to swim 2 kilometers, which even 4 months ago seemed like an insanely ridiculously silly sort of thing to be thinking about doing. But now that I can easily knock out 2k in the pool, and since I've rapidly become pretty comfortable with that whole open water swim thing,it is on like Donkey Kong.

Wednesday night open water swim PB. SO CLOSE TO 2k.

Back in the fall I did a 100k ride with Nicole and Sam, and at that point I wondered about the wisdom of ever doing a 70.3 - I mean, I barely wanted to walk anywhere after that ride, much less run a half marathon. But my winter of training really built a solid base - I did 100k at the Ride for Heart a few weeks ago and although I wasn't exactly looking for my running shoes at the end, I could see that running would have been theoretically possible.

Possible if it wasn't for the pouring rain and the fact I couldn't feel my feet. My clothes were literally dripping when I changed after the ride.

In addition to building a really solid bike base over the winter, training for ATB has left me feeling like a much stronger runner on far fewer miles per week than I ever could have predicted. And since biking and swimming are sucking up so much of my workout time, that's a good thing! I know with my base, I can put in a really solid summer of training and be ready to really give this race my best effort. I'm looking forward to the challenge - to a large extent I prefer the training/buildup to the actual racing part, and this one is going to require some serious training!

Big thanks to this guy, too - it's not always easy balancing the schedules of two parents who work full time jobs, both want to work out 10+ hours per week, and 2 kids who aren't yet old enough to be left home alone. But we pull it off, even if it often involves a lot more getting up at 4:30 am than either of us really enjoys.

I've got a few short tris coming up in July & August to use in the buildup as practice, and I've worked out what I think is a pretty solid plan to get me through this strong and healthy.

I have goals. Most of which involve getting faster in all three disciplines.

I will, of course, be using Run Less Run Faster for my half marathon run training, with some modifications suggested by Coach Zindine. And the good guys at Trainer Road were kind enough to answer a few questions via email (thanks Trevor!) so I'm set for my bike plan as well (although I'm using that more as a rough guide - given the work/family stuff some changes and modifications will be inevitable).

Obligatory post long run #selfie I have no real reason to include except I think they take away my blogger license if I don't meet my selfie quota.

On the swim, I'll be aiming to get in the water three times a week, with at least one per week being open water if I can manage it. And one swim including (gulp) intervals. The 50m outdoor pool near my house is now open for the summer, which seems like a good place to start throwing in some fast 100 metres to try and improve my swim speed a bit. I've now been told by three separate people that my swim stroke is 'very smooth', although frankly I'd trade smooth for faster!

I have a feeling this pool won't be this empty all summer.

So, here we go. 13 weeks to my first half iron distance tri. This is going to be fun!

Foxy the bike and I met up with an actual fox on our ride on Saturday. Feels like a good omen.

(Not sure I will do weekly training updates, but maybe bi-weekly, for all 3 of you out there who don't follow me on Daily Mile or Strava)

Race report: Welland sprint triathlon

First races are always special. The first road race, first half marathon, first marathon...

And now, my first triathlon.

My nerves were completely shot in the days leading up to this race. I can't remember the last time I was that nervous before a race. Maybe for the duathlon last fall, but this, with the addition of scary scary swimming, was on a whole different level.

Physically I was feeling pretty great, but mentally, not so much. Which was silly, because I totally knew I could do the distances with no problems, but still. Race nerves. Not fun.

The lighting in my living room kinda sucks for photos. Next time I'll use a more well-lit staging area!

Friday night I organized all my stuff. It is NUTS how much crap you need to take to a triathlon.

I also wrote myself a note so I wouldn't forget a key item (I forgot it when I did the Ride 4 Heart two weeks ago, although fortunately I remembered when I was only two blocks from home and was able to go back and get it).

Note to myself stuck to the front door. I wanted to leave it on the charger overnight to make sure it was fully charged for the race.

Then this conversation happened:

And I had to make an addition to my note:

I WAS A LITTLE STRESSED, OK???

Arrived in Welland bright and early (with my bike, whew), and on pulling into the parking lot I immediately spotted my tri club teammates Michelle and Danielle, which somehow helped me relax. It's always nice to be in these things together.

It seems like so much less stuff when you get your transition area set up. Like where did it all go?

Figured out the logistics, mentally rehearsed transitions and which direction to go for the bike and run exits, picked up my pretty sweet race shirt, got my transition set up, and sort of aimlessly passed the time chatting with teammates and visiting the bathroom until it was time to squeeze into our wetsuits and head for the water.

The canal wasn't as cold as I was expecting, and I did about 200m of swimming to warm up and hopefully help alleviate the inevitable Swim Panic, and then it was time to line up for the time trial start. As #101, I was the first blue cap after the first 100 people were in yellow caps, which was kind of fun, plus made it super easy to know where I needed to line up!

Swim
750m in 16:25 (2:11/100m pace)
Overall place: 138/240
Gender place: 49/90
Category place: 11/13 (freakin' fast age group I'm in)

The time trial start (a swimmer every 5 seconds) was extremely efficient, and before I knew it I was off and swimming.

And panicking.

But just a little bit. I got it under control within about 200m and just focused on sighting the next buoy, and then getting to the green turn cone. Pretty much I Kimmy Schmidted it.

By the time we turned to come back towards the start I was almost enjoying myself! I took this very easy, as I'd planned. No sense swimming myself into hysterics in my first race. Someone grabbed my ankle early on, and I did get lightly kicked in the face at one point, but the time trial start meant there wasn't a lot of contact with the other swimmers. I got passed by a ton of people in blue caps (who would have all started behind me, since I was first blue cap), but I also passed a bunch of yellow caps, who started ahead of me. Kind of balanced out.

Is this photo of me exiting the swim in the distance better or...

Or this one where I'm only half in the picture? Thanks for hogging all the photographer's attention, Greg!

Swim exit run up: 1:49

Swam up to the exit where a friendly volunteer hauled me out of the water, and then off on the loooooooooooong run to transition. That's about the only thing I didn't enjoy about this race - it's a good 400 meters from the swim exit to transition, and although it was over pavement, there were parts that were pretty rocky and rough on the feet. I did see a volunteer sweeping as many of the pebbles off the path as he could, which I appreciated! And one advantage of the long run up was I had plenty of time to strip down the top half of my wetsuit. Next year this race will be at the new flatwater center and probably won't have the long run to transition, which will be nice if I do it again.

T1: 1:38

Transition went smoothly, other than when I was trying to pull my wetsuit off my left foot and it JUST WOULDN'T GO and then I realized I'd hooked my fingers onto my timing chip. D'oh. Got that sorted and off on the bike. Kind of surprised my transition time was under 2 minutes, I was expecting it to be longer!

Pre-race photo of the bike out, just because I need some more visuals in this post.

Bike
30k in 55:17.8 (32.55 km/hr)
Overall place after the bike: 85/240
Gender place after the bike: 23/90 (11th fastest bike time for females)
Category place after the bike: 6/13 (3rd fastest bike time in age group)
(hey, my bike is my strength, I gotta check these things!)

My favourite part. Always. Bikes are awesome. I got off to a rough start when I forgot to start my Garmin for 500m (I didn't wear it for the swim and left it on the bike), and then when I got up to speed my bike was vibrating in an odd way. I ended up stopping briefly to try and figure out what was wrong, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary, and when I started again the odd vibration was gone. So I don't know what that was about, but I'm glad I took the few seconds to stop and make sure everything was OK.

Settled into my aero bars, brought my cadence up, and commenced passing people. The best part! When I glanced down at my Garmin I was seeing speeds like 34, 35+ km/hr and it was blowing my mind. All that training had clearly paid off bigtime!

And then I reached the turn around.

Oh. There had been a tailwind.

So my speed slowed a bit, but I kept it up above 30 km/hr for the rest of the ride. I could have pushed a little harder but I wanted to save my legs for the run. Look at me being all sensible and saving the suffering for the end of the race!

All smiles coming into the finish of the bike course!

One kind of interesting thing is this was by far the flattest ride I've ever done. I don't think there was any elevation change at all! Way different than the terrain where I usually ride. It was quite a change to just try and hold the same power for a long period of time, rather than having to modulate my effort for hills. Frankly I think I would have liked a hill or two just to change things up a little bit. But overall, just an awesome ride.

T2: 1:12

Got back into transition (I have got to practice doing proper mounts and dismounts, this having to come to a dead stop to get off the bike is not ideal), and again I'm surprised how quickly I got back out again. It felt longer. Changed my shoes, changed headgear, grabbed my garmin and water bottle, and out the run exit. Very nice.

Run
7.5k in 41:03 (pace 5:28/km - although I like what my watch says better, which was 7.8k and a pace of 5:14/km!)
Total time: 1:57:22.3
Overall place: 98/240
Gender place: 24/90 (36th fastest run for gender)
Category place: 6/13 (9th fastest run for age group - again, holy fast age group!)

The run went really well! I felt like I was running through molasses, and if I'd had to guess I would have said I was running 6 minutes + per kilometer, but my watch was showing crazy things like 5:08, 5:15, and so forth. Sweet. Because the day was overcast there was no horrible sun to deal with, and pretty much ideal conditions to run. I stopped at two water stations to grab whatever sports drink they were serving (Heed, maybe? It's all a bit of a blur; whatever it was I would have preferred something sweeter) and walked briefly to drink, but other than that I just kept pushing and trying to maintain pace.

It sure wasn't comfortable, and there was a really depressing moment when we reached the duathlon turnaround and I was all 'but...they get to turn...I have to keep going???? UNFAIR!!!', and the triathlon turnaround felt like it was maybe located in Windsor and we'd never ever get there, and then the last kilometer took FOR FREAKING EVER, but overall this run was really good. I saved enough energy from the bike that it didn't become a death march, but by the end I was D. O. N. E. Overall I think I paced the race about right.

The final run to the finish line was sweet. I enjoyed every step. I've been working towards this triathlon for months now - basically since I first got into the pool back in December and could barely swim 25 meters without stopping for a rest - and having that work pay off felt amazing.

And I have a new favourite finish line photo. Thank you My Sports Shooter and MSC for the free race photos!

Before the race I had generally worked out how long I thought each part of the race would take, and my unspoken/unshared goal was to finish in under 2 hours.

#nailedit

And I'm a triathlete. I did it!!!

And I can't wait to do it again! So much fun. So excited to have this whole new world to explore and push my limits. Time to get stronger, faster, and maybe see if I can't find myself a podium spot at some point...

But seriously how nice is this race shirt?? I love it!

Race week random thoughts - first triathlon

This Saturday I will be doing my first triathlon at Welland. Yep. That's a thing I'll be doing.

Some random thoughts that have been bouncing around my head as I lead up to this thing.

You know what happens a lot at my house these days? Laundry. Between me and my husband, there's just SO MUCH activewear laundry.

1. The swim

Well, for starters, this happened.

Wetsuit selfie

Yep, I have a wetsuit now (after a bit of a lengthy ordeal involving an extreme lack of communication from the wetsuit company, although the end result was I got a nicer wetsuit than I paid for, so it all worked out). I've even worn it into an actual lake twice! And it was fun! The process of getting into the suit is kind of hysterically funny - come on out to an open water swim some time and watch 20+ triathletes all squeezing themselves into their suits - like watching people try to put toothpaste back into the tube. Wetsuits are not a flattering look on anyone. Although I did take notes from Sam's experience and didn't put it on backwards.

I swam all around this lake! No action shots because sorry, not quite talented enough to be in two places at once. I'm working on it.

As far as the actual swimming, there was some panicking and at one point a strong to desire to just switch all my race registrations to duathlons because there's this deep lizard part of my brain that reacts to swimming by demanding we NOPE the hell out of there ASAP, but I've learned to shut that bit off. Give me 10 minutes in the water and I'm good. The wetsuit makes a huge difference - so buoyant! So much less effort required than pool swimming! I am never doing a non-wetsuit legal swim, ever!

#proof courtesy my old GPS watch jammed in my swim cap. Who knew that would work. I learn so many interesting things from the Internet.

To think that in December I couldn't swim more than one lap without having to stop and catch my breath! I've got a lot of room for improvement in my swim, but right now I'm just so thrilled with how far I've come. I swam around a lake! Plus I can now pretty easily knock out 2 km in the pool at lane swim. Really happy with the progress in something that is so new to me and so far outside of my comfort zone.

2. The bike

So I did that whole 8 Days in California challenge of pain and suffering in the quest for some rapid bike improvements.

Was it worth it? Um, yeah it was.

Zindine: Round it to 230!

Although now my trainer workouts are just stupidly hard.

But hey, I did the work and I'm seeing the rewards...

Even if I did get an email message a few hours later that someone had already stolen that QOM from me. Damn it. Strava fame and glory is fleeting.

But me and the bike, we're good. I have aero bars now loaned from Zindine (and perhaps more importantly, I can get in and out of them without falling over!), and a quick release mount for my Garmin so I don't have to turn my wrist over to see my cadence/speed/etc (trust me, that move has led to some serious wobbling around the road in the past). I even did a metric century in the pouring rain at the Ride 4 Heart, and dragged some friends on an allegedly 'easy' ride around the countryside (apparently my definition of easy is not necessarily the same as other people's...). So the bike is awesome. And fun. And pretty much my happy place. Anyone want to go for a ride? How do you feel about hills?

My punishment for the hills on that 'easy' bike route? First flat tire of the year. I was hoping it would be my only flat, but then later that week I blew out a tube while swapping my road tire for my trainer tire. #loser

3. The run

Early morning at the track. Fortunately it was unlocked and I didn't have to hop the fence. Such a rebel.

Two weeks back on the Run Less Run Faster plan, and so far I'm pretty much killing the workouts. And they feel really good. I don't have a lot to say about running, except that it's nice to see such serious improvement after kind of floundering around and not getting anywhere last year. This plan just really seems to work well for me - the only drawback, of course, is the lack of easy runs. I do sometimes miss just running for the sake of running and not being a slave to the paces on my watch.

Hurry up, Garmin, we have a tempo run to do!

But that said, I'm very results focused right now and this is giving me those results. My paces are improving, and I just feel so much stronger. Longer runs at faster paces are coming easily. I think I could really kill a half marathon this fall if I'm willing to stick to the training that long. But that's getting ahead of myself. My focus right now is getting into great 10k shape for the run at Goderich.

Running early in the morning means gorgeous sunrises all over the place. Makes the early mornings/passing out in exhaustion at 9 pm a little easier to take...

4. The race

Oh right, that race thing. Which is on Saturday. And involves stringing all three of these sports together, one after another.

Optimism!

This is where goals and pace plans and such would go, but honestly my main goal is to just finish this thing successfully. I have some times and paces in mind but I'm not willing to commit them to paper, (even electronic blog paper!). This is a big enough step into a new sport without putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform to a particular level. I like to be well prepared for this sort of thing, and I feel like I'm not quite there yet, especially with the open water swimming. Going in with only two (or three if my plans for tomorrow work out) swims under my belt is not ideal for me, from a mental standpoint. I know I can do the swim, it's just in a perfect world I'd have done a lot more swim practice.

In addition to the lack of open water practice, I'd have liked to do a few more bricks. I've really only managed 2, just due to scheduling issues. So my transitions are likely to be a bit of a gong show, but hey! All part of the fun and the learning experience. And this tri really is about being a learning experience.

Post-brick, after testing out my tri club top. I did put speed laces in my shoes after this workout (why not before, I don't know - didn't even think about it until I was looking at my shoes after I got off the bike and thought, dang, now I have to tie those).

So I have an idea of what I might be capable of, and I plan to push my limits on both the bike and the run, but my goal for triathlon #1 is to finish with a big smile on my face. The details will take care of themselves.

5. After the race

Yes, there's an addition to my upcoming race schedule up there on the sidebar. If that moves out of the 'tentative' category into the 'holy shit I'm really going to do this' category...well I'll deal with that then. Stay tuned...

MEC Burlington race 2 race report - 5k

Saturday was my final road race for the spring, before my focus switches entirely to triathlon training. Having already set a 10k PB I can use to benchmark my Run Less Run Faster training plan for the summer, I wasn't feeling a lot of pressure to run this race fast. Plus given that I was six days into the crazy 8 Days in California cycling challenge, a PB seemed like a long shot. But then certain people kept encouraging me to go for it (*cough* Sam and Zindine *cough*) and really, what did I have to lose? Other than possibly my breakfast.

My husband didn't think he was in PB shape but decided to come act as my personal pacer, since my PB pace is pretty much his lollygagging super easy I'm not even trying run pace. Someday he's going to get himself a bike and be instantly 150% better than me. Men are annoying, amiright?

Oh thank god I didn't forget my shoes.

We got to the start early, but less insanely so than usual, got our bibs and chips, and did the usual pre race stuff (bathroom, hang around chatting with people, short warm up).

Photo via the MEC Flikr account. That makes two MEC races where the only photos I appear in were taken while I was hanging around talking to Prasheel pre-race, and shot from behind. If it happens again I'm going to start thinking conspiracy. (If you can't spot me, blue socks and black hoodie on the righthand side of the pic).

MEC races are pretty low key affairs. Bare bones, simple. In fact, they only have chip timing at the finish line, not at the start, which means you don't get a chip time, just a gun time. I had forgotten that until we lined up at the start and I realized that although we were fairly close to the front, I was still going to have a 3 second or so differential that wouldn't be reflected in my official time. D'oh.

Lined up at the start. Reid Coolsaet is up at the front somewhere! My husband had no idea who he was! I'm taking away his Canadian distance runner card!

The race started and immediately went around a corner and across a gravel section of the parking lot? Random. Also kind of sucky. It's kind of a weird course in that it loops around the parking lot and the old campground at Confederation Park - I'm not sure why they don't just run it as a straight up out and back along the Waterfront trail. But I'm not a race director, so I'm sure they have their reasons.

5k Route

We settled into my goal pace pretty quickly - or at least my watch told me it was my goal pace. However, I forgot to take into account bad tangents and the fact that my watch almost always measures everything long (even on training runs, my watch is almost always 100+ meters ahead of everyone else's by the end). Maybe that's my super power, because it happened with my old Soleus watch, too, not just my Garmin.

Annnnnnnnnyway the first 3k felt really good. I couldn't believe how good they felt, in fact.

The last 2k did not feel good.

The last 2k I felt every minute of the 6 days of challenging cycling I'd done before the race.

The last 2k I was mentally consulting divorce attorneys as my husband cheerfully encouraged me to run faster. Curse him with his easy running and obviously not feeling like he was about to die. There would have been a lot more swearing if I had been able to get any oxygen.

Finally, after far too damn long, we crossed the finish line (at which point I forgave my husband and remembered he's pretty awesome). I was both happy to see that my gun time was in fact a new PB, but a little disappointed I wasn't close to 24 flat. The paces I'd been seeing on my watch during the race would have put me right around 24, so I was kind of surprised when we reached the finish to see how far over 24 we were. In a 5k every second counts!

Gun time: 24:28
Overall place: 34/148
Gender place: 8/76

So it was a PB (by 4 seconds!), and while not the size of PB I was hoping for, given how very NOT rested I was going into this, I'm pretty pleased with it.

23:56? Oh Strava, you are definitely my favourite.

And Strava seems to think I did go sub 24, and we all know Strava is what REALLY counts, right? Plus even though it felt like I slowed WAY down in the last km, I only slowed a touch, which is also nice to see.

So, three road races this spring, three new PBs! I really can't complain about that. And really, this last one is gravy, especially since I've done pretty minimal running since the end of March and zero speedwork other than running the 10k at Mississauga.

MEC race perk? Take your bib into the store the day of the race and get 10% off your purchase. Time to stock up on gels and NUUN and Ritter Sport, which are obviously a completely necessary nutritional tool. They have 'sport' right in the name!

Big thanks to my husband for the pacing, and being so supportive of my training!

Next up a couple of cycling events, and then (dramatic pause....) TRIATHLON TIME.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Trainerroad - 8 Days in California 2015

From the challenge info:

What is 8DC?
8 Days in California (8DC) is an indoor cycling challenge. Participants will have eight days to complete eight successive workouts on TrainerRoad, each within their respective time windows.
When riders finish the entire tour, they’ll receive an 8DC Challenge badge for their career page - bragging rights included.

Not mentioned in that description? That the 8 workouts are tough ones. No easy rides here. Sure, 8 straight days of difficult cycling, that sounds like a fun thing to do! Sign me up! I like badges and bragging rights!

(Technically it doesn't have to be 8 straight days - each stage is available for 50 hours, so you can work a rest day in and still finish on time. Going in that was my plan - take advantage of the timing to get a rest day between days 6 and 7)

Stage 1, Sat May 9th - Sprint Stage (1 hour, 15 minutes)

Overall good. FTP felt like it was set about right, with the sub threshold work through the first hour being pretty easy to hold.

Except there was that lovely 10 minutes or so of psychotic sprinting at the end - 5 seconds all out, 10 seconds 'rest' except the rest was close to threshold so not really rest at all, 10 seconds all out, 10 seconds 'rest', 5 seconds all out, 5 seconds 'rest', etc, etc, etc. Brutal. I set new power PBs for every time up to 10 minutes largely based on that lovely little bit of torture.

This was my face just after I finished the final sprint:

OMG what have I gotten myself into???

Oh yeah, this is going to be a fun week.

Stage 2, Sun May 10th: Sprint stage (1 hour, 20 minutes)

A lot more close to threshold time in this one! For the non cyclists, you can see in the graph there's a thicker horizontal line - that represents my Functional Threshold Power (FTP)- the power/effort I could theoretically hold for a 1 hour max effort. Any time you are riding right around that level (like in this ride), it's going to hurt. Toss in the sprints and you have a recipe for fun. Painful fun. I nailed the power targets in this one, which was super satisfying.

QOM polka dot jersey!

I do most of my indoor rides 'on' Watopia, the current location of the virtual Zwift course. It really helps to have the virtual ride to distract me from the pain - and give me targets to chase during the hard bits! On this ride I held the Queen of the Mountain jersey for almost the whole ride, and it was legit because I know there were other women riding this time, not like the first couple of times I got the QOM by default.

Delirious from exercise endorphins.

And because I'm a glutton for punishment, as soon I finished the ride, I changed into my running shoes and did a 2k brick run. I have lost my damn mind with this triathlon stuff, is what.

Stage 3, Mon May 11th - Climbing stage (1 hour, 30 minutes)

This one was a little trickier, what with that 'work' thing I have to do during the week. And those children we have running around that need supervision in the evenings. In order to fit in a 90 minute ride, I had to plan a fast & easy dinner and get on the bike by 6:15 so that I could be wrapped up in time to get the kids to bed.

I pulled it off! This one felt in some ways easier than stage 2, because there were some decently long breaks in between the three main hard efforts. But oh boy did the fatigue build up by the end! The final 10 second sprint was a total fail (missed the power target by 50 watts because my legs just said OH HELL NO), but I got the rest of it nailed pretty well.

Dead sexy sweat covered forehead. That's with THREE FANS blowing on me, too. You don't even want to know what my hair band felt and smelled like after that ride. 

I like the 'shape' of these rides. Trainerroad workouts are usually more regimented (12 minutes on, 5 minutes off, later rinse repeat, and so forth), and these are a little more unpredictable. Makes it feel a little more like riding outside. Nice change of pace.

Stage 4, Tuesday May 12 - Sprint stage (1 hour, 14 minutes)

Halfway! Another fast dinner, get on the bike early sort of evening.

This one looked easier going in - not as much high level sprinting. Of course, then I actually rode it...

Yeah, not so easy. Combination of feeling the fatigue in my legs and the lack of much in the way of rest breaks during the workout. Plus that long threshold bit in the middle was tiring! But I hit the power targets, so success.

Making use of one of my Mother's Day gifts - shaker cup for the post ride protein shake. Although you can tell by the screen behind that I took this shot after day 3, not day 4. BLOG FAKER.

Stage 4 also featured a key component of the challenge - LAUNDRY. I don't own enough bike shorts to get through an 8 day challenge. I should probably go shopping.

Stage 5, Wednesday May 13 - Climbing stage (1 hour, 20 minutes)

For the first time during the challenge my legs were feeling a touch tired when I woke up in the morning. Nothing major but enough to make me think that stage 5 would not be a walk in the park. So very very spiky looking. Eeep.

But, this one turned out to be relatively easy. Relatively. The first 30 minutes or so every time it went above threshold I wasn't sure I'd make it, but then during the final sprint I realized there was pretty minimal hard stuff left and I cruised through the finish.

The amount of technology needed for these rides is getting a bit out of control.

Stage 6, Wednesday May 14 - Individual time trial (50 minutes)

Short one! But the shape of it looked suspiciously like an FTP test, so I was a bit worried this was going to be super painful. That's a long time to spend over threshold on tired legs!

However, no problem. Even had energy to spare at the end of the threshold work (although I resisted the urge to burn it all off completely). I think I'm going to have to retest my FTP once I've recovered. This indoor training really works if you put in the time and effort - I'm now easily holding power numbers for 20 minutes that I couldn't touch for longer than a minute or two back in January!

I'm totally going to pull this off! YES!

Friday - rest day

Kind of goes against the spirit of the challenge, but it's within the rules and since I had a 5k race Saturday morning where I was going to try for a PB, rest was the best option.

"Ride me....c'mon you know you want to...."

I was a little surprised, though, at how freaking GOOD I felt on Friday. Full of energy. No tiredness in my legs at all. What??? Six days of challenging workouts and I’m feeling amazing??? Not exactly what I was expecting, but I’ll take it!

Stage 7, Saturday May 16 - Climbing stage (Queen stage) (1 hour, 40 minutes)

The big one. Compounded by having run the aforementioned 5k race in the morning (race report coming shortly on that).

1 hour 15 minutes is the moment I cracked. Just couldn't hold the power targets after that. To be honest I'm surprised I got that far - my heart rate was way high during the initial threshold work and I was half expecting to crack a lot earlier! Without the 5k race in the morning I think I could have made it through the whole thing on target. Or maybe even if I'd had more than 2 1/2 hours in between the race and getting on the bike.

Had one of the kids grab my camera and take a picture right after the final sprint to the finish. I was a little gassed...

Stage 8, Sunday May 17 - Sprint Stage (1 hour, 5 minutes)

This one looked awful. One aim of this challenge is to explore your weaknesses, and quick sprints are probably my biggest one. And this one looked to have approximately infinity of those.

SO MUCH SPRINTING. Coach Chad (who designs all the trainerroad workouts) is really mean. They just went on forever. This was painful, but I made it through.

VICTORY! Kinda hard to do that properly with that bit of important basement structure in the way.  Close enough.

So was it worth it? Absolutely. I won't know for sure until I retest my FTP next week (after I've recovered!), but I sure feel like I made some gains over this week. The 'time trial' in stage 6 in particular was illuminating, in terms of me being able to hold a high for me power number for a long time without feeling like it was super difficult.

Would I do it again? Yes. No question. If it fits into my schedule next year I would absolutely do it again. Just the kind of challenge I like - the time commitment isn't unreasonable, it's totally scaled to your personal ability level, and it's surprisingly fun! I haven't really commented on the storyline, but there's a whole story included, where you are a rider who is trying to win the 8DC stage race, and I quite enjoyed following the story along with the workout.

And I got a virtual trophy, and if I've learned anything from being on Strava, it's that I loves me some virtual trophies.

And now a bit of a rest week before official training for my A race starts. And food. So much food.