taper week 1

After Saturday's brick, it was time for some serious chillin'. Sunday we were planning to do nothing, but got so hot it was time to go swim at Mahukona. It was supposed to be a mellow snorkel swim, but got caught in a fairly intense current on the way back and ended up swimming way harder than I wanted to! HEY!
Monday we did nothing much except hike down to Pololu and play in the waves there a bit. Seem incapable of doing NOTHING active around here.
Tuesday was a 55 minute run with 20 minutes at low z4. Ran towards Hawi and back. My body was VERY resistant to getting my heart rate up. When I was running 'easy' I was going SO slowly.. nothing hurt, and I had enough food and water, and I wasn't too hot, but I felt just lethargic and like all I wanted to do was stop! At about 30 minutes I turned around, and a cooling headwind gave me some energy, which was good because I needed to start my 20 minute higher intensity section. Ran pretty hard and felt much stronger during this part.
Wednesday morning I got a new back bike wheel : enough of this broken spoke bullshit! Then went to Hapuna to swim and ride.
The swim was nice, about 40 minutes with 4x4 minute higher intensity intervals. Worked on form and felt pretty good.
Then it was time to ride, again 55 minutes with 20 minutes z4. Rode south from Hapuna to about the Waikoloa and back. Had the same experience with the run the day before -- my body just DIDN'T want to get going! It was made more difficult by a tough headwind the first 25 minutes or so. Again, however, once I turned around and started my higher intensity section I still wanted to stop but at least I was able to pick it up and ride stronger. The tailwind helped! Got back much faster than I went out, and felt more energized. rode about 15 miles.

last weekend's BRUTAL BRICK

So this was our last big brick before the TAPER, and it's as close as we're going to get to doing the actual race until race day. Started out with 'ride the entire course', so we did! The course is a total of 56 miles, starting at Hapuna, heading south to the Mauna Lani, and then all the way north to Hawi and back to the Mauna Lani. We simulated this last 4.5 miles by going south past the Mauna Lani at the beginning (since we were returning to Hapuna.) The ride went pretty well for me -- I just bought a water bottle with eye-pokey straw (not really, just looks that way) which sits in my aerobars, and having water so easily in reach was really nice. Felt pretty strong and right on track all the way up to Hawi and back down, but at some point I started to feel pretty worked, maybe 10-12 miles from the end. It was disturbing to me to feel so drained, nothing was hurting, I had enough "food" and water on me, and it was hot but not TOO bad. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I just couldn't get it going.
Sure enough, when I returned, I'd broken ANOTHER spoke! This time I didn't even hear anything. It made me feel tougher (if frustrated) to have done the whole ride with god knows how many miles of my rear brake rubbing against the wheel. I finished the total ride in 3 hours 33 minutes, and I KNOW I'll do it faster in the race, especially without broken spokes!
By this point it was about 11:45, and brutally hot. The idea for the run was to do 1:45, which I suppose I did, but I only got to the end of Puako road and back since I had to stop and walk for about 12 minutes, all told. I also took a detour to a small beach to try to put some water on my head (managed to dunk my shoes by accident, as well), and another to the Puako boat ramp to drink some water out of a hose faucet. No pain in my leg, or if there was, I didn't notice, because of the misery I was feeling being so hot. FINALLY got back and was SO relieved to be done. Thank god for visions of aid stations with ice and buckets of cold water for me to dump on my head at the race, EVERY MILE if I want!

biggest brick EVAR

Well, it was certainly the longest and hardest brick I've ever done.
For our first section, we were to ride three hours and spend an hour of that ride at race pace. I wanted to do almost the whole course by turning and heading down to the Mauna Lani from Hapuna and then back up the way the course actually is, but unfortunately I discovered the night before that I'd left my running shoes at home, so instead, I got to bike all the way to Ainakea! This actually turned out to be almost the same mileage as the other boom kings did, but I believe it may have taken me longer because the headwind from Puakea Ranch (about 3 miles uphill from Mahukona) all the way through Hawi and Kapa'au was pretty harsh. This particular ride was different and special for me because I got aerobars on Friday, and was able to try them out for the first time. I really love how much they get me out of the wind, and especially how they give me a different position for my shoulders to hang out in on these longer rides. I was really comfortable in them almost right away, going downhill and on straightaways and shallow uphills, although I did notice I got a bit swervy a couple times because steering from out there is just different.
The first part of my ride (the way I break it down in my head) was Hapuna to Mahukona, which I did in 57 minutes, 4 minutes faster than the week previous. About 25 minutes into the ride I started my 1 hour race pace, which left me right about at the top of the hilly section when my time was up. The journey through town to my house and back took a bit over 30 minutes, and then I turned around and headed back to Hapuna. I used the aerobars enough in the wind that my neck and triceps started to get sore, in the 'hey I'm not used to working this hard!' kind of way. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
About 2:30 into my ride, I felt a bit hungry and realized I was out of gel-food. Dang! Started to feel pretty low energy, and I think it slowed me down a bit, although I never fully bonked. Next time I think I'll bring a clif bar too, since I scarfed one down as soon as I got back to the car! Total ride time: 3:08, total miles ~50, which puts me at about 16.4mph average.
Then it was time for 1:20 run with 35 minutes at race pace. As is usual when I run after riding for so long, I only had a momentary twinge in my knee and then my leg felt fine the rest of the run. I was still a little lightheaded from not eating in time for the the first 10 minutes or so, but then felt pretty strong all the way into Puako, and made it all the way to the end of the road for the first time! However, when I turned around it was pretty hot and the wind had died down, so I started having a bit of trouble with heat. I powered through it, as this time I'd actually brought enough water, and managed to pull off my :35 at race pace coming back through Puako. Right about when I was done with that section I had to stop and walk a couple times because of heat, but I still made it back in the same amount of time it took me to go out. Total run time 1:25, and the distance to the end of the road in Puako is almost exactly 8 miles, so that puts me at about 10.5 min/miles. Still would like to be faster than that, but it seems like every time I do this run I do it a bit faster than the last time.
The last mile was REALLY hard. I was TRASHED when I got to the beach. But a quick swim in the ocean and a big Mexican meal in Kawaihae fixed me right up. Feeling fine today, and feeling like a badass in general. GO TEAM BOOM KING!