Sunday, June 20th
Travel day to Appleton, WI for work. DAY OFF.
Monday, June 21st
Hello beautiful Appleton Wisconsin! I was afraid that the 94% humidity was going to put a “damper” on my training, but it was actually a nice change from the dryness of the desert. The day started off around 5:15AM (3:15AM Arizona time) with a nice mellow 11 mile run (my longest run to date!). Since I didn’t know the area, I didn’t have a planned route. Instead, I took my hand held Garmin GPS on a 5.5 mile out and back. Once I was off the main road, the scenery basically followed this pattern:
1) Farm
2) Farm
3) Dairy Farm
4) Farm
5) Farm
Hardly any traffic, relatively no pollution, new scenery, and a new adventure are all things that led this to be one of my most memorable runs to date. I’m not sure how long it took me, or what my pace was, but I really didn’t care. I just wanted to get some miles under my shoes and to enjoy the morning.
About an hour later, Brad met me at Todd’s house for a 60(ish) mile road ride to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. We were to meet up with Todd, who was racing stage 5 of the Tour of America’s Dairyland. It was a 50+ mile road race held on the historic Road America racetrack. The track is just over 4 miles long and has 14 turns. Brad and I set off around 8AM and headed south along Lake Winnebago. We ended up riding on part of a half Ironman course that was held the week before. While the ride was mostly flat to begin with, there were countless rollers towards the end that put our legs to task. There was one memorable hill that Brad said I needed to ride. It was straight down and ended in the lake. Since he just finished the Lumberjack 100 Mountain Bike Race (in 8:54:45) the day before, I didn’t give him too much trouble for not taking the climb with me. I pretty much rode the brakes the whole way down to the end. When I turned around, I could barely see Brad at the top. Only thing to do now was to get into the smallest gear and grind it out. What a great training tool! It was awesome. I had to get my picture taken by the warning sign after. Along the route, we safely out-sprinted a dog, moved out of the way of a huge John Deere tractor, and battled head winds the whole way. On the final road to the track, Brad recognized a teammate’s car as it passed us. We were able to get in the slipstream and motor pace for the next several miles. Ironically, this teammate ended up crashing, in his race, later in the day. Anyway, after entering the race track, we immediately put back two bottles of Powerade each, found Todd, ate some protein bars, and headed out on the track to give it a try. It was a fast track that ended with a HUGE climb to the finish. As the pros were lining up, the US National Pro Champion in Criterium, Rahsaan Bahati, came over by us and was making some small talk before taking off. About half way through Todd’s race (the pros were running at the same time), I was through my 2nd or 3rd beer and realized that I was sunburned! Imagine that, I come from Arizona and get burned in Wisconsin. Brad took extreme pleasure when I had to walk over to the medical tent to ask for sun block. Overall, it was a great day that included climbing, wind, intensity, team work, and fun. I was extremely satisfied with today’s workout. Total miles ridden were about 64.
Me, with Todd's bike, at the "Dangerous Hill" sign. The hill can be "seen" just off to my right:
Tuesday, June 22nd
Today only saw a 10 minute spin to Starbucks, for an iced something that Todd ordered, and a 10 minute spin back. I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting when I said, “Make it two”, but all I know is that I rode home with some coffee/chocolate concoction that had whipped cream coming out of the top. It was awesome.
Wednesday, June 23rd
I was able to get a ride to a nearby YMCA (in Greenbay), with a fellow Ironman (Wisconsin) trainee, Cheri. We were able to get in about an hour of pool time before it was back to work. In that hour, I did the following:
4x500 Swim (Mod/Fast) (1:30 RI)
Warm Down – 300 swim
The swim felt fast and smooth and I came away feeling satisfied with the workout.
Thursday, June 24th
Cheri indicated that she had a 6 mile run route planned if I’d like to join. Since I couldn’t ride (no bike and/or time) and I swam yesterday, a run fit in nicely. We ended up doing a mild 5.77 miles. There was no real effort and or “training” going on, rather, just more miles on the legs. That being said, I was relatively satisfied with the run.
After getting back to Appleton, I had access to Todd’s bike again and decided to try and get another ride in. Since Cheri lived close by, she said that she knows a nice 20 mile route. I ended up getting 4 miles in before she showed up, so my total ride was about 24. We didn’t really give it too much intensity and there weren’t any climbs. It was a nice flat moderate paced ride.
Friday, June 25th
Travel day back to Arizona. DAY OFF.
Saturday, June 26th
Our team was riding the Rio Verde loop in reverse and was leaving at 5:30. James, and I, rolled from his house around 5:00AM to try and meet up (we wanted to roll around 4:45, but were running late) We ended up meeting up with two others and set off. Again, at the top of 9 mile Hill, we decided that we needed to get some more miles in. Oh, and we also had to head that way to get home anyway! We ended up netting 82.5 miles that included some good climbs and some nice time trial intervals. I really liked this ride and was very satisfied when I got home.
No comments:
Post a Comment