Easy or Hard????

How should I push myself - Easy or Hard?

I am looking ahead to a couple of organized rides this fall.  The first is put together by our Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) and is called Viva Bike Vegas.  In the past it has been held in October, but this year they moved it up to the Middle of September to coincide with the Gran Fondo Pinarello and Interbike, and it is being held on September 22.  What attracts me to this ride is the opportunity to actually ride the Las Vegas Strip.

The second organized ride is BIKE:MS Vegas Challenge  which will be held November 10 & 11.  Thee are ride options on both Saturday and Sunday and the proceeds of the fundraising go to the National MS society.

Both rides look to be well organized and well run.  They both offer options as to length of ride as well.  Viva Bike Vegas has 4 options 17, 75, 102and 122 miles.  BIKE:MS has 3 options on day 1: Century, Metric Century or 30 miler, and 2 options on day 2: 50 and 30 miles.

This is where the question comes in:  Do I go the easy route and look at the shorter options, or do I really push myself and try for a longer option?  My first instinct has been to ride the 17 mile route for Viva Bike Vegas and the 30 mile on Day 2 of the BIKE:MS. Of course that was before I read some of the recent blog posts by Fatty, Sarah, Fizzhog and Steve.  Now I am starting to question if I should push myself harder.

One huge consideration is my current fitness level, likely quantity of riding to prepare for the events.  Another is whether or not anyone is going to be accompanying me on the ride(s).  I would love to have some company!

OK, I’ve made up my mind and will shortly be putting my money where my mouth is as I actually register for these 2 events.  I am going to do the 17 mile route for Viva Bike Vegas.  If they had a 50 mile route, I would be tempted to do it as it is just after my 50^th birthday, but I think the 17 miler will do nicely.  I’ve also decided to do the 30 mile ride on both days of the BIKE:MS event. (watch for more information so you can donate to help support this great cause)

So, I now have a plan and will ride fairly easy, but tending towards hard as I get more miles under my belt.  Anyone want to join me at either event????

Bicycle Race - what to do????

I've been looking at the calendar and just realized the upcoming Corporate Challenge Bike Race is in just over 2 weeks.  We've gotten confirmation that the course will be between 12 to 14 miles long at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Now, I've ridden at least this far on many occasions but the only time I ever "raced" was during Pumpkinman last October and I have to say I was pretty much on my own there except for those from the longer distances going by me climbing up from boulder beach to boulder City.

I did watch the Coprorate Challenge race last year and know that there will be a mass start and everyone will have to sort themselves out according to their abilities as the race progresses.  What I'm not sure about is how should I attack this race and what strategy should I use over the next couple of weeks to prepare.

My morning training loop is a good one mile loop but it does have a bit of elevation change with about half of it uphill and half down with almost no level ground.  Is this good to practice on since the course at the speedway will be basically flat with the exception of the tunnel and entrance/exit into the speedway itself?

As for the distance I am stepping up my morning routine to 12 miles per day this week and 14 per day next week in preparation for the event.  I also plan on at least one longer ride both this weekend and next in the 16 to 20 mile range.

Does anyone think this is enough or should I do more?  I should put here the disclaimer that by no means do I see myself winning my age group.  I just want to finish and hopefully not be last!

Too Easy

I decided it was time to assess my current swimming ability, so I got up early last Friday and headed over to the Whitney Ranch Indoor Pool at 6:00 am. My thinking was I would jump in and start swimming to see how long it took me to do the 800 yards I would need for the Pumpkinman Sprint Triathlon. I took my watch (with its stop watch feature), got ready, hit the start button and started swimming. I did the first two lengths with no real problem and decided to take it easy. I rested after any length I felt I needed to and completed what I thought were the required number of lengths (16), got out, hit stop on the watch.

I then looked at the time and was amazed that it showed a shade under 24 minutes. Now, I had been looking at the results from last year's Pumpkinman, at the C4097 division in particular. For those who, like me until I looked it up, don't know what that means, it’s the Clydesdale (men over 200 lbs) division for men aged 40 to 97. In last year's sprint there were 11 competitors in this category. Their average time for the swim was 18:19, with the slowest swimmer coming in at 24:19. I thought to myself, boy, this is not bad at all! Here, I hadn't trained for the swim, took several rests and I still beat the slowest time from last year's event for my division.

I was feeling rather positive about my achievement and things were really looking up for the Triathlon if I could do that without training, I should be pretty competitive with it. There was still a nagging doubt, though that I was that fast.

To make a long story short, I finally called the pool, after searching futilely on-line for the length of the indoor pool and my fears were confirmed. I hadn't swum 800 yards in 24 minutes; I had swum 400 yards in 24 minutes! Seems the pool is only 25 yards long and not 50.

Very mixed emotions. I was truly thinking that I had a chance to be competitive in my division until that bit of information came my way. Of course, now I know that I do have a lot of training to do in the pool and lake to get where I want to be.

I do have a race “pace” in my mind, without actually completing the various parts of the course in "race mode." My pre-race thinking is that I hope to finish the swim in 30 minutes or less, finish the bike in around 1:30 or less, and cap it off with the run (ok more of a walk with some intermittent trotting) in about 50 minutes. Throw in around 10 minutes for transitions and I'm hoping to finish the event in less than 3 hours. Seems very reasonable to me, but I have been wrong before!

I have been focusing mostly on the biking portion since it’s the longest and right now, the most fun! From my short rides of late that included a bit of climbing, I feel that I’m in good enough shape right now to complete the bike within the 1:30 target I’ve set for myself. The swim is my current nemesis based upon my results from the pool. Right now I’m thinking its at least 50 minutes based upon my performance. This is where I need to focus over the next few weeks to see if I can’t make a huge improvement. So biking is going to take a bit of a backseat while I work on the swimming and the walking/jogging to see what improvements I can make.