Monday, March 26, 2007

All Systems Are Go!

Sunday topped off a really good and strong training week along with culminating in my longest training regime before the Challenge. I had great run times and strength workouts and felt in the groove throught all my training routines. Run times on the flats were down to near 7:30 miles and even the weight training was hitting bigger weights with more ease. No doubt I'm reaching peak.

This Sunday I put in a full-on preview of the Challenge to come: a 20 mile run from Del Valle to Sunol followed by road bike ride back to Del Valle (32 miles).

Last week's lessons learned on climbing up out of the incredibly deep canyons between Del Valle and Rose Peak paid off. I added 15 minutes to the climb time by reducing the intensity, but made up for it by having a lot more gas on the flats, smaller climbs and descents. I felt really good all the way through the run. I even learned that a little Turkey Jerky (in prepping for the next portion of the routine) actually went down well and helped replenish the fuel fairly effectively and enjoyably.

I do have to say though that the long East to West from Del Valle to Sunol descent sucks compared to the longer climb/shorter descent of the West to East route --its tough on the quads and knees. I think I prefer the latter. I reached Sunol in 3:56 after 20 miles--almost exactly to the minute as projected.

"The Veep" was joining up with me with our bikes to ride back to Del Valle. Unfortunately due to my miscommunication he was at the south instead of the north end of the park so I added on another 3/4 mile run to get to our hook up. A quick change into riding togs and we were off.

The ride back was for the most part rather flat and a moderate pace was the agreed upon order of the day (we wound up averaging a comfortable and easy 16mph). The Veep and I took turns pulling each other but damned if that wind wasn't in our faces nearly the whole way REGARDLESS of the direction we took. Fueling and hydrating went pretty well and I felt strong enough to reel in a couple of riders on some climbs and flats (my type A in action). But the big hill from Mines Road to the top of the park road into Del Valle loomed large in my mind. It's a big climb from bottom to top over about 2 miles and is a regular training ride for many Tri-Valley cyclists. But, 5 1/2 hours into the routine, with only a half hour to go, I could feel the cummulative impact of exercise on dehydration and hunger setting in. So I downed as much water as possible and threw down my last power bar and bit of turkey jerkey in hopes that it would keep my pump primed.

A mile from the hill, I forewarned The Veep that from here on it was everyman for himself and that I was going to go "down within" and focus on nothing but cadence and endurance for the next few miles. The climb did not disappoint my anxiety. It was a gruelling finale to the run/ride. For nearly two miles the hill is unrelenting in its grade--steep. I alternated between grinding it out in 1st gear in the saddle and popping up to 3rd and going out of the saddle. I'm sure I was well into the 170bpm range but carried the hill at an average of 7mph to the much welcomed top. But of course, there was a head wind much of the climb as the approaching front brought in some brisk winds out of the south east. It even knocked 10mph off the descent speed!

Just 6 hours later--4 hours of running and 2 hours of riding-- I was done. To cap it off, I was denied a nap that afternoon in punishment, I'm sure, for being a bit tardy on my return. Still even today I feel pretty good and only a little sore in the knees and quads from the run.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Ouch!

Sunday was a tough day. I had an 18 mile trail run and 20 mile bike ride scheduled. So, I decided to preview the Challenge course by starting at the Del Valle lake trailhead (600') and heading up to Rose Peak (3890'). Why I thought this route was going to be easier than going West to East is beyond me.

In fact, it really sucked. I went from Right to Left on this picture. And it felt that steep too. The first 1:10 I ran probably all of 15 minutes and hiked the rest. Straight up, it felt. And even on the hike-a-run portions I was redlining into anaerobic levels. I reached my 9.2 mile halfway point in 2:20 and I was pretty ragged . The descent back was tough, as well, given the steepness of the pitch. Two miles into my descent back into Del Valle I came up on 3 runners ascending on their through run to Sunol. One was a woman in her late 50's who is running the Western States 100 miler. She had my instant respect. The Western has 18,000 feet in elevation gain over 100 miles. I took some consolation in the fact that she looked as tired as I felt. Bless her heart, though...she thought I was Graham Cooper, winner of last year's Western States--who ran the 100 miles in 18:17. Wow.

I finished up the 18.4 mile run in 3:58. The first 7 miles are a killer and I'm going to have to find a way to slow up and pace them right EVEN ON THE WALK if I'm going to finish all 28 miles with power for the the 35 mile ride. Next week, I get to test out lessons learned as I'll be doing 22 miles the "hard way".

A quick drive back home and a quick bite to eat before finishing up the program with a 20 mile ride. Despite the run, I still had some juice in the tank but fueling the engine proved to be another lesson to consider. I put in a good 17.5mph average pace ride on a simi-hilly route but I could tell I was burning lean. By the time I got home again, I was famished. This despite constant fueling on the run, a quick lunch, and a gel on the 1:10 ride.

I'm now thinking this will be a 5:15-5:30 run and 2:15 ride. This ain't going to be as easy or as fast as I thought.

This coming Sunday is the last big push before I taper off for the Challenge. It'll also give me one more data point to fine tune the run/ride estimate.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Time Flies

Yeesh! Two weeks since my last post! That should indicate the state of madness in my life right now. As faithful readers know, we're moving to a new madhouse. So, the last 4 days were filled with a new stressful training program comprised mainly of unloading and spreading 2 tons of 1/4 x dust rock and a ton of yard bark. My abs, obliques, and shoulders are now in stunning condition. They also hurt.

And the madness continues on the training front for the Challenge. This last Sunday wrapped up 2 fast weeks (running times that is) with a 20 mile run plus 15 mile ride...the hard way. I spent 2:15 climbing up the Ohlone Trail from 390 feet to Rose Peak at 3890 followed by 1:30 descent back to the trail head. I gotta say I felt pretty strong despite what was a brutal climb. I then did a short ride up Calavaras Road to the top and back down. I gotta say I didn't feel so damn strong. Note to self: fuel is going to be critical when I get ready to transition to bike. I settled the hydration problem from last ride by keeping on my running pack and bladder. Next problem to solve is replenishing enough carbs for the ride. Still, it was a good training day. Compared to last week's 16 mile climb/descent and 20 mile ride, I came home and an afternoon siesta was more optional than mandatory.

Lots of new lessons learned. But, there is no doubt this is going to be a real tough challenge to pull off. I'm closing in on the time estimates for the 100K Challenge. I think the 28 mile run (which will cover about 7,800 of climbing) will be 4.5 hours and the 35 mile ride will be somewhere in the 2 hour range. If I start off at 6am that should have me finishing at VMS around 12:30.

Oh, you thought it was 55 miles total? Heh! Nope, we're going for 100km+ here, folks!