Saturday, May 28, 2011

No Wine or Whine on this Bike Ride

I've been looking for a flat bike ride to do for my IronMan training in the Bay Area. The Arizona course is pretty flat so I need to work on long distance on a flat course to train a similar style...and build up speed!

A few folks I met mentioned a trail called the Silverado Trail in Napa.....its a non-stop road that goes for 50 miles with very few stop lights or stop signs and traffic is not bad either...Perfect!


So last Sunday it was an early start to drive the 1.5 hours to get here, find a space to park and off we go!

My goal was to increase my speed to a 17 mph average. I chose 17 as it was higher than my current average in the 13 - 16 mph area, seemed reasonable, and was something I heard many IronMan finishers say...so 17 it was.

Summary: Woo hoo did it!!
Completed 50 miles in under 3 hours...and a 17.6 mph average...fantastic!

Elevation gain was interesting and unexpected....but a good time to practice keeping speed on hills...in fact i even tried to increase my pace on a few of them.
Or catch up to someone in front of me! Competitive spirit awakened!!


Food was my standard IronMan perform drink mix - had 2 large bottles that drank 1.5 bottles of, and 1 water that I use to dilute or change the taste in my mouth. I don't drink much but a good back-up.

I ate a pack of the Cola chews I LOVE so much at the turnaround point...here's a photo of me with the wine groves behind me....but no time to whine or drink wine on this trip!



Details of the ride with my personal notes:

Speed: Average speed was 17.6mph, but also happy to see that there were few areas of low speed with only 1 hill dropping below 10mph and the rest keeping in the 14-16 mph range. Trend in 2nd half was faster as pushed myself harder on the way back looking for a negative split in time.

Elevation: Higher than expected overall with the monitor reading 700 ft elevation (but the graph showing 300 (??). Was nice to get these in for practice at hill climbing. There was also a gentle wind that was good practice to pace against.

Heart Rate: Nothing special here in terms of seeing it higher or lower than the average 160-180 range for a higher pace ride. Might think how to decrease this over time and still increase speed.


Final note: did a 10 minute T-run after the bike, shooting pain straight off in the knee. uuuurrrgggghhhh!
This is driving me crazy. Going to book a specialist doctor...but can't get an appointment for 4 weeks!

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