Peaking on the Bike

...That's PEAKing, not PEEing. We clear? Cool. ;-D

On Saturday I had one last hard, long ride to do before tapering. 70 miles, and NOT at an easy pace - high Zone 3/low Zone 4. Ouch. Because I am very slow on the bike, I was going to be out there a while.

How long?



This long. That's five hours' worth of hydration and nutrition. Since this was from my last 70-miler, which was a brick, you also see some fuel for the run (the two Fuel Belt bottles and the Hammer Gel), but you get the idea.

When I got up, the weather was perfect and I was feeling good, so I decided to hurt myself a bit out there. It was two loops down to Wilmington and back with a final loop of the IMLP run course. I was willing to risk having to granny gear the last loop - I wanted to see what I could do.



Ready to rock.

The first loop was easy, of course. I finished with a 14.8 average (yes, almost a MPH faster than two weeks ago), and still plenty in the tank. Dr. Z. hopped aboard for the second loop and I could tell right away he was feeling strong. Because I wanted to push it, I decided that as long as my HR didn't skyrocket I would put on my big-girl panties, loosen my bra, and go with him as long as I could. I was beat by the end of the descent into Wilmington, but I stayed at his well. (And that was with him trying to pull away for the way back since I'm a better climber.) Second ascent back to Lake Placid was taken a bit easier since his back started bothering him, but I still had a 14.8 going.

The last little loop was mine. Only some small rollers aside from Big Nasty and I felt good and mentally strong as well knowing I only had ten left. I cruised it good and even with the climb up Big Nasty actually INCREASED my average to 14.9. The best part? When I logged everything later, I realized that my HR was about the same.

That's right. In two weeks on the same course with similar conditions, I upped my speed by nearly a MPH without really working any harder. My 56 mile time was 8.5 minutes FASTER. Does my coach rule all or WHAT?

So, now feeling great about the bike going into taper. Yay!