Week of April 23, 2007 - Deschutes TT Festival

Are they calling it a "festival" to make it sound fun? Maybe, maybe not, but at any rate it was! Details to follow after I tell you about the fun runs I did all week!

Monday:
Lunch run of 2 easy, 2 steady with 8*30sec pickups to 6min pace, 1 mile cool down (40mins)
PM swim: WU: 1000E, 300K ,MS: 3*300S (R60) CD: 200 back/br, Total --- 2400 (40mins)
Bike: Since I was running to work tomorrow for my long run, I mapped out a route on Gmaps and double checked it on my bike as my workout and ride home. I left my car at 24 LO. I warmed up and did a few 30s hard efforts on the bike. I should have felt better on the hard efforts, but the legs weren't there...probably from the extra run distance yesterday. At any rate, i mapped an 18 mile route from home to my car for my morning run...

Tuesday:
Woke up at the crack of dawn to run to work. Go thing I had no car, otherwise I would have driven and then my day would be all fucked up! I ate and went back to sleep...got up again about 6ish and got going. I ran into downtown, up Terwilliger over to Tryon Creek and around Lake Oswego via SouthShore and up to Boones Ferry @ 24 Hour. The only exciting part about my run is stopping at the 3rd Starbucks (of 6 I passed) and getting an espresso shot and cinnamon roll. I figure if Dean Karnazes can order and eat a whole pizza while on training runs (like 100 milers) I can eat a pastry and run too! Take that! I was dying, needed food anyway. I made it to my car 2.5 hours later... off to work!
Lunch time came fast and I went to swim: 4*300, 3*800 (desc, paddles, swim), 400k, 400 with 4 pickups, 200E - 4600 (75mins)
And you thought that was it...nope, I did another little 40min run in the evening. These never go well and this was no exception.

Wednesday:
Swim: Headed to Hagg Lake for a nice dip in the freezing as lake. Bill rode out to meet me and swim too. We swam for about 25 mins. It wasn't nearly as cold as in previous years I've been out there, but still very cold.
Bike: Rode twice around Hagg (22 miles) and kept a steady HR of 135 which was easy on the all the hills and the feet warmed up about and hour into the ride. Good times!

Thursday:
Took the day off thinking I was going to get a 6 hour ride in...not exactly. I did my morning 50min run (6miles) and decided to head out in the nice weather for a ride. My rear hub started to make god-aweful noises above 20 mph. Not good. I went to Gateway Bikes, they tighted the cassette down, didn't fix it. Rode to Cyclepath, Bill opened the hub, lubed it...might have fixed, but I quit riding after that. I rode home, defeated and tired. I got 3 hours of riding in 6 hours...oh well...it was a big weekend.

Friday:
Lunch swim: 3000 yards (60mins)
After my swim I eft work and went home to pack my shit for the weekend in Maupin. The Deschutes River Valley Time Trial Festival - 40k, 8m Uphill and 50m time trials in two days! I did this last year as well. This year I was hoping for some faster times since I am 30 days out of IM, rather than 120 days out...
Once in Maupin and checked in, I decided to ride the 40k course and "make-up" some of the lost ride time from yesterday...very windy out...took about 1:45ish to ride it.

Saturday:
Two TTs today - 40k inthe morning and the 8 mile uphill in the afternoon. The plan is to run after each, 4 miles and 7 miles.
The 40k - Last years times was 1:08:47 (165avg HR)...this year was 1:09 (163avg HR). Good? Bad? Good becaseu my PR was less as well as my HR. Not faster, but oh well. The real good comes when I ran afterwards...it felt 1000 times better than last year. That is really good.
The 8 Mile - 1800' gained, avg 4% grade. It felt like there was a larger tailwind this year and I bested last years time by over 90 secs. That's pretty good considering, hill workouts for me are none existant. Brazil is flat... Canada was not. 7 mile (60min) afterward was a bit harsh. I was down on nutrition for the run...had to stop for a bit at the turn around to gain composure. Return was better.

Sunday:
Only one today - a 50 miler which is nearly 25 mile up and then a return descend...not really.
This would be the true test of my endurance and strength this season. The plan was to cap my HR at 160 and average 140-150. I spent nearly the first three miles at 160 beats, then backing off to 150. It would level off then climb and repeat. My climbing legs weren't there, but i never felt like i was working very hard either. Then came the descent with a huge headwind which didn't make it very hard to keep my HR @ 150 for the rest of the TT. My glutes really started screaming now. They were yelling before, but now more than ever. All the aero climbing was adding up, plus not having enough time in aero period. I ended up passing 5 or 6 guys in the last 2 miles, not becaseu I was pushing it, but because they weren't the best decenders on TT bikes. There were some sweet switchbacks. 47 miles to have 2 miles of fun! My HR average 150, down 5 beats from last year and I took off 2 minutes...not earth shattering, but good. Again my raun afterwards was 1000 times better than last years Trun. I did only do 4 miles, not 6 liked planned, but I had already done a 6er yesterday.

So, festival, huh? Not so much. But it was fun and I will be back next year. Again I came in 4th out of 8...in Cat 4.

4th place
Stage #1 1:09:03
Stage #2 0:33:05
Stage #3 2:15:31
Total time: 3:57:39

Actual Time 21:13
Planned Time 24:20
Swim Distance 10000 yd
Bike Distance 125 mi
Run Distance 54.5 mi
Race Distance 84.4 mi