With my build block well underway and a 5 weeks of solid swim/run volume it was time for a big bike block (13hours in 6 days). Mentally I was a little concerned about the lower bike volume but every session has been focused on quality and the numbers were looking good for off season base building. Coach re-assured me that my bike fitness would not be a problem and he was right (as usual). Will be interesting to see where my lactate threshold levels are this year compared to last December's baseline test - my guess if a 60-75w increase but we'll have to see what the numbers say. Solid 13 hour block complete over the holidays with a 5K race sprinkled in for fun. Three more build blocks on the bike planned before the end of the February and then we get into race specific work 5-6 weeks out from IM 70.3 Texas. Everything is on track and looking good.
Village 5K Race Report:
I say this all the time but I really hate racing and training in the cold. Well, this race was definitely in the cold category. Doing this race in the middle of a big cycling block I knew my legs would probably be pretty tight/heavy and a good warm-up was warranted. Also, this was an afternoon race which was a little different. I probably ate too much for lunch 3 hours prior so note taken for future late day races. Got in a good warm-up and threw on the K-swiss k-ruuz 1.5 and was ready to rock n roll. The goal was 16:30 but after seeing the course was quite hilly with 2 x 180degrees turns on non-fresh legs I decided sub-17 would be good goal. I really didn't use any strategy for this one just try and go as fast as I could without blowing up mid-race. It looked as though there were a few college XC kids in town for the holidays. One guy got out front and I tried to stay on his shoulder as long as I could but let him go after about 3/4 of a mile (he ended up running a 15:34) and he created a 75M gap pretty quickly. Felt good through the first mile at 5:07 but as soon as we started to hit the uphills my quads got pretty heavy so I decided to try and make up as much as I could on the downhills. I was good through the first 180 turn and then back uphill but saw 2 guys starting to close, same thing at the next turn and then CRAP - caught again at mile 2.5. Two guys gapped my quickly and held pace through the finish to come in about 5 seconds ahead of me. If I could figure out how to race these things a little more efficiently I probably could have held on to second but all in all this is good speed work for the upcoming season. I closed out better than the last 2 races and crossed the finish line in 4th at 16:47 (almost 20 seconds from 3 weeks ago on a similar course).
Time: 16:47
Place: 4th overall / 1s M30-34
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