It took me a solid 5-6 days to recover from the Boise 70.3 race. Not my normal recovery from a Half Ironman but then again I've never raced that fast or in such tough conditions. I finally started to feel good again the middle of last week. It was still a fairly light week from a volume and intensity standpoint but I had some really good training. I had a solid hard run mid-week with 30 minutes of running in the mid 6 minute range. I was throwning down some of my fastest short swim intervals ever and I had a great ride and a good run this weekend.
I was down in the Gorge this weekend as my girlfriend had a outrigger canoe race. Outrigger and long course triathlon spectating are very similar. The start and finish are really exciting and then there is a lot of waiting in between. As I had a longer ride to do we agreed that I'd go ride while she was getting ready for her race and racing. We were at Rooster Rock State Park which is just a couple miles east of Corbett, Oregon. This is an area of the Gorge I've never ridden in so it would be more of an exploration day. My goal was to find the old Columbia River Hwy and ride along it. After checking with the ranger I found that the only access would require going on Interstate 84 a few miles either direction. I had hoped to stay off the interstate but sucked it up and rolled west the 3 miles to Corbett where I exited and found that immediately I had a 1.5 mile climb up 1000 feet just to get the blood pumping.
Once up the climb I found the old highway and followed it to the Vista House and overlook and then plunged down through some old growth forest on a road that felt more like a tunnel than a highway. At several points the road literally goes under this cool outcropping of rock. I wish I had brought my camera but I didn't so you'll just have to trust me it was very cool. I rode the old highway which is pretty much flat past a number of state parks and trailheads before finding that the road dumped me back on the highway, so I turned around and rode back.
On the way out I had noticed a road that said Larch Mountain and indicated it was 14 miles. I had thought I'd ride back up to that branch in the road an ride up the Larch Mountain road to round out my ride. On the climb back up to Vista House I was able to look out to the river and see the canoe race shortly after it had started. So I did a little spectating of the race which was a bonus (of course I couldn't tell one boat from another from that far away). At the turn up to Larch Mountain I was curious what this section of road would be like. As it turns out the name doesn't lie it takes you right up to the top of Larch Mountain which I found was a nearly 4,000 foot climb. It ranged between 5% and 11% but mostly in the 6-7% range.
Larch Mountain Ride Profile
I didn't think about it until I was about 2 miles from the top of the climb but I had ridden the entire ride in my big chain ring. My turnover wasn't fast but it was very consistent and smooth and the bike was really moving. A year ago or even a couple months ago there would have been no way I would have been able to ride in the big ring up a climb like this. Apparently this is a pretty popular ride as I passed about two dozen other riders on the climb and I was going much faster than most. The road was in really great condition and there were few cars. At the top I took a minute to refuel and then I was off for the bombing descent. This is the reward for alll the climbing and I love to descend. I really flying holding mid to upper 40 mph range. I had been passed by a rider descending while I was climbing about a mile from the top and about half way down from the top I came flying up behind him. He was down in the tuck position going fast and I flew by him and I think I spooked him a bit as it wasn't a slow roll by and I certainly don't think he expected to be caught and passed by anyone on a bike. I finished off ride back to the park on the interstate but I really didn't want to be on there and was rolling fast at 30mph average. I'm really feeling like my bike fitness is coming around. We'll see in a couple weeks at Vineman.
After a night of a few margaritas at the little mexican restaurant in Stevenson and sleeping at the fairgrounds while the wind howled I got up and hit the road for a nice 1:40 run. This was along Highway 14 which wasn't too bad but there were a few sections where there wasn't a lot to shoulder thankfully there weren't a lot of cars. I felt pretty good after my long slow aerobic run. I'm looking forward to another couple of weeks of hard training before Vineman.
I need to give a shoutout to James who is one of the athletes I coach who raced in some tough conditions at Buffalo Springs 70.3 this weekend. He had a pretty good race overall finishing up in 4:46. Best of all he's getting much more balanced in his race effort and it's paying off, I think he even had a half IM run PR of 1:39. Patience, hard work and consistency is a recipe for success.
This coming week. Sunshine, lots of training, work, the beach, watching fireworks from the rooftop of the houseboat. Happy Independence Day holiday.
Here are a few pics from the race in Boise this weekend.
Early miles of the bike
The state of the weather for the day!!!
Running hard at mile 8.
Finally at the line in 4:40:52
I've been surprised by how sore I've been this week after racing in Boise on Saturday. Even today some 4 days after the race I'm still pretty sore. Normally I'm sore for a day or so after a half IM but this time I'm still feeling it. I think there were a couple of culprits this time.
First the cold, even though it was really cold being wet for so many hours really takes a lot of extra energy maintain warmth and I was pretty shaky by the time I got back to my hotel and into the hot shower, pretty sure I had early stages of hypothermia and I know I wasn't alone.
Second I worked pretty damn hard out there. I swam hard, biked hard and ran hard and all that effort took it's toll. This is not to say I haven't worked hard in other races I know I was pushing the whole way this time.
Third I wore new shoes. Not just new shoes but a new brand and model of shoe. First off I'll say I really like these shoes but all shoes have a slightly different slip last and density and that changes the way your foot strikes, rolls and pushes off and that can very slight change can cause you to use slightly different muscles. In this case my lower calves have been really sore and that isn't something that normally gets sore for me. So I think it's the shoes. The shoes by the way are the KSwiss K-Ona. They are very comfortable, light in short they rock now I just need to get some more miles on them so my legs are used to them.
Overall I was really stoked with my race. It was a very consistent performance across all three disciplines which is nice not having to worry about making the race in one discipline. How even was it? I was 79th overall in the swim, 93rd overall on the bike and 68th overall on the run (out of 1500 starters and 1186 finishers and that includes 33 pro's).
Biggest surprise was my swim. This was a huge improvement relative to other half IM and IM races in terms of placement. I don't think I've ever cracked the top 200 overall in the swim. The bike left me scratching my head a bit. 93rd overall fastest bike is good but posting a 2:32 I would have expected it to be a higher placement overall, but to be fair it's my second fastest half IM bike split ever in really bad conditions and I really haven't come on form on the bike yet this year so the skies the limit on the bike. My run time was also really solid and I was a bit suprised that I was only 68th fastest run, but a 1:30:48 half marathon is solid and I felt like this was the first time I was actually racing the run (negative split the run by about a minute) so I'll take it.
This week it's some recovery time no real hard or long running just some shorter swims and a long bike this weekend. Then I start to ramp into another build cycle next week heading towards Vineman 70.3 in 4.5 weeks. If I can put together another even and strong effort at Vineman I think something in the 4:30 range is very possible. As always I will take what the day gives me at least I won't be wading through 12 waves of competitors as my group goes off second at Vineman.
I'm off to Boise tomorrow evening for Saturday's Boise 70.3. I'll be stopping in Hood River tomorrow night and continuing on to Boise on Thursday. Looking forward to testing the legs for real this season.
It may be an interesting race as they've had flash floods lately and the forecast is for rain and thunderstorms on Saturday with temps in the mid to upper 70's. An afternoon start may not great timing with thunderstorms but it is what it is. I'm one of the last waves to go off so I don't think I start until almost 3pm, that should be a new experience as least I don't have to get up in the middle of the night.
Swim and bike workouts have been good lately and my run has been solid so it's time to put it all together and have a good day. I've been feeling a little icky the last day or so by I think it's just allergies acting up.
I hope to be posting updates from the trip and the road so check back.
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