Today was a "huge" training day for a Friday and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fit it all in. In order to do so, I had to get up a 6:00 am to be on my bike early to do my 3.5 hour bike ride. Before I left home I made myself a large pancake just to power me through the session. The ride started out normal until the 10 minute point. Just as I turned down number one side road, which is extremely hilly and is a sustained incline, a cyclist turned on the road and was now behind my by about 250 meters. I could tell he wanted to track me down, so I turned on the power and went hard up the hills. When I got to the top, I could tell that I dropped him, although my heart rate was in the high 150's. I then decided to take it easy and then he showed up again. So I dropped him again, but I put my heart rate into the 150's when it should not have exceeded 139 bpm.
After I officially dropped him, I was concerned that nothing happens to me on this ride, especially this close to Ironman. I was going around all corners slow as I didn't want to catch gravel and wipe out. As I went down one road I could see in the distance a runner who had two big dogs with her, neither of them on leashes. As I got closer I noticed one of them was a big doberman pincher. I rode to the other side of the road and as I went by I went faster so the dog would have a tough chance to catch me. I turns out that it didn't matter, I could tell the dog was really tired from the run and wasn't going to be chasing anyone. One disaster avoided.
Later on in the ride, a bee or wasp or some large bug, flew into my face with force and got caught between my glasses and my face. I was a little panicked and was trying to brush it away as quickly as possible, as I didn't want to get stung. Another disaster avoided. Then I was riding over a one lane bridge and a pick up truck came storming trough, giving me very little room, but I was able to make it through. Another disaster avoided.
The worst happened at the 3 hour mark of the ride. For no reason my heart rate went from the 130's to the 150's and would not come down for the balance of the ride. I had no core body strength and no matter how slow I went it would stay high. This had happened to me once before, but it only lasted for about 15 minutes then it went down to normal. Of course with 20 minutes left in the ride, I passed another cyclist and 5 minutes later I could see that he was trying to catch me. He was starting to close in, so I started to go hard and dropped him. Just when I figured he was gone, he tried to catch me again, so I had to drop him again. I'm sure this wasn't a good thing to do with my heart rate so high, but my competitive juices against traditional cyclists is greater than using my better judgement. I ended up riding 107.5 km and averaging 30.7 kph.
When I got home, I felt bad. My standing, resting heart rate was around 127 bpm. I made sure I had protein whey and I ate and drank water. Afterwards for lunch, I even picked up a huge chicken pita sandwich. In some ways it felt like a "bonk", as my face was hot, but in others it didn't, as I wasn't tired or sore. I was fully functional with no energy in my chest area.
After work I put on my heart rate monitor and my heart rate was in the low 50's and when I sat on the couch it was as low as 43 bpm, which is really low for me and tells me I'm doing well. Although my face was still "red hot", my heart rate was saying that I was okay. I ended up going for a 40 minute run and my heart rate stayed low. Most of the run was under 130 and I ended up running at a 8:28 pace. When I got home from the run, my face was no longer "hot". About an hour and a half later I went for a 2000 meter swim and it went well, my fastest 100 meters was 1:49. It was an easy effort swim, although I could tell I did not have the core / chest strength that I normally do. At the end of the day, I was able to fit in my 5 hours of training.
I did end up having two beers. One before the swim, and one after the swim. I was really craving the taste and I was starting to think that maybe my issues are because I changed my diet in the past two weeks and cut out beer. I'm looking forward to getting to bed early tonight because I haven't had many sleeps over 7 hours this week and I need at least 8 hours per day. Today was my last day of work until after the Ironman, so I'm going to really focus on getting sleep and recovery.
I also noticed, coming back from my swim, that the front tire on my bike is flat. I think I need to change the tire as it is getting worn out. This is now my 5th flat of the year, easily a new record. The good news was that on my run, my calf and my blister caused me no problems. Plus, I did two triathlons this week, and this is part of my taper.
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