Training in Kentucky...

I had an awful sleep last night. Normally I sleep well in hotels, but I haven't for the last two nights. I probably got to bed at 4 am and woke up at 8:30 am. I was going to try to sleep longer but decided it was probably best to get up and keep on a regular schedule. After breakfast I went to the YMCA and did 2000 meters in the pool. I love doing 2000 meters, it doesn't feel like a workout anymore. It feels like a nice easy swim.

When I got back to the hotel, my rented race wheels had arrived. They came a day early. I went to a local bike shop and had them put them on my bike. I was curious to see what $2000 wheels felt like. Are they really faster? My plan was to go for a bike ride from the transition zone at the race site and go for 90 minutes. Once I got to the transition area, I realized that the roads that we were going to ride on were really busy with traffic. I decided not to go on that part of the course and decided to drive the course until I found an area that wasn't too busy. As I drove, the course was pretty flat for the first 20 km, I was actually surprised how flat it looked. Then I started a climb and the terrain was never flat again, it was rolling after rolling after rolling.

I ended up driving to La Grange and decided I was going to do my ride from there. I really wanted to feel what the hills felt like, as it is difficult to really understand the scope of the hills without actually riding them on the bike. For the first part of the ride it was fairly tough. It was around 29 C and windy. I was going into the wind for the first half. It wasn't hard to keep hydrated because the heat and humidity made me thirsty often. I don't think I went 15 minutes without having a drink of water.

The first thing I noticed on the ride was that the wind was blowing me around. The new wheels were catching the cross and head wind and I had to work hard to keep my wheel straight. But then there was times when I was going down a hill or feeling strong that I felt the wheels were actually making me go faster. For the entire ride I kept my heart rate at 134 bpm or lower. This was to be a moderate ride and I was determined not to go harder. There was some hills, where to keep my heart rate down, I had to go to the smallest gears and go slow. I was quite surprised when I got to the turnaround point and was averaging 30 kph. On the way back I got the benefit of the wind. I was feeling good and the wheels were feeling good. I ended up finishing the ride at an average speed of 32.0 kph. It was the same speed that I did in the pre-race ride in Florida. I hope this is a good omen, as I averaged 36.1 kph at the Florida half Ironman.

After the ride, we headed back to the hotel and had some beers. It is the fourth day in a row that I've had a few beers after training. I feel strong again. I really think that, for me, beer is energy and power. Especially after seeing the speed of today's ride. I'm also feeling healthy again and Alice keeps feeding me the Cold FX.