As I reported last week, I am in the midst of not almost, but rather certainly, the most intense training block I’ve ever done preparing for Ironman. Ask and you shall receive. However, this time around prepping for Ironman California I am devoting just as much (or even more) time to my recovery in between workouts in order to stave off any blips in energy, and/or dig myself into a deep, dark hole of exhaustion. Alas, I have a slimmer window of time than usual to write and post the blog this week. Nevertheless, last Saturday I rode the best bike ride of my life, and I think it deserves some attention.
The reason why this particular 120 bike ride was so special, was that nothing was special about it all.
It was simply the product of putting in the work, year after year, and allowing myself to push against my limits a little more every ride that provided the opportunity to experience a life-changing ride like this one. In essence, my over decade’s long determination/stubbornness to improve as a cyclist is starting to pay off.
The Saturday prior, September 25th, I was assigned the same distance with a handful of race-day watts intervals mixed in. Unfortunately, when I went to calibrate my bike computer, (after an hour commute to the start of my ride in Port Hueneme), my Garmin computer screen spelled out, “The batteries are out in the power meter, Taryn. How many years have you been doing this? You should have checked the batteries before we left the house. Rookie.”
Okay, well, it wasn’t that rude, but we were both annoyed that a workout that depended on power, would have no power.
“Whatever, let’s go.” Then Big Red and I pedaled the prescribed 120 miles broken up as nearly a dozen ten mile loops around southern California farmland.
Since I had no power, but I did have my GPS, I decided to lap out every twenty miles. I figured speed/time/mileage/perceived effort would still lend some helpful data to learn from. I felt solid and consistent the entire ride. In fact, I finished slightly ahead of schedule. Next, I spent the rest of the week curious about how that effort would match up in watts (yes, I swapped out my batteries in my power meter in time for my next ride) when I did it again next Saturday?
The workout for the following Saturday morning (October 2nd) was another 120 miles, but with longer race-day power intervals. This ride would be interesting, not just because I could test my effort against power, but that I would also have the joy and motivation of riding with my dear friend, teammate, and exceptional cyclist, Jess Zaiss.
We had slightly different intervals, but we would be close enough all day to push and cheer each other on mile after many (many) miles…
As soon as I clicked in, I knew it would be a good day.
Jess and I rode up PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) at a decent, but conversational clip, then as soon as we started our intervals just after passing County line and Neptune’s Net, I knew without even looking at my smart-alicky Garmin that my effort matched the watts I was after, my power was right where I wanted it to be, but it didn’t feel forced, it just felt right.
The entire 120 miles.
I wanted to finish it in six hours, and I was nearly there rolling in at 6:02.
Well, my writing window is closing, as I am now off to run another challenging set of speedy masked-miles on the treadmill, but I hope my story of riding better now as a bedraggled forty-two year old than I ever did in my 20’s or 30’s, will make some of you think twice about throwing in the towel on a pursuit that is taking a while to crack; I don’t know when, but I believe it will eventually break open, and it will be worth it when it does.
The song and video choice this week is the new single from Ed Sheeran, Shivers. Cool song, and interesting video from the ever-prolific, Dave Meyers. Enjoy.:)