Journey to Kona Day 103: Time in the Saddle

Today was an opportunity to get more time on the bike.  I was probably sitting on my bike for more than 6 hours today, with a little over 5 hours and 45 minutes of actual ride time.  That would make my fourth ride of that length in the past few weeks.  I could probably use a 7 hour ride, but that will have to wait until my Kona training.  It also might not actually be worthwhile to ride for 7 hours, but instead do back to back 6 hour rides instead. I'm already starting to think about my Kona bike preparedness.  Maybe even a one week "mega" bike schedule is in order.

Riding by oneself for 6 hours isn't the most fun experience, so coordinating my long ride with a group ride is ideal.  Today lended itself to that, and I got 2 hours of riding in before the group ride started.  Today's ride was going to finish with a 7 mile climb up Mulholland Highway, which would occur after I had nearly 4 1/2 hours in the saddle.  The group ride was supposed to be pretty "chill" today, but that rarely seems to work out.  I found myself on more than one occasion by myself, against a strong headwind, in my aero position.  That was great!  I could certainly use the time in my aero position.

Most of the group went ahead of me on the climb. Of course, I'm riding a tri bike, and most of them are riding road bikes.  Still, I pretty much suck as a climber.  All in all, I was pretty happy with my climb.  Apparently, according to Strava, it's the fourth time I've done this climb in the past four years, and today was my fastest.  Considering that the other climbs were probably done on my road bike, this was pretty good.

I was originally going to run off the bike, but chose to go get food instead:).  Tomorrow will be a solid day anyway. Originally, I'd signed up for an olympic distance tri, but it sounds like the water will not be safe (I'm not going to risk getting sick 3 weeks before Boulder), it may rain (don't want to risk crashing either), and I really don't want to get up at 4:30 am (read yesterday's post about rest).  So, my plan right now is to approximate the Olympic tri with an equivalent swim, bike and run workout.  Let's see how it turns out!