Journey to Kona Day 220: Overcoming my Central Governor

29 Days until Kona and my last real long bike ride was today.  My coach suggested that I ride 112 miles on a relatively flat course.  The weather cooperated by simulating Kona without the humidity.  My goal was to keep my wattage low and comfortable, and hopefully keep my heart rate down as well.  I did a good job keeping my wattage down.  My heart rate did start to rise as the temperature went up.  Not much that I could do about that.  I managed to keep a consistent effort and a consistent pace for the entire ride.  I felt good the whole time, but did finally manage to hit a rough patch when I got to 100 miles. It was hot, although until mile 100 I really didn't feel too hot.  However, during miles 100-105 I finally hit the doldrums.  I felt like I was baking.  Ironically, I only slowed down by less than a minute during the loop.  And just to show that I can overcome my central governor, knowing that my last loop was my last loop, I was able to do that loop at an effort and pace similar to all of the earlier ones.  I didn't feel as hot.  The mind is an amazing thing.

I learned more about myself and my preparation for Kona today.  The heat and humidity are going to be the greatest challenge on race day.  I can begin to have a better understanding of what happened to Julie Moss.  Even the great Paula Newby Fraser succumbed one year to Kona.  When you ignore your central governor, you can accomplish great things.  On the other hand, you can outsmart yourself and end up on the ground.  The real challenge will be to stay hydrated and nourished, and know how and when to cool down enough to recover during the race. This ride gave me a pretty good idea of how my body will respond.  It's not perfect, because I didn't have the humidity to deal with. Still, I got a good idea of how my body felt and how it reacted.  At the same time, it's always good to know that we can temporarily overcome our central governor.  Unfortunately, doing so in the middle of a race is probably not a good idea.  The best time to do so is at the end of the race, but you'd better time it right, otherwise you end up crawling to the finish line!