Training Log Archive: ebuckley

Warmup. Includes 2x300 at around VO2Max trying to figure out which shoes to use for the first running leg. Since the time with the cycling shoes was only 1.5 seconds slower than the time in trail shoes, I decided to gut it out in the MTB shoes and save the exchange.

C • Copngrats! Either you have... 4

Conquer Castlewood with David Frei. Wasn't really a team event this year because the high river levels forced cancelling the canoe. I was a little bummed to be mired in seventh place on the trail, but then remembered that everybody ahead of me (except David, who was only leading me by a few meters) was going to have to change shoes. Passed one on the road section right before the TA and sure enough, blew by just about everybody else with a 0-second transition. Only Doug Nishimura beat us onto the bike leg.

Without a doubt the best mountain biking of my life. Doug paid the price for scorching the run and David and I both passed him before hitting the first climb. Once on the climb, I went around David, but then spun the rear wheel on the very same rock that took me out last year. Fortunately, I didn't hit the deck this time, but the dab was enough for David to get by. I didn't mind because we were near the summit and David was sure to set a better pace on the descent. He did, but much to my surprise, I came into the final switchback and could see that he was only about 15 seconds ahead of me. He usually takes a minute out of me on Love trail. Then he blew a turn, which put me into the lead again. Hammered it into the TA and changed shoes in 16 seconds (not included in time).

Started the same as the opening loop, but when we got to the road, we then went up the ridge and down Lone Wolf. Then it was back in all the way on the road for the last mile. It was hard to push knowing that we pretty much had a lock on things, but the possibility of crossing the line first at a mass-start event was enough to keep me reasonably close to maximal effort. Held on to the win, and with David coming in third, we won the team competition by a pretty wide margin (nearly 10 minutes - I think that's our biggest margin of the 4 years we've won it).

Such a very fine morning required some sort of celebration in the afternoon. We decided to go to Grant's Farm. I'm not sure why it's taken us 14 years to get out there - it was really nice. Baby-O very much liked the petting zoo and there's no arguing with free beer (or, in Kate's case, free Mojito). I'm sure we'll go back much sooner than 2022.

Scoping the Meremac river with David. Yesterday's storms submerged what little beach was left at Castlewood, so we may be doing an on the water start again this year. Really only one crossing point that looked at all good, so we didn't do any timing of lines.

Then we checked out the trails. Not as bad as one might have feared, but still pretty greasy along the top of the ridge. The descent on Love wasn't too bad, though I'll certainly be losing time tomorrow to those who don't mind sliding around so much.

Afternoon jog on Grant's Trail with Baby-O riding her bike. As it was pretty hot, she wanted to stop frequently, so the total elapsed time was nearly an hour.

Took advantage of a work from home day to get in some early morning riding at Castlewood. Unfortunately, I flatted and hadn't brought a spare tube, so it was pretty short. That's probably not a bad thing as an off day 2 days before a tough race is generally a good thing. I'm a little troubled by the fact that this is the second flat I've got recently from running over a sharp stone. I'm running 38PSI which should be more than enough to prevent that. I must have too much weight on the back wheel. Time includes a couple minutes running the bike back to the car.

C • race 7

In to work in the 60. Feeling yesterday more than I would expect. Maybe the run was a bit harder than tempo.

Back home from work. A bit later than usual as I first attended a happy hour for my boss who is moving on to greener pastures. Pity. As a contractor for 25 years, I've worked for a lot of different people (37 to be precise) and this guy was in the top 3.

In to work.

Home via Midland/Dorsett/CC Lake at increasing pace. Last 20 minutes was at tempo to set up the transition.

Reasonably quick transition (25 seconds - no lace locks on these shoes) on my front porch and straight into 12 minutes at tempo. Then jogged a bit to warm down.

Tour of Flanders loop. As the legs are still coming back, I took it pretty easy for the first 40 minutes, then stepped up the effort for the pavé section (about 20 minutes - passed 2 SUV's) with a pretty stern push up to Page. Finished off at my normal training pace feeling pretty good.

C • Pavé? 5