Holy Hills!

The Half Ironman I have scheduled for September became so real the other day when I received my training plan from my Coach. I knew it was creeping up on me and I knew training would get more intense, but having never done one of these before, I didn't know what to expect. Thankfully I've been training a little more aggressively than what I need for my Olympic Tri in just over a week so that softened the blow.

When I first opened the plan, I just stared at it. Then I closed it, opened it again, and stared some more. Not sure what I was expecting to change, but I think I closed and opened it like 10 more times. The format is the same, with 3 doubles a week and some brick workouts on Saturday. The biggest change, obviously, is the training hours I'll be putting in each week. My shortest week consists of just under 9 hours while the biggest week takes me to 14 hours. It terms of workouts, my time in the saddle increases significantly and my runs get progressively longer. Thankfully, the hours I'll be spending in the pool won't change much. This was huge because expecting longer pool workouts was messing with me mentally.

So after staring and analyzing the plan for a good 2 days, I decided that I had to get up and ride the bike course of the race to know what I was up against. The course is hilly, to say the least, and not closed to traffic...two things I desparately need to gain some confidence with. Since I upgraded to clip pedals and bought myself some gaudy cycling shoes the weekend before, I figured what better way to break them in then to check out the race course!

The race course is 3 - 18ish mile loops and I easily managed two loops, with only one fall while trying to clip in at an intersection. Lucky for me there was a flower bed to cushion my fall and I walked away with just some minor scraps and covered in mulch. I even conquered some of my fear of going fast and hit 30mph (crazy thing is I touched the breaks a few times) on a downhill, while on a small shoulder and cars flying by next to me. That in itself was huge since I do NOT like to go downhill let alone go downhill on an open road! But after all was said and done, my legs felt great and I definitely had another loop in me. And to be honest, I felt like I could have easily run after riding the 36 miles. While that ride definitely built up my confidence, I know I still have a lot of work to do. I want those hills to feel like nothing on race day and I want to know every inch of that course. So, my goal for August: eat those hills for breakfast every weekend.

I'm not very good at this technical stuff, but here's a rough profile of the course with elevation. Good thing I picked a nice hilly course for my first 70.3!