The spectating that never was and….…

Ok, I was going to give it a separate post but I am now waaaaayyyy too excited!

Today was the priority entry for the Busselton 70.3 next May. If you recall I managed to snag a slot for it when I went to the season launch a few weeks back!

Well….

Woo Hoo!!!!!

So it begins all over again…this will be my lead up to the December full and I cannot wait!

This weekend just passed was the running of the Mandurah 70.3 and it was my intention to ride down and spectate like I did with my dadlast year. This year I even put the call out to see if I could sucker encourage a few other people into the ride. Unfortunately, after some early interest the riding companions had to drop out one by one until it was a solo ride for little old me (cue the violins). I decided after a chat with my chief supporter (wife extraordinaire) that I was going to set out for a 100km ride and skip the spectating part altogether. I mean seriously, I am already fully invested and motivated towards my IM goal and I also didn’t fancy wandering around town on my own! A 100km ride sounded like WAY more fun (whatever!). The plan was to ride to the outskirts of Mandurah (40kms) and carry on along the cycle track as far as it ran or to 50kms then turn back.

I will admit, I got a little excited at the thought of this long ride (I know I know…it will get boring I am sure!) and decided to start my experiment with fuelling. So I packed the following:

1 x 750ml water

1 x 750ml Hammer Perpetuem (Café Latte)
2 x peanut bars (cut in half)
2 x 6 shot blocks (strawberry & orange)
1 x Hammer Gel (banana – never again that flavour!)

I set my Garmin to beep every 5kms and proceeded with the following:

Lap 1 (5km) – Perpetuem

Lap 2 (10km) – half peanut bar and water
Lap 3 (15km) – Perpetuem
Lap 4 (20km) – 3 x shot blocks and water
Lap 5 (25km) – Perpetuem
Lap 6 (30km) – Half peanut bar and water
Lap 7 (35km) – Perpetuem
Lap 8 (40kms) – 3 x shot blocks and water
Lap 9 (45kms) – Perpetuem
Lap 10 (50kms) – Gel and water

The plan was to then repeat that on the return leg home.

I stuck to this plan and am VERY happy with the results. Not only did I not feel hungry or thirsty for the ride but when I got home I still had energy and was not lying comatose on the couch for the rest of the day. I do think though that I will need more water as I did run out and have to stop at a petrol station for refills at about 80kms (side note – how sweet is powerade! Damn – had my first one in almost two years and it was not that pleasant!)

Sadly, I did not hit my desired 100km ride. I hit 90kms instead. At 44kms I had a puncture. After the accompanying swarm of flys that were so excited to see another living thing in the middle of nowhere assisted in replacing my tube I decided that I did not fancy riding a further 6kms away from home at the risk of another flat and as such turned on my heels and headed home. After about 80kms or so I will admit that I was ready to get off the bike as my backside was starting to argue with my seat. Very happy with the baseline that I have now set…90.2kms – 3:02:07.

Probably overly happy with the success of the CO2 canister

So great take aways from the weekend:

·         I am happy to change a tube on my bike. Ferrari will not be calling me to their pit crew any time soon but I changed it none the less!
·         For the first time used a CO2 canister – HOW COOL ARE THOSE!!! Buying some more of them!
·         I think I have found a good fuelling starting point and it should only be tweaks from here (I hope!)
·         I still had energy. Maybe not yet enough for a 21km run but I will work on that and I am pretty confident that I could have ground out some sort of distance (and next time I put in a long ride I will go for a couple of km run).
·         Last year for the 50.5kms we rode we averaged 25.7km/hr and this year on my own and further I averaged 29.7km/hr.
·         Oh – I survived J

I was asleep on the couch at 2130...batteries went flat eventually

It was a great weekend and after that excitement to now having my spot secured for May 2015 I am all smiles!

Hope you had a great one too!

Thanks for reading.