Tuesday, September 6, 2011

I Got Owned!!!!!

So yesterday my ego took a major hit.  Before I get into the story you should probably get a little of the background.  Training has been going well, I've been getting my long rides in, my long run will take place tomorrow morning and I've been swimming a lot (for me that is)...I've been in the water 9 straight days now.  I know that there are days I won't be able to swim, this coming Sunday will probably be one of them, so I'm trying to take advantage of the time that I do get in the water.  Anyway back story...Sunday was a huge training day.  7 hours total, it started with 3500 yards in the water, followed by 102 on the bike and finished with 6 on the treadmill.  I was about 65-70 miles into my ride (out of water but close to a place to refill) when I saw another rider go by me the other way decked out in a Garmin-Cervelo kit.  Typically I would think nothing of this because most people that I see wearing kits like this are complete posers and you can tell by the way they look when they're riding.  This was not the case here...so I decided to turn around and see who it was.  As I suspected I ended up catching up to Christian Vande Velde, I didn't want to be that guy to sit on his wheel and take a free ride without saying anything, so I pulled up next to him and introduced myself.  Like I said I didn't want to be "that guy" but we kept on talking and ended up riding together for quite a while.  He's a super chill guy!!  He was finishing up his ride and I was turning off (to go get that water that I had been without now for about 20 miles) and he asked if I wanted to ride Monday.  How do you pass that up right?  So I finished up my ride, jumped on the treadmill for a quick 6 miles while watching the Hy-Vee race on the internet and called it a day in terms of training.  That is by far my largest volume training day thus far.

So yesterday we met up to ride.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but figured I'd be in some pain at some point or another.  The first two hours cruised by (we had an awesome tailwind) right about then he decided to do some "work".  Yep he sure did go to work.  I did everything I could to sit on his wheel as he pulled us going over 24 mph into a nasty head wind.  That pretty much summed up the rest of the ride...work for him...extreme pain for me!  Needless to say I got worked pretty bad, and that was the hardest 80 miles I have ever ridden!!  Totally worth it though, I was able to get out onto some new roads, and rode with a Pro Tour Rider...which was awesome.

Yep I'm still sore today, and think I will be for a few days.  I did get on and spun my legs for 20 miles this morning, and hit up the pool again for 3100 today.  This 60,000 yard swim challenge is going well, and I'm slightly ahead of the game right now which is good.  I'm feeling better in the water, I just need to make sure I continue to push myself there and not get comfortable.  A little treadmill run tonight and I'll call it a day.

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