Beautiful Day for a Ride

So, yesterday, I got up at 7 am, geared up, and went for a long bike ride with my friend Molly's dad Dick. He's training for a century bike ride that's in a couple of weeks, and as you know, I'm training for that crazy Ironman in 4-5 weeks, so we decided that a ride would be good. Well, actually, Dick wanted to go for a ride and forced me to go with him. J/K I willingly went along...

So, the sun was out, the weather was BEAUTIFUL and I decided to take Dick out on a ride East on Marine Drive, up through the Old Columbia Hwy to Women's Forum. Once there, our choices were to either head down past Crown Point toward the falls, or to head up Larch Mountain. In the end, we choose Larch.

I was struggling on this ride. My legs were fatigued from the run I did on Saturday and I found myself grinding away on the easy climb to Women's Forum. Plus, I haven't done much climbing with my Roo, which DOES NOT have a granny gear, so I was a bit nervous about the Larch choice, but I found climb to not be as bad as I expected. There were definitely a few stretches that I was wishing for an extra gear or a granny gear because I was SLOOOOWLY peddling. I think a jogger would have been running up the hill faster than I was peddling. Ok, maybe a speed walker would have easily passed me. But I kept at it, one rotation after another. And then the hill would let up and I could pick up my cadence again.

I didn't and don't have a computer on Roo, so I had NO clue as to how far up I had gone. I was thinking it had been about a mile or two. The next thing I knew, I saw the "5 Mile" marker and saw Dick waiting a little past it. He said that at our current stopping point, the round trip mileage would be over 60 (about 66 miles) and asked if I wanted to keep riding. I was thoroughly enjoying the climb, the sun, the view of the forest and actually wanted to keep climbing, so we decided to go up another 2 miles and call it good with a 70 miler.

Again, the 2 miles flew by (not in actual minutes because I'm a SLOW climber, but in mental minutes - meaning, I wasn't aware of the time and was mentally having fun on my ride). Then we began the descent. I LOVE that down hill ride from Larch, down the Old Columbia Hwy, back to Troutdale. It's fast and doesn't have many twists and turns to slow you down. And I felt good. I was able to maintain about 18-19 miles an hour the whole ride home (once we got down off the hill - like at Marine Drive).

The other thing I focused on during this ride was my neck position. The last long ride I did, which was only 54 miles, my neck was KILLING me at the end. I had spent a ton of time in the aero position and kept straining my neck up to see the road ahead of me. This time, I alternated my body position and really focused on keeping my head and neck in line, which helped because I got done with the bike ride with NO neck pain (huge improvement). The only pain was in my butt - I definitely need more time in the saddle!!!

Overall, it was a great ride. I'm getting stronger with hill climbing BUT am still not sure what to do about race day. Do I ride Roo or my Serotta? Roo is a tri bike, and the pluses are:

+ the aero position, which allows me to rest my upper body AND gives my legs another position that is less fatiguing

+ again, the mechanics of the bike, which do make a difference as far as muscle usage and fatigue (yeah, this is so scientific, I know - but I feel a difference when I'm just spinning on the Roo compared to the Serotta - like my legs can just relax in the aero position)

+ it doesn't have the granny gear, so if I get strong enough, I will be faster up the hills

The negatives are:

- Roo doesn't have a granny gear, so with ALL the hills, will it be less fatiguing to spin at a higher cadence in the granny gear on the Serotta while slowly climbing, or will the lack of the granny gear be balanced out by the aero position?

- My lower back was seriously fatigued from the aero position (I am focusing on core strengthening, but I don't want to have a sore back going into the marathon run)

- The bike seat hurts (it's the one that came with the bike), but I could always swap it out for one of the seats on my other bikes, which I do enjoy WAY better

Positives to riding the Serotta:

+ The granny gear and the mountain bike cassette, which allow me to climb forever EVEN if I'm not in the best of cycling shape

+ The bike seat is ergonomically correct - HUGE plus!

The negatives:

- No areo bars (I already looked into adding them, which wasn't ideal and is what led me to getting Roo in the first place)

- The granny gear which means I will be SLOW up the hills. I could always "not" use it, but I've tried that in past races/climbs before and it never works - I always drop into it because I can

I have no idea. There are so many unknowns AND the key will be trying to save my legs for the run as BEST as I can. We shall see.

My plan right now is to keep training with Roo because she is harder and will make me stronger. AND if I get enough mileage between now and the race and feel like my legs will be better off, I will ride Roo. Otherwise, I will ride the Serotta, knowing that I climb forever in that granny gear. Hmmm...

Today: I did a 1 mile recovery swim, nice and slow. It felt good to loosen up my muscles and spend time in the water. I then hopped in the hot tub and put the jets on my lower back. Overall, I feel great physically today! Muscles are recovering nicely and I'll be ready for a spin class tomorrow.