Big Bike Weekend: 05/28-05/31

I've had this training weekend highlighted on my schedule since January. I've really been looking forward to giving my bike fitness a big boost by doing some epic miles on some classic Madison, WI area cycling routes. It all began as a discussion on the Endurance Nation forums where someone asked who would be registering and riding in the Horribly Hilly Hundreds bike classic outside of Madison held each June. Unfortunately, due to vacation and my race schedule, I couldn't do the HHH. But since they publish the cue sheets/route maps on the HHH website several teammates decided we would just do our own self-supported ride of the HHH course. Combine this ride with a couple other rides during the weekend and we had ourselves a little training camp with an intense bike focus. So that's the "why"; now here's the "what":

Friday
Took a vacation day from work. Did a 1.6 mile open water swim at the local lake with a teammate at sunrise. Beautiful morning with sunny skies and a lake that looked like glass. This is my usual Friday morning open water swim I do in the summer. On this day I swam the route 2 minutes faster than I ever have before and with a pretty low effort. The more focused and intense swim training is really paying off!

I then did a few things at home, prepped the tri bike and was off and riding by 10:00am riding my usual route across the state line into southern Wisconsin. I rode steady and fairly easy because I knew I had many miles and much climbing coming in the days ahead.

Stats for this ride:
Distance: 60 miles
Duration: 3:01:00
IF: .71
TSS: 152
Energy burned: 2,105 kJ

Saturday
Left the house at 5:00am for the 2.5 hour drive to Madison for a 8:30am start time with the EN crew. Today we'd be riding the HHH 100K course.


The weather was perfect: sunny skies, light winds, low humidity, 70s in the morning, mid-80s in the afternoon. A few of us decided we'd do the 100K loop and then, once finished, make a decision on whether to do it again or add any incremental miles depending on how we felt. The 200K loop would have taken us pretty far from the start area so if we needed anything (nutrition, hydration, spare tubes, etc.) it would have made things more difficult. Plus, there was more climbing in doing 2 x 100K loop than 1 x 200K loop - we were all about punishing our bodies!

We rolled out of the little town of Blue Mounds, WI and hit our first climb within a few miles - a long 14%-21% grade that never seemed to end. We rolled through the many ups, downs, twists and turns until at about mile 40 my rear shifter jammed. I was on my beater road bike that I admittedly neglect performing routine maintenance. I learned my lesson on taking care of even the cheap bikes! My teammates Matt and Robert helped me try to free up the shifter to no avail. So we adjusted the tension of the shifter cable to lock me into the 23-tooth ring in the rear cassette so I could still climb. Luckily I had a triple chainring up front so I had 3 gears to ride. This left me spinning at speeds above 19 mph (flats and downhills) and grinding at speeds below 10 mph (climbs). It was frustrating but at least I could still ride. At about mile 70 the shitfter loosened up and I found a few more gears.

We made it back to the start area with 75 miles in our legs. Several of our crew had enough riding for the day (it was now about 2:00pm) so most threw the bikes in the cars and ran into the local watering hole for a cold brew. Matt and I decided we wanted more punishment but with my mechanical issues we thought it best to ride within a few miles of our cars. We ended up riding into a cool town on the IMWI course (Mt. Horeb), then following a sign we saw to Little Norway which turned out to be nothing more than a gift shop with some cool grounds that made you feel like you suddenly arrived in Europe.


We finished the ride with crushed legs and empty bellies that needed some serious filling. Thanks to our coaches we were supported with a little cash to feed all the campers, so we hit up a local Mexican restaurant within walking distance of the hotel.


Distance: 100 miles
Duration: 6:34:00
Elevation Gain: ~7,000 feet
IF: .72
TSS: 338
Energy burned: 3,811 kJ

Sunday
After some good, hard sleep Saturday night the group of around 10 met at the start of the Ironman Wisconsin bike course loop in Verona, WI. It was another beautiful day, just a touch warmer and windier but no complaints. My plan was to ride at least 2 loops of the 42 mile IMWI bike course (ignoring the 28 mile out & back section). Depending on time and how I felt I would then decide if I wanted to do another loop, add some mileage via an out & back or call it a day. Luckily I brought my tri bike so I had a fully functional, fast bike. My plan was to ride the first loop steadily and consistently - no surging and minimal drafting (treating it sort of like a race rehearsal). After the HHH ride on Saturday the IMWI course seemed tame, even though it's labeled as one of the toughest bike courses in the Ironman circuit. We did the first loop in 2:15:00.

We finished the first loop, refueled at the cars for several minutes, then set off on the second loop. After a few miles it was just Matt and I. We rode the second loop even more consistently than the first - no stops, just put the head down and cranked the pedals until the end. With a few miles to go Matt tells me we have 8 minutes until we hit the 2:15:00 mark (our time for the first loop). When someone throws a time goal at me like that I had to give it a go. So I summoned the legs for a hard effort which boiled down to riding above functional threshhold power (FTP) for the final 8 minutes. We made it in 2:14:00 - mission accomplished and I was spent!

With ~86 miles in the legs and not enough time to do a third loop before our 5:00pm dinner reservation we decided to bail on the third loop. But we wanted to hit another 100 mile day so Matt and I went out for an easy 14 mile spin on the out & back section of the IM course toward Madison.

After the riding we had time left for a 1.8 mile run to a local lake where we jumped in to cool the legs, then ran the 1.8 miles back to the car, changed clothes and headed for dinner. I drove back home that night and immediately hit the sack where I slept a solid 9.5 hours.

Distance: 101 miles
Duration: 5:25:00
Elevation Gain: ~5,000 feet
IF: .69
TSS: 258
Energy burned: 3,599 kJ

Monday
I was 40 miles away from hitting 300 total miles on the bike for the weekend, so I headed out onto the flat roads of northern Illinois for an easy spin on the tri bike to get in at least 40 miles. I was feeling pretty good so I kept rolling past the 40 mile mark until the skies darkened and the sound of thunder had me sprinting home.

Distance: 50 miles
Duration: 2:44:00
IF: .6
TSS: 97
Energy burned: 1,589 kJ

What a great weekend! My mission of throwing down some big miles was accomplished. I'm hoping to see the fruits of my labor elevate to a new level in the coming weeks. For now it's time to focus on recovery for a couple days and get back at it for 2 weeks until a June 19 Half Ironman race.

Here are the totals for the weekend:

Distance: 311 miles
Duration: 17:44:00
Elevation Gain: ~14,000 feet
Avg IF: .69
TSS: 845
Energy burned: 11,104 kJ
Performance Management Chart (bike only):