So lets start this post with a funny if a little groos stoy about my bikeride today. So there I was about 6-7 miles into my ride. Felin like crap really after this past week of training and I'm also biking into a very stiff headwind. So I'm breathing pretty heavily and also have a little cotton mouth. Suddenly BAM! large bug right into my mouth. Instantly start choking a little. I'm tryingt o stay upright on the bike as cars buzz by and the wind is doing it's best to blow me over. The bug is still alive in my mouth as I am trying to spit it out. But having cotton mouth means NO SALIVA! So now I'm trying to push the damn thing out of my mouth with my tongue and I can fel the thing freaking out against my tongue. All I can think is "Shit, what if this thing is a bee!" Finally I am able to work it to the front of my mouth and spit the bastard out. It's some kind of large greenish beetle thing. I bike away recovery from my epic tongue battle; leaving the bug to reflect on its near death experience. This whole episode took place in the span of probably 7 seconds by the way.
So in the past couple weeks since the Marathon life has slipped into a pretty basic routine. Each day has been following a tiring loop. Up at 6 AM to go sub, out at 2-2:30, swim and or run for a couple hours, work at B&N from 5:30 til 10:30 or 11:30, scooter home, dinner, bed around 12ish. Repeat the next day. On Wednesday opt not to sub so I can get in a nice longer bike ride. The weekends have consisted of more biking, swimming, and light running. Thankfully I can now start cutting back upon my B&N hours. I can also start eating more food now that my teaching paychecks have started coming in. I've noticed that I'm starting to drop in weight again since I've been upping my training on the bike and the swimming. Floating around 140 lately.
So one of the big things I've done lately is ride the West Maui Loop. I've heard the stories from Jon that this is a pretty intense route to attempt. 2 days after the Marathon I biked a part of it out and back. I only went about 13 miles north before turning around and got a little taste of the climbs and down hills. We're talking Tour de France Pyrenees and Alps shit.
So this past Wednesday I decided to attempt it myself. It's a 60 mile ride that takes good riders 3-3 1/2 hours to complete. Right away you’re climbing up a gradual hill from my house. The route follows the coast so the entire first 28 miles is amazing views as you get higher into the hills. To picture it imagine the green cliffs of Ireland and Scotland everyone hears about. Those Isles of Scotland you see in postcards. This is what I was experiencing the entire time. The first real hill I hit is "The Wall." Named because you pretty much come to a complete stop as you crawl up in the easiest gear you have. Steeper than Chester Street your legs feel as if they're gonna fall off. It's only like 150 yards long but end around a crazy switchback that gets steeper and you can't see anything around it. From there you level off and enter the real climbs. Over the next 5 miles you are rolling through hills and watching the waves come crashing into the cliffs off to your left. There are also a couple nice little obstacles thrown into the mix. Cattle traps. These are 2 sets of grates laid across the road that are wide enough for cattle to get their hooves stuck in and prevent them from wandering past. Cars can easily drive over them. Bikes? Not so lucky. I notice the first one a little too late but am fortunate I am moving fast enough where I pretty much bunny hope the 5 foot grate. I catch my back wheel barely. Luckily no pop. The other one appears about 3-4 miles later. I walk the bike across it.
From this point I enter into the REAL hills. We're taking massive climbs where I ascend 500-600 feet in the span of 2 miles, descend at breakneck speeds (30-35 mph while trying to brake)noly to climb another 400 feet in a mile. The road has turned into a single lane with blind switchbacks. Vehicles blow horns as they come up to these turns because it wraps around the edge of a cliff. It is really something out of that show about the World's most dangerous road. At times vehicles have to reverse because there is not enough room to pass. For the most part I was not in any danger, a couple of close calls with cars passing me and coming within inches with their mirrors. Near the end of this one lane road a mini school bus did whip around a blind turn as I was only about 30 yards from it. No horn or anything. It had to swing to my left while I had to force my bike hard to the right (pretty much into the cliff wall) and close my eyes in a quick prayer. I felt the bus go by.
These were easily some of the hardest climbs I've ever encountered. It was like putting Dead Horse Hill on top of Chester then placing a couple dozen of these combos over the course of 25 miles. Between these throw in lots of Wachusett climbs and descents. There are no flat areas. Either you were climbing at about 8 miles an hour or descending at 25-30 miles an hour while riding the brakes.
I cover the first 13-14 miles in a little over an hour fifteen minutes. I was traveling less than 14 miles an hour. That's pedestrian pace. Near the top of one of the bigger climbs I take a food break. Nothing like a peanut butter and Oreo cookie sandwich to refresh yourself before hopping back onto the bike. Thank God too cause the next 5 miles were definitely the toughest. From where I was I could look down these wild switchbacks that would take me down hundreds of feet in the span of a mile then right back up hills that made me legs jelly just looking at them. Still on this one lane road the benefit was I could see the cars coming at me well in advance so kinda knew when to expect them. The downside: I could count at least 5 blind turns I would have to make it through. The next 40 minutes took me down some of the craziest roads that ended deep in valleys deep in the shadows of the cliffs surrounding them then saw me bouncing out of my seat as I dragged my bike up into the sunlight.
Finally I burst out of the cliffs about 27 miles into the ride. My single lane road turns into a 2 lane normal road that descends back toward Route 330. What’s great is the speed limit is only 25 mph as the road gradually winds its way back toward Wailuku about 10 miles away. Behind me are about 5 cars who had to sit on me because there was nowhere for them to go on the tiny road. Here they are expecting me to pull off to the side and let them go. I wasn't having it since the lead car blew its horn at me a couple times over the last climb expecting me to stop mid uphill to let me pass. As soon as we level off I drop into areobars, ratchet up my gear and begin a wild Tour de France descent that sees me going from 10 to about 25 mph within a 100 yard span. Much of this descent I'm cruising around 30 mph except when we hit some pretty sharp turns. Every now and then I'll glance back to see these cars strung out behind me. I feel like a pace car. Then we hit a mile long stretch and I just open it up. With its slight downhill I am able to go close to 35 mph over that last mile before it turns into 2 lanes on each side. At that point the lead car blows by me laying on his horn. I feel real bad for him. A couple other cars go by and one gives me the thumbs up.
The rest of the ride is uneventful. I make a pit stop at a McDonalds where this cute local girl lets me pretty much abuse the PowerAde dispenser on the soda machine. She charges me 2 buck for a large drink then lets me fill both my water bottles along with a large couple multiple times. Must be the tight cycling shorts.
By the time I get back to the house it's been a 3 1/2 hour ride and I'm tuckered out. I drag myself through a hot 25 minute run where I pretty much want to die. Once done I shower, eat alot of food, stretch, eat a little more and crash for the next 4 hours.
Since the poor Marathon experience I've definitely rededicated myself to Ironman training. I realize I have about 133 days until the race and have not been doing everything I should be. Granted the past couple months it's been more marathon training but really now there is no excuse. After taking the Monday after the marathon of I've been pretty good at doing at least 1 thing every day. Now that the hamstring is feeling better I have also included running into the mix and been adding in more brick workouts. The whole goal from now til race day is to keep up this intensity. I figure 1 or 2 days off each month will be good for me. Days where I just swim will count as easy days. At this point I am averaging about 2 hours of training a day. This means some days I may only have time to get in an hour workout but throw in a couple 4-6 hour days and we're good. The goal is to hit at least 1 week a month where I bump that average up to 4 hours a day average. I pretty much wanna be around 15-20 hours a week with a few 25-28 hour weeks scattered in there.
I've also been giving a lot of thought to what I wanna do after this next summer. Without a doubt I am going back to the Cape for the summer. How could I not. But after that it is pretty much a blank slate. The more I've been thinking about it the more I think I want to stay in Worcester, try and get another teaching job somewhere and start working on my masters. I also think after this next triathlon season I am gonna take a break from it. I definitely wanna do the Phili Marathon in November though. I feel the need to redeem myself as a runner after the debacle out here. I've notice I tend to do better with all the cross training that comes with triathlon training anyway. My body it just to fragile to handle straight running anymore. But a much needed break is on the horizon. I figure take the winter and spring off of serious training, give my body a chance to heal and fix all its little problems. This will also allow me to focus on getting into some part time master's program and get back into real teaching. Without the added pressure of trying to train for 2 hours every day I feel it will be more enjoyable. This spring I'm going to start applying to all the surrounding central mass towns and cities to see what I can come up with. If I don't get myself a teaching job or some decent paying job while in Worcester then I can always come back out here. Now that I'm in the school system I am guaranteed an ongoing sub job.
I've also missed everyone back in the Woo. I love the training and weather out here. There is no beating that. And apparently there's been a little snow in New England this winter. But as great as it is out here I'm definitely not making this an every year thing. There are just people back in Massachusetts I miss and I look forward to going home to start that routine over again. Plus I have plans for the next year or so I want to see too.
Side note: Biking the other day I pulled up at a light next to my Saturn Ion. I miss the silver bullet. I'll have to give Joyce a little wall post checking in. I hear my little car has an injured leg.
One thing I've been doing now more than ever before is reading books. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on. With my nice little Nook Color (boo to the Kindle) I've been downloading tons of books. Actually the Kindle is pretty nice reader. I’ve had the opportunity to mess around with a couple. Plus at work since it's my job to walk around with a Nook and sell it I download and read books while working. Since September I've read over 20 books. While I've been here I've been averaging about a book per week. These past 2 weeks it's slowed down because I spend more time training. But while subbing I've been able to get some reading in. That is definitely one benefit about out here. Over the past couple years I have noticed the amount of reading I do has declined. It's nice to get back into that.
Subbing is going well though. Been getting a lot of calls to sub. I have also been able to teach a good number of the classes too. All the English classes I actually teach. The teachers will leave vague lesson plans so I just take over and go with it. I guess it's OK cause I've been getting call backs form those teachers to cover more of their classes. The elementary grades are pretty easy too. They leave more detailed lesson plans and I just follow them. I have also noticed I've been having more fun teaching those classes too. The kids all get a kick out of my Worcester accent.
Last note: I can't remember if I posted this in my last post and I'm too lazy to o back and check. Saw a couple whales last week. As I was biking there was a pod of a dozen or so about 1200 yards of the shore. I pulled over along the highway which was about 40 yards above the ocean. I look down and se 2 humpback whales hanging out in the little bay about 70 yards out in the water. I could have thrown a rock at them from where I was. Epic.
Wow so this has been a long post people. Sorry to have dragged on for so long. Actually what do I care? You can easily just skim the whole thing so whatever. Really looking forward to this summer: Cape Cod is gonna be a blast.
Peace out homefries. I'm off to veg out with the fan on cause it’s like 80 and kinda humid here. Geez, sometimes my life sucks. Next post I’ll add pictures of West Maui Loop.
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