Pedal Thru the Pines 2017 + Austin Training Weekend report.
Trista traveled to Austin from NC this weekend to try to get some heat and humidity acclimation in preparation for Ironman Texas. That didn't go quite as planned.
The first part of Austin Training Weekend was a swim at Quarry Lake, which unfortunately got cancelled due to rain, and then uncancelled due to beautiful weather, but only after I was already at work with none of my gear. So the Quarry swim was just Karen and Trista, and purportedly the water is now much warmer than it was for my birthday swim.
The next thing on the agenda was Pedal Thru the Pines on Saturday. All week the forecast kept going back and forth from basically no chance of rain to 100% chance of rain, so we figured we'd just play it by ear and see what they said Friday night. And Friday night they still said rain. But JUST rain, no thunderstorms. So we decided unless they cancelled the ride, we'd ride. Flying to Austin just to ride 5 hours on the trainer didn't really sound ideal.
It rained my whole hour drive to Bastrop, and continued to rain as we got our bikes ready and picked up our packets. Not hard. Just continuous. The parking lot was pretty empty, and not many people were standing around looking eager to ride. Our original plan was to do an out and back to the first aid station, then come back and start with the big group and do the 70 mile ride, for a grand total of ~85 miles. Seeing the conditions, Karen decided that once we were gone, we weren't going to come back and go again, so we decided to just do the 70.
We picked up Cindy, who was hiding in her car, undecided about whether she wanted to spend her birthday riding in the rain. But it turns out she did, so we headed out, along with Vicki and Michel.
Out onto the shoulder of 71, in the rain. That part sucked. Fortunately it wasn't for long, and then we turned off onto some country roads.
I admit, I hadn't looked at the map. I knew they had changed the route in the past, after the fires, to avoid some of that area. But I figured it was still roughly the same, so I kept waiting to go into the park. And up those giant hills. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And, spoiler, I waited 70 miles and it never happened. Evidently the route has changed completely and no longer goes through the park, and no longer goes up those steep hills. There were a couple longer, shallower hills, but nothing like before. I can't say I minded too much. I actually like short, steep hills, but there's nothing like that at IMTX, so missing them wasn't too tragic for our training.
7 miles in, at the first aid station, we noticed Cecilia had a flat tire. That was good news for her, since she'd been falling behind the group, and probably getting frustrated and annoyed. Finding out you have a flat that's causing that is always nice! We (and by "we", I mean Michel, Cindy and Cecilia.. the rest of the too many cooks hung back) got that changed, and hit the road again. Shockingly, given how wet the roads were, that was our only flat for the day.
While we were dealing with the tire, we had a frank discussion about the future of our ride. It was wet. And miserable. We were spraying each other in the face with our rooster tails, and our glasses were filthy and also so humid they were fogging up. There was traffic that couldn't see us that well through the rain. There was no shoulder to escape them. It was pretty unpleasant. Karen said if it continued like that, she was going to cut it at 40. I wanted to do the whole 70, but I wasn't sure I really wanted to be out there alone. So we just decided to see what happened.
And then it was just a lot of riding. Michel took off into the distance, Cindy and Karen rode at the front of our group, then Trista and me when I could hang with her, then Vicki, who was geared for hills but not really for flats, then Cecilia right behind us. We'd all meet up at the aid stations and make sure everyone was okay, then soldier on. The rain petered off, and the weather was really nice. Cool, fairly still, not bad.
Somewhere around mile 35 or so maybe, the 40 mile route split off from the 70, and we lost Vicki, Michel and Cindy. The rest of us had decided, unspoken, to finish out our 70, hoping the weather wasn't going to get bad again. Cindy was tasked with checking the radar when she got back to her car, and texting Karen if things looked like they were headed that way.
So the four of us, myself, Karen, Trista and Cecilia, headed back out for a second loop. Because evidently this thing is looped now, for the 70 miler. Back past that first aid station where Cecilia flatted, now a lot less rainy (and with fewer flats). Karen no longer had Cindy to pace her, so she would ride off the front, with Trista either chasing and catching her, or hanging as close as she could behind her. I'd slowly fall further back from them until I couldn't see them, and I knew Cecilia was somewhere behind me. We'd meet up at an aid station to verify everyone was doing okay, then we'd fall back into that configuration again until the next one.
Meanwhile the miles were adding up. My longest ride had been 4.5 hours on the trainer, where I was a pansy and barely changed the resistance or my effort at all. Soft pedaling. A lot different from riding on the road where there's hills and wind. And then were hills and wind! The wind was picking up as the day went on, as it had been forecast to do. Things got tougher. But we all soldiered on, pushing into the wind. Our last aid station stop, everyone was pretty ready to be done. We found ourselves lingering and texting random people and taking pictures, just to stall. But then we started getting cold, and we knew we needed to FINISH this.
The last part was fun again. Smooth roads and a tailwind to push us back to the 40-70 split from earlier. Unfortunately at that point, the rain started back up again. Just in time to go down the screaming downhill we'd gone up near the beginning. Long, steep downhill with no shoulder with a lot of later-in-the-day traffic in the rain. Not my favorite. Which is sad, because that would be a FUN downhill in better conditions.
Then some unpleasant highway navigation, still in the rain, and where I missed a sign, and got on the WRONG highway. Fortunately I realized it at the end of the on ramp onto the feeder road, and no cars were coming, so I rode back up the ramp and turned the correct way. Got back to 71, and managed to survive the shoulder of 71 in the rain again, back to the start. Where I followed Trista and Karen as they gerbiled their way around the parking lot for the last quarter mile, to make it an even 70.
Longest ride so far in this training! And it was a good, solid speed for a training ride for me, and I felt good nearly the whole time. My left adductor started to act up near the end, as it does on longer rides, especially when I'm wearing tri shorts (which I was). But other than that.. good stuff.
Once we were all in, we transitioned to a short run. Originally we were going to do 40 minutes, but between the weather, not knowing what weather was still to come, and the fact that really the only place to get any distance was to go run on the shoulder of 71.. we decided to do 20 minutes and call it good. My legs felt great off the bike, which is reassuring. We ran through the little park/camping area behind our parking lot, and two loops of that was enough to get us our 20 minutes. Very happy with how that felt, and the pace.
Then the drive home was raining and trafficked and completely miserable.
Sunday, the last day of Austin Training Weekend, was a 16 mile run. Remember how this was to acclimate Trista to Texas weather? Yeah, it was in the upper 40s with gusty wind. Oops. She had to borrow warm clothes, because who packs long sleeved anything for Austin?
It was a really good run, though. Karen wanted to run with me, because even though my pace is slow for her, I excel at "even pacing", which she wants to work on for her Ironman run. So we stuck together and got to chat for 16 miles of cold wind. So much better than the 70s and 99% humidity we've had lately.
Everyone had a solid run, which builds up all our confidence for Ironman Texas, as we count down our final 40 days (sorry, Trista).
Then our final Austin Training Weekend task was pizza and beer/wine with the team, and sending Trista back home. We'll meet up again for the Galveston half Ironman in 18 days. (Yikes. 18 days.)
The first part of Austin Training Weekend was a swim at Quarry Lake, which unfortunately got cancelled due to rain, and then uncancelled due to beautiful weather, but only after I was already at work with none of my gear. So the Quarry swim was just Karen and Trista, and purportedly the water is now much warmer than it was for my birthday swim.
The next thing on the agenda was Pedal Thru the Pines on Saturday. All week the forecast kept going back and forth from basically no chance of rain to 100% chance of rain, so we figured we'd just play it by ear and see what they said Friday night. And Friday night they still said rain. But JUST rain, no thunderstorms. So we decided unless they cancelled the ride, we'd ride. Flying to Austin just to ride 5 hours on the trainer didn't really sound ideal.
It rained my whole hour drive to Bastrop, and continued to rain as we got our bikes ready and picked up our packets. Not hard. Just continuous. The parking lot was pretty empty, and not many people were standing around looking eager to ride. Our original plan was to do an out and back to the first aid station, then come back and start with the big group and do the 70 mile ride, for a grand total of ~85 miles. Seeing the conditions, Karen decided that once we were gone, we weren't going to come back and go again, so we decided to just do the 70.
We picked up Cindy, who was hiding in her car, undecided about whether she wanted to spend her birthday riding in the rain. But it turns out she did, so we headed out, along with Vicki and Michel.
Out onto the shoulder of 71, in the rain. That part sucked. Fortunately it wasn't for long, and then we turned off onto some country roads.
I admit, I hadn't looked at the map. I knew they had changed the route in the past, after the fires, to avoid some of that area. But I figured it was still roughly the same, so I kept waiting to go into the park. And up those giant hills. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And, spoiler, I waited 70 miles and it never happened. Evidently the route has changed completely and no longer goes through the park, and no longer goes up those steep hills. There were a couple longer, shallower hills, but nothing like before. I can't say I minded too much. I actually like short, steep hills, but there's nothing like that at IMTX, so missing them wasn't too tragic for our training.
7 miles in, at the first aid station, we noticed Cecilia had a flat tire. That was good news for her, since she'd been falling behind the group, and probably getting frustrated and annoyed. Finding out you have a flat that's causing that is always nice! We (and by "we", I mean Michel, Cindy and Cecilia.. the rest of the too many cooks hung back) got that changed, and hit the road again. Shockingly, given how wet the roads were, that was our only flat for the day.
While we were dealing with the tire, we had a frank discussion about the future of our ride. It was wet. And miserable. We were spraying each other in the face with our rooster tails, and our glasses were filthy and also so humid they were fogging up. There was traffic that couldn't see us that well through the rain. There was no shoulder to escape them. It was pretty unpleasant. Karen said if it continued like that, she was going to cut it at 40. I wanted to do the whole 70, but I wasn't sure I really wanted to be out there alone. So we just decided to see what happened.
And then it was just a lot of riding. Michel took off into the distance, Cindy and Karen rode at the front of our group, then Trista and me when I could hang with her, then Vicki, who was geared for hills but not really for flats, then Cecilia right behind us. We'd all meet up at the aid stations and make sure everyone was okay, then soldier on. The rain petered off, and the weather was really nice. Cool, fairly still, not bad.
Somewhere around mile 35 or so maybe, the 40 mile route split off from the 70, and we lost Vicki, Michel and Cindy. The rest of us had decided, unspoken, to finish out our 70, hoping the weather wasn't going to get bad again. Cindy was tasked with checking the radar when she got back to her car, and texting Karen if things looked like they were headed that way.
So the four of us, myself, Karen, Trista and Cecilia, headed back out for a second loop. Because evidently this thing is looped now, for the 70 miler. Back past that first aid station where Cecilia flatted, now a lot less rainy (and with fewer flats). Karen no longer had Cindy to pace her, so she would ride off the front, with Trista either chasing and catching her, or hanging as close as she could behind her. I'd slowly fall further back from them until I couldn't see them, and I knew Cecilia was somewhere behind me. We'd meet up at an aid station to verify everyone was doing okay, then we'd fall back into that configuration again until the next one.
Meanwhile the miles were adding up. My longest ride had been 4.5 hours on the trainer, where I was a pansy and barely changed the resistance or my effort at all. Soft pedaling. A lot different from riding on the road where there's hills and wind. And then were hills and wind! The wind was picking up as the day went on, as it had been forecast to do. Things got tougher. But we all soldiered on, pushing into the wind. Our last aid station stop, everyone was pretty ready to be done. We found ourselves lingering and texting random people and taking pictures, just to stall. But then we started getting cold, and we knew we needed to FINISH this.
The last part was fun again. Smooth roads and a tailwind to push us back to the 40-70 split from earlier. Unfortunately at that point, the rain started back up again. Just in time to go down the screaming downhill we'd gone up near the beginning. Long, steep downhill with no shoulder with a lot of later-in-the-day traffic in the rain. Not my favorite. Which is sad, because that would be a FUN downhill in better conditions.
Then some unpleasant highway navigation, still in the rain, and where I missed a sign, and got on the WRONG highway. Fortunately I realized it at the end of the on ramp onto the feeder road, and no cars were coming, so I rode back up the ramp and turned the correct way. Got back to 71, and managed to survive the shoulder of 71 in the rain again, back to the start. Where I followed Trista and Karen as they gerbiled their way around the parking lot for the last quarter mile, to make it an even 70.
Longest ride so far in this training! And it was a good, solid speed for a training ride for me, and I felt good nearly the whole time. My left adductor started to act up near the end, as it does on longer rides, especially when I'm wearing tri shorts (which I was). But other than that.. good stuff.
Once we were all in, we transitioned to a short run. Originally we were going to do 40 minutes, but between the weather, not knowing what weather was still to come, and the fact that really the only place to get any distance was to go run on the shoulder of 71.. we decided to do 20 minutes and call it good. My legs felt great off the bike, which is reassuring. We ran through the little park/camping area behind our parking lot, and two loops of that was enough to get us our 20 minutes. Very happy with how that felt, and the pace.
Then the drive home was raining and trafficked and completely miserable.
Sunday, the last day of Austin Training Weekend, was a 16 mile run. Remember how this was to acclimate Trista to Texas weather? Yeah, it was in the upper 40s with gusty wind. Oops. She had to borrow warm clothes, because who packs long sleeved anything for Austin?
It was a really good run, though. Karen wanted to run with me, because even though my pace is slow for her, I excel at "even pacing", which she wants to work on for her Ironman run. So we stuck together and got to chat for 16 miles of cold wind. So much better than the 70s and 99% humidity we've had lately.
Everyone had a solid run, which builds up all our confidence for Ironman Texas, as we count down our final 40 days (sorry, Trista).
Then our final Austin Training Weekend task was pizza and beer/wine with the team, and sending Trista back home. We'll meet up again for the Galveston half Ironman in 18 days. (Yikes. 18 days.)