Epic Saturdays - The Brick

Craig & I

I knew I was going to be out late last night, so when I called Craig yesterday and asked him if we could head out this morning at 8:30 instead of 7:00 (and he agreed), I felt a new sort of gratitude that will henceforth be reserved only for the best of training partners.  Due to work commitments last night, I got home at 1:55 AM this morning. The alarm was set for 7:30.  Normally on Saturday it's set for 6:00.  Obviously, eight hours of sleep is ideal.  But the difference between four and five and a half hours is huge for me.

Today's training schedule called for a brick session: a two and a half hour Z2 ride and a 30 minute run.  Craig is racing tomorrow at the Bailey Bikes Criterium, so he was looking for more or less the same, sans the run.  So off we went, right on time.

When we hit Pacific Coast Highway a pretty large group passing perpendicular to us through the intersection.  So when we got a green light, we chased on to the back.  But after all that it ended up that they where not moving very fast, so we passed through and carried on.

A few miles later we got caught by a group from Adobo Velo while we were waiting at a traffic light.  These guys where looking strong and organized, so when the light changed we latched on to the end of their train to feel out if it was cool to join them.  No one seemed to mind, so we enjoyed a brisk 7 or 8 miles before it was time for us to get off PCH and head into Newport & Irvine.

False flat through Turtle Rock

Craig and I had decided to ride OC Velo's Sunday recovery ride route.  It's the perfect length for what we both wanted to put on the books today, and though not a particularly challenging ride, there are enough bumps in the road to keep things interesting.  For the next 20 miles we rode through Newport Heights, The UCI campus, Turtle Rock and Bonner Canyon before making our way back to PCH for the run in back to Huntington Beach.

When we got back to Pacific Coast Highway things got interesting.  Timing is everything and as we where taking a left onto PCH from MacArthur, we joined up with a couple of other guys and started riding together.  The pace was fast/comfortable and we kept getting lucky with the lights.  Being somewhat committed to keeping the integrity of my Z2 workout intact (read: acting like like a precious baby), I stuck on the back and let everyone else do the work.  But after awhile I started feeling guilty and worked my way to the front, just to be stopped by one of the few red lights we did hit.

When we started up again, I was the victim of something I do all the time which is forgetting to shift into a lower gear while rolling to a stop.  So stuck in a 50/13 (or so) gear, it took me forever to get going again.  And by the time I did, I had to hit it pretty hard just to catch on to the back again.

Bolsa Chica Flats

I got another chance on the Bolsa Chica flats with about a mile before Craig and I would be turning onto Warner Ave.  Once on front, I gave it everything I had.  And today I ended up having a lot - I pulled the last mile at about 28.5 MPH.  This effort garnered me quite a hefty compliment that I didn't deserve from a rider who must have just joined on with us - As he was laying on the praise it occurred to me that clearly he had missed my previous 10 miles of wheel sucking.  As I write this, I am still struggling with the moral dilemma that this compliment has created - if he only knew.

When I got home, I quickly changed into running gear and was out the door for the run.  The run felt good and was otherwise uneventful.  I ran out of my tract, through Huntington Central Park, down some side streets, along the perimeter of the wetlands and then home.  I listened to a band called Cave In on the iPod.  That's about it.

This was my 3rd time out in the Zoot Energy 3.0 shoes.  I've got 20 miles on them now, and I'm still not sure about them.  We shall see.... 

The Bike:  48.17 Miles/2:31/19.1 avg. speed
The Run:  5.01 Miles/40:21/8:03 avg. pace