One more ride...

My Aunt Eva threw me a birthday party/good luck party at her house last night. It was a nice surprise. When it comes to wealth in family and friends, I am a rich man. Ok, on to training ; )

Ben and I did our last ride today. I wanted to pick a route that was similar in terrain to Louisville so we drove out to Old Town Leesburg and pushed off from there. The plan was to do a 2-2.5 hour ride at race pace, wattage, equipment, etc. The both of us geeked out in our race singlets, aero helmets, and appropriate nutrtion provisions. Can you believe this weather? It hardly feels like August.

Immediately, I set the pace at a steady effort and kept a close watch on our efforts during the rolling hills and short climbs. We both exclaimed how good we felt and how easy riding seemed to be today. About 40 miles into our ride, Ben said: "You're the best coach in the world. You've made my legs tough by pushing me to climb Mount Weather, Taylorstown, Stumptown, and Sugarloaf Mountain. This feels like nothing." I smiled and told him Thank you and that we would both have good races.

Total Time: 2:20:57
Mileage: 47.68 miles
Average Power: 187 Watts
Normalized Power: 194 Watts
Average Speed: 20.2 mph

We finished our ride with a speedy transition into a 20' run. Easy out and steady back. I asked Ben what kind of pace we were running off the bike and he said, he was running faster than he should be. I asked again: "how fast are we running right now." He said 7:45/mile. The good news is that it felt easy and I quickly slowed down as I will on race day the first three miles. We were still moving at an 8:15 clip after slowing down and finished at a 7:15 pace coming in. The running itself felt easy. However, I did feel my left hamstring/IT band tighten up again half way through the run. I can tell it's getting better but I'm a little frustrated it's still lingering. It appears to have move up my leg and to the side, just below my hip. I will keep up the efforts to ice, massage, stretch, electrical stim, and heat this week.

FEELING GOOD THOUGH!!!!