DST and long BRICKs

You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle. - George Lucas

I woke up this morning and it was dark. The time has changed once again. I know that it will only be a few weeks until I can ride an hour plus in the morning but I'm a morning person and I am already missing it. It will be nice to have the sun out until 7 tonight. I have an evening 5k race this week. The race starts at 5:30 PM after work. That would not be possible without the time change.

I lived in Indiana for about a dozen years and they never followed Daylight Saving Time. Half the year we would be on the same time as Chicago and the other half we would be on New York. Living on the Illinois border it was a pain for people that lived in IL but worked in IN - and vice versa. But not changing the clocks worked out pretty well. During the summer months the sun would be out until 9:30PM - 10:00PM. That was great for softball games, soccer, etc. The last year that I lived in Indiana the decided to get on the stick and follow DST. They let the individual counties determine what time zone they wanted to be on. Counties closer to Chicago picked CST and counties closer to Louisville and Cincinnati picked EST. I do not know if it worked out or not.

I did a huge brick yesterday and I am satisfied. Along the lines of this TRAIN SMART thing I actually took adequate nutrition. I had a big bowl of oatmeal about an hour prior to the ride and a gel every 45 minutes of the session for a total of 5. I was pretty surprised that I felt good the entire time - no bonk - no confusion - all systems firing. Maybe there is something to this smart training.

I rode the race bike with all the same gear that I will be racing in - a dry run so to speak. That meant the unitard one piece race suit, the Rocket Helmet, the fast wheels - everything. I kept my heart rate in a nice zone 2ish for the 25 miles out - which was in 1:12 - just over 20 MPH. The out is always much slower than the back because of the slight elevation change. I refilled water bottles for about 2 minutes and headed back - still feeling good. I caught a friend of mine Steve on the way back. I rode with Steve for about 15 miles back. The heart rate slipped back into zone 1. Finished the back 25 miles in 1:19 - much slower but the run was coming up.

I had a couple of minutes transition in the garage - I had already set everything up. I was debating whether to run a 6 or 10 mile brick. This was also not going to be fast but just for endurance. I decided on 6 miles and ran towards the university - I could take a shower at the gym. I had my car there and I was meeting Jody. I got about 1/2 a mile out and I remember that I forgot my school ID on my bike. Back to the house and out again. Heading towards the university again the first mile was at 7:30 pace. I and got about 2 miles into it the run when I saw my friend Charles headed the other way. This was an opportunity to go ahead and get the 10 miles. I turned around and ran with Charles back to Clyde station. This pace was a bit slower than I was running - Charles was running about an 8:30 - 9:00 pace. I left Charles at Clyde Station with 5 miles under my belt. I was now further from the university - 8 miles out. I had another gel and I was feeling fine. I was keeping track of my heart rate and keeping track of my pace. My pace was still in the 8:30 - 8:45 range. Feeling good, however, I noticed that mile 8 was at a 9:00 minute pace. That was too slow! I picked the pace up just a little bit. The next mile was 8:20. I'm not sure if it was the picking up the pace or just the duration of exercise but this is where it got hard. Prior to that mile I felt as if I could have ran all day. Now it was hard work to just maintain the 8:45 pace for the last few mile.

All said and done I did 50 miles on the race bike (2:33) and a 13 mile run (1:58) in 4 hours 31 minutes.