Crunch time

It's crazy how soon it has come. We are 1 month away and our special day will be here. Some final details are left to be competed but they should be too bad. The count down begins. ETA- 30 days.

The Hangover

Not really, however we did celebrate my bachelor party last Sunday in Tampa. Yeah I know what you are thinking... Tampa ;). We did exit off of I-275 at Dale Mabry. We went to the Bucs/Falcon game. Seven of us total- Anh Vu, John, Seymour, Clausen, Chuckie, and Tuan. We tailgated starting at 12:30 when we arrived in Tampa and found our reserved parking lot and the rain arrived at 1ish. Heavy rain with thunder and lightning. Good thing we had a couple canopies to seek shelter under. We grilled burgers on a disposable grill that Chuckie brought and it ended up working really well. We started to tear down our spot and the rain started to let up.

We walked to the stadium and in transit, a group of girls from Odyssey 2001 were handing out little vouchers on business cards and one of them said "you wanna see me dance?". I turned over to Clausen and Chuckie and responded "no, not really." and we had a nice chuckle.

At the stadium, the game started with a little bit of sprinkling that went away about 15 mins later. Fortunately that allowed overcasted weather for the rest of the game which turned out perfect. What a great atmosphere and a great venue. It was my first pro football game and come to find out, Tuan's, Clausen's And Seymour's 1st time as well.

Thanks to the guys for celebrating with me. Special thanks to Anh Vu for putting this together, John for his help and driving, and Casey for allowing us to use the family minivan! Can't wait to do it again (bachelor party or football game).

Race Report: Ocala Road Race

Vital signs:
Distance: 62.35 miles
Time: 2hrs 30mins
Average Speed: 24.8 mph
Average HR: 173 bpm
Average Power: 185 watts
Normalized Power: 238 watts

How it went down:
I finally raced today. First time in 3 months and only the second race this season. Other details of life has taken precedent (wedding...) however it felt good to see how the last 3 weeks of structured training has gone. Most of my road races consist of pretty moderate-high tempo with shorter duration bursts ranging from 1-3 mins of very high intensity. Therefore I structured my training to be able to respond to these situations. The past 3 weeks have been invervsl training during the weekdays- 1mins, 2 mins, 5mins, and spin ups. Then during the weekend, longer pulls at moderate tempo simulating the majority of the race pace.

Unfortunately, I didn't finished my last race. I had alot going the few weeks prior to the race and my training wasn't up to par.

The race started pretty moderately. It was the same route that I have done in the past. The pace was fast and there were alot of serges. I had to respond mostly to them as I sat towards the back most of the race causing me to feel the yo-yo effect. The 1st couple of laps I was working on settling in and getting comfortable riding close to other guys at a high tempo. The remainder of the race I worked on staying as comfortable as possible and hang on. I should have worked on staying towards the middle of the pack, however I'm glad that there wasn't a time where I felt threaten that I would lose contact with the peleton. I ended finishing at the back of the main group and didn't even worry about trying to contest any type of finish and just rolled in.

Something that was different from the course then in previous courses was that the feed zone was before the start/finish line, not after. Desiree and I tried something different this race with the feeds. We have seen in the past that guys would get ice and shove them into the back of their kits to keep themselves cool. We decided to make musette bags to include a bottle and a ziplock baggy of ice. It worked out great. Desiree was busy the night before sewing together feed bags and we would later practice me grabbing then in the dark. My first feed at the end of the 1st lap, I dropped Desiree's feed however Leah was about 25 meters up the road and I was able to grab a feed from her.

In the end, I accomplised my goal of finishing with the peleton, staying safe, and having a good time. I would like to thank my support crew who made sure that I had all my needs, transported me and cheered me on- Desiree and Leah! You guys rock and made the race so much better.

Now I can add back into my training- swimming, running and weight training as my next focus isa half ironman triathlon in April 2012 with probably a few road races prior.