MORE POWER!!!

So I know this is a ridiculously cool picture from back in the day of a guy with some seriously LARGE pants (think Big Pants Racing...) but I wanted to just shoot up a quick little note about power and cranking on the bike.  (amongst other ramblings...so hang on this one might get convoluted)

With the last post I got a lot of positive feedback and vibes coming from everyone I knew about the massive downhill into Keene on the IMLP course.   As discussed previously, I went up there over Father's Day weekend again with the idea of dropping down the descent several times until I was comfortable enough with going down it at a good enough speed for race day.  In retrospect, I only went down it 4 times total the entire weekend, but after being nervous as all hell about my initial drop in, I went down the first time and realized about halfway down that none of the research that I did on speed wobbles was helping.  None of the antecdotes that were online helped my wobble, other than peddaling thru it, riding the brakes a little and telling myself it was going to be okay. 

I dropped down the first time and got to the bottom and felt good, not really solid about the speed that I just did reach (never crested 35mph) but I had complete control of the bike by peddalling thru and riding the brakes a bit.  I never truly felt wobbly and the bike did NOT feel like jello underneath me...score.  I went on to do 2 loops on the bike course on Saturday and then another loop on Sunday before we left and by Sunday's downhill I was looking over my shoulders for cars coming down the hill, arms and shoulders were loose and I was feeling really in control of my bike.  It was like I had conquered the hill.  I know I will never really be up to 100% again "speed-wise" on that downhill stretch, but I could at least get going pretty smoothly down it and feel in control (which is what I wanted to achieve)

As for the other training that I've been doing, I've been putting in some SERIOUS miles lately.  Last week capped off at 24.9 hours of training and I'm on a rest week now.  I've been meticulous about the amount of miles and keeping track of training since 2005 (if you want to see my excel spreadsheets that I have saved, just ask!) and compared to my lead-up for 2009 IMLP, this year I'm about 200 miles ahead of schedule for running and about 30 hours ahead of time on the bike.  So I'm hoping to be a little bit faster indeed.  I've been rocking some sweet really long back to back long rides and the heavy training is almost done.  Now I'm just on a rest week and absorbing the training that I've been doing over the last few weeks, then it's 3 weeks of taper then the big dance.  Should be a good show if all goes well :o)

I'm resting and starting to feel a little bit better today, so that's a good sign.  This is the first time this year I've snagged a rest week after only a two week build (traditionally I've done 3-4 weeks of build and one week of rest) so I'm feeling rather good in the early portion of this rest week.  This year's IM race is plotting out to be a good one, so be prepared.  There's been a lot of fireworks already this year and I've got a lot to prove out there on the course.  I'm just itching to get out there and get this puppy underway.  The big thing is going to be to try and curb the overeating that inevitably comes with taper and rest weeks.  I'm a culprit of the old "eat the entire box of pasta" and chalk it off as a carbo-load.  I've worked hard to get down to the slender 155-160lbs that I currently am at right now, but I can already see the scale creeping up towards the high end of that according to my workout logs.  So, just something to keep in check.

Other than that, things have been going well.  It's about 4 weeks to race day and I'm trying to prepare a mental list of all the things that I have to get taken care of before race day.  (it's a long list) But I know that it's the little things that will help on race day and I want to make sure that I focus on my mental state of things too in order to keep things sharp.  This race is so long that I need to hone in on the mental focus to keep me going and on the right track.  I know what I'm capable of and I just want to get after it now.  It just can't come soon enough.  Sorry that was such a jumbled post. I have a lot of ideas that I wanted to cover but as of right now I'm patiently waiting for race day to come. Rest hard my friends, cheers.