out-and-back-and-out-and-back-and-stats

2 time trial/tempo rides on the bike today within a long ride that was also part of a brick...this yields lotsa numbers! And today, I'm happy with the way all of the numbers crunch. Seujan and I had a GREAT workout today and I'm really proud of us. It was a lot of out-and-back as we did the same part of the trail twice and parts of E. Lk. Samm 4 times...but it worked out great.

The assigned task today was a 50 mile ride with one 10-mile TT and one 5-mile TT in the middle, plus a 2 mile run/brick. We drove to Log Boom park and rode from there to Marymoor to warm up, about 14 miles...then did the first 10 mile TT along East Lake Sammamish, toward Issaquah, ending at about Lake Samm State Park. This was an excellent decision as it included a tail wind and the rollers along E. Lk Samm go more down than up when travelling in that direction. I pushed it hard, but still felt a little guilty about the gifts of the course...but not guilty enough to do anything different for the second one! We rode back almost all the way to Marymoor and then did the 5 mile TT in the same direction as the first. Seujan's bike computer does not agree with mine---her's always says we're doing less than mine does (guess whose computer I like better?). Thus, I'm arguing that I really did a 5.2 mile TT as I went the same distance she did.

I pushed the HR a bit higher on the 5-miler...on both of the TT's today, I was able to push more than I did on the one we did 2 weeks ago...felt good about that. Tempo bike rides are WAY more fun than tempo runs, for sure. We ended up getting extra credit miles to get back to the car and I ended up with 63.

Both of us doing a brick presents a bit of a logistical challenge since we can't stuff both bikes into the car--especially when trying to do a quick transition-- and neither of us wanted our bike unlocked on the car rack. So...Seujan was very very nice and let me run first while she did the Juanita Hill on her bike. This was truly an act of love as I was DONE with the bike, especially after the last 13 miles of headwind. I felt great on the run and went out a little over a mile (10 minutes) and negative split back to the car.

Felt great after this workout...pushed the tempo parts, got in extra miles, and felt really good on the run. We talked about Ironman on the way home...I'm totally psyched about it.

Here's the batch of stats:

Warm up 14.6 miles

10 Mile TT: 28:31
Avg HR = 145

13ish miles moderate

5.2 Mile TT: 14:39
Avg HR = 149

20ish miles moderate

Total bike:
63 miles
3:47:56
Avg pace: 16.5 mph

Run:
2ish+ miles
19:38
Avg HR 142