Before I get to the bike training part of the blog today I’ve decided that I’m going to post my weight to the blog daily as part of motivation to lose weight and get ready for the Ironman. Today my weight was 169. My goal is to be in the low 150s for race day. The lower weight will definitely help on the bike course with all the hills.
Now on to the Sunday ride. Sunday is long ride day. At least that is the way that I worked out the days for my Ironman training program. Unfortunately this time of year it means riding indoors on the trainer. I have a CompuTrainer and one of the really cool things about it is that it simulates riding outside and, even better, there are real course videos for some of the most popular Ironman events. Today I road for 2 hours and 45 minutes on the Lake Placid course. I made it 48 miles into the course averaging a little over 17.5 mph. The other great feature of training with a CompuTrainer is that your training is based on Watts. This really allows you to focus on how much work you are doing on uphills, flats, downhills. Knowing how hard you are working is important so that you don’t burn your legs out and really allows you to keep your heart rate in a nice tight range that allows you to ride longer distances comfortably. Today my average Watts for the ride was 192, actually a little more than I was supposed to be doing according the the CompuTrainer Performance Improvement Program (PIG). This week the PIG program has me testing again to setup the bike training for the next 5 weeks. Last time I average 210 Watts for the 30 minute test, hopefully I will be better this time!