Happy Cinco De Mayo

Cinco de Mayo was a foreign festival to these two Iowa kids until we laid foot in Southern California a couple of years ago. I knew about May Day but never anything like this. Now we have learned to love avocados, guacomole, real salsa (not taco sauce), and real Mexican food (not Taco Bell or something smothered in a red sauce with ridiculous amounts of melted cheese to go with it). We have two parties this week that we are supposed to go to - I guess it is a good excuse for most people to drink margaritas and tequilla. This whole festival thing doesn't fit to well into the RAAM training program. However - Oktoberfest in the fall should fit nicely.

As for the weekend - Saturday's ride was 104 miles. We rode up to meet with the group for our 4x25 minute intervals. This week we rotated partners to change things up. It was a nice change of pace - and Frank gives a much better draft than Mike. As for the individual efforts - I managed to ride my first in 20:15 on our little course with a HR avg. of 164 and the second I rode in 20:24 with a HR avg. of 165. Mike Bennet started with a 1 minute head start on the last one and I managed to catch him with about 20 yards to go into the 8.4 mile course. I paid for it as my HR max was 187 those last couple of seconds but it is was nice to have a rabbit to chase down. The goal is to break 20 minutes on the course by the end of the training. On the ride home I was reminded why I hate riding on the coast. Traffic was horrible and the Orange County Wheelmen had their Fiesta 150 going on. Nothing like a couple of hundred bikers riding 13 mph clogging the bike lanes. Hats off to all of them for being out there and exercising but it was a little too fruity for me. All I can say is I will head east and go to the hills and leave the coast to the cruisers. On Sunday I headed out of the infamous Swami's course. It was nice to get out and push hard for 2 hours by myself. Karla is doing awesome and has come leaps and bounds since starting the formal training. She is not the slowest team member by any means and hopefully will only get stronger as the race approaches.

So totals for the week:

Bike - 375 miles/21.5 hours
Run - 12 miles
Swim - 5500 yards
Total - 24+ hours

I fell off the running band wagon but with commuting to and from work 4 days last week, I struggled to find time to get out. Pete assures me that I will be fine and that I will be able to balance my training after the race. He points to his seasons where he would race bikes from January to October and then focus on running for a couple of months and run a 2:40 marathon.

This week we back down the volume by about 75% of our maximum. The plan for the next 4 weeks is this:

Week 1 - 275 miles
Week 2 - 350 miles
Week 3 - Zero - yes 0 - Out of town for my youngest brother's graduation in Annapolis Maryland. We hope to make up for the lack of biking with running and swimming.
Week 4 - 450 miles
Taper for the race.

The intensity too will be going up and we will top out on our intervals with 9x5 min on the hill repeats and 6x30 on the flat TT efforts. Nothing like 3 hours at sub-barf pace. Anyhow, I need to run. Hopefully later this week I can give a complete download on the our 3 vehicle approach and rider rotation.

Until then -

NJB