Snakes on a trail!

Okay, I admit right up front: the snake (singular) on the trail (barely rhymes with plane) is completely and totally tangential to the day. But I don't care, it makes a funny title, and I don't know if I ever admitted this, but the hardest part for me about blogging nearly-daily is thinking up a title for my posts.

Anyway, I took a personal day away from work so that Danielle and I could go ride the Black Diamond bike course. I did half of it already, when I did the Olympic tri Cascade's Edge, but that was the day I got a flat and was tired from a century the day before, so I didn't think I really had a good feel for any of the course. Plus, everyone says there's a monster hill halfway through, and I wanted to experience it.

But first, Danielle was lifting weights with some friends at a gym near our houses, so I met her there for a strength-training session. Ugh. She works me hard. I usually don't think I need a trainer. Then, Danielle trains me...and I realize how much more quickly I'd see big results if I used her as a trainer (versus a training partner) regularly. This winter we share the goal of "getting ripped" - should be exciting.

So after we got plenty of lifting in (I went very light on the legs), we headed out to Black Diamond. It was so weird being at that park on a non-race day; we'd only ever been there for triathlons, and it looked so empty! Where are the buoys, the transition area, the cars lining the road for miles?

We set out on the course together, sort of side-by-side so we wouldn't be drafting. I was slightly in front, so I set the pace, and I wanted to push hard, but not have an all-out effort - I wanted to go about as hard as I would in the race, given I have to run 13.1 miles when I finish the bike. 10 miles into it, Danielle says something about my hard pace...and how she's sort of crashing and needs us to slow down.

HUH? It was surreal. I know she hasn't done a ton of outside riding lately, and especially not with me...but to be stronger than Danielle, even for one day, was just bizarre.

And what it showed me was how much she's given me and every other of her triathlete friends this summer: she's given us her season, and trained with us at our paces (some of which are close to hers, or at least her potential, and some of which are much slower). I actually feel like she has sacrificed her place in races so that her friends can be successful, because her motivation, information, and assistance has been invaluable to each of us. So I know she doesn't read this blog, but to those of you who are those triathletes I'm talking about, for whom she's given this summer - let's thank her in a big way very soon. :-)

Anyway, I was okay with slowing down. Last night I went to the Mariners game and for some weird reason decided to drink two beers. No one else with me was drinking, and I almost never drink alcohol. But I had two beers and no water, not during the game or in the evening, or even in the morning when I woke up with a pounding headache. I earned this hangover (though my husband says I didn't pay enough for it if I got it from two measly beers) and I was going to live with it. But if Danielle wanted to take it easier, cool.

We finished the first loop in 1:08 - average pace 18 mph. "Gently rolling hills" is how this part of the course is described, and I agree - it's definitely not flat, but none of the ups nor downs are that significant. We set out on the second loop, the one that contains the big climb.

It's fairly flat until you get to the mountain. I don't know what pace we were riding because I'm totally riding on cadence now - it's the only way that I keep myself from mashing, and I like to see cadence and distance on the computer, so I don't get to see speed unless I press buttons. On the second loop, I opened and ate a Pria bar and I refilled my aero bottle from a bottle in my cage on the frame. I was struck by how easily I did both of these things, and how far I've come from the beginning of the season (2,500 miles, approximately, according to my bike computer that I got in January). Oh, and one other thing was cool: because the course so far was fairly easy, I could stay in my aerobars for long, long stretches. This felt great!

So, the mountain. Danielle had said, "It's no Montreux." This made me nervous, since we used to judge hills by their comparison to Lakemont, which is smaller and easier than Montreux. So...why wasn't she using the regular comparison? Did that mean the mountain was bigger than Lakemont, smaller than Montreux?

The course description says a 2.1 mile sustained grade with flat spots. The first mile was fairly easy. It had short steep grades with easy flat parts in between. Then we got to a false top - I couldn't see land or trees higher than I was, so I couldn't understand where we'd go to continue up. Well, around the corner, I saw...and let's just say that second mile was HARD. Most of the climbs I do around here start out worse than they finish. This second mile was much harder and did not have the flats breaking up the grade. It was push-push-push all the way up. As a curiosity, I switched the computer over to speed (after all, I was in my lowest gear, so my cadence was going to be whatever I could do, which certainly wasn't 90 rpm!) and watched it drop from 8 to 7 to 6 to 5 mph. But it didn't get lower than about 5.5, and I didn't wheeze. In fact, my heart rate didn't exceed 178; that says I had some room to go.

And suddenly, we were at the top, and had miles and miles of downhill to go. This is definitely one of those hills where you get a much bigger reward for the work you have to do to get up - the downhill is like six miles or so (with some long flat parts too, but no climbing!).

The course then repeats the first loop, but we opted not to - we finished at 2:26, so adding another 1:08 (assuming I can do the same time the second loop around), that would be 3:34 for 61 miles. Yay. I'd be very happy if I could do something close to 3.5 hours for this course; anything under 3:45 and I'll feel like I worked to my capacity.

Then we did a quick little run around the lake - 1.4 miles of rocky trail. The run course ends around this trail, so it's good to get the reminder of how hard it is to run on it - must step carefully! Oh, and that's where the snake story comes in: a cute little black snake was on the trail, and I jumped to avoid it, but it got startled by us and started slithering away, so I had to keep jumping around to make sure I didn't step on him! And then Danielle starts with the Samuel L. Jackson voice and we were in hysterics.

So that was my day off. 1600 calories burned. Every day off should be so productive.

I didn't write down my food during the day, but I think I can reconstruct. It was a good eating day (well, so-so).

Food:
Breakfast: Reduced-fat coffee cake and milk in coffee, 350 cals
Snack: Yogurt and granola, 320 cals
Workout fuel: 1 Pria bar, 1 bag of Jelly Belly Sport Beans: 210 cals
Lunch: Subway sandwich (no cheese), 360 cals, M&M cookie, 210 cals
Dinner: Pork tenderloin, broccoli, steamed red potatoes, bread: 800 calories
TOTAL: 2250 calories

Exercise:
45 min strength train
Bike 2.5 hours
Run 15 min
1600 calories burned