Saturday morning I was coaching a ride/run session (often referred to as a brick session). It involved a one hour ride followed by a 24 minute run, completed up to 3 times. Most of the athletes were riding 30km and running 6km each set, therefore a session total of 90km on the bike and 18km running (a very big session, less than half the athletes completed all 3 sets). Even without my shin soreness, I could not have completed that much running at my current level of conditioning, but it is a session I look forward to doing in the future. As coach I needed to lock up the clubrooms after the last rider left and have it unlocked again before they returned. I also needed to stay and mind over the gear and bikes whilst everyone was running. I managed to sneak in a 40 minute ride during the first two sets, so a total of 38km. Not as much as I would have liked, but probably good me for to give my body a rest. Ironically, combined with Wednesday's ride to and from work and the 45km ride on Sunday, this week ended up being my biggest cycling mileage of the season so far (which says more about how little cycling I've done since Ironman).
The distance was not really enough to assess the new Cobb saddle, although I think it is the longest I have ridden on it. My current assessment remains the same - better than the previous saddles, but still not completely comfortable. I think the biggest question is how well will it go on a 3 hour ride - we'll have to wait and see.
With the big training camp in Bright next weekend, Elaine still needed more practice riding in the hills, so we headed to the Dandenongs (a good way to avoid the hordes of riders doing Around the Bay). Elaine managed to climb Mt Dandenong from the bottom to the top. Starting with Devil's Elbow (steeper than what she'll do in Bright), we continued up to Sky High (with photos to prove it). We then descended via the 1 in 20, a much nicer (less steep) descent than the Devil's Elbow.The weather remained good for our ride, although a little cold in places. As we approached our car parked in Ferntree Gully the wind started to noticeably pick up. Mid afternoon it rained fairly consistently and we even got hail as evening approached. During these deteriorating weather conditions I watched a fairly constant stream of cyclists pass by our house as they neared the finish of the Around the Bay in Day ride (210km). Elaine and I have done this ride twice before and I doubt we'll ever do it again. Watching the riders struggle home in the rain, cold and wind only re-enforced our idea to avoid this particular event.
This morning we have several friends competing in the Age Group World Championships in Auckland. The Sprint Distance race has already been completed, but the Olympic Distance is still in progress as I write this. The Club's head coach Clint was hoping to win his age group (which he did in Beijing last year), but only managed 6th place this year. Bill managed 28th position in his age group after tearing his groin muscle about 6 weeks out and then breaking his toe and cracking his tailbone about 3 weeks out.
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