A Smokin Start.
A 3.5 hour ride with a 20 minute run off the bike was on the schedule for Saturday. I wanted to get started early so I wouldn’t be away from D and K the entire day. My plan was to wake at 5am, have breakfast and be on the road no later than 7am.
The alarm went off at 5 and I pulled myself out of bed and into the kitchen to cook breakfast. I noticed a strange smell when I walked into the kitchen…not always out of the ordinary around here. It smelled like something had been burned….again, not so out of the ordinary. Then I caught a glance of the streetlight out the window and knew where the smell was coming from. I turned on the lights in the back yard and it looked like a thick wave of fog had rolled in during the night. Only this fog smelled of wildfire. The winds had blown smoke over from the eastern part of Georgia.
I didn't want to head out into traffic with driver visibility compromised by the smoke. I started formulating plan B. I could go out to the base (military base) were there’s no traffic and ride the 12.5 mile loop there….where I do most all of my weekday training. But I’d have to pack up everything and make the 25-minute drive. I thought for a split second about doing the ride on the trainer, but I’d go completely nuts on there for 3.5 hours. I decided I’d have breakfast, wait for the sun to rise and see if the smoke cleared.
The sun began to rise and thankfully the smoke began to clear. By 6:45, the smoke had cleared enough that it’d be safe to ride. I headed out about 7am.
The plan called for easy to steady effort for the entire ride. I kept my pace very easy for the first hour and felt good. I increased the effort a bit during the second hour and still felt pretty good. I passed through a small town at about the 2-hour mark and turned east. The wind picked up significantly after making the turn and my nice ride got ugly. The remaining hour and 43 minutes were spent fighting a strong headwind. I made it back home and finished with 63.5 miles and a 17mph average. I made a quick costume change and headed out for the short easy run. 21 minutes at about 9:30 pace.
Overall it was a good session. The headwinds sucked, but I was happy to have gotten in the ride with the smoky start.
Coach John has me focusing on improving my biking during the next several weeks, which equals lots of bike time. My run and swim will taper off a bit during the 6 or so weeks that we work on getting me stronger on the bike. John assured me my swim and run would come back quickly.
This week will be a full week of training through Friday morning. After finishing my bike session Friday, we are heading back down to Panama City Beach for a week of rest and relaxation. We didn’t really get to enjoy the beach while we were there for GCT and I promised KJ we’d go back when school got out. She’s holding me to my word…
John wants me to take three days totally off while I’m on vacation and only do light running and swimming. I’m a bit afraid of what he has in store for me when I get back…..
Happy Training!
TJ
The alarm went off at 5 and I pulled myself out of bed and into the kitchen to cook breakfast. I noticed a strange smell when I walked into the kitchen…not always out of the ordinary around here. It smelled like something had been burned….again, not so out of the ordinary. Then I caught a glance of the streetlight out the window and knew where the smell was coming from. I turned on the lights in the back yard and it looked like a thick wave of fog had rolled in during the night. Only this fog smelled of wildfire. The winds had blown smoke over from the eastern part of Georgia.
I didn't want to head out into traffic with driver visibility compromised by the smoke. I started formulating plan B. I could go out to the base (military base) were there’s no traffic and ride the 12.5 mile loop there….where I do most all of my weekday training. But I’d have to pack up everything and make the 25-minute drive. I thought for a split second about doing the ride on the trainer, but I’d go completely nuts on there for 3.5 hours. I decided I’d have breakfast, wait for the sun to rise and see if the smoke cleared.
The sun began to rise and thankfully the smoke began to clear. By 6:45, the smoke had cleared enough that it’d be safe to ride. I headed out about 7am.
The plan called for easy to steady effort for the entire ride. I kept my pace very easy for the first hour and felt good. I increased the effort a bit during the second hour and still felt pretty good. I passed through a small town at about the 2-hour mark and turned east. The wind picked up significantly after making the turn and my nice ride got ugly. The remaining hour and 43 minutes were spent fighting a strong headwind. I made it back home and finished with 63.5 miles and a 17mph average. I made a quick costume change and headed out for the short easy run. 21 minutes at about 9:30 pace.
Overall it was a good session. The headwinds sucked, but I was happy to have gotten in the ride with the smoky start.
Coach John has me focusing on improving my biking during the next several weeks, which equals lots of bike time. My run and swim will taper off a bit during the 6 or so weeks that we work on getting me stronger on the bike. John assured me my swim and run would come back quickly.
This week will be a full week of training through Friday morning. After finishing my bike session Friday, we are heading back down to Panama City Beach for a week of rest and relaxation. We didn’t really get to enjoy the beach while we were there for GCT and I promised KJ we’d go back when school got out. She’s holding me to my word…
John wants me to take three days totally off while I’m on vacation and only do light running and swimming. I’m a bit afraid of what he has in store for me when I get back…..
Happy Training!
TJ
posted by TJ at 10:05 AM
7 Comments:
I had a nice run in the smoke this morning, and it is still hanging as I get ready for my ride. Fun stuff! That's a nice long ride too! Well done. Have a great time on your trip!!
Yeah,we're getting the smoke as well in Birmingham. I'm coming over to Macon next week for their HIM. Hopefully, I won't be choking on smoke the whole time. Great brick. 3.5 hours on the bike is treacherous
Bro...that was a great brick. Keep up the good work.
TJ - careful training in the smoke. We have been dealing with it here in FL too. One hour in it is = to smoking a pack of cigarettes. Keep your lungs healthy.
Bigun tried training in it one day, it was rough. I talked him out of the next two days until it was just about gone. You training junkies!
Yeah, the smoke on Sunday was pretty bad in the ATL. I did a brick that afternoon, and only about 1 hour before my workout did the smoke finally clear. The rest of the weekend was great however, including the open water swim with Wes!
You need to get out there one weekend with us.
Murtha...
sounds great andy. the only problem is i'm 4 hours south of you guys.
there are no safe open water options down here, so i may have to make the drive one weekend and join in.
i just noticed the smoke for the first time this morning - thick and nasty...
yuck...
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