Lake Stevens Bike Course
I was able to take most of the day off from work today and it was a bit sunny (or at least not rainy!), so I decided to head up to Lake Stevens and test out the Half-Ironman bike course with my tri bike. Boy oh boy….was that a tough ride! The hills were relentless! Seemed like 2 really fast downhill portions (hit 43mph) but the rest is up, up, and more up, followed by steep up! yikes! I have a lot of work to do on the bike between now and July 6th. Lots and lots of hill work is in my future! I’m hoping that my legs weren’t fully recovered from my long run the day before and maybe that played a small part of making this ride seem extra difficult? 
Well, at least I can tell myself that to feel better!
I’m also considering riding that race with my road bike instead of my tri bike. Anyone have any thoughts on that? I feel like I can climb better on my road bike, and since there really isn’t much 
for flat sections I don’t see a lot of opportunity to take advantage of being in the aero position. (I also get a little nervous being so far away from my brakes in aero when I’m flying down a hill at 40+mph). Although I do love how my legs don’t feel like lead weights when I transition from bike to run with the tri bike. It’s much easier than with the road bike. Hmm….something to experiment with I guess? Next time I’ll try the course with my road bike and see how it compares.
All in all I had a great couple of days with a long run and a long bike ride! I’m hoping to have enough time to get those in once every week, but life just gets too darn busy sometimes!
Workout:
- Type: Cycle
- Date: 03/22/2008
- Time: 11:16:56
- Total Time: 3:35:00.00
- Distance: 56 miles
- Average Speed: 15.63 mph
- Max Speed: 43 mph
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4 Comments: :
Lake Stevens Bike Course
March 23rd, 2008 2:56 pm
Mitch Roberts says:
Hi Moe!!
Last year there were several people on road bikes for the Lake Stevens Half!! I only own a road bike so I didn’t have options. And…. I was soooooooo grateful for the granny gears!!! Except for the measly 4 miles at the end of the loop, it’s all hills. I have aeros but I didn’t even use them. That said, I wasn’t out to break any land-speed records.
You’ve still got plenty of time to experiment with both bikes. This race is so well done. It’s a beautiful course. (TIP: Last year there were only 2 bottle exchanges on the course. Only one had sports drink. (The other only had water.) I was grateful I had the double bottle rack under my seat to carry my own concoctions… or I would have dehydrated for sure.)
Train on!!
Shell
March 23rd, 2008 2:57 pm
Mitch Roberts says:
PS. I just noticed I’m logged in as Mitch … (the hubster….) The above note is from me, Shell, at seashell.sweat365.com. Oops.
March 23rd, 2008 7:34 pm
Brad Hefta-Gaub says:
Hey Shell, what other accounts of Mitch’s are you logging in to?
March 24th, 2008 7:27 am
Moe says:
Hey Shell, thanks for the tips! Yeah, I was also thinking I probably wouldn’t get to use my aero bars much on that course, and granny gears are the best!
You doing it again this year?