After Week 17

This week included a course preview weekend in Tempe.  Redoing all three loops of the bike course and did one lap of the run course.  I had the misfortune of trying to do my course preview on the same weekend as the Soma Triathlon in the same place.  Much of their course overlapped the IMAZ course.  Arizona is still a very hot place.

The long bike ride was very educational for two reasons: (1) the course and its elevation changes are
now hammered into my brain.  There will be no surprises come race day.  (2) I learned I need more nutrition than I had been planning.  Previous rides capped out at one hundred miles, and even then I was a bit nutrition-starved.  This time, I bonked at mile 100 but still had an additional twelve to go.  The problem, I surmised, is that at the beginning of the ride/run, I have the benefit of the calories from breakfast.  But I burn through those as I'm taking down 150-200 calories per hour during the training session.  Then a few hours later, I'm out of breakfast calories but still need more than the 150-200 calories I'm taking in.  So while that amount of hourly intake works (with breakfast) for the first few hours, my caloric intake needs to be increased by at least another 100 per hour towards the middle and end of the training session.

On the way out of Arizona, we stopped by the new Tri Sports brick 'n mortar shop in Tempe, where I was very tempted to buy a new Cervelo TT bike, since the 2011 models are on heavy discount.  Luckily (or not so luckily, depending on how you see it), they didn't have my size.  But, we did get to stop by Rebel BBQ for some delicious BBQ goodness.

Bike: 112 miles + 110 minutes on trainer

Run: 19.0 miles

Swim: 3650 meters (2.26 miles)

Total Time: 14 hours