looking down the barrel

Holy crap, Wildflower is in two weeks!

I just finished licking my wounds from Oceanside and BOOM! It’s already time to start thinking about Wildflower. Of course, I’ve been preparing for Wildflower…but it hadn’t really sunk in how soon it really is.

A few nights ago, my bud Colt came over for some steaks and beers to share some of his experience from his five successful trips around the Wildflower course. All I heard were things like “Nasty Grade” and “The Pit”. 6K ft of climbing on the bike followed by a leg-crushing 1700 ft of climbing on the run. Add in some afternoon heat and it could be a very tough day out there. His advice: the race begins at the top of Nasty Grade. Stay conservative until then…

I’ve been in Wildflower once before…2 years ago. But all I did was the Olympic distance course. And that was tough. The long course is another animal entirely and suddenly, I’m feeling that I’m a bit under-prepared.

What do I do when I’m feeling under-prepared? Train! And I’ve been doing plenty of that the last couple weeks as I try to bounce back from my sub-par Oceanside performance and get a little redemption.

A few tweaks that I’ve made are:

• Since April 1, I’ve been attempting to maintain a standard of 80 ft of climbing per mile on my rides and runs. For example, today I did a hilly 5 1/2 mile run with 755 ft of climbing. This is tougher than I thought it would be…sometimes its hard to find routes that meet this requirement without simply doing hill repeats. But I’m close. 188 miles on the bike since April 1 – 14,140 ft of climbing, 75 ft/mile. Running is similar…71 miles, 4926 ft of climbing or 69 ft/mile. 8 of those miles were on the track, obviously no climbing there…so for the 63 miles of road running, I was at an average of 78 ft/mile.
• Running in the heat. Whenever possible, I’m running in the hottest part of the day.
• Eating more solid food on the bike. For Wildflower, I’m going to try to eat some solid food during the first part of the bike, instead of relying on liquids/gels only.

Another week or so of heavy training and than it’s taper time.

I can’t wait for the trip…we have a group of about 10 people going with a big-ass camper. It’s going to be a blast.

~ by JP on April 18, 2008.