Cycling on the Road

The cycling part of the Half-Ironman is 56 miles.  The race in Chattanooga goes into the hills of Northern Georgia.  Did I say hills?  That's only because I am from Colorado.  They are mountains. The iconic advertising on barn roofs throughout the area does not talk about the view from Lookout Knob. It is called Lookout Mountain.  I think they say you can see all fifty states from the overlook, and you actually look down on the moon from the top.  At least that's how it will feel on my 30-year-old Cannondale, that I bought for $400 on Craigslist.

Cindy and I have kept a bike on the truck for years.  We have a tandem, and a folding Dahon bike.

We had gotten in the habit of looking for great  trails around the United States and Canada, places to park our truck and go for a ride.  We even started sharing the places with other drivers on Facebook groups like Truckin' Runners, Ride and Roll Cycling on the Road, Truckers with Bicycles, and have begun documenting them on Facebook group Trucker Trails and http://truckertrails.blogspot.com/
Running or cycling around the truckstop can be dangerous, smelly, and irritates other drivers.  Then again, maybe they need a little "encouragement".

I had to get in some workouts on the bike, though.  A pleasant ride with Cindy to Old Town Sacramento for dinner is different than racing youngsters with $6000 tri-bikes.

So I did.

32 miles in Sacramento CA

51 miles in Fontana CA

56 miles around Kent WA

65 miles around Denver CO

Am I ready? I have certainly tamed the mental beast a bit.  I know I can ride that far.  Now, as for running a half-marathon after...

Bugs are protein.  Protein is good, right?

Looking More like a Tri-bike.

Aero bars?  Who needs that nonsense?  I used to think that.  Then I fought a fifteen mile-per-hour headwind one day on the way back to my house from a swim workout.  I was a little tired, but I felt like I was riding straight up a steep hill.  Whew!

45 bucks on Amazon for these clip-on Aero bars.  I spare no expense!

We did a bit of adjusting to get the fit right.

Facebook Alert: It's Official...

Most of the comments were encouraging, with some misgivings for my safety.  About what one would hope for from a group of friends and Facebook friends.

Click here to see the post.  

You Want Me to What?

On March 7th, 2016, I received an exciting (and frightening) email from Human Resources at our employer, US Xpress.

Anxiously, I clicked on the link.  I was thinking that a challenging race late this summer would set me up for a nice PR on my December marathon in California.

May 22, 2016

May?  As in May: not next month, but the one after that?  I double-checked.  Yep, May of this year.  Conflicting thoughts raced through my head. 

 Don't people train for months for Half-Ironman races? Free! As in, "no entry fee?" Don't those things cost $300 or so?  Didn't I just have the lowest mileage months of running in years in January and February?  Yea, but free!  And no time-off counted against you. Let's see, last bike ride was October of 2015, and last swim workout was in Costa Rica in September of 2015.  Hey, last time US Xpress offered you free entry into a race, it was an Olympic Length Triathlon occurring just a week after a marathon.  You pulled that one off.  But a Half-Ironman is more than TWICE the distance of the Olympic-length triathlon.

I came to the conclusion that I would have to be an idiot to sign up for such a challenging race with so little preparation time.

So.  Of course I signed up.

See you in Chattanooga.