A little saddle time with my honey

When we were preparing for our first Ironman in 2010, John and I did many of our bike rides together. Nothing quite like spending 6 hours together in the saddle, complete with sweat, blood (from the chafing), and tears (from John because he was so bored waiting for me all the time).

But this year,  I simply could not keep up with him anymore. There is a limit to how many times he can double back to make sure I’m not splayed out on the road somewhere. With the aggressive goals he had for 2011, I knew I would only be holding him back. Let’s see: a 5’3″ female and a 6’0″ male, with one being a natural born tater tot, the other a natural born athlete.

Yup, we needed to ride alone this year.

What about the trainer? You might rightly ask. Well, John almost never rides the trainer. And, when I say almost never, I mean I can count on my fingers how many times he’s ridden the trainer over the past year. He’s even gone out for rides in the snow.

Me? If there’s a cloud, I start gearing up the CompuTrainer. Okay, maybe not that bad, but almost.

But, that’s changing right now because he’s preparing for Ironman Cozumel, which is Sunday, November 27th. And two things are driving him to our custom-fashioned pain cave in the garage: 1) darkness and 2) coldness.

As the days get shorter, it’s becoming harder and harder for him to complete his weekday rides in enough light to be safe. Work keeps getting in the way of that.

And coldness? Well, John has a good reason for needing the heat. The average November temperatures in Cozumel are around 80 degrees farenheit. Suffice to say it is not quite that warm here on the shores of New Jersey. So, he needs to spend at least some time training indoors to ensure his body can adjust to the temperature, which also includes ensuring his body is used to consuming the type of fluids he will likely need on race day. As the race gets closer, he’ll take even more aggressive steps to acclimate for heat.

But, for now, he’s doing his shorter rides on the trainer, in the garage. On Thursday, it just so happened that our rides coincided, and for the first time in over a year, we rode together.

He got started about 20 minutes ahead of me, so by the time I joined him, he had already selected an episode of the Colbert Report.

And so, there we were enjoying a giggle while each suffered in our own way on our individual trainers. Yes, I had the jazzed up CompuTrainer, but I need it more than he does. I suck, and he is just slots away from a golden ticket to the Big Kahuna.

So, I’m enjoying his return to the pain cave. There’s something pleasurable and comfortable about having someone you love sharing in your torture, all while enjoying a giggle.

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For those of you who are interested in this kind of stuff, here are the workouts we did.

My workout comes from my new coach, Vince Matteo, (follow him on twitter: @felog)

  • Total time: 1:30:00
  • Warmup – 15 minutes
  • 5 x 8 minutes in big gear, keeping an aerobic HR. 2 minute easy spin in between. I used the Ironman Canada course because it has only mild elevation changes during the first 26 miles. It wasn’t a perfect fit because I was on some descents when I should have been pushing in a big gear. But, it mostly worked out.
  • Remainder of the time: normal cadence, steady aerobic

John’s workout is from his coach, Tara Rosch, of QT2 Systems

  • Total time: 1:40:00
  • 20 minute warmup
  • Tabbata intervals – 8 x 20 seconds all out (85-95 cadence), 10 seconds recovery
  • 15 minutes recovery spin
  • 2 x 20 minutes tempo effort
  • reminder of ride at base aerobic effort

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