Nightmare on Elm Street

Actually this workout wasn't a nightmare, but we did start it on Elm Street and I thought it made for a great title. Plus, super-cute picture!

On the agenda was a 3 hour 15 minute ride that had to include lots of hills. So we drove out to Granville, a half hour trip, but the only place in Central Ohio with serious hills. Plus, Granville is also home of a 'rails to trails' that goes for about 14 miles one way. We started off with a warm up on the trail and then headed out of downtown to do our climbing. I have to admit, I have a serious mental-block when it comes to triathlon. It's been well documented in this blog that I have major freak outs in open water. Those freak outs have been applied to biking as of recent. Ever since seeing the hills Dave rode in Couer d'Alene, I've been nervous about what Louisville has to offer. Yesterday while riding up our first hill, I did it again: FREAKED OUT!!! I stopped half way up the hill and yelled to Dave, "I just can't do this!" He calmed me down, saying we were almost to the top, but neither of us could get started again on the hill, so we had to ride down a little and start again. After that initial freak out, things seemed to go better. The hills were long and steep but doable. The pace was slow and the heart rate was slow. Check out the elevation map compared to my heart rate.



Dave asked me at the end of the hills if I would be able to do that whole set again? That's probably what my half and whole Ironmans would be like. Yikes!!!

After the hills we headed out to the trail to finish up the last hour and a half with a controlled heart rate. We headed toward Johnstown and rode for what seemed like forever. Problem was my heart rate kept high and my pace was slow. What the heck was going on? Dave said we were going uphill, but it didn't seem like it. That is, until we turned around. Oh my, how we were going uphill. If you check out the elevation map above, you'll see the last big hill that goes on for about an hour before we start coming back down? Yeah, that's the hill we were "climbing" on the trail.

When the ride was finally over I had another half hour of running. My legs felt like bricks at the beginning but quickly were turning over and I was comfortably traveling along at an 8:30 pace. Sweet! But, when I hit the 24 minute mark (almost done!) my stomach decided to tie itself in knots and I suffered until I got back to the car.

In the end, I didn't do the miles I had hoped to do on my bike and certainly am still nervous about the many, many hills to come. But, I'm trusting Coach and knowing there are many, many more workouts to come to help me gain my confidence.