Why you should ride with a group?

As you may have read, I had a bike wreck the other day, but what I did not tell you about was all the help and support that came after the wreck from the group I was riding with.

As you can see from the photo, many riders stopped to check on us and offer their assistance. I counted 14, that at least stopped to make sure everything was taken care of. And about 8 that waited until everything was settled. Most of these riders have only seen me on the occasional Tuesday evening ride. One pair of riders actually sprinted back inorder to be able to return quickly with a truck and pick me up. And as with any good group many have since inquired about my status...I am happy to say, aside from some road rash, bruising and my injured pride, I am fine.

What happens when you crash on a road bike?

I was unfortunate enough to have my first crash today. As motorcyclist say "There are 2 types of riders...those that have gone down and those that will go down!"

I was towards the back of a group of riders, while a rider in the middle of the group got a flat...I was watching the rider in front of me (motorcyclist call that target fixation) and not the pack. The rider in front was able to dodge the almost stoped rider. But I had a rider to my left which left me no outs. Again back to my motorcycle days, I was taught to always look at the pack and know what is happing to every rider that is visible (once it has happened to the rider in front of you, it has happened to you). I wish I had applied those skills I learned on my motorcycle to my road cycling.

I hit her at about 27-29 mph (I was in the middle of a little sprint). I landed on my shoulder and slid across to the other lane...losing a few pounds of flesh along the way and I may have damaged my shoulder (current status: painful). For only my second day of training it was a pretty eventful day.

I will get a few photos up ASAP. In the meantime, I hope you have better luck on your journeys than I am having on mine.

Training: Week 21 / Period: Prep / P: #1

Training Goals:
Get body used to high frequency of workouts. Just day after day consistancy.

Swim Training:
1.7 Hours

Bike Training:
3.3 Hours

Run Training:
3.0 Hours

Weeks Total:
8.0 Hours

Prep Period Total:
8.0 Hours

P #1/Year Total:
8.0 Hours

What happens to your training when "Life Happens"?

During any "Epic" journey you are bound to run into the road bump, life, lack of foresight or other problem. I have already run into two slight problems and must adjust my training program.

First, I was guessing that the event would happen on July 27th, but instead it is actually schedule for July 20th, which means I have already lost one week of my 52 weeks. And it saying one week out of a year does not sound like much but when I look at where I need to be, I think one week could make a big difference.

Second, I did not account for Christmas or the "Holidays". Now I don't know about you, but I always get really busy with shopping and spending time with family over the "Holidays". And I am sure I could give the "Ironman Training" excuse to get out of many of the Holiday Activities, but I truly enjoy them, and I am more likely to skip the training during that time, than skip out of the family thing. Being honest with myself and knowing myself well enough, I would rather schedule my training around this likely pitfall.

So here is the Updated Schedule

Periodisation #1 (21 Weeks)
--5 Weeks Prep
--4 Weeks Base 1
--4 Weeks Base 2
--5 Weeks Base 3
--3 Weeks Taper

Recovery (4 Weeks)
--4 Weeks of easy short workouts

Periodization #2 (26 Weeks)
--8 Weeks Prep
--6 Weeks Base 1
--4 Weeks Base 2
--5 Weeks Base 3
--2 Weeks Taper
--1 Ironman USA event week