Good Ride--Just Not as Far as I Hoped

I'm on my 2nd beer post-ride. Turns out I wasn't sufficiently recovered from IMLP to go the distance. Still, I did this:

Duration: 7:17:56 (7:51:55)
Work: 3740 kJ
TSS: 461.2 (intensity factor 0.795)
Norm Power: 171
VI: 1.2
Distance: 106.449 mi
Elevation Gain: 8786 ft

That is still a very solid ride, I don't care who you are. In case you are wondering, I set my FTP for LGL to 215 (it's about 180 on Bitchie). I'm sure my coach will claim it's even higher, but when I've done interval rides on LGL, that's the number I use and am able to hit for the FT intervals.

So if you know anything about riding with power (as compared to some idiots I've seen post on their blogs as if they know what they are talking about--they are really just using a fancy bike computer), you will observe that I rode pretty "hot." I can ride near 80% of FTP for a LONG time if I'm not running off the bike, as I know all too well (coach doesn't believe me, but it's true). If the rest of the ride had been flat, I could have continued on, but my legs were just not into climbing any more, and I was having trouble unclipping from my pedals, so I decided to bag it.

The ride started out rather cool and overcast. At about 40 miles in, we got rained on for a long time. It's not that much fun riding screaming descents when you can barely see in front of you let alone the road let alone gravel let alone the curves. After it quit raining, then the sun came out in blazes (about 87 degrees) and the winds picked up to about 15MPH or more.

When I took a shower post-ride, I was even happier that I stopped, because my ass was chafed! That's what you get sitting on essentially a wet diaper. I shudder to think what I would have ended up with after 180 miles!

So, no there were no tears today. In fact, I'm quite good with what I did, just 3 weeks after an Ironman. I am looking forward to being able to run next week, and also bike, and also swim! I still put in 17 hours of training this week, and that's nothing to complain about (I will probably swim about an hour tomorrow, too, just to get over this, and I think I can run, too--so I am a lying mofo--it will be about 18.5 hours).

I'm about to head out to the Land's End store here in Dodgeville, then buy some more beer, because I've got a few guys who will be finishing 300K today that will be showering back at my ranch, and I think they'll appreciate a beer. I offered to have a three-way with them...one is married, but the other guy is single, so we'll just have to see how that works out :)