Tired Buns and Sore Abs

It's amazing how the human body is able to adapt. Over the last two weeks, I have noticed a few things.

1. If my HR is low (<150)>
2. If my HR is high (>165) I tire quickly and am more likely to be sore.
3. No matter how many trainer miles I put in, the first long ride on a rough paved road will always make me saddle sore. Ditto for a sore neck from aero bars.

The hard effort tempo runs and interval bike rides have been kicking my butt. In a good way. It's obvious that I have been focusing on long and slow distance and the hard efforts are quite a change. This weekend is my first ride over 30 miles, which should result in more tired buns.

One of the reasons I like racing, running or triathlons, is that I'm constantly learning things about my body, nutrition, strategy, etc. My latest revelation came on the bike.

I've always been hesitant on downhills where my speed get over 35 mph. It's fun but scary, especially in the aero position while having to turn at the bottom of the hill. The fastest I've ever hit was 42.5 mph. Once I hit 42 while coasting, I got up out of aero and waited until I was back into the low 30s before pedaling again. I have been in the habit of coasting at speeds over 38 mph because I wasn't comfortable pushing hard the whole down hill.

Well, I realized the other day that if I tighten my abs on the downhills and rely on my core for stability instead of my aero bars, I am much more stable. Duh. It makes sense, I just had never thought about it or focused on it. My entire ride I focused on core stability and I was able to get more speed on the downhills, which translates to more momentum on the uphills. It's the little things that make a difference. I'm ashamed to admit that my impromptu core work resulted in a little soreness today.

Other than that, training is going well. We had an awesome run last night. It was a good group - me, Bad Ben, Dan, Kelly, her dog Mika, and a first-timer named Trevor. My swim was cancelled due to lightning, so I'm hoping to make it up this weekend. I also have a 10 mile run and 35 mile ride planned. Looks like a tough weekend, but I'm looking forward to it.