Feeling Loopy

Long day today. Today it was the first of the proper Ironman sessions since Mandurah. A jaunty 200km on the bike followed by a short run. Back to it that's for sure.

The session went pretty okay. 200km is a long way on a bike, no matter how you slice it. It doesn't really matter how you approach it, it translates to sitting on a bike for a very long time.

This morning I thought I would try something a little different to try and make the time pass a bit quicker. Instead of doing the predictable and heading down the freeway I decided to do a bit of a loop course. I plotted out a loop that was about 65km long and then did that two and a bit times (I also had to ride to and from the loop). What a coincidence I hear you say, it is sort of like the course at Busselton, three loops of 60km. It may surprise you to hear, but that wasn't accidental. I first thought of the idea as a way to avoid riding down the freeway and back. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that doing a bit of work on a loop course may be a good way of doing some preparation for Busselton. I have to say it sort of worked. The ride was still a total physical and mental thrashing, but breaking it into laps did seem to help a bit.

Half way through the ride though I had a bit of a strange experience, I was really struggling to stay awake. I was seriously at risk of nodding off while riding, all I wanted to do was close my eyes for 5 minutes. Not sure what would have happened if I had. Well no that isn't entirely correct, I know what would have happened, I would have crashed, badly, but part of me was also interested whether it was actually possible to fall asleep while riding. I have heard of people doing it, but up until now I questioned whether the stories were true. I guess maybe they were.

The run off the bike went okay. Once you get over the 'man I really want to sit down for a minute' feeling and get into running it usually starts to feel alright. It was only a short run anyway, so that was fine.

Back on the bike tomorrow for a bit of a recovery spin. I suspect I might still be feeling a bit of fatigue in the legs when I jump on the bike.