Epic Training in Amish Country, Report #1

Day 1: The Prologue
• Early morning swim, 1-mile.
• Group breakfast with friends from the Tri Club.
• 45 mile moderate ride with Joe and Jen. Average speed 18.5 mph on road bikes.

What an incredible day! Breakfast with my friends had its fair share of laughs. We had an amazing morning to ride, with the highlight being a tour of the Nissley Vineyards. We set up a beautiful pace line that held together the entire ride. It felt so easy, and was so enjoyable! I don’t do enough group riding!

In the afternoon I shook my legs out by taking a solo hike in Mount Gretna, then poked around town looking at real estate. Kyle played a home game at 6 pm. They lost but it was a very competitive game and… well… my son’s quite a player. He walked, singled, and doubled with the bases loaded. He pitched in relief, inheriting the bases loaded with one out in the third. He finished the game with 3-2/3 innings pitched and no earned runs. Sorry for the digression… I can’t help myself!
Nice swim, fun with friends, incredible ride, several hours of introspection, a great baseball game with my son… no e-mail, no internet, no cell phone. Pretty much the definition of a perfect day!

Day 2: The Century
• 105 mile ride with Joe on tri bikes. 5-1/2 hours, 19 mph average, 270 TSS points.
• 2 mile brick “run” on the HARC treadmill (‘cause they gots air conditioning in thar).
• 45 minutes of stretching and yoga-ing.

This day was characterized by the heat (“The heat was hot,” he sang as he crossed the desert on a Horse with No Name). When I got home and downloaded my power data I was a little surprised it said TSS = 270. I sort of expected to see something higher given my level of ouch-ed-ness (MS Word doesn’t like that word, even with hyphens added). I suppose a benefit of riding relatively fast is a lower total training stress. We’ll see how 270 points translates tomorrow when I’m ready to mount up and ride again.

I tried to nap when I got home but my body was too keyed up to settle down. I stopped fighting it and went out to cut the grass. We’re now in the car heading to my sister’s in Harrisburg (no, I’m not driving). My brother’s visiting from Pittsburgh. A picnic and a Penguins game in my very near future. These two days have been a little slice of heaven…

Will report back when able!