Indoor trainer

Last night spent an hour on the trainer. Love the trainer...NOT. However I am feeling that this is the key to my race skills. Cycling strength affects everything in a triathlon. It is the longest part of the race generally, and how you come off the bike affects your run. In my case I am more and more convinced that the secret to my leg cramping on races longer than an OLY is related to my cycling strength.

Last night on the trainer, just for kicks I decided to push it at the end, and lo and behold I started to get leg cramps. This was only after an hour. However, I have been away from heavy training for 5 months so my fitness is low. Oddly enough I was quite happy with this because for the first time I was able to reproduce what happens to me on long races. The first year I did Tupper I screwed up my nutrition, so when I started to cramp up on the run I assumed it was due to that.

Last year at Tupper I nailed the nutrition down, drank everything, but suffered even worse leg cramps. The only thing consistent was that I had assumed I was a strong runner and could suffer through anything, which I did. But pushed hard on the Bike. In Tupper last year I had poor bike fitness yet pushed hard to match the previous year an 18+ MPH ave on a hilly course. I did it, but I started to have leg cramps on the Bike. Just like last night.

This tells me 1) I need to up my bike fitness so that I can achieve the speeds I want without having to "push" 2) I need to be smart about my pacing for long races.

Anyhow I feel a need to build my bike speed up so I think I will speak to the Coach about refocusing my plan for that.