River Trail Sunday

I got up early Sunday morning and headed down to the River Trail to meet Bailey. We were going to watch a Sprint Triathlon that was being held there and then bike afterwards. The race started at 7:00am so we had to get there early. Bailey had a friend that was racing in her first triathlon.

My first impression of this race was that I would not want to do the swim and especially swim in that dirty muddy water. Just didn't look like fun and the Arkansas River was not a good place to swim to me. This was on a back water section that was blocked off from the main river by several rock dyke's but with all the rains we have had the river had not cleared up and looked like solid mud.

The swimmers get ready for the start

The event itself seemed small, less than 100 participants but then again this was my first ever in person triathlon to watch. The crowd support seemed dismal to none. Not sure why. The race didn't even have much music going even though they had big speakers set up. I was told that there was not much food either. It was interesting to watch and for the price, I would never do one this small. Though I would have to do it as a team anyway since I don't do the swim.

This is a shot of the winner of the race running in

After the tri, Bailey and I took off on our bikes and headed for the Big Dam Bridge. I tried to push the pace all I could which isn't a lot on the trail since there is usually a lot of walkers, runners and other bikers. I was amazed at how easy it was for me to pedal up the bridge. I didn't even have to go down to my lowest gear so I have defiantly gotten stronger since last fall.

We hit Rebsamen Park Road and I hammered down but Bailey held right there with me most of the time. I let her pull a few times and we did have a head wind it seemed, but we were still maintaining 18-19 mph. After going to the end of the road we turned around and headed back. When we got back to the main part of the road I hammered down again. This time I was going 20-21mph and not much of a tail wind but more of a cross wind. We went on down by 430 then went back across the bridge and headed for the Submarine. Turned around and headed back for our vehicles from there. All together we got in just over 26 hard miles. I wish we could have rode as fast on the trail as we had on the roads. It was fun but hot when we stopped. Bailey said this was the longest ride she had ever done and probably the hardest.

This was Bailey at the Submarine

This was the best training week I have had since my marathon. I ended the week with 21.2 miles of running and 42.7 miles of biking. This week I need to get a 40-50 mile ride in to prepare for the Tour de Rock. It will have to be on the weekend though, not sure when yet.