Friday, March 20, 2009

Hawaii Training

Guess Ive neglected my blog while over here.. anyways, the weather has been a rollercoaster event. One day its blistering hot (literally... my arms are killing me from the blistering... kinda gross actually) and the next day its pouring rain and windy like crazy. Today was my 10th ride and I just surpassed 1000km total.. My goal was to do 100km + a day.. For here with the heat beleive me... thats plenty.. especially for this early in the season... I am going to be home with 2000km outdoor kms in the legs already.. hopefully the weather cooperates when I get home at the end of the month.
I did the Haleakala crater climb yesterday, sea level to 10,023 feet 57.2km of nothing but climbing. I took 25 minutes off my personal best, and did the climb in just over 3hrs 20 mins.. the weather from 7000 feet up (12 miles) was pure hell... it poured, I was in cloud, couldnt see more than 50 meters ahead of me at times... and the temperature at the top... +3 windchill -1... yes -1 in Hawaii... I was wearing jersey and shorts.. and frozen solid.. a family from Florida gave me a ride down... probably saved my life actually..
Todays ride was windiest is been... I headed north to Haiku to Maui Cyclery to get my powertap wheel looked at.. riding the Mokulele Highway.. wide open.. 30mph wind.. you know its windy when.... you are doing 260+ watts and only going 24kmh MAX... yeah... coming back I hit hit 60kmh on the flats... most of time was spent in 53X12 at 250 watts just over 51kmh for 8km.. gotta love a tailwind!!
Caught on that theres 2 group rides this weekend.. one around the whole west side of Maui.. about 120km ride, and the other one Sunday all the way around the East side... the east side is crazy...but I think theres a support vehicle coming..