The Fresno Classic is a two day event with a 100 mile bike (century) on Saturday followed by a 13.1 mile run (half marathon) on Sunday. I participated in this race as a training weekend because in mirrors my typical weekend brick workout as a triathlete. The Fresno location also works well as home turf. There is just something about eating at home and sleeping in your own bed that makes it easier and seem more like a training day than a race.
At the start of the race, I meet several friends from the Visalia Triathlon Club, Josh Polk, Monte Mitchell and a few others. I pick out the fast riders, the guys in the Safeway cycling kit. I also observe we don't have our major valley teams who must be participating in tonight's criterium instead. This should leave the field open for us triathletes to set the pace in solo time trial without economy of road teams dropping us triathlete who ride like individuals.
The ride starts slow at a mandated 10 mph by the CHP and Rabobank jerseyed amateurs bringing us out of town. I assume this tactic was in order to have everyone start on the closed off freeway at the same time. This was the first century I have ever heard of where they actually close down the freeway to let us ride. Once we hit the freeway, it was game on. The freeway surface is super smooth, better than any surface I have ever been on. At the very start my friend Monte pulls a time trial solo off the front and I hold his wheel tightly with Josh right behind me. The peleton spits and I find our lead group consist of about 14 riders dropping everyone else. The speed was fast, going from 26 to the low 30's.
After the freeway, Monte sets precedence to pull the pelaton for Josh Polk to lead it for the next 15 miles with few rotations not in front. He was not running the next day so he was leaving nothing on the course. At the first aid station, I notice Monte stopped but the rest of the dozen riders kept going. At this point, we head into the hills. Once the hills start, the group fragments and I'm now in the front group of 8 with Josh Polk. This group further fragments and Josh stops at his Moms house who lives in squaw valley to say hello so I find myself with 4 riders in front of me who dropped me on the hills and I'm in 5th with no one in sight behind me. This was half way through the course and I rode time trial solo for the next 50 miles. I finished the day 5th, averaging 19.5 miles an hour which is right on pace to what I'm targeting for Ironman.
After the event, I had a massage and realize I have tight hips from cycling. I learned a few band stretches I can do to help. My tight hips may be attributed to sitting at work so going from sitting 8 hours to riding hours on end on the weekends I am putting them through a lot and will take the extra time to incorporate the recommended band stretching going forward. That night, I picked up Costco sushi and cooked salmon to go with it as my in between recovery meal. I also took an ice bath and stretched.
On Sunday was the half marathon. My goal for the day is a 1:30. I had a great warm up with Justin Levine and Eric Blain, enough to start to sweat before the start. Before the race I drank half a Gatorade and took salt tablets. During the race, I kept nutrition light and only sipped at the aid stations, ate one E-Gel on the course and one Gu after I finished. I also had one salt tab during the run and gave out my others to cramping athletes on the course who needed it. I finished the race right on target with a little spare change, 1:30:58. Overall, very happy for getting out of it what I wanted which was to simulate going out hard on the bike like I will do at an Ironman then running a good pace on tired legs. I am noticing my stride is very different on tired legs than on fresh legs. On fresh legs, I tend to muscle it to be fast and on tired legs, I have to think about running mechanics to be efficient. I am going to invest in a lot more training on tired legs and work on improving my running mechanics for long endurance as my top priority, knowing once I achieve where I want to be as a long distance runner I can always turn it back up on the bike.
My friends also killed it. Eric Blain and John Perez both pulled a 1:26 and Justin Levine did an amazing 1:24. These are my friends who come to the table with running as a strentgh so I like following suit with them on the run and in turn let them follow suit with me on the bike for a reciprocal training investment in our Visalia Triathlon Club group workouts.
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