Land's End

Despite the collective view at camp that I might not make it to Bluff, I rode the last 185km yesterday and was able to say that I have pedalled the length of a country! Holy cow! A not so short country at that... To the left is a picture of Team Blanco at the lookout point at Land's End in Bluff, NZ. I can't tell you how happy I was to get off my bike and know that I had covered the length of NZ... seemingly against all odds since I almost *quit* on several occasions... including once before I ever left San Francisco! Of course, I couldn't have done it without Rich, so I owe him a ton... first for getting me into this camp... and a debt of gratitude for dragging me through it! At the post-camp celebration dinner, I was unsurprised to learn that we won the *Joined at the Hip* prize of a bungy cord, since we spent so much time together... what can I say? He's a keeper, so that bungy cord will come in handy!

Over the past 15 days, I have biked 1,430 miles, run 65miles and swum 26,000 yards which is about 16 miles. That is far and above more than I have ever done in twice as much time.

Nutrition

I touched on this in an earlier post but after two weeks, I think a follow up could be interesting. I think I was eating more than twice the quantity of what I would normally eat. A hearty breakfast of cereal, yoghurt, fruit as well as a couple of slices of toast w/ PB and Nutella seemed to get me through the first couple of hours of riding and then I would probably eat a bar every 90 minutes or so (Pro Bars pack ~400 cals). I also drank BASE amino nutrition for the first few hours of each day but then would refill at aid stations with water and High Five. Lunch would usually be a wrap filled to the gills with whatever was on offer... hummus, turkey, ham, cheese, tomatoes, carrots... all washed down with diet coke. High five recovery drink... or preferably chocolate milk when I got off the bike and maybe a few salty chips depending whether there was a post bike swim or run. Dinner was usually about an hour or 90mins after the end of exercise each day. I would pile my plate high each night, focusing on lots of vegetables and lean protein... however, I almost always had dessert :) I'm thinking that I have added a few lbs over the last two weeks... but the metabolism will kick in during the next week or so!

Fitness
My SRM stopped working after the first few days, so I did most of the riding on heart rate. I rarely saw anything above 145bpm after the first couple of days. For the most part I was riding in the range of 115-125bpm on the flats, rising to 135-140bpm on climbs, occasionally hitting 145bpm on those super steep climbs after Dunedin on day 14. I might have tolerated higher heart rate zones but my leg muscles just burned so much and were locked up so tightly that I just couldn't exert any pressure on the pedals. As I rest over the next week or so, I'll be interested to see how I feel and how I perform on the bike. For comparison, I usually ride an Ironman with my heart rate in the 150-155bpm range, so I was only just in zone 1 for most of my riding... surviving?