Malibu Triathlon Training: Week 12

August 24 & 26
This was a historic week for me, as I finally hit the triathlon distance of 18 miles. What's strange is that even though I've been slowly building up to this distance, my 18-mile rides have taken much more out of me than even the 16-mile rides I was doing in Week 11. I mean, I know it is 2 miles farther, but I've been surprised at how much more spent I feel at the end of my rides this week.
My times were a little slower than my previous rides -- and slower than I'd like them to be -- but just hitting that 18-mile goal is more important to me than hitting a time goal at this point. It's also getting to a point where the routes I'm coming up with are getting more and more ridiculous. In order to hit 18 miles while sticking relatively close to home (and well-lighted areas), my route follows this "pattern":

• 8 right turns
• 2 left turns
• 2 right turns
• 2 left turns
• 1 right turn
• 1 left turn
• 1 right turn
• 4 left turns

So that's 12 rights and 9 lefts. It's getting so confusing that I have to create the route in the morning and study it throughout the day so I can commit it to memory. In addition, I also pull it up on the computer at home and leave it up so Liz has at least some idea of where I'm going.
Here are the stats from my two 18-miles loops for the week:
August 24
Distance: 18.03 miles
Time: 1:18:34
Pace: 4:21
August 26
Distance: 18.02 miles
Time: 1:17:25
Pace: 4:18

Not too bad, and I even knocked 3 seconds off the pace (and more than a minute overall) the second time around.