How much to lie?: Cool Breeze Triathlon race preview

This Sunday will be my first triathlon of the year, a sprint triathlon with a very short (250 yard) pool swim, which is right up my ally:  limiting the time I lose swimming.  I feel really good after my week an easy week/vacation, we’ll see what that means for the race.  I went swimming yesterday and made sure my goggles weren’t going to leak, I was also able to practice doing turns underneath the lane line (which I’ll have to do for the race).  Today I’ll get everything set up for my bike, it’d be better if it was already done, but that’s one of the consequences of going to Cancun (which I’m totally ok with, and many times I’d be getting my bike set up after working, which I won’t have to do today).  Overall I feel really good going into the race.

One of the things that’s different about pool swims is that you have to put in a projected time for your swimming, and then you leave in order of fastest swimmer to slower.  Ideally if everyone is seeded properly no one has to pas anyone in the pool, and it runs very smoothly.  Reality is a little different:  people put in times that are much faster than what they will be able to swim, and as a result you have to pass people in the pool (which is difficult, and slows you down).  In the past I’ve tried to put in accurate or slightly optimist times for my swim, and while I never swam as fast as my seed time, everyone was further off in the times they submitted and as a result I’ve had to deal with slow swimmers in the pool and then had to deal with congestion on the bike course.  This year I said screw it, I’m going to try and put in a time that will seed me correctly regardless of what I will actually swim.  I put in a time of 77 seconds per 100 yards, which is something I can do easily for 100 yards, but not 250, and if I swim that fast I will have one of the fastest swims in the race.  But it turns out I put in a very appropriated swim time and my bib number is 54, which means I’ll be the 54^th racer to start which is about where I should be and mean that I won’t have to worry to much about passing (or being passed on the swim) and I won’t be stuck in the middle of the pack on the bike and have to pass tons of people.  We’ll see how this all works out tomorrow.

What’s the deal with old overweight guys at YMCA’s?  I understand that as we get older most of us care less about what others think about us and are more concerned about the people we are on the inside.  But there are old overweight guys, sorry to over generalize, but it’s the people  at YMCA’s (not just one or two, but at all of them that I’ve ever been to) that act as though they are in their own bathroom. On A recent trip to the Y there was an old very overweight guy who was naked in the middle of the only hallway and he had his legs spread and he was fanning his crotch with his towel (fortunately I was coming up behind) come on now, is that really necessary, and I'd it is don't do it in the middle of the hallway.

Great ride at Renaissance

I will be going to Cancum on Friday with Sakshi and a couple friends of ours for about a week, but don’t worry I have some blog posts prepared that Mark Privette of guest posting fame is being kind enough to post for me while I’m away.  He may even have a guest post of his own depending on if he feels up for it.  This does mean that I won’t be pasting links on Facebook, so you’ll just have to check my blog periodically to see if there’s a new post.

Yesterday morning before going to work I went for a mountain bike ride at Renaissance Park.  I had about an hour and a half and wanted to work on my handling at race pace and being able to maximize my speed from the my pedaling effort:  my fitness has always been better than my handling and as a result I frequently pedal hard in places where I will have to brake shortly.  For those familiar with Renaissance I rode the loop at the far end of the parking lot, the side of the park that has the short track loop.

 After a 15 minute warm-up I started pushing my pace trying to be really smooth and fast through the corners and on the long straights and hills really trying to pedal hard, but being careful not to waste energy pedaling hard in places where I would have to brake right away.  My first lap of that section including relatively easy pedaling back to the car was about twelve and a half minutes.  I felt really good riding and knew that I had just ridden really fast and felt really good handling the bike.  I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to continue at that pace.  I continued and did five more laps and was able to maintain almost the same pace (all of my laps were between 12:30-12:50) though the end of the ride which I was ecstatic about.  Even more than the pace I was able to maintain I was so happy with how I felt handling my Epic Evo 29er, which worked AWESOME.  I was able to go much faster through corners and obstacles than I was able to last summer, and I was able to do this without feeling like I was going faster than I was capable of.  This isn’t to say I rode perfectly, but most of my turns were at least good and very few were poor or bad.  It was a great feeling to be more comfortable mountain biking that I ever have and to feel faster during a training ride than I ever have; really has me excited about mountain bike riding and mountain bike racing.

Follow up to previous posts

I thought it was an appropriate time to follow up on a couple posts I made earlier:

-Swiftwick Aspire 12 compression socks

I had previously mentioned that I have been wearing some Swiftwick compression socks, particularly after hard workouts and races.  I’ve had a lot more time wearing them and have been even more impressed.  When I first got them I was really good about wearing them after every workout or race, recently there have been a couple times when they’ve all been in the wash and I haven’t worn them.  This really showed me how much they were helping, the difference was much larger than I thought:  with wearing them, there was virtually no leg soreness after a workout, without wearing them there was the typical leg soreness following a workout.  I’m not sure how much this helps in terms of fitness (feeling fresher for the next day’s workout can’t hurt), but even just for the reduced soreness and pain they are worth every penny and then some.

-Linsanity

Since I posted about Linsanity a lot has happened with the Knicks:  Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony came back from injury, the Knicks tanked, and D’Antoni resigned/was fired/was bought out.  As expected he didn’t continue scoring 25 points a game, but he’s remained a productive player and as a starter he has averaged 19 and 8.1 (points and assists) with 4.9 turnovers.  His numbers have dipped dramatically particularly in scoring (and turnovers) since Carmelo Anthony has returned from injury:  before Carmelo:  25 and 8.4 (6.5 turnovers), after Carmelo:  14.9 and 7.3 (3.9 turnovers).  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, teams with really high scoring point guards usually aren’t very good (exception: Chicago Bulls with Derrick Rose).  I’m very interested to see what happens with him in a more traditional offense that he will be in now, I would expect both his assists and turnovers to go down, but we’ll see.

-Specialized XC Light Weight Grips

I’ve continued to enjoy the Speciaized XC Light Weight Grips and they’ve held up much better than I expected (they are still in pretty good shape two months later, although I haven’t ridden a ton).  There durability has also been helped by me not crashing very often (for me).

-1x10 set-up

I’ve still be extremely satisfied with the 1x10 set up and would certainly recommend it for any XC racer who doesn’t have to deal with any super steep long climbs.  I think it is really important though if you are thinking about a 1x10 set-up to have done the gear ratio or gear inch calculations comparing the set-up you are thinking of running with the range of gears that you do actually use.

Cool links (both non-cycling and cycling related)

Non-cycling related:

8 stupid plays by Javale McGee, he must really want to help out the Kings because several of the bad plays were against the Kings.  I will give the Wizard credit they were able to ship both McGee and Nick Young out of town at the trading deadline, they might both turn out to be good players, but I don’t think it was going to happen with in Washington with all the mess going on there.

Article about Davidson Basketball

Good article with thoughts on the Robert Griffin III draft pick trade

Tremendous article about the Bachelor (which I may or may not have watched with my wife)

Spoof twitter account pretending to be Kim Jung-un (new leader of North Korea)

Cycling related:

Milan San Remo Preview:  looks like it’s going to be a really interesting race, with a number of favorites.

26” vs 29” Hardtails: a really good comparison of the differences between 26 and 29 inch hardtail bikes, they used two nearly identical equipped  bikes from the same manufacturer so the comparison is comparing apples and apples as much as possible.

Sram Red 2012 and 2013 mixing and matching components tested, which suggestions on what components to get if you are looking to upgrade an existing Sram Red equipped bike.

Cool picks of a Specialized Demo carbon downhill bike.  Cool video down at the bottom.  Sakshi, if you’re looking at this, I do NOT do that type of mountain biking racing/riding.

Thoughts after going to a Charlotte Bobcats game

Sakshi won suite tickets to the Charlotte Bobcats vs. the Utah Jazz a week ago Wednesday, because she doesn't care about sports I went with my mom and wanted to share some thoughts about the Bobcats, some of this was written right after the game and some was written more recently (keep in mind that since the game the Bobcats have actually improved their record going 1-3, that in itself should give you an indication of the state of the Bobcats):

 -Watching from a suite is a pretty cool experience, all you can eat free food that was actually pretty good, room to move around, nicer seats, and did I mention free food.

 -The Bobcats are TERRIBLE, they would be on pace to go 11-71 (now on pace to go 12-70) in an 82 game schedule, but somehow even that doesn’t do justice to how truly bad they are.  I don’t think even a single starter could even be called average: zero for five.  Every Jazz starter was better than every Bobcat starter, and most weren’t close, keep in mind the Jazz are 19-19 (now 20-22).

 -The Bobcats leading rebounder is Boris Diaw averaging 5.6 rebounds a game, making him the 55^th leading rebounder in the NBA, meaning that most NBA teams have TWO players averaging more rebounds per game than any of the Bobcats.  As a team they shoot 41% overall (last in the NBA and 31% from three (28^th out of 30) . . . terrible, and it’s not like they have a good defense, their defensive fg% is 27^th out of 30.

 -The Bobcats are not just a piece or two away from being decent, if any of the current players were the 4^th best player on the team they still wouldn’t be good.  They would need 4-5 players that are better than any player on their roster to even just be decent.

 -They’re “best” players would be best served as bench players in the case of their best two players redundant:

            +Kemba Walker and DJ Augustin are both undersized point guards that their best trait is driving to the basket.  Great for coming off the bench, but not a good option for a starter.

            +Bismack Biyombo looks athletic, has a great name and appears as though he’s going to a decent rebounder/defender, but to say his offensive game is limited would be an understatement, a more accurate description would be that his hands look like they’re made of stone.

            +Gerald Henderson is a solid player, but other than being a decent shooter doesn’t really bring ANYTHING positive to the table and would be best suited a decent shooting guard/small forward coming off the bench.

That’s all that I saw for redeemable assets.

 -If you’re going to be bad that’s one thing, but at least be interesting, push the ball, run do something.  No, they are just like a regular team, but just REALLY bad.

 -If you’re going to be bad, and not interesting, at least be entertaining while they’re not playing.  Get the crowd involved do fun stuff, use your cheerleaders A LOT, treat it like a college basketball or minor league baseball game. . . if your product isn’t very good at least make it fun.  The cheerleaders were barely used (at least try to rope your teenage boys and possibly their fathers), they did have two guys in inflatable sumo costumes being tackled by the mascot, which I must say was pretty awesome, but that was the highlight of all the halftime/timeout entertainment.

 -The name has nothing to do with Charlotte, even when the name was connected to the owner, Bob Johnson, it was a stupid name, but now that he doesn’t even own the team it is even stupider, not to mention how self-absorbed is it to name a basketball team after yourself?  Connect the name to the Wright brothers or NASCAR:  Flight, Racers, Crash, or the Wreckers, they could even be called the Cougars (after the Charlotte ABA team), which would be hilarious for other reasons.

 -The colors are atrocious, orange and blue would be bad enough (see Mets, New York), but it’s reddish orange and greyish blue.  Why couldn’t they be the Charlotte/Carolina Flight and have Duke and Carolina blue uniforms, I’m not saying it’s the best look, but it would be better than what it is now and would have some connection to Charlotte.

-And that folks is YOUR CHARLOTTE BOBCATS (in your deepest announcer voice).

BikeSource Team Recap Angler's Ridge

Chris Audet

Bobby Bryson

Men - OPEN - SINGLESPEED
4th Eric Hagerty 1:30:54  

Men - CAT 2 - SENIOR - 19-29
DNF (sliced tire)  Jake Arthur  

Men - CAT 2 - MASTER - 40-44
7th  Ryan Kelley  1:32:36

Men - CAT 1 - MASTER - 30-39
2nd Robert Bryson   1:59:23
10th  Chris Audet   2:09:16

Men - CAT 1 - MASTER - 40-99
18th Samuel Hollingsworth   2:18:59

Women - CAT 1 - MASTER - 30-99
DNF Rebecca Bubp  

Link to results with times

Tips for new triathletes

Over the last 6 years working at BikeSource Charlotte I’ve been the “resident triathlete” and have talked with innumerable aspiring or first time triathletes about what they should do and not do, things to be careful of and common pitfalls of

-Do NOT do anything in a race that you haven’t done in training (Example 1:  even if your buddy tells you he/she uses this awesome nutrition stuff, don’t try this on race day for the first time; it might be great for him/her, it might upset your stomach.  Example 2:  don’t wear cool new triathlon clothes if you haven’t tried swimming, biking and running in them; they might chafe or be uncomfortable.)

-Get to the race early, probably at least an hour and thirty minutes before the race.  There’s a lot more to do than at a 5k:  you have to park, pick up your packet, get body marked, pick up your timing chip, set up your transition area, put stickers on your bike, go to the bathroom, and  get down to the swim start.  There’s no need to rush and forget something on the morning of the race.

-Once you get your bike set up in the transition area, walk through where you will come into transition area from the swim and go to your bike, then walk out the “Bike Out” where you will go to start your bike ride, then walk from the “Bike In” to your transition area and then walk to the “Run Out.”  Do this so you know where you’ll need to go to get to and from your bike to the race course.  A bunch of people get confused in the transition and head toward the wrong exit and then have to turn around.  The bike racks are typically all numbered, but the numbering method isn’t always the easiest to understand, especially when you’re nice and tired from just getting out of the swim or finishing the bike up.

-Practice your transitions before the race.  Doing a triathlon for the first time can be really overwhelming, but knowing that you don’t have anything to worry about with the transitions can help ease your mind of at least one item.  When you practice your transitions figure out a way you’re going to do it and practice it that way so that the day of the race it is second nature.  Determine what you’ll need and only put that stuff in your transition area, there’s no need to add clutter to the area, there’s already going to be quite a bit of stuff in a small area.

-Practice going from the swim to the bike and especially bike to run so you’ll know what it’s going to feel like in the race.  A lot of people are really surprised how much different it is to run after biking than just running.  Practicing this will also help prevent you from going too fast on the bike, because you’ll realized you can’t just go all out on the bike and expect to be run really well.

-Don’t go out too fast on the swim or the bike.  You’ll be excited/nervous to start with and most people’s tendencies’ are to go out too fast and slow down on the second half of the race.  If you start out slower on the swim and bike you can always go faster on the run.  This will be a much more enjoyable way to race (you’ll feel much better during the run this way) and you’ll probably go just as fast or faster than if you go out hard on the swim and bike.

-If the triathlon is an open water swim try to find an open water swim practice sighting (looking at the buoys to know where to go), dealing with waves, and swimming with other people.  Even if you are really good at swimming in a pool, swimming in a lake or ocean with no lane line at the bottom of the pool can be something completely different.  If you live in the Charlotte area the Lake Norman YMCA has open water swim starting at the end of April that are fully supported (the have kayakers in the lake so if you have problems they will come over and you can hold onto their kayak until you feel better).

Link to open water swim information at Lake Norman YMCA

-If it is an open water swim do NOT start in the middle of the pack for the swim, be one of the last one or two people out on either the extreme right or left of the group.  If you are in the middle of the group you will only swim a couple meters less than if you are out to the extreme ends, but there’s a good chance of being kicked in the face or swam over.  While swimming an extra couple meters you swim will be much more enjoyable and possibly less painful.

-Get a timing chip holder and a racebelt.   At the race you’ll be given a timing chip (most races) and a plastic band to hold it around your ankle, unfortunately these plastic bands can cut into you if you’re not lucky (it’s happened to me, I almost bled to death and had to be airlifted to a hospital).   The timing chip holders that you can get at a shop will be made of neoprene and will be much more comfortable.  Fuel belt makes good timing chip holders and racebelts (many other companies make them as well),

-Many people are really nervous before their first triathlon, this is ok, and almost everyone feels that way before their first one.  One of the biggest concerns is being able to finish the race, if you are able to do a swim, bike and run of the each segment of the race you can finish, yes putting them all together is more difficult but not that much worse.  If you can do each of the distances your biggest obstacle will be going out too fast and not your fitness.  I definitely recommend going out easier than you think you should for the swim, bike and run; you can always go faster at the end of each segment or faster during the run.  Not only will you have a much better experience because it will be a much more even effort than going out hard and then having to survive at the end of the race, you’ll probably have a better time.

-Another thing to remember is that most triathletes are nice and helpful and will be more than happy to answer any last minute question a first timer might have so don’t be afraid if you are confused about something.

-Along those lines if you have questions or concerns that I haven’t addressed here please feel free to e-mail me: crouisse@biggear.com or come into BikeSource Charlotte, I’m always more than happy to answer questions for people that are getting into triathlons.

Rams and Redskin draft pick trade thoughts

I know this is way off topic but I thought the trade between the Redsknins and Rams was really interesting, mostly because of just how much the Redskins gave up to get the #2 pick (and presumable RG3), but then also some other questions that followed from that.  The trade that has been agreed upon (but hasn’t been finalized by the league office) will send the #2 pick to the Redskins in exchange for the #6 overall pick this year, a 2^nd round pick this year and 1^st round picks in 2013 and2014 to the Rams.  This is a TON to move up 4 spots.

-From the Redskin’s perspective:  it almost doesn’t matter how good your team is unless you have an elite quarterback and between Rex Grossman and John Beck they certainly don’t.  If you look at the really good teams from last year almost all of them had elite quarterbacks (the notable exception being the 49ers who had a great team other than their quarterback and play in what has been by far the worst division over the last 5 year).  So if they think Robert Griffin III is going to be a franchise quarterback then why not do whatever it takes to get him, as the Patriots and Colts showed this year (in very different ways) a truly elite quarterback can take a bad team and make them a legitimate Super Bowl contenter.

-From the Rams perspective: it’s it great to have a team like the Redskin who continue to try to make that big, flashy move, typically it’s been signing an aging free agent to a big contract, this year it’s overspending for young quarterback.  For moving back 4 spots in the draft they get 2 more potential top-10 picks in the next two drafts (do you really expect the Redskins to be very good with a really young quarterback), not to mention they also get a 2^nd pick early in the draft this year, for a pick that they weren’t going to use to pick a quarterback with.

I think each team’s perspective makes sense (especially from the Rams perspective). But it brings up a couple more interesting questions:

-Would the Redskins have had a better chance of landing an elite quarterback with three 1^st round picks and a 2^nd round pick than the #2 overall pick?  I know using 4 really high draft picks on quarterbacks over 3 or 4 drafts would get you accused of being Matt Millen on crack, but that’s essentially what the Redskins did by doing the trade they did.  Yes many of the elite quarterbacks were drafted really high in Round 1 but about as many didn’t (Tom Brady, Aarron Rodgers, Ben Rothlithberger, and Drew Brees).  So why not try taking a quarter back in the first or second round every 2 or 3 years until you find your quarterback if you’re going to spend that much on a quarterback that might not pan out (see Tim Couch, Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, and Alex Smith pre-2011).

-What could the Colts have gotten for the #1 pick (Andrew Luck), I would think an extra 1^st rounder or at the very least an extra 2^nd rounder?  If this is the case would they have been better paying Peyton Manning his roster bonus and using those 4-6 high draft picks over the next couple years to make one last push with Manning and build up a stronger team for after he retires?  I think probably, I realize this comes with big risks: will Manning be able to be the Peyton Manning we’ve known again and how will those picks turn out?  I guess my answer to the first question relates back to my previous paragraph, even if he isn’t able to come back at all I think you’d have a better chance of getting an elite quarter back with 4 or 5 high picks than with the number 1 overall pick.  The second question is a little more complicated but if you’re running a team either as an owner or GM wouldn’t you think that you could get at least 2 really good players with all those picks?  I would think so or I think you should be looking for a new GM and/or owner.

BikeSource Team Recap from Killer 3 MTB Race

Pro and Cat 1 19-29
2nd Matt Moosa

Cat 1 30-39
3rd Bobby Bryson
4th Chris Rouissse
12th Chris Audet

Cat 1 40+
6th Chad Hollingsworth

Cat 1 Womens
5th Rebecca Bubp

Cat 2 19-29
2nd Jake Arthur
7th Daniel Lenis

Cat 2 40-49
6th Ryan Kelley

Cat 2 50+
4th Eric Hargerty

If I haven't included your results please let me know and I'll add your name and place.  The results didn't have team names so it was hard to make sure I had all of us.

Full Results with times

*Important note when looking at times:  if you went off behind another class your time for each lap and overall will be lower by the the time you started behind the first wave (which is listed at the top of each group in the final time column ex: +2min).

I know this might not be clear so here is an example using my times:
Lap 1:  1:05:25  Lap 2: 2:08:10  Time (+2min):  3:13:01

Because of the +2min, you take 2 minutes off of each of my times giving me the following times at the end of each lap:
Lap 1:  1:03:25  Lap 2: 2:06:10 Final:  3:11:01

Killer 3 Mountain Bike Race Report

Got up around 5:30 (not my favorite thing to do) got dressed and headed off to Bobby’s house to ride down to the race with him.  When we got there it was cold, probably about 45 degrees and I was pretty worried about being cold, since I hadn’t thought to check the weather before getting ready and didn’t have any warm clothes to wear (I will now always check the weather before a race moving forward).  Fortunately about 30 minutes before the race the sun came out and it started getting warmer.

I felt pretty poor warming up, my heart rate was really high for what I was doing and when I did some accelerations they felt hard to do than they should have.  I was a little worried but kept telling myself that my fitness was good and that I would be ok.  Got a good start and was 4^th heading into the woods.  Felt like I was working pretty hard to stick with everyone, and since I knew I still had another 3+ hours.  A couple guys were pushing off the front, and I didn’t think I’d be able to stick with that pace for another 3 hours so I hung back and rode with my teammate Chris Audet, being able to follow his lines and speed though the corners really helped since I hadn’t been on the mountain bike for about two weeks (the times I was going to ride it had been raining).

About 40 minutes into the race I started to feel better, both in terms of how I was feeling and my handling.  From there on I felt pretty good until the last 45 minutes (but that was just because I was getting tired after 2+ hours of riding, but I was still able to feel like I was pushing and didn’t have to pedal easy or conserve.  There were definitely some guys that had gone out way to hard and blew up badly and it was really reassuring to pass them, because from about 20 minutes into the race I had no idea where I was in terms of my class because the trail never really doubled back on itself so if someone was more than 30 seconds in front you probably weren’t going to see them.

I ended up 4^th, which I was a little surprised by, and immediately after that pulled on my Swiftwick compression socks and had my Infinit recovery drink, both of which helped me feel better and not be too sore.  Overall I was pretty happy about the race, it again showed me that I need to work on my longer intervals (a regular theme at this point):  I felt like my endurance was good and I was able to really push hard on the short hills but on the longer sections I had a tougher time holding my hard efforts.   On this course that’s not what you wanted to struggle with since there were a lot of long flat sections to really push.

I was really happy with how all my equipment worked.  My Epic Evo 29er worked great, giving just enough give on the bumps and roots, but giving a great pedaling platform to pedal hard on the many pedaling sections of the course.  My tires setup seemed to be pretty ideal (Fastrak2.0 on the front, and a Renegade 1.95), traction was really good even though it was a little wet and neither of those tire has a whole lot of tread.  I definitely feel like any knobbier of a tire would have slowed me down though the fast sections than would have helped me though the corners.  That being said I ran pretty low tire pressure 21 psi front/24 psi rear, so I get a little more grip out of my tires than people that like to run higher pressure.  For my hydration/nutrition I used my Infinit long mountain bike mix in my wonderful Purist Watergate bottles (really how wonderful can a water bottle be?  Actually pretty awesome, check out this review), one per lap and my Camelbak to supliment some extra water.

Special thanks to Riley Audet for doing a great job handing me bottles after the first and second lap, this allowed me to not have to carry water for the whole race.

I'll post race results when I can find them.

A few pictures courtesy of Wayne and Lindsay.

Race Preview: The Killer 3 Mountain Bike Race (and some random stuff)

Sunday will be my first mountain bike race of the year, I’m a little nervous about it but know that I’m in the end only racing against myself to have the best race I can.  This is especially true in this race since its 39 miles, I can’t get caught up in what other people are doing too much, I need to race my race—if I go out too fast it won’t be very good near the end.  I’m going to try and get a good start, not be overly worried if I’m 1^st, 5^th or somewhere in between as long as I get out comfortably and avoid any issues.  After that I need to settle in and ride smooth, because it’s going to be a long race and I want be able to go consistently for the 3 laps, I’m certainly not going to have a good race because of the first 30 minutes but if I go to hard it might be very well why I have a bad race.

I didn’t post results from the Charlotte Duathlon, so here they are: Charlotte Duathlon Results.  My splits don't add up, but I think my overall time is correct, I'm pretty sure my first run faster than the results show.

Here’s Mark Cavendish’s bike for 2012, (with specs) it’s really sweet looking. . . 

. . .but not as cool as his 2011 bike (with specs) at least in my opinion.

Very Good Workout

After getting up and having breakfast went to Total Cyclist for a hard bike workout.  Turned out the meat of the workout was a 10-12 minute interval with a couple little peaks throughout the interval, followed by some shorter (even) harder intervals.  It was hard to get through the whole workout, but I felt really good to get through the whole thing.  After finishing up on the bike I changed out of my bike kit and slipped on my Newtons and went out for an hour run.  When done I was tired but felt good and very happy that the workout had gone well, especially since it was the type of bike workout that I need to do a little extra of.