Sunday, June 27, 2010

First Century of the Season

I completed my 100 mile training ride of the year yesterday! It was nice to get one of those under my belt with just 11 weeks until the ironman.

For awhile I thought the ride wasn't going to happen. The weather forecast for Saturday looked pretty grim. Storms rolled in the night before and when my alarm went off at 5:30 it was still pouring outside. I rolled over for a few extra hours of glorious sleep and when I awoke again at 7:00 the sun was out. A quick glance at the radar showed that the storms were out of the way and there were several hours of clear skies ahead.

I ate a quick breakfast and was on the road by 7:45. I was a little nervous for the ride since my quads were still pretty sore from Thursday's long run. I tried to ignore the negative thoughts and just enjoy myself.

It was fairly cool at the beginning of the ride but it didn't take long for things to heat up. I knew the temps were going to be breaking 90, hence my attempt at an early departure, but that was just another thing I tried to ignore.

The plan was to do two 50 mile loops, but ended up doing 60 for the first loop. I had plenty of nutrition and fluids and by adding that extra ten miles I wouldn't have to tackle one really big hill on the second loop again. I stopped by the apartment to refill the water bottles before heading out again. It was tempting to stop at that point in time because I was definitely feeling fatigued and the wind had picked up to 20 mph, which made the last 10 miles of my route miserable. I told myself to suck it up and headed back out.

I think it was at that point in time that I realized I had forgotten sunscreen. I now have a pretty hot looking two inch red stripe along both biceps since the jersey I wore had shorter sleeves than whichever one had previously given me my tan. The 40 mile loop was pretty uneventful. My legs were sore, my butt was sore, it had gotten HOT (I went through just as many fluids during the 40 miler as I did the first 60), the wind had her way with me, and by the end of the ride I was pretty much ready to be done. Official mileage was 100.72 miles done in a time of 5:24, which resulted in an average pace of 18.65 mph. Given the conditions I was happy with that, but there's still plenty of work to do before IMMOO.

The legs were pretty sore today so I had to give them a day off. It was unfortunate too because it was a lovely day out. I really need to recover so I can have some quality workouts this week. There's a lot to cram in before heading home for the 4th of July holiday where training time will be sparse.

During my free time today I managed to get a lot accomplished around the apartment, including filling up this little guy, which was a present from Santa Claus (aka mom):


I have to admit it feels a little weird having a shrine to myself in the living room, but the case does look a lot better with stuff in it. Of course, I forgot to leave room for my IM finisher's medal and race number so it will need to be reconfigured in a few months

1 comment:

  1. Great job on a long ride in the heat! Laughed out loud at the red stripe comment!

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