Saturday May 9, 2009

I was so happy that the rain held off, I was not looking forward to riding 80 miles in the rain.

Coach Marc sent out an email broadcast to the team on Thursday to prepare us;

“We have a great ride planned.   We will be doing some of our favorite roads and we will be adding several new roads as we head out to Ringoes.  So like they say go west young man go west. We will bike across a one lane bridge as we enter Neshanic and flee market country, climb into the wondrous Sourland mountains and all their legends,  ride along the ridge and come down into Unionville winery and then out to Ringoes.  We will start our return on a longgg straight away rt 514 / old York / Amwell where we should have a traditional tail wind so enjoy.”

It really was a great route, beautiful countryside, lots of horse farms, lama farms and as for that tail wind; it blew the other way and became a headwind.  I was riding with 3 of my teammates on the Montauk team for the whole day.  We had a great time.  Next Sunday is their event, so this ride was my last long ride with them.  I wish them success, and I know we’ll keep in touch and run some short fun rides during the summer so we’ll get to see each other.

They called me “hill girl” all day, and threatened to get me a cape.  I laughed and felt good about that all day.  I was feeling good at mile 70 when we hit Lamington, so I tore out over the rollers and maintained a 15.8mph - 18mph pace for the 4 miles approaching Liberty Corners.  I have only done the hill at Liberty Corners once before, and it’s a monster.  I’m not sure whether I just had nothing left from the Lamington roll, or whether I psyched myself out when I made the turn and remembered the climb, but about ½ up the hill, I had to stop, drop and walk a bit to get my heart rate down.  I beat myself up pretty badly over that, but got back on the bicycle well before the top to finish slowly but surely.   So much for “hill girl”?!

I finished in 6 hours and 19 minutes or an average of 13 mph for the whole ride.  This is real progress for me since that first training ride in January when I averaged 6.5 mph for a 10 mile ride.  I think I’ve got my food and hydration regimen down pretty good, no bonking, no headaches, and no stomach distress at all. I even had leftovers which made me laugh, but gave me something to eat when I finished the ride and returned to my car. 

Our Lake Tahoe kickoff meeting is on May 21, 2009 and that’s when we pack up and leave our bicycles to the trucking company for transport to our event.  Next Saturday is our last long ride before Tahoe.  I’ll have to do a lot of work at the gym after the 21^st as 2.5 weeks of tapering is going to be too long for me not to be riding.  If there’s a downside, it’s that we don’t have the weekend of Memorial Day for one more 80 mile ride and I don’t have a 2^nd bicycle to do an 80 miler on my own.

I’m starting to get excited and a little nervous about event day. I know I’m well trained.  I would have never thought I’d be feeling this confident six months ago when I signed up for this adventure. 

Sunday’s ride is cancelled due to Mother’s Day, and my next ride is a short one this coming Wednesday.  Coach Allison is the ride coach next Saturday and I’m hoping she goes with the long ride instead of a shorter one.  She seemed a bit concerned that another long ride next Saturday would put us at 3 weeks of 75+ miles, so next Saturday’s ride will be a surprise for me.  Whatever Coach Allison brings, I’ll be ready!

I cancelled my ride today because my puppy had to have knee surgery.  I picked her up on Friday and she was not able to walk on all fours, so I needed to stay home with her to make sure she could get around.  Prognosis is good, and she’ll be good as new in about 4 weeks.