Well, I got my ride/brick done today, despite a small comedy of errors start to the day.
We got up, looked outside, and turned on the news to hear the weather...it looked a bit drizzly, but most of the pavement ourside was dry. After the usual breakfast conversation of "Where should we ride? What are you gonna wear? Should we drive our bikes somewhere and start from there or ride from home? How many miles would THAT loop be?" And now, my new question, "Which bike should I ride?" (which I'm sure is annoying as hell to listen to as I waffle back and forth, poor SJ), Seujan and I had created a ride plan. We loaded up our bikes (I chose the new one after much consternation), gear, nutrition, etc. and were about to leave when Seujan said, "Look outside...it's raining." Crap. So we stood there looking out the window, turned the weather channel back on, and thought more about it (I wonder how many triathlete homes in Seattle have an identical scenerio every Saturday to ours?). I decided I wanted to go outside regardless since my last 2 Saturday mornings have been spent on the trainer. Seujan decided she did NOT want to go outside, so she went to the video store to get a movie to watch while riding on her new rollers. She had a really stressful week and I totally understood not wanting to go out in the rain. So...of course, I changed my bike preference and decided to ride the "rain" bike which means: get the bike out of the garage, switch out the back wheel, move the bento box and saddle bag from the new bike to the old, etc. etc. Went to pump up a tire and the valve blew, so then I had to fix a flat. Oh, and this was after we ran out of bread and I had to make my PB&J on a hamburger bun I found in the freezer. OK...finally out of the house now and drove down by the trail across from Ti Cycles. Got on the bike and realized my computer battery was dead. Unacceptable. So...ran into Ti cycles, got it fixed, and finally was riding at 10:30, approximately 3.5 hours after we woke up. Fortunately, by this point, I'd paid it forward and all mechanical processes functioned properly henceforth.
I rode over to Mercer Island and rode the long side of the island out, back, and out again. For 30 miles, it was dry and plenty warm, leaving me second-guessing my bike choice. But then at my first stop, it started raining and I got pretty well dumped on for about an hour...still ate the PB&J bun with my soggy gloves while riding along...yum! My feet were soaked and my toes went numb for the rest of the day, but I had plenty of company out there as there were lots of bikes...and I was warm enough and commited by this point, so it actually wasn't too bad. I went around the south end of the lake, through Renton, Seward Park, and back to my car by the U. I had to go 2 miles past my car to get to 70 miles (I'd been assigned 75, but decided 70 would suffice), then I ran for 16 minutes in my dirt caked bike shorts and gross dirty legs. I must admit, I felt like a real triathlete. It was almost sunny by this point and the run felt better than the bike did...on the bike, my legs were tired by 35 miles, really protesting by 50, and pretty well hashed by the end. Fortunately, Seujan happened to call at my last pee stop which gave me an excuse to rest a little longer and throw more food at the problem...which helped a little. I felt really beat up afterwards...a bit of a headache and my stomach felt like post-race yuck, but by the time I drove home, I was fine. I'm not moving any too fast and do not plan to do much of anything today or tomorrow, but I'm psyched about this past training week...I got in 16 hours and did everthing the coach told me to do. I'm gonna be an Ironman, dammit!!
Summary:
70 mile ride
Avg. speed: 15.3
Avg HR: 123
4:35
Quick stops at 30, 45, and 59 miles
16 min run., tried to keep HR below 145
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