Vacation???

There's a reason there are no vacation brochures that advertise biking uphill into ridiculous headwinds in 97 degree heat. Because Seujan and I are the only people who do shit like this and call it a vacation. Today was the first day since I paid my $500 reg. fee for Ironman Canada that I've seriously called that decision into question...let's just say we had a tough day on the bike and at about mile 80 I asked Seujan "How many times do you think I can say the "F" word in my blog?" and used it about 7 times in the next sentence.

It sounded like such a good idea...recover from the race on Monday, hang out in Penticton, and ride the Ironman route on Tuesday...and I was really looking forward to it. The first 40 miles from Penticton to Osoyoos were awesome, scenic, and boosted by a tailwind...this good start foreshadowed an afternoon from hell and I said to Seujan as we blissfully cruised past the wineries, "I think we're going to pay for this..." Sure enough.

The Richter (Pass) was into a headwind, but I felt good and had a fun descent, hitting 46 mph. Then it all got really hard, Seujan got mad at me for a while, and my legs fell apart. My HR wasn't very high overall today because I just had nothing in my legs to push. The whole thing was just friggin' hard and I felt like I had nothing left for a llloonnnggg time.

Fortunately, Seujan decided she liked me and would talk to me again at our lunch stop in Cawston and then we went back into the goddam wind for another 40 miles. There are speed limit signs up here that hang from the top and swing freely...when these are horizontal and blowing toward you with an ominous creaking sound, it means it SHOULD be time to throw your bike over the guard rail, wave down the next of way too goddam many big trucks, and ask the driver to take you anywhere at a rate of speed higher than the 5 mph you've been going while you phone your coach and tell her she's fired. But for some reason we continued to pedal while those signs blew at us. The climb to Yellow Lake was much worse than we both remembered from last summer and by about mile 75 we were cracking each other up because laughing was really all we could do at that point...well, laugh, swear, and shake our heads in disbelief. I mean, really...a 2+ mile descent on an 8% grade and I got up to a whopping 25 mph? What a ripoff.

Somehow we limped back through town and to the hotel where we jumped into the pool.

My karma must've all cashed in during Sunday's race, but I think I've begun to earn a boat load more of it today...and I'm going to need it if I'm going to really do this friggin' Ironman in 6 weeks.

One more day of vacation!

Stats:
100 mile ride
7:00
Avg HR = 111