Don’t worry. They didn’t cart me off from anywhere on the road today. I’m thanking them, well one particular fire fighter, for giving me accurate directions for my ride today when I was completely lost. I was attempting to ride around Lake Washington today. There are signs in various places claiming that there is a Lk. Washington Loop, meaning a trail all the way around the lake. That would be a loop, no? Well, I was in the middle of Redmond/Bellevue with no lake in sight. I had passed said fire station before I had decided to stop and ask for directions. I was just going to ask to take a look at their map, but this fire fighter had actually ridden around the lake a few times and knew the route. I was off the mark, but not terribly astray. Within 2 miles, I was looking at the lake again. Whew!
The ride around Lake Washington is somewhere around 60+ miles. I didn’t actually find out since I cut the ride off at the distance I needed to cover and cut across I-90. I ended up riding 57 miles today in about 4 hours. Slow, but I got the distance done and that’s all that matters. My race next weekend is 58 miles. Now I’m probably going to just lay off of the bike until the end of next week before the race. In the past week, I’ve ridden 99 miles and I can feel it. I could feel it at mile 30 actually. I was tired. Hills were no longer manageable. And even just keeping my speed at 15 mph was a chore. So I think my legs are a little tired. I did ride up a lot of hills on my way to mile 30. Pacific NW = Hilly terrain. I think I went up a few hills that were a few miles long. I was able to cruise up those, but apparently I was paying for it later.
To start my day, I ate a big breakfast. Went for a 30 min swim. Had lunch with a friend. Then around 4pm I left for my ride. I felt really strong in the beginning, which made the end feel treacherous. I was comfy and flexible in the aero position off the bat. Rode there quite a bit in the first 20 miles. In the beginning of my ride, I was passed by a commuter on a Mt. Bike. Grrr. I was feeling a little rediculous on my Cervelo. But I WAS taking it easy since I had a long ride ahead. After this, I was greeted by another triathlete who is doing IMC this year. It was cool to be encountered like that on the bike. We talked about our upcoming races, etc. After a few minutes, he said good day and took off on his Softride and his IMC tat on his right calf. Pretty cool. Further up the trail I re-encountered the commuter and asked him if I was on the right track for the trail. He led me to the next trail 5 miles down the road and then we parted ways. Fast forward to the Redmond Fire Dept. The next 10 miles were pretty uneventful. I got back to the Burke-Gilman trail (finally something familiar!). This is where things got interesting. I lost a CO2 cartridge (scratching head). It fell off of my X-lab hydration kit. I went back and got it, but was a little confused since I had just screwed it on before I left. Apparently not as tight as it could’ve been. I screwed it back in nice and tight and went on my way. Stopped at a park bathroom to refill my water bottles. I had three of them. I had gone through two already and was currently working on my third when I stopped. Shortly afterward, I went over a bunch of bumps in the asphalt where tree roots had begun to make their escape to the other side. There were a bunch of them in a small area. This was enough to catapult one of my water bottles in the back cages. Lost some water, but not much. This is where I began to really feel tired. Not good since I had 30 miles or so left. Was it the lingering effects of the 42 miler from last week? Was it the swim earlier in the day? Don’t know.
Hmm… upon review of my next to last post, I’ve ridden 137 miles in the last week and a half. Good thing I’m staying off the bike for a week or so for my taper.
Anyhow, lost another bottle out of the back cages next to the UW medical center. This is where I learned I can make the “grab”, for lack of better words, tighter by squeezing the cage and making it more narrow. This is a terrible way to explain this, but it’s all my brain can muster at this point. Fixed that. Got myself to the I-90 bridge. Hallelujah. BUT, there is a giganto steep hill up to the bridge bike lane. I made it up part of the hill, but almost fell over when I had to turn and ride up the rest of the adjacent hill. I decided I would walk up since I didn’t have the energy or the muscle power to get up that hill on my bike. Lame? Yes. But I had to push on. I absolutely hate walking up hills in bike shoes. I sometimes have to do it when I’m in the same situation but on other unfortunate steep hills, but not too often. So I took the shoes off and walked in my socks. That felt good. I was a bit embarrassed everytime I was passed by a cyclist going down hill, but I HAD just ridden 45 miles. One guy asked if I was okay. I just replied, “Yeah. Tired, tired legs and 45 miles.” Got to the top, reapplied shoes and hopped on the bike. Ah, I-90. I was almost home. At least it wasn’t windy on the bridge today like it was the other day. Didn’t make it nearly as bad. By this point, my neck was hurting, the aero position was not an option and I was sore. Unfortunately, it wasn’t muscle soreness. I can’t figure out if it’s the seat, my bike shorts, or my anatomy. I apologize if this is TMI, but skin was getting pinched in my groin and it basically hurt for 2/3’s of the ride. OUCH. It was pretty much uncomfortable to ride for the last 30 miles. I’m so glad to be off the bike, but what am I going to do about race day? Gotta figure something out.
As for nutrition, I went through 4.5 bottles of water. One of which had a tablet of Nuun Tri-Berry in it. I also took in three Accelerade gels. I learned that this was probably not enough nutrition. I think I might have been in a better place at the end had I had more calories on board. Good thing I found this out today. I think I’m gonna end up filling up one of my bottles with Ensure or Soy milk for more calories on top of the gels. Hopefully, that plus the rest I’ll get this week will help me out on the bike portion next week.
Afterwards, I ate a little something and then spent 30 mins in the hot tub at my apartment complex. When I got back to my apt, I had no energy or creativity to cook anything. So I hopped in my car and ended up at a mexican restaurant. I scarfed down the beans and rice in less than a few minutes. Inhaled is more like it. By the time the waiter came over to see how everything was, the beans and rice were gone and I was already going on the huevos rancheros. YUM!!!! And homemade tortillas! I was in heaven! I felt super full afterwards, but it was well worth it.
During the last 30 miles, I was thinking about how to say thank you to the fire fighter for leading the blind home. I thought about the brownie mixes I had in the cupboard. Perfect! Except that I didn’t have any cooking pans. I don’t know how I expected to cook them for myself. 
I figured they have to stay up all night and they have access to a kitchen at their station, so . . . I took them two boxes of triple fudge brownie mix and one box of blueberry muffins. When I got to the station, the same fire fighter was in the garage on the phone. Awesome! I got to thank him in person and give him his gift to share. He said it wasn’t necessary, but I thought it was. His directions were right on and he got me back to the side of Lake Washington that I am familiar with.
Today was also a good challenge for my mental training. There were times when I wanted to stop and rest and try to recover for the rest of the ride. But I kept telling myself - I’m not going to do that in the middle of a race so I just need to keep pushing. I need to know that I can do the distance without stopping, with the exception of flying CO2 cartridges and water bottles. I made it with out having to stop which was good mental training. Hopefully, it will come through next weekend.
So there it is. My half great/half treacherous bike report. I’m hoping it’ll be a bit different next weekend. Time to drag my weary a$$ to bed now.
After an hour and a half, I can’t imagine having to do a long 4 hour ride in prep for IMFL like Tribro did. Yowch! and NO WAY! But when it’s snowing out I guess you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.
I hid my bike, left unnecessary items with it, including my shoes, grabbed my water bottle and began my barefoot adventure.
“No I’m practicing swimming in my wetsuit.” No pressure now!