"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or
brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."

~ Anonymous
(taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Sunday Long Ride

Alternate title: Wind sucks

Today I broke my long ride up into two rides. I got up early and rode 12.5 miles (almost an hour, the return trip was faster then the trip out, so I got back a little early and I didn't feel like making up the difference riding around the neighborhood for nine minutes, like an idiot.) Then later, after my meeting, I went out with my husband for a 2 hour ride where we did 25.5 miles.

Total biking mileage for the day: 38 miles

Morning ride: Uneventful and a little dull, but I do notice that I am getting more comfortable on the bike. That is a good thing. People have often wondered, "if you hate the swim and don't like the bike, why exactly do you do triathlons?" Completely legitimate question. One for which I have no answer.

Afternoon ride: The reason I did two rides was because my husband, who in years past has done 100s of century rides and two double centuries, says he has hung up his long distance riding hat and only wants to do shorter rides. Well, shorter rides where he rides like his ass is on fire, which is why, until now, I have NEVER wanted to ride with him. Picture: Me and hubby heading out for our ride. Note my head/ear warmer. Windy and cold!

Anyhoo, he said he didn't want to go over an hour and a half. Yeah, right. He rode (at the aforementioned 'ass on fire' pace) for 2 hours until mercifully we were close enough to home for me to cry uncle. Sheesh! You would think I would have figured him out by now.

While we rode at this ridiculous pace the Nordic God of Wind, blew in our faces the ENTIRE time. I am not sure how this is even possible on a looped course. Shouldn't it be at your back or at the very least your side at SOME point? Christ! I must have pissed off someone in the Wind God family somehow.

But I survived and completed another long bike ride. Go me.

3 comments:

Tracy said...

I'm jealous. I MISS bike riding. Your legs are gonna be AWESOME!

I LOVE the pic!

BTW, you wrote, "People have often wondered, 'If you hate the swim and don't like the bike, why exactly do you do triathlons?'" I think that's WHY you do it. You like the challenge and you like being out of your comfort zone every once in awhile. You like enduring the bad and coming out of the other side. You may not like the bike or the swim but the feeling afterwards is worth it.

You're AWESOME! Thanks for all the comments on my blog!

~ Tracy

Southbaygirl said...

Yeah go Stacey! You are superwoman-kinda like Willie being superhuman today....I am not worthy!!!

Calyx Meredith said...

What a fantastic picture!
I know what you mean about the wind. I had a ride recently with the wind in my face uphill where my avg speed was 7.2 mph and on the return with the wind at my back downhill I avg'd 25.6. The 12.1 mph overall did NOT tell the story of how much the wind sucked. Good for you for sticking it out with such a long ride!!

PS - We're really thinking of coming out for the SF 1/2. The PG training clinic is on that Saturday and the 1/2 is on Sunday. It would be a killer weekend in terms of training but how could we pass it up if we're going to drive 5600 miles?? Did you/are you gonna register?