My tri training group divides the long workouts by distance and difficulty: the 'pink' group is the easiest/shortest, 'blue' group mid-range, and 'black' hardest/longest. My hubby and coach talked me into being 'blue' today. A fact that I did not for ONE SECOND forget as I was climbing those hills today.
Anyhoo, I was pretty nervous about the 'blue' thing because of the big climb in that ride. I knew it was going to be long. I am just glad that I didn't know how long or how hard because I am sure I would have wimped out and done the 'pink' ride which only went about 20 miles and only had one climb. We had ... um,... I have no idea how many. There was the one, 11 mile climb, that I remember quite distinctly, but after that, it was more like "Are you fucking kidding me? How can we be going back up again?" And I am not sure how many times I said that.
I do wish I had brought my camera because it WAS a beautiful ride, but I was more concerned with not being left in the dust, and, well, not falling off my bike, so obviously no pictures today.
The downhill was almost (Note, I said almost) as hard as the uphill, because you were FLYING had to watch for potholes, crazy, road rage drivers, and it was FREEZING! My hands and feet have never been so cold and my shoulders and hands were hurting because of gripping the handle bars and brakes for dear life.
I had one asthma issue, but it resolved relatively quickly with my inhaler. The moist air of the redwood forest got me.
Mean girls: I talked to a few of the women today and rode briefly with some. I wasn't the slowest, but I was close. It seems like they are warming up to me, maybe by the end of this damn thing I will stop referring to them as the 'mean girls', but I am not quite ready to make that jump just yet.
All in all, I am very proud of myself for doing it. It is my longest and hardest ride to date.
5 comments:
I think you are amazing...simply put. AMAZING!!!!!
Wow, that's amazing! 42.3 miles!
You've been doing great with your training this week - I've just caught up on all your posts. I love that you had a good masters swim class... maybe they'll help you hate swimming a little less. :-)
Thanks for the 10K well-wishes and congratulations! We had a really good time. The big toe on my left foot is really, really sore tonight... but I was warned about that and just didn't listen. I thought I could "make it" through one little 10K. SOMEDAY, I'll learn to listen to other people instead of having to experience (read: suffer) it myself!
Oh, yes... and my husband just registered us for the Schlotzsky's 5K Bun Run on April 13th. (I'll be getting bigger shoes before then!)
Phew!
I saw that you were going riding with the "mean girls" and hoped you were going to make it back!
Congratulations on completing the "blue groups" ride, that sounds amazing, I do hope that you're not too sore today though!!
One question for you ..... I'm a bit of a gadget freak, and whilst I'm currently a complete wimp and running inside, I like the idea of buying the Garmin 405 (when it's available!) .... your Garmin .. which model and is it good? Do you measure your HR?
Woo hoo! LOOK AT THAT CLIMB!! You are a persistent, amazing woman. Inspiring! I have a 45 minute (not mile) ride (inside on the trainer as it's 40 and raining) scheduled for today. If I even think about whining - guess which rockstar I'll be thinking of to get me thru??
Peace.
Wow, Stacey, you put me to shame! You are so amazing. I seriously doubt you will drown or be attacked by a sea creature in Santa Cruz! LOL
Your schedule says you're running a half marathon on the Saturday before Zoo Zoom....are you still? Thats a tall order for that weekend!
Yea, I'm not ready to stop calling my team "mean girls" either. There a few that are nice, thankfully, but they don't quite make up for it. I'm so nervous about playing against another club! There will be people WATCHING!!! OMG
Don'tcha love all the running going on over at EP these days???!!!
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