BIKE: 106 miles, 6:40 ride time, 7:30 actual time.
Lap 1: 53.36 miles 3hr 25 mins, ave speed 15.5 mph, ave HR 113
Lap 2: 52.64 miles 3hr 14 mins, ave speed 16.3 mph, ave HR 140
The numbers and the Garmin graph of this data are fascinating. The first loop has the HR and speed lines superimposed on the graph. On the second loop the HR goes up while the speed slowly goes down, and they are no longer superimposed. So what happened?
The first loop was with IT and JB, casual pace, the pace I'd like to keep for the first 40 miles of IMWI. That "forever" pace in which I could ride all day. I did great with hydration, maybe not enough on the nutrition. The heat, of which there was plenty today, sapped my appetite. And so did choking on a chocolate Accel gel, it slipped back in my mouth and hit my throat. Gag, choke, cough, and tears in the eyes! Awful! My throat is still raw! During the ride I marked hills, turns, bad intersections, all to get ready for the second loop. By the end of the first lap, there was a headwind in the last 3-4 miles that drained some focus, but knowing the truck was coming up kept me going. Besides, the first loop is not where the real beef of this story is.
I mimicked a special needs stop--refilled bottles, grabbed more food (and bought 2 bananas and 2 powerbars), snacked on one of IT's watermelons YUM, visited the bathrooms, tried to fix a problem with the aerobottle, then called Rich to tell him my plans. Does that sound like a typical special needs stop? NO. My friends took off for home, and I took off for more road, the same loop I had just finished.
I started off feeling good. Tired but good. By now it was noon and the worst heat of the day was still ahead of me. In the first loop I watched the cue sheet for turns but didn't mark mileages. Turns out the 3 towns we visited were only 5-9 miles apart in the end, giving me good opportunities for refueling. I stuck to my plans--EASY on the hills. Small ring, light feet, spinning it up. It worked, my legs stayed fresh and my HR low. Unfortunately, there's more to me than legs.
The heat was amazing. It was like being in an oven, there was no escape from the red hot wind and road. My arms and legs burned, coulda swore I would be sunburned to a crisp, but my second layer of sunscreen held out. Maybe the oil of the sunscreen was like a coat of butter on chicken? Would I be roasted when this was done? So hot. Oh so hot. Every now and then a cool wisp of wind would hit me, and I would just love it. Hot, then a little cool, then blazing hot again.
My appetite didn't get any worse, but my water situation did. My water got HOT, and HOT cytomax is hard to stomach. This was my first ride with the 15 min alarm on the garmin, it really did help to keep me eating/drinking on a regular basis. Sometimes, just wondering when the alarm would go off next reminded me to drink more. I was sucking down lots of water, but it was all hot. Near the halfway point in Freeburg, I stopped for water. I filled two bottles with ice then bought 2 big bottles of cold water to refill everything. I hoped the ice would last another hour or two. The cool water was so refreshing, even more so when I added multiple Nuuns to the bottles. The AC in the gas station was good too, but I couldn't stay there too long. Not going to be doing that in WI!
The tar on the roads was thick and melted up to this point, and my bike and shoes were tarred up. I had stopped at one point to see what was stuck to the bike and making a clickclickclick noise on the back wheel and my cleats sunk into the road. How do you remove tar from shoes and bike? I knew from the first loop that the next section of road was already chipped, so I was glad I'd stopped for a break just before then. I'd much rather attack chipped road on a fresh mind with full alertness.
No problems on the chips, if you ignore the fact that little rocks were hitting my helmet, my back, my shoes, and OW some of them hurt! But no slips and I was even able to drink in those miles. The smooth road after the chips was a blessing. The heat, however, and the rain I was praying for was no such blessing. I could see rain clouds to the north of me but they weren't coming my way. Even a damned cloud would help me out! But no such luck. Just an oven. A heat lamp. A fire. It was starting to get to me.
My ice water was melted in an hour and was now a lukewarm Nuun concoction. I found myself wanting to stop my mile 74, just park in some shade to let the HR come down and get some water. Just rest. I kept doing this every 10 miles or so. I just ran out of spark and reached what seemed like a crawling pace. I figured it was better to stop than it was to keep forcing myself to move. My mile 96, I started to crack. At this point I was in the headwind. My speed fell off fast, probably only 12mph with all the effort I could muster. My toes were just starting to hurt, my right shoe had rubbed a raw spot on my ankle. So many distractions on top of the wind and heat. So I started singing. Out loud. My current theme song, quite fitting for this ride, an anthem to self inflicted pain and suffering. I wonder if GAllen had any idea of how great this song is for IM.
This worked for a few miles, it was enough of a distraction from the discomfort and frustration I was feeling. What if this was race day? What if I had to run after this? The miles crawled by, at one point I passed a tomato field of tomatoes rotting in the heat, and it did nothing for my stomach, which by this point was thoroughly confused as to whether it was going to expel its contents or beg for more. Being nauseous and hungry at the same time is hard to treat.
Once back at the truck, I was cooked. I got off the bike OK, but was wobbly and dizzy. Yet I stayed focused and didn't have any mental lapses. Packed up the gear, called Rich, and headed towards the nearby McDonald's for water. I ordered 2 large ice waters and 2 fruit/yogurt parfaits. I was quite the spectacle there--I got many stares, questions, and comments about how crazy I must be. I must have looked a mess. I was still breathing hard, even though I was just standing there. My face started tingling so I put some salt packets under my tongue. The manager felt sorry for me and handed me paper towels. I must have looked horrible. All the burgers and fries and BMI's exceeding 40--and they are worried about me!
I recovered surprisingly fast. I had periods of being hot, then being chilled without moving or changing my environment. I drank more and more water, and never had the lack of pee I sometimes get after sessions like these. In fact, in just hours I was on a post-ride buzz and was pretty happy!
In retrospect, with that recovery, could I have run a marathon? What if I took a few moments to cool off, get some salt tabs, and relaxed? Hard to say, as I was in AC'd conditions which do wonders for being overheated. This ride was maybe a bad idea to do alone, but I'm glad I did it. I've learned that I can drink a lot of water without getting sick, that I can tolerate the heat if I'm careful, that I need even more salt in these conditions, and that I can recover to some extent quickly. Even if I had to walk most of the marathon, I could have done it. Just knowing that is a comfort.
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