I Scream for Great Rides!

RIDE 94 miles? in 5hrs 46 mins
RUN 2.2 miles in 20 mins

Today was TN's Ice Cream ride. It was cool enough outside that I thought about arm warmers! But went with dry arm coolers instead. It was cloudy all day, one of those days that you couldn't detect time change. The lack of sun kept us cool, and I directly attribute that to the awesome weather. It was so refreshing!

AJ and DC were along for the ride. The loop was 44 miles of fast and flat roads, with only a few hills and gravel sections to break it up. I started off falling off the back of the group, going back and forth mentally between "I should catch up and challenge myself" and "I need to do this at my own pace". Why did I want to give up so easily? Especially when I had just passed a rider wearing a shirt with a Dean K quote, something like "Run if you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must. But never give up". Dammit, don't give up!

I caught them soon enough and decided to break this ride into 2 segments to mimic some conditions for Redman. In Redman the first loop with be crowded with the halfers and the second loop will be more lonely. Very few people will be on the 2nd loop of this ride, so good. I also wanted to see if I could run the 2 loops fast and at the same speed, could I stay that focused and fed? Let's see!

The first loop did go fast, we backed off the speed at the custard shop where the ave mph was 18.6 for the loop. We skipped every rest stop in both loops and the simplicity of the course also contributed to the nice pace--few turns and long straight stretches to settle in on. I didn't eat much in this loop--1 200 calorie serving of InfinIT, 200 calories of my new peach gel, and about half of the new Boompwafels (~400 calories). I wasn't hungry or thirsty, so I didn't push it. Besides, I'd eaten so much the day before, it's not like the tank was empty...

The second loop I only at the rest of the Boompwafels, another 200 of InfinIT. But I was getting hungry! My feet felt great but my butt didn't, a flip-flop of recent conditions for me. I was sitting more forward on the bike, or at least I think I was...so maybe that was the problem? Either way, my foot pains were minimal. The ave speed dropped a bit to 17.6. But it was a comfort to see this, recent rides have been in the 16's but those rides always have stops, waiting, etc to throw the number off even when using autopause.

It was amazing on the ride to see farmers combining corn. In August! Fields have been dead for weeks, I've passed other fields already gone...what a year.

AJ is a great companion to ride with, she rocks the pace, keeps steady, and communicates what's going on. I'm happy to have her as a buddy for the Redman full, we're going to have fun!!

The brick run was about 20 mins after the ride, it was raining lightly and I was really thirsty. Ironic as always.  But run felt good, the quads a little tight, a little foot discomfort, that's all.

Overall, this is probably my best training ride this year in terms of how I felt and my speed. Yay!

Really lost track of time today, not sure how.