BIKE 5hrs and 84 miles, Columbia to Valmeyer to Millstadt towards Freeburg
RUN 30 mins and 3 miles, run/walk brick
Completely different start from last week, when I was running late and pained due to stomach problems. No such today, all is well! My plan was a solo ride, so I felt bad when RM contacted me about meeting up this morning. I did want to see him, but I knew that if I did I would have a different day. I'd talk all morning and start late, or change my route to ride with him for awhile, or something. I felt like a meanie, but it also felt kinda good to just stick to what I wanted to do without having to hurry to a group meet-up, to take into account someone else's goals, and get off track of my plans. Also, it is our wedding anniversary and two friends (JM+AB) were having their wedding reception later today. So I had to stick to schedule.
I started about 15 mins later than planned, then had a flat rear tire at 4.5 miles. Right out in the middle of nowhere on Levee Rd. Not even a tree to lean Frea against. Since I was still in WU, this went pretty slick. I stayed methodical -- take water bottles out, take wheel off, unpack tools, check everything, take the time -- and although I didn't time it I don't think it took too long. Another ride that I'd passed earlier stopped to check on me and talk. Happily he didn't offer to help, I take that as a sign that he saw me as a competent chick :) He was riding "south", love it, just "south".
I used and out-n-back to Valmeyer to add the needed distance to my Freeeeebuuuuuurg route, but was surprised to see 26 miles and 90 mins when I got back to the Bottom Road. Did I miscalculate the distances? This was the start of hours of this-plus-that-minus-those mental machinations. I wanted to be home by 2pm when DH planned to be home. My math can be bad under normal circumstances! On the bike, even worse!
I decided to head to Millstadt and re-evaluate the plan. On the way, The Blerch said I could just do easy out-n-backs to Valmeyer, and that 3 of those would be 90 miles. Damned Blerch, cuz that's so tempting! Flat, easy, known, other bikers to see -- but a strongish wind started out of the south/southeast and I wasn't interested in riding 15 miles into it just for some "easy" miles. Off to Millstadt.
I arrived at M at 42 miles and 2.5 hours. Half way done!!! After a seriously needed pee, I texted DH my change in plans: riding the needed miles towards Freeeeebuuuuurg then turning around. That route would put me into the headwind off and on, with the trees and turns and hills to break it up. I wasn't excited about the hills ( looking back, that should have been my first sign up energy problems) but HTFU Bee and get riding!
As I headed to the Zingg hill turn my garmin said 42 miles. DAMMIT I forgot to start it again. How much time and mileage did I miss? More mental math nagging. In the end, riding 10 miles out towards Freeburg dang near took me to Freeburg, and maybe sticking to the original route would have ended in the same numbers. Either way, I rode out further on a new road and hit the turn-around at 3hrs and 50 miles. I had something caught in the back of my throat which left me coughing and trying to hack it up. A bug? One of those feathery seeds the trees release? Just some mower dust? This was the start of a low point in the ride.
From 3hr to 3.5 hours my mental energy started to tank. Why? More mental math. Was it the nutrition missed during the accumulated time from the flat tire and from the garmin stop? Didn't matter now, all I knew was I had to just STOP and refuel and recharge. I pulled over to nom a powerbar and water...gave myself a few mins to get collected...then took off again. Sure enough, I started feeling better. I need to really review my nutrition plan for the bike, see below for summary.
The next 1.5 hours went better than expected, considering that there were many points at which I worried about not hitting the 5hr goal. I rode the "skipped" section to Millstadt to measure the time and distance (roughly 3 miles and 12 mins) then cut short on Mule Rd, thinking I could bypass the long southern head-winded sections I rode out on, and instead come home via Cherry Hill. Turns out Mule didn't go where I thought it did! Oops! And Oops again when I came to a bad stop at the bottom of a hill and hit the pedal into the back of my right Achilles. But lucky me, Mule dumped me just south of IMBS. Unlucky me, that meant I had those long head-winded sections to ride. In the end, they weren't so bad! Rode home, felt good, packed up, got in the truck, and .... skipped the run!? Nah, I ran it at home so I could be home when DH arrived. I got 3 miles of super tired but finished brick running. Whoop!
Other random points: On the drive home I heard the Fancy song again, now it's stuck in my head, might have to get added to the songlist. And Frea really needs to get to Big Shark, she squeaked and creaked most all of this ride. The only advantage to the headwind was that I couldn't hear that as much in those sections. Oh and she needs a cleaning, the brakes were awful after last weekends rain. Oh and the rear tire was flat again by the time I got home!!! I had a lucky ride I guess!
Today's biking goals were: steady energy, no pained feet, and nailed nutrition. I hit only 1 of 3, the feets.
Bike nutrition summary:
PreWO: 2 eggs, sweet potato, banana. Trying to eat less here to avoid the carb-crash and heavy stomach.
In Ride: 4oz EFS, 300 cals of InfinIT, 1 powerbar. Didn't finish the extra Powerbar and 200 cals of InfinIT. Total of ~900 calories. That's about right for a 4 HOUR RIDE! More below...
Ride-Run gap: banana (instead of another gel)
Run: nothing
PostWO: yummy sweet potato, date, protein powder blend.
A few weekends in a row now of bad bike nutrition, what's going on? Today's plan was top of the hour a shot of InfinIT, bottom of the hours EFS or Powerbar. It just didn't satisfy me, I kept wanting more. The 5x bottle of InfinIT isn't consumed as quickly as it might be when it's in the aerobottle? But to do that I'd have to drink a LOT of water, not the best plan either. The InfinIT 5x tastes like nothing, so that's not the problem. Or is it? If I'm not satisfied, maybe a shot of weakly flavored water just disappoints me?
My over goal is about 250 calories/hour on the bike. I'm pretty sure that's what I did in 2012. What's failing me now? Probably I'm wrong to think that because I ate a banana shortly before the ride I could skip the first hour of nutrition, so that's something to test. Don't skimp on the first hour?
Be thinking on this! Only a few more weeks to go.
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