The plan (Coach's plan that is) was to ride 100kms and once done do a 30min easy run off the bike. Well, that all came undone in the end. But I jump ahead.
So we headed North with a nice 15 knott wind at our backs. As it was Gazza's and Baby Bear's first ride back after a break we aimed for an easy ride any way, so we sat on about 25km average. The conversation was lively. Side note: I much prefer riding with guys than girls. The topics are much more livelier and appeal to me more than recipes and snotty noses. Anyhow, we cruised through the city heading North all the time. Passed by a poor fellow who forgot to uncleat as he drew up to a traffic light. You gotta hate the sound of carbon fibre hitting the tarmac. He was ok, though a little embarrassed. We pushed on and I admired the beautiful sea. Yesterday it had been a sea of galloping white horses but today it was smooth and blue as a saphire. Once we reached the turn around point we pulled up quickly to strip off long fingered gloves and a layer as finally it was warming up a little.
Homeward bound, Dextro bar and GU in and supping on my biddon the whole way didn't help at all. I was maxed out. And with 40kms to ride I knew I was going to have to dig deep into the "hurt locker" (Jon Gilchrist) I put my head down, hid behind The Onion Man so that I could draft off him and worked the little legs hard to keep up. Keep up! We were still only doing 25kmph. Gazza quietly asked me if I needed to tap out and call for a friend to pick me up. Hell's No! In other words by Jon - quoting Rocky "I aint heard no Bell" and so I pushed on ticking the legs over and feeling my quads straining with every stroke.
We said goodbye to Baby Bear at the 60km mark, the Onion Man at the 70km mark and hubby and I put our heads down and literally I limped home.
I'm not sure what went wrong today. Last weekend I rode a hillier harder course and managed an easy 10min run off the bike. I had a big week. A hard 2 hour session on the wind trainer and swims, runs and gym sessions have contributed to the blow out today (I assume) I can't pin point what else may have gone wrong. But its ok. We have days, even weeks where this happens. So I am going to go easy on myself and give myself a break. Its ok. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger and I managed to make it home to live another day.
Some days, it truly is just not in the cards. But congrats on gutting through the ride!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kurt. I feel a lot beter after a 12 hour sleep.
ReplyDelete