Bowl of Berries

So when I mentioned to Scottie that I wanted to do a long ride this weekend I didn’t think we would do 52 miles, but as I am always trying to push myself to the limits, I said “Sure” with a smile.  I am not going to lie, I was pretty nervous.  The longest ride I had done before this was about 38 miles on completely flat terrain at the beach.  Scottie picked out the Duke Half Ironman bike course, which is 56 miles, we cut out a short 2 mile out and back near the nuclear power plant.  I knew this course had some decent hills in it, which only added to my nervousness.  We packed up and drove the 40 minutes or so to the start of the course.

The weather could not be more perfect for a long ride, the sun was out but not beating down, it was warm but there was a definite wind, which added a bit the ride.  We parked and then set out for the ride.  Scottie forgot his Garmin so we went by my bike computer for the mileage and pace.  Yes the course was hilly but nothing terrible, except for one hill that crept up after a very long, blind decent, in which I was in the wrong gear and had to walk half way up.  To my credit, the gears on my bike were being weird today, yes blame it on the gears :)  I had two bottle of liquid with me, one with water and one with an electrolyte drink.  I quickly realized I just can’t take the electrolyte drink, it makes my mouth too dry and I need water to really quench my thirst. So I took little sips of the water along the way, I felt like I was rationing water like when we went camping last October.

Luckily, with about 15 miles or so left, there was a man watering his lawn and Scottie decided to stop and see if we could fill our bottles with the garden hose, he agreed but went one step further and brought out two ice cold bottles of water for us.  Wow, there are still some great people in the world!  I saw he wore a retired Marine Corps hat and it further reinforces that our military, either active or retired, would give the shirt off their back for a stranger.  I was so thankful for this man as I don’t think I could have made it back to the car without the water.  Note for the next long ride, bring another bottle or wear a camelbak!  The last bit of the ride was uneventful except for a fox crossing the road and seeing an unleashed rottweiler pass by us.  The last 4 miles were the hardest, probably because I knew we were so close to the end.  My hands were starting to ache and my right pinky finger was falling sleep, it still doesn’t have all of it’s feeling back even 5 hours later.

When we got to the car I tore into a protein bar and the bottle of water I left in the car.  My quads were killing me, they started to tighten up almost instantly.  Once in the car I was in heaven, being in a soft seat the cool air passing over me and good music to groove to.   Once home I had planned to immediately start an ice bath but decided to wash Bella and my car before getting into a cold bath.

I filled up the tub with cool water and dumped all of the ice from our ice maker in the tub.  Yep it took my breathe away but luckily I had a long sleeve shirt to keep me warm.  I stayed in for about 15 minutes then showered and was ready for dinner!  I think for the next ice bath I will buy a 10 lbs bag of ice as it melted pretty quickly and wasn’t as cold near the end.  I know most people physically can’t stand to stay in longer then 10 minutes but I felt if I was sitting in cold water I atleats wanted it to be cold!  Hopefully I won’t be too sore tomorrow for my swim and run!  I could get used to these long weekends!

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.