One-Third Done and a Looooong Way to Go

I am officially one-third of the way through Ironman training. That's a little scary. These eight weeks have gone by pretty quickly. I feel I've made progress and am in better shape than I was when I started (despite the extra pounds I'm carrying around; they only make me stronger, right?). Most of the time, I am confident that my training will prepare me and I will survive complete enjoy successfully endure Ironman Texas. I no longer feel the need to vomit when I read an article about the race. Progress!

Today I rode 62 miles - it may have been my first metric century (I'm not sure but I think my previous longest was 60). I had planned to ride 50 or so, but I took extra fuel and water because you just never know. Yay for good decisions!

We ended up with a group of 19 people. That was the biggest group I've ever ridden with. We split up after a while, and I was able to stay with the lead group for the most part. I had a solid ride with a good dose of suffering. First, I ovulated. Right around mile 33 or so. On a scale of 1 to 10, that was pain of about a 6 for about half an hour. Nothing I haven't dealt with before, just not usually on a ride (and usually it lasts much longer, so I got off easy). But, it's just pain. Gotta deal with it. HTFU, Jen.

Then, right in the middle of that, I went to take a drink from my aero bottle, and pulled the straw into two pieces. It's easy enough to fix if you're stationary, but I tried to do it while riding, which brought me to Drop #1 of the day. It SUCKED. Some friends came and tried to pull me up to the group, but I didn't have it in me at that point to even keep up with them. I cannot stress enough how much that SUCKED.

Shortly after that, we stopped at a park for some food and bathrooms. I was back with the group, but then the next suffering opportunity presented itself: My damn knee/IT band. It has been doing SO WELL lately, then WHAM! it came back with a vengeance. The last hour of the ride was my most painful yet. I seriously considered stopping on the side of the road and calling JC to come pick me up. On top of that, I experienced Drop #2. MOTHERFUNKER!!!!!! (Read that closely.... I was good...)

So, it wasn't a perfect ride. But that's a good thing. It makes you tougher. And there were a lot of positives about today's ride:

• I took in a good number of calories. And by "a good number," I don't mean "a lot;" I mean "enough calories to sustain me without upsetting my stomach." (about 193/hour)
• My bike rode GREAT. The cleaning I gave her last weekend really made her happy.
• My paces are picking up.
• My saddle was pretty comfy today.
• After a talk with the person who is my mentor but doesn't know it yet, I'm pretty sure my heartrate zones for the bike are wrong.
• I got to pee in a bush.
• I did't get a headache afterward, thanks to good fueling and good hydration.
• I didn't quit.

I did enjoy getting to know some new folks today. There was a guy named Vince whom I've never met. He's short, squat, and older. I'm told he's one of the overlords of cycling in South Carolina. When I introducted myself, all he said was, "Vince." Then when we met up with the other half of our group and made introductions, we all gave our first and last names. Except him. "Vince." He wasn't rude or curt, he was just a man of few words.

While we were riding, Vince just cruised along with the pack. That is, until we came to a hill. The pack would slow down, but Vince would just sail up the hill like it was nothing. Every time. I rode behind him for a while and noticed his beautiful calf muscles. So I pulled up along side him and said, "Vince, you may not say a whole lot, but you have the best calves I have ever seen." Wouldn't you know, that got him talking. He turned out to be a very nice, quite interesting guy who loves riding up mountains. That explains it!

I've decided it's time to start working on this extra weight. First, I will stop gaining fat. Once I do that, I believe the increase in training hours and added muscle will help reduce the extra fat I'm carrying. Every pound lost is a pound I won't have to drag around on the bike or the run. I want to weigh 6 pounds less when the Ironman comes around - that's about a third of a pound each week. Surely I can do that.