Weekly Workout Totals 04/23/2007-04/29/2007 and Progress

Today was another absolutely gorgeous spring day here. I headed out just after 6AM to drive to Union, IL, to do the Spring Forward ride. My plan was to ride the 62 miles and then go out again for another 18 to get in a solid 80. The weather called for increasing winds, no worries, I like wind.

I drank probably 48 oz. of water throughout the night last night, probably because I ate a lot of highly salted food, and probably also because I am just running high octane lately, so I didn't make it 57 miles without needing to stop and pee. But I made a quick stop, and shortly I arrived at the ride start.

I asked some stranger man next to me to put sunscreen on my upper back, to which he gladly obliged, paid the money and declined the bag of stuff, except for the required bib number and a fun-size Snickers bar, which I knew would come in handy later.

I was rolling by 7:28AM, and I started out with arm warmers, which worked out great. Starting temp was about 55, but projected high was 80. The winds were fairly calm for about 1 hour, and that was enjoyable. The course was mainly flat with rolling country/farmland roads. There was ONE hill, and I remember approaching it thinking, "Cool! Bike on hill action." And then I realized what I thought, like being in a porno flick. It made the climb go quite easily.

I was passing people all day, men and women, and was just riding what I thought to be upper steady. When nearing the one and only rest stop in a park called Marengo Ridge, there was a cute sign as you turned in that said, "OH SHIFT!" I got a great chuckle out of that. At the rest stop they had a TRAY O' MEAT, which I totally appreciated (it was chunks of lunch meat, and I gravitated towards the salami), as well as a huge assortment of other goodies. I had some meat, pound cake, a Rice Krispies trest, and then reloaded my bottle to circle around and come back to the same place.

There was a long stretch into a now fairly stiff headwind. Here I passed lots of people. It seems that many people just give up in the wind. Since I ride by power, I just focus on holding a good wattage, and whatever speed that gets me is just fine. Plus, I knew we would eventually turn and go back the other way, which when we did, I just hammered away.

Back to the same rest stop for more meat, pound cake, and this time, I slugged down about 8 oz. of Coke, which I had brought with me. I have no idea why they don't have cold Coke on these rides. I told one of the volunteers that they should, and she was all like, "oh but the fizz." I told her that a lot of pro riders do the Coke thing, and that the fizz really isn't a big deal at all. My Coke went down just fine, although mixed with spicy meat I had a bit of a bloaty tummy for a few miles, but no worries.

All day there were plenty of farm animals to view--chickens, sheep, pigs, horses and cows. At one point a rooster started crowing, so I crowed right back at him! There were lots of dogs, but all of them were either leashed, fenced or invisible-fenced, so none of them were chasing after us.

About 5 miles from finish, I rolled up on a small group, and it appeared one of them was a bit faster than the rest. I passed them all, and then the guy comes up beside me, and I said, "Come on, let's go!" He said he needed to wait for the others and that he had been holding back all day, and I told him if they are truly friends they will understand if he peels off at this point. I convinced him. His name is Harold, and it was nice to push it in (against headwinds) with someone else, but we were chatting the entire time, too. Harold gave me his email address, and maybe one of these days we'll be able to ride someplace else.

Back at my car to get some more Coke, it turned out this one guy who had passed me going into the rest stop (to which I yelled at him, "SHOW OFF") was parked right next to me. He and his buddy and I talked about power meters, which was fun, and how we train with them and all that. It was nice to be talking with men who weren't all condescending as if I wouldn't know anything. And of course, they complimented my "awesome rig."

As I headed out for another 18 miles, I thought I didn't need to do all of that and that I would just ride out for maybe :15 or :30 and turn around, but then I decided to follow the course. Boy did the wind pick up! I was about dying on this one stretch, and a SAG wagon asked me for my number, and I tried to tell the guy I had enough fluid and such. I was hoping he didn't think I was just out for 18 miles on THAT BIKE!

I managed to throw in a bit of lostness at the end just to complete my day, and I ended up with 85 miles overall, not bad. I made sure to stop at the registration area to let them know I was done and OK, and the SAG drivers were pretty smiley at me and said they were happy to watch after a pretty girl! It did make me feel good that they were out there and I thanked them heartily, drove home, ate, went out into the yard for about 3 hours and I am about ready to pass out!

The totals for the week are pretty happy, and knock wood, I am still feeling pretty good! Let's see if I can wake up tomorrow morning and swim 3500 yards!


Weekly Totals 04/23/2007-04/29/2007
Swim: 10000 yards (5.68 miles) in 3.48 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 1220 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 156.62 miles in 8.95 hours; 47% of weekly workout time; approx. 4839 calories burned
Run: Approx. 34.34 miles in 5.13 hours; 27% of weekly workout time; approx. 2328 calories burned
Strength: 1.57 hours; 8% of weekly workout time; approx. 393 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 196.64 miles in 19.13 hours; approx. 8780 calories burned
Sleep: 8.07 hours avg./night
Stretching: 3.3 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours