Day 2 of 5 Days of Riding

I left at 6:45AM today. There was nothing on the radar, but I brought a jacket just in case. I headed to Fermilab, and surprisingly, there was very little wind. The temps were tasty--upper 50's--and so I was wearing not so much.

After 2 loops around Fermilab, the clouds were really building, and it started to sprinkle. I took a detour and headed west towards Wilson Hall, but ended up going further and then I landed for my first rain delay at the Lederman Science Center. I had never been in there, but it's a cool place. I chatted with Dottie who works there, and ended up buying some temporary tattoos that I plan on wearing during IMLP! I'm such a geek--I love the science. After about 1/2 hour, I took off with jacket on, and only made it like 1.5 miles before I had to duck under an awning at another facility. When I looked inside, there was this neon sign telling about the status of things running around in the accelerator ring! It was pretty cool--which is why I'm never bored when I'm in there. I took off, had another rain delay, visited Dottie again, and then finally the skies cleared up.

As always, I had a tasty west tailwind all the way home, and I hammered like a mofo. I knew I'd be close to 90 miles, so of course, I had to do a little extra when near home to hit the nice round number.

I ran for :40 off the bike, and what I didn't realize immediately was that my head was on fire. I mean, I had the sun beating down on me for a good 5 hours, and while the temps weren't that hot, still, I've been spending a lot of time in the sun, and when I was 1.5 miles from home, I was at a ball park and the kids were all soaking their hats in the water fountain, so of course I followed suit. And I felt better right away. I ran pretty well, got home, ate a small sandwich (with awesome deli meats and cheeses on focaccia bread from the Italian deli), downed the Endurox R4, and then started on the beer. I also decided I needed to do some more weeding in my flower beds and spent about 1.5 hours doing that (don't know where I got the energy from), and then I cleaned up Bitchie for tomorrow, and finally ate some spaghetti and meatballs and am drinking wine now.

I'm going to read a bit and then hit the hay. Tomorrow I only need to ride for 3 hours, and I hope I can dodge rain and not have any delays so I can be done with the whole fiesta (including another :40 brick run) by noon, at which point I think I'll be deserving a nap, and then I have some meat to grill and will probably need to wash Bitchie again and LGL needs a cleaning from Triple T and I want to ride her on Monday and man, this stretch is crazy, isn't it?

I'm surviving, though--I rode well today, even while I was doing my "crap." Funny thing was right when I got into Fermilab there was this roadie and we talked a bit for about .5 mile and he asked me what I was training for and I told him, and then he asked if I went to Wisconsin--or at least that's what I thought he said--I guess he asked if I had done Wisconsin, and I said I was going up there next weekend, and he said I said it all nonchalantly, but hey, I've already done 10 Ironman's, so I'm pretty nonchalant about it, and he wished me good luck at IMLP, and I told him I really don't need it I know how to do it. I think he was a bit taken aback--I mean how many women do you know who have done 10 Ironman's? I don't even know any myself, so there you go. He probably didn't understand what I meant when I said "I need to do my crap now," but here's the crap I did:

WU: 30' Easy
MS: 4 x (25' @ 85%,
10' @ FT,
5' Easy),
remainder 70-75%

I'll do the same crap tomorrow just with less of a warmup. I did really well on the first 3 intervals, and felt a bit tired on the last one, but I think it was because of all the stoppage time due to the rain. At least I can say with certainty that I will be able to ride tomorrow, and since it's less than today, I should be good for Monday's easy ride.

Holy crap--I'm a fucking biking machine! Good thing I love riding my bikes!

Good luck to IMCDA peeps tomorrow! Swim like a fish, ride like the wind and run like a gazelle!