Tons o' Biking Part 7

Ugh...last day of biking in the biking binge.  I suited up this morning and left at 7AM to bike the stick plus a loop of the IMWI course.  Here I am ready to go, being extremely fashionable and also artistic, care of Donna:

This is in the lobby of the hotel where we are staying, and for some reason I was careful to tell the front desk that my TIRES ARE CLEAN AND WON'T HURT THE CARPET!  Just in case they were worried...

I gravitated towards the black and white couch, and this is a beautiful shot, as the back of my Day of the Dead jersey (which arrived just in time) can be seen in the mirror behind me.

I rode down to Monona Terrace to see if I could find any peeps swimming, but didn't.  I left a message for Dark Knight that started with (in Christian Bale's voice), "I'm BATMAN."   I got on my way and was a few miles into the course when I rode up to AJ, who was just leaving for a short ride:

We laughed at what were the odds I would just ride into him?  I asked how he was feeling, since I knew he'd been a bit sick, and he is on the mend and I think he will do just fine.  We rode up to Syene and Caine road, and then he turned back and I continued on.

It was warm when I started and it just got warmer.  I'd brought 4.5 hours of Infinit and one bottle of water, with the water to be replaced as needed.  I stopped in Verona at a gas station, but it's no longer attended and couldn't get water there, so then I tried Firemen's Park, and they didn't have any water, either, but I stopped to chat with some folks and got a good pic with a dog who was making awesome dives into the lake!

Since I needed water, I rode into downtown Verona, and then DUH, decided I'd ride the loop backwards.  I've done this before and trust me, it sucks both ways.  I stopped at the pavilion on Military Ridge Trail, and there was a group of guys taking a break, and they wanted to look at and touch La Gazza Ladra, and turns out they know someone in my town that they think I should meet.

I continued on, and of course the climb up Timber Lane in reverse was the worst climb of the day, and I was hating myself since I hadn't ridden much hills at all this year, but still I was doing OK.  It kept getting hotter, but there were beautiful roads and view and I couldn't help but smile!  I think I confused many people because I was wearing ostensibly a race wristband, and yet I was pushing the pace.

Isn't this beautiful?  How could I NOT be happy riding here?

I pressed on and got to Garfoot Road, which is a bitch and a half when ridden the reverse course direction.  I came upon 2 young girls with 2 calves, and had to stop for a pic and ask what they were doing!

2 3-month old bull Holsteins being trained to walk in competition

I mean where do you come upon something like this?  The calves were SO cute, I wanted to pet them, but I had to keep riding...

Next I got to Witte Road which is fucking fun normally, but tougher to ride in reverse, still I wanted a pic at the crest before I began descending:

This is quintessential Wisconsin!  At least this part of the state!  I was getting hungry, I guess because all of the heat and I've been training like a mad woman, so when I got to Mount Horeb to stop for water, I was in line to check out at the Kwik Trip and spotted cheeseburgers, and went to grab one.  This would help, since I was somewhat hungover from the night before, and cheeseburgers typically work magic in these cases!  I asked a woman patron to snap a pic of me eating it just for proof...

At this point I needed to just finish out the ride.  When you leave Mount Horeb in reverse, you get a whole pile of descent, and I hammered away and was passing people having a great time!  I was worried I sucked, but then I realized that on the way out I had a headwind, and now I had a tailwind AND downhill!  It was awesome.

When I got back to the hotel, I was so disgusting from sweating so much that it was the BEST SHOWER EVER!  I called William and Donna to see if they wanted to do lunch with me in the Badger Lounge because I just could not see going outside again for awhile.  They joined me, and they bought me lunch, I tried to steal a beer glass, but Donna bought it for me so I have a nice souvenir and spare lunch for tomorrow when I am finished running a 1/2 marathon.

WTF I asked for a box for leftovers and I got a...BOX

William and Donna putting up with my shit

After that, I had to go and meet Dark Knight to establish our plan for race day.  I conned him into buying me a beer (I'm good at that, apparently):

And then finally I went back to Ground Zero and showered again because I was sweaty, and met up with Jen and Lori for dinner.

I am exhausted!  But I am excited for tomorrow for my racers and other people and all the fun that will ensue!  I finished out my biking binge with about 320 miles, so I'm good!  No more biking for a week!  But now the running binge begins, and it kicks off tomorrow with probably close to a marathon!  What the hell, what else would I be doing here in Wisconsin during an Ironman???

Tons o' Biking Part 6 and First Day in Wisconsin

This is getting repetitive ;)

Yesterday I took the day off from work due to needing to drive up to IMWI to train some and hang with friends. First, I swam 3200 pretty fast for me.  Next up was a :40 easy run.  While I seem to have licked my right foot issue, my right glute area is none too happy.  I tried to assess what about my mechanics might be in play, and I also assume there is some nerve action, due to my L5/S1 disks that may or may not still be herniated.

It seems I want to turn my right foot out--I have worked hard over the years to not do that, and I'm not sure whether this is the after effect of fixing the metatarsalgia or not.  At any rate, my ass hurt like a mofo while I was running.  It only slowed me slightly, though, since I have boatloads of HTFU and I know I don't have an actual "injury."  I could tell that when I focused on pointing my foot straight ahead, that my external hip rotators were not angry with me, so perhaps this means I need to alter my metatarsal pad placement a bit.  Or maybe I am just running too much!  Or biking too much!  This has happened to me in the past, so I know I can make it go away.  Typically, biking a lot helps, because the bike pedals put my feet/hips in a straight ahead position, thus letting those external hip rotators work less.  Funny how that works!

Here I am after the run:

I'm wearing a wristband from some IM race, I don't know offhand which one it is.

Outside Fish is such a voyeur!

Finally, I had an optional 1-hour ride, so of course I was going to do it, and for easy rides I get to ride any bike I want, so it was Death Machine, because, well, it's a fucking fine bike! 

Outside Fish wanted to go for a ride, but I had to leave him at home.

I started out riding kinda hard, since a guy was coming out of the Y road as I was riding through, and he appeared to be going rather fast, so I just hit the gas and was going 20mph and got far ahead.  Then I settled down, and remembered why this ride was supposed to be EASY and why I should honor that.  There has been quite the buildup of both strength and fatigue in my legs with the amount of biking I've been doing.  I think you can see it in my legs--honestly, I don't think my legs have ever been quite this muscular.  So yay!

I had one altercation with a car, and backup to me leaving the Y, I asked them if I could either do a board and/or a presentation on what the new law in Illinois is regarding cars passing cyclists.   Here is the law.  I know most of us cyclists know it, but cars?  I'd say 95% do NOT know.  I have been using any opportunity to get on my soapbox and explain this to people.  Most times, I get a "yeah but most of the cyclists I see don't obey traffic signals."  And then I just about lose it.  Because drivers only feel that way when they are in a hurry, and they believe the cyclist is somehow impeding them from making it to Dunkin' Donuts.  I calmly explain that probably 60% or better of DRIVERS don't use turn signals, coast through stop signs, don't look both ways when turning.  But I am quick to point out that unless there is ZERO TRAFFIC, I am obeying all traffic rules, signs and signals.  Please if you live in Illinois help get the word out! 

Back to my altercation.  We were side by side at a stoplight, and across the intersection was a USPS truck parked to the right.  I'd signaled to the car next to me where I was going, and often I will accelerate faster than a car at a light, so I went first.  Now, I have to give the parked truck room, and at this point, the car behind me speeds up to overtake me!  They tried to pass within about a foot of me, and I didn't swear at them, but said, "What are you doing???"  They got all pissed and I calmly explained the 3-feet law, but they were none too interested.  It was maybe 10:30 in the morning, meaning these people were most likely retired and not needing to be anywhere.  Oh well.

Moving on, I finished up the ride:

And then I finished packing for Wisconsin.  I drove up and it took me 2:30, which is slow (146 miles) because I90 was under construction for like 40 miles.  Which meant that once I crossed the border into Wisconsin, I was exceeding the speed limit ;)  I had to make up time!

When I got to the hotel, I took load 1 out of my car.  I have as much or more crap than someone who is racing, because I am training AND SPECTATING, and I need my energy, so I have 2 coolers, an entire bag of running stuff, a bag of spectating outfits, my bike stuff and a bag of snacks.  DON'T EVER MAKE FUN OF HOW MUCH CRAP I HAVE!!!  Because someone invariably needs something I have...

I called William who is staying down the hall from me, and he and his wife, Donna, came to my room, and Donna and I had a beer, and we caught up, and then they helped me get the rest of my crap out of my car, and then Lori and Jen arrived, and we had dinner at Tutto Pasta and wow, there is so much to tell, but here are pics of all of us:

William "Iron Ox" (he's racing) and his wife, Donna

Lori and Jen, who are both racing

Lori, Jen and me

Today I ride LGL on the course for about 72 miles, then I meet up with Dark Knight to firm up our race day plans (basically I am going to be half naked motivating him and others), possibly catch a glimpse of one of my former coaches, then an early dinner, hopefully same crew as last night (although if they are sick of me I will go off on my own), and then the real fun begins tomorrow morning!

I might not be able to blog again until Monday, so hold onto your pants, we're in for a wild ride!

Tons o' Biking Part 5

Today I was supposed to do the same bike workout as yesterday, but I'd already decided to ride LGL since I will be riding her on Saturday up in Wisconsin.  Then I had a bright idea that I should just go and ride hills today, otherwise my legs will be in serious shock in 2 days!

I was busy, busy, busy at work, and I even had to move a meeting 1/2 hour later so I could get my ride and run in.  I ended up riding in Lisle in a hood where there are some fun hills, and I used big gears and grinded away, and it was fun!  Another absolutely gorgeous day, and I wanted to ride more, but I had to be home to get in my brick run and then do another work meeting.  Here I am finished:

I helped design this kit.  It has Excalibur on it and scapulae on the back.

Had to do the obligatory bike hoist so you can see my huge legs and Outside Fish

I didn't ride very fast (just over 16mph) because I was intentionally hill grinding, but still had a good ride and think I will be just fine on the IMWI course.  By the way, I fucking love riding LGL!!! She is stiff and nimble and I really like ripping around corners on her.  I am looking forward to riding in Wisconsin!

I hurried up and switched to run shorts and shoes and stripped off my top and chugged the rest of the Infinit (all its caffeine goodness!) and headed out to run for about 20 minutes.  I ran up and down the 1/3 mile hill from my house and .1 mile further and back 3 times.  Turns out I ran 8:37/mile, which is fast for me, so all good.  I was happy to be done since I was hungry!

I won a fish!

Outside Fish is worried

So the workouts keep going well, and now I have to get ready for spectating duties!  Tomorrow is a 3200 swim, :40 run and 1 hour easy ride which I will do on Death Machine.  Too bad I haven't gotten on Bitch this week, since then I would have ridden all my bikes!  But I'm doing well to ride 3 out of 4, don't you think?

Tons o' Biking Part 4

I'm holding a Cheaterade bottle and Outside Fish is Amazed

Today is the 4th ride of the 8-day biking binge, where the only non-biking day was yesterday.  Yesterday I took my car to a different mechanic (recommended by Maz) to have them try and diagnose and fix an intermittent (but reproducible once I started tracking when it would start properly vs. not) starting problem.  My usual mechanic had the car for SIX DAYS (3 different 2-day visits) and couldn't figure it out.  The shop is in Bristol, IL, about a 30-mile drive, but easy on the highways.  When I got near, I recognized a lot of the roads as ones I have ridden bikes on in the past.  It's a real pretty area.  Found the shop, talked to Stan and gave him my symptoms, he asked me a few questions, then I went off to run.  Bristol is really tiny (population: 856 probably plus or minus a few dogs and cats), and the roads are lightly traveled, and it was a gorgeous, cool morning, so off I went.  Well let's say my brain went--my legs were none too happy to be running, but I managed about 5.2 miles, enjoying the quiet and views the entire way.

When I got back to the shop, they were working on my car, and I went out back to call my insurance agent about a fuck up that they were supposed to call me back on the day before but never did.  The main customer service didn't have a clue, and I was frustrated, but put that on hold.  I did some gazing at my training plan and chilled (and kept taking in calories since I am like a hummingbird now), talked with Maz, then saw Stan drive my car outside meaning they were probably done with it.  They fixed it!  It was the thermostat--such a simple thing, but I guess not many people know what its impact is on the car in the big scheme of things.  I drove home, then got my insurance crap straightened out, and took a nap and then resumed eating, because even though yesterday was a light day, my metabolism is still revving and more hard training on the way!

This morning I had a 3100 yard swim planned, and it went extremely well.  I drank Infinit during it since I'd been awake since about 2AM (don't ask) and was needing more calories, then when I got home I had a banana and a sandwich.  Right before I left riding, I slammed a Starbucks Double Shot Light, and got rolling around 12:45PM.  It has been an absolutely gorgeous day here--I turned off the A/C and opened a few windows to let some fresh air into the house.  Today's (and tomorrow's) bike workout was:

WU: 15' wup, 3' spinups
MS: 3 x 2' (1') @ 105%, 2' Easy,
3 x (8' @ FT then 2' @ 105-110%, 3' Easy),
8 x 30/30'
CD: 5' Easy

I've been doing a variant on this for many weeks now.  It's a great workout to nail, but I was uncertain how I'd feel today.  The warmup went fine, but when I did the first FT interval I felt a bit sluggish, but soon picked it up and I really nailed the rest of the workout.  It was good riding in that school is back in session, so my interval loop was mostly devoid of traffic.  When I got home I slammed Endurox R4 and ate a Lean Cuisine and felt fixed up.

Stan the mechanic called to see how my car was running, wasn't that nice?  I told him all good, I am even ready to clean and detail the interior!  I've been waiting to do that for weeks now, since I didn't want to do it until I knew I wasn't going to be at a mechanic for awhile.

Tomorrow I get to do that same bike workout and then run :20 off the bike.  That should be fun!  If I can hit the wattage targets again, I will be a happy camper!

I should probably explain what the hell is Outside Fish.  Well, up until 5 years ago, the decor in my living room featured cream, pink and green, and Outside Fish was Inside Fish being all decorative.  When I did my first round of remodeling and painting in 2008 and converted my living room to black/white zebra, Inside Fish no longer went with it.  So I put him outside and he became Outside Fish.  He lives on that ledge that is more or less covered, and he's been there 5 years already and he patiently sits there looking all colorful!  Sometimes I talk to him or just call his name.  Makes me laugh every time!

So so far, I am doing well on the binge biking plan and we'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Tons o' Biking Part 3--Tigerman NothingMan

I mostly laid around (and watched The Dark Knight Rises finally) after yesterday's NothingMan.  I felt pretty wiped, and basically laid around eating until I fell asleep.  Then I woke up at 1AM and had a Twinkie because I was hungry.

I did some organizing activities until it was time to go swim.  I should have been in the pool at 5AM, but apparently there were other things that needed doing that got done.  I suited up with a brand new suit.

Wearing my nerd glasses--I hadn't yet put in my contact lenses

Look at my big legs!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is biking (and lots of squats, too).  I've had tiger print swimsuits before, but this is the coolest one yet.  It got me thinking that I should wear tiger stripes to bike and run in, too.

My swim workout was a long warmup and then a 1500 straight with a little cooldown.  I don't often swim long and straight (about 4 weeks out from IMCOZ I will do that), but it was a good opportunity to test the endurance.  Keeping Magic Mike's directives in mind, I managed to swim the 1500 faster than I think I have ever swam (still checking)!  I am still not a fast swimmer, but to see this after just one coaching session is really encouraging!  I drank a bottle of Infinit while I swam, too, and no doubt the caffeine and calories were helpful in this effort.  Since I swam kinda hard, I was concerned I might not be able to hit my bike wattages. 

Here I am ready go to ride

Sporting my Trashy Cat Tiger kit

I did the same bike workout as yesterday:
WU: 15' Easy, 30' Steady
MS: 1 x 20' at FT
20' Steady,
1 x 20' at Half IM watts
CD: 15' easy

I have to say, that is one FUN, KILLER bike workout for a 2-hour ride.  You start out easy, you increase the pace, you KILL IT, then you drop down a bit, then you KILL IT AGAIN.  I'd thought I wouldn't be as strong today as yesterday, especially after a good, long swim, but nope, I had all the watts and then some.

The weather is gorgeous here today, and lots of people were out running and biking while I was out there.  I ran into a guy I have worked with (Barry), and we chatted and had some laughs.  He recognized me because of Skull Kingdom, and I heard someone shout, "HEY SHEILA."  I hit the brakes and said, "WHAT THE FUCK?" and there he was.  I met his wife, Nancy, and we shared some funny stories.

I always get looks when riding Skull Kingdom, and yesterday in the pirate kit, I got a TON.  Today, I think the tiger kit actually attracted more attention.  I got a lot of smiles and just a few scowls. 

Finally, I needed to run for :20, so I decided to run up to this nearby park, loop twice, and run home.  It felt like I was in a race!  I purposely did the loop the "hard" way which meant I was going uphill right away, and I even said aloud to myself, "I hate myself."  Pretty typical thing for me to say when I am making myself do this stuff. But the weather was so glorious, how could I not enjoy it?

I made it home and here I am with my victory smile:

I felt like I did pretty well today, what the hell!

And then I felt like doing a muscle pose for the hell of it:

Feeling pretty damn fit at this point

I'd taken in plenty of nutrition for the entire time (about 3:40 rolling time), so once I was inside, I got some laundry started, and then began making a spaghetti sauce that consists of chicken livers, anchovies, sliced mushrooms, parsley, tomato sauce, oregano, salt, pepper and good red wine.  Finally, about 1 hour later, I chowed down on some spaghetti with that sauce and grated Parmesan on top.  YUM!!! 

I'm heading over to my brother's for dinner soon (visiting first).  He's grilling strip steaks!  I already told him I am likely to eat all his food!  But he knows that I am in training and eating like a champion, so he won't be surprised to see how much food I will eat. 

I feel really great about today's NothingMan.  It wasn't so much planned as a NothingMan as it was that today was a holiday where I had the day off, meaning a good day to get in a good amount of biking, and then I swim on Mondays so there was that, and now it's time in the training cycle to be adding in little brick workouts.  Considering I've just done back-to-back decent sized NothingMans and didn't lose any speed on Day 2, I feel great about where I'm at.

Tomorrow I don't bike :(  It will feel weird, I think, but all good, because I get to bike Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!

Tons o' Biking Part 2

Today I decided to ride in full Heathen Mode:

How can you not go fast and smile when dressed this way?  At one point, I stopped at this park shelter to use the restroom, and a man with 2 young children was just looking at me, and I knew it, and said, "Lots of skulls, huh?"  He smiled and said, "Nice bike."  

The bike workout was:

WU: 15' Easy, 30' Steady MS: 1 x 20' at FT 20' Steady, 1 x 20' at Half IM watts CD: 15' easy

That's a pretty solid short ride!  It went well, I was hitting wattages and adjusted the PT settings when I got back since wheel size was off which may explain my lack of mileage.  At any rate, I had a blast riding with pretty nice weather (i.e., NOT RAINING) and went for 2:08, and then it was time to run :45 as easy out, steady back.

Basically, wherever I run from home, there are hills.  Not huge ones, but it is far from flat.  I decided to run this route.  I ended up averaging 9:16/mile, not bad considering the bike workout and the usual presence of hills, and it warmed up to near 80, which is plenty warm for running.

Here I am when I was finished running, a bit peaked:

At least I'm wearing a cool visor from Jordan Rapp

See those shoes?  They are awesome!

My right foot did not hurt ONE IOTA, so I think I got the metarsalgia licked.  But tune in next week during the running binge.

Finally, I wanted to do a really short recovery swim of 1,000 yards, so I suited up:

Fuck off, camera, also nice tan lines

Since I was only going to swim 1,000 yards, I did not wear one of my good suits.  The above is a Speedo reserved for when I don't give a fuck, which by the time I swam, was 100% true.  I went and swam, and it felt good, and I am actually starting to see changes in my stroke care of Magic Mike!  When I was done, I decided to just go outside (my Y has a nice deck outside the pool) and get started on my stretching.  It was really nice out, and I thought about how I have not just sat in the sun for years!  It was only maybe 80, and the sun felt good on me as I was cooled from the pool.

I ended out this week at just over 18 hours of training, so it's all quite real at this point.  More biking coming up!  This coming week I ride Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!  Yay!  I fucking love biking!

Tons o' Biking Part 1

So yesterday was Day 1 of an 8-day biking binge.  From 8/31 through 9/7, the plan is to ride 16.5 hours, which will most likely turn into 17-18, only because I almost never do exactly what the plan says--usually more.  That is a whole lot of biking, yes?  The week after that, the plan calls for a running binge, where I hope to run about 50-55 miles (with not much biking--see how this works?).

I'd agreed to meet Blane at Fermilab and show him how to ride in there and he wanted to pick my brain on a number of topics, most notably nutrition (you can call me the Nutrition Nazi--that is how passionate I am about endurance folks, especially long course, getting their nutrition right).  Blane is "not training" for a long NothingMan (5K/200K/50K) to be done on 9/29.  I don't recall having met him in person before yesterday, but I think he believes we met on some ride somewhere.

Blane lives near Fermilab, so he just rode there, and I drove there, so I could have cold fluids and bring some extra water for Blane. I checked the weather forecast before I left, and it said, "party cloudy."  Well bullshit keep reading.  But it was dry when I left and got there, and good thing Blane was dressed fashionably enough to ride with me.

He is thinking WTF???

We immediately began talking, and that pretty much didn't stop for the entire ride.  We talked nutrition, stories from our past, hopes and dreams for the future, how our lives are going right now, and he shared his NothingMan plan with me.  I hope to join him perhaps for part of his ride, and then I want to help him out on the run by riding on Death Machine and carrying extra fluids and generally being a pain in the ass and dispensing HTFU (although I don't think he needs too much HTFU, but one can always use more).

I have taken other people riding with me in Fermilab, and many don't like it because of the riding in circles.  But when you have good company, I think it's a hoot, and we got "lucky" in the weather department which made things really interesting.  Also, I typically let a guy I am riding with go nuts on A-1 road, which is where a lot of people TT because it's flat, perfect pavement and sometimes you can get a nice south tailwind.  I showed Blane another little offshoot "road" that he named Secret Mad Scientist Road.  I am not sure it's an actual road, however, it does have an "Authorized Personnel Only" sign posted, but it's a cool little stretch of road because it does have a bit of a climb (for Fermilab, anyway), and it was just newly paved this summer so it is awesome!  When we first did SMS, it was dry and there were a lot of sticks/branches on the road from the recent storms.  I commented to Blane on one later pass that he'd moved the sticks, so I had to be careful where I rode! Well it turns out that other people have ridden on SMS, according to Strava.  So apparently, we aren't the only renegades.

I don't remember how soon in it began raining, but it rained, and a lot.  We got a good first soak, and continued on.  Then it rained again.  Then the sky looked like it was going to dump out a tornado:

In person, it looked much worse than this shows

So we stopped at one of the "buildings" on a "road" so we could take cover until the storm passed.  Blane showed me the radar while we were there, and it was going to blow through in maybe 15 minutes or so.  Meanwhile...

Giant Mutant Radioactive Corn

We looked at the signage on the building and inside windows where we could see in.  It was marked radioactive on the outside (and no doubt smooth and creamy on the inside), and there were vials of who knows what in boxes probably waiting to be disposed of.  On the side of the building there was a sign that said DECON, and I asked Blane what the hell is that.  Decontamination!  Yay!  In case of radiation, we were in the right place!  I asked Blane to take a pic of me in front of the corn growing right alongside this building, which no doubt was occasionally watered and/or fed from some of those vials...

Later on, when it was actually NOT RAINING, I asked Blane if he wanted to go and see the Giant Magnet.  It's just off A-1 road, and I thought he should get a pic of himself with his bike near it.  First we did this one:

Don't worry he was authorized by me

Blane tells me he has this "thing" about pics in odd places.  My comment was, "Look who you are riding with!"  So that pic was fun, and then I told him to get up on one of these concrete blocks that were around the magnet (most likely to keep shit out, but I guess they failed) and hoist his bike, and look what happened:

Notice we are about to get dumped on AGAIN.  He's standing on a 3-foot block of concrete. The magnet is trying to ascend into the clouds--someone was calling it

Then I wanted to go into the unauthorized area, and there were these huge iron beams holding up the magnet (or maybe they are part of it I don't really know), and I thought I'd get some more exercise by doing a few hanging leg raises:

That was fun, we finished riding A-1 road and made another pass along Wilson Road and did SMS again, and then we got dumped on again.  We kept going, and I had to pee, and I was really close to deflowering Skull Kingdom, but then I decided against it, so we rode down to the basement of Wilson Hall to use the bathroom in a huge downpour.  There were some "regular" people in the vestibule, and I figured the one guy must work there.  So I asked, and he said he works in "communications."  Uh-huh.  OK.  Most people who work in there really can't tell you what they do, so we accepted that, while he and 3 women were looking at us dripping wet with huge smiles on our faces.  I decided as long as we were wet that it would be fun to have a pic of Blane and I in the actual rain, so I asked the "communications" dude if he would oblige.  Blane and I walked outside into the downpour (cuz at this point we couldn't give a fuck), and the dude was at first going to try and take the shot through the glass door, but then he got a clue and walked outside (under an overhang so he wasn't going to get wet), and here we are not giving a fuck it's raining cats and dogs:

Of course behind us it is sunny

Then we went back in and I asked communications dude if he'd seen the magnet.  He said he was going to take these women to see it, and I said we rode right up to it and took pics, do you want to see?  I told Blane to show him the pics, and the look on his face was priceless when he said "OH NO!"  I think that was when he saw Blane behind the AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY sign but then he looked at me dangling from the fucking magnet and rolled his eyes and turned beet red!  We had a good laugh, and then Blane and I carried on, wondering if the black helicopters were going to come after us (they did NOT).

Somehow it sort of stopped raining when it was time for me to stop, and we went back to my car, I asked Blane if he needed anything else from the cooler before I took off.  I made him try Cheaterade (what I call the Lime Cucumber Gatorade), so now he's been contaminated with Crackhead cooties.  He drank his Red Bull and proceeded on, and I began the drive home.

I stopped at the McDonald's right out the East Gate of Fermilab, and got a Bacon Habanero Quarter Pounder meal, but I declined the drink, since I was drinking Endurox.  Actually I thought I'd just ordered the burger, but for $7 it did end up including fries, and I put it in the car and took off and began inhaling the fries.  They are SO GOOD after a long ride (I rode 4:13, 74 miles).  I was all like nom nom nom then I opened the burger box, and it was cool they had put like a wrap around half of it so you could hold all the fillings in there while chowing down!  First bite, and I was in HEAVEN!  I love hot, spicy food, and they really did a good job on this, plus BACON!

When it was time for me to get on I88 off of 59, I was wondering why the traffic buildup.  Well it turned out one of the passing storms must have knocked out power to the stoplights, so of course it was a mess.  But people were taking turns stopping until it was my turn to turn left onto I88, and here comes some asshole just blowing through the intersection cutting me off!  I got riled up and shouted FUCK YOU and double finger saluted him out the window, got on the interstate and drove with traffic home.

Since I'd eaten lunch on the way home, I cracked a beer immediately, and it was great.  I thought I'd head right to the grocery store, but decided I needed to chill a bit, then I went and got waxed (which didn't hurt one iota since I'd been soaking in rain all day), then I went grocery shopping, then I began eating everything in sight.

It was a good day!  I was really happy to meet a kindred spirit in Blane, and if he's still game, I do intend to join him for part of his NothingMan run, and hopefully the pizza and beer after.  That was my first ride in rain this year, and we ran into other riders who said the same.  One dude, Jason, is from Australia, and I bet he laughed when I told him my name is Sheila.  But he and his buddy were very nice (we were stopped by a freight train going back to my car).  I made good on my promise to bring one of the security guards a bag of Paydays, but still he wouldn't let us ride on the Ring Road.  Maybe another time.

Today is just a 2 hour ride, a :45 run and maybe :20 swimming, so easy day, then tomorrow is 1+ hour swim, 2 hour ride and a :20 run.  So I guess I am doing 2 NothingMan's in a row!  Seems like fun!  Off to ride before it rains again!