Ride Like an Egyptian Ride and FOOD Report

Yesterday I did, for the first time, the Ride Like an Egyptian century out of Dekalb.  I'd wanted to do this ride for a few years, but either the weather has been shitty, or I was doing a NothingMan (which used to traditionally occur the weekend after Ironman Wisconsin).  This year, the weather was going to cooperate, even if it started out a bit cold.

I woke up at 2:30.  I am doing fine on 7 hours of sleep, thank you, but pass out like 7:30PM.  I am such a loser but it works for me as I LOVE the early morning hours to straighten up the house (such as it is with a constant triathlon tornado blowing through), load bottles and stuff into the dishwasher, write blog posts, gaze upon my psycho training plan and review my master TO DO list to see what I might be able to knock out that day.

It was chilly outside, only 51, and the hourly forecast called for temps to drop even further by 7AM, which is when I wanted to start riding.  I chose a riding outfit including tights and a long-sleeve jersey from Jordan Rapp with a Descente underlayer on top, long socks, toe warmers, helmet beanie, and my awesome Castelli wind stopper gloves. I'd fixed my bottles on Wednesday this week (usually I don't do it until Friday) because I had to go to downtown Chicago on Thursday to get my new laptop (which I still haven't finished configuring because I haven't had time but that's on the list for tomorrow) and Friday I had a repairman coming (to fix my oven YAY it's fixed!) and then a massage and of course, work, so I got the head start on the bottles.

Pre-ride I took in:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• Toasted Bay's Sourdough English Muffin with blackberry jam on top
• Hardboiled egg split in two on top of the muffin
• 3 cups of coffee with fat-free Hazelnut Coffemate (yes, it has SUGAR!)
• 300 calories of Ultrafuel, my sugary goodness that I use for any workouts over 3 hours
• 1 can of Coke during the drive to Dekalb.

So that's maybe 850 calories or so.  On the way to Dekalb, I saw the temperature dropping, to a low of 43!  I knew I'd made the right decision on clothes, even though I'd brought a pair of bike shorts just in case.   I even turned on the heat in my car!

When I arrived at the Egyptian Theater, where the ride began, it was pretty chilly when I got out of my car.  I got there just after 6:30AM, and there were already a good number of riders getting ready.  Some of them just had shorts on, and while I am pretty tough, I am tiny, and knew I'd be better off covered up today, even if it got to 70.  I'd rather be a tad warm than at all cold!

Here's the outside of the theater:

You can see from the sky that it was a beautiful morning!  In retrospect, I should have had someone take a pic of me doing the Egyptian walking pose in front, but oh well...

I figured from the outside facade of the building that it must be pretty cool looking on the inside, so I went in and snapped a few pics. First, here I am in my lucky Jordan Rapp jersey (official good luck to him in Kona!):

This is the second time I've worn this jersey--it's DA BOMB! Perfect for that starting out riding cold and may warm up a bit but you won't get hot in it. Next I went inside the theater proper and look at all the cool stuff in there:

I thought they'd let us check in like 6:45, but they wouldn't until 7:00AM, so I had 2 more funny pics to knock out:

Now why the dude taking the pic didn't get me head on I don't know!  Some people just have no clue when it comes to taking pics.  Meanwhile, everyone was marveling at how small I am and calling me skinny and I HATE that!  I am NOT SKINNY! 

I talked to a girl in line who had just started doing triathlons this year and she was so excited, and I didn't say anything about myself (after all, I was dressed like a roadie with a Castelli hat and all) until after I'd asked about all her races and times and stuff, then all I said to her was, "I've done a bunch of triathlons."

Got registered, got a map, failed to ask what the road/signage markings were for turns, and went back to car to retrieve Skull Kingdom and get started, but I had to pee again, because cold weather really makes me need to pee a lot.  I was going to use some shrubs in the parking lot, but there was a disgusting porta-potty that I used instead.

I headed out and within one mile was lost--no signs, no arrows.  And the map I thought I'd stuffed into my back pocket was not there.  I must have just dropped it on the ground.  There were a few guys around me (trying to keep up with me) and I asked if they had maps, and NO.  Fuck.  Well it took awhile to find someone riding WITH A FUCKING MAP and then we got on track.

The ride is a hub and spoke system, which is cool.  We ride out to central rest station and then there are 3 different loops from it, so theoretically, it was 11.5 miles to the rest station, and then each loop 25 miles, do them all you have 100.  Well it took me 1:07 to get to the rest station (I typically don't look at mileage because time controls when I eat/drink), and I'm thinking fuck I must have added a bunch!  Or their mileage was wrong.  It was a little of both.  I asked a volunteer for a map at the rest station and they didn't have any!  OK, poor organization, but I can't blame the volunteers.  They had all kinds of food there--PB&J sandwiches, bagels, fruit, GORP, etc., but I was on the Infinit and didn't want any of that yet.

I chose Loop #1 called Burlington first, as it was allegedly the most scenic countryside.  It was really pretty!  But it wasn't fucking 25 miles!  It was actually 30 something!  But luckily there was a water stop in the middle of nowhere because I only had a 16-oz. bottle of water in addition to my (2) 3-hour concentrated Infinit bottles.  At the water stop, I briefly chatted with a woman who was on an MTB, and asked about her shirt.  It was from the Toys for Tots motorcycle ride, that I know of.  I asked her what kind of bike she rides, and she said Kawasaki Vulcan.  *I* had a Kawasaki Vulcan way back when!  I asked the year of hers--1996--mine was an 85, I think, and mine was only a 550 whereas she has a 700.  I asked her which type of bike she likes best, and she said bicycle, because it's less nerve-wracking.  I have to agree, there.  Except that even on bicycles, people are trying to kill us!

The Burlington loop was blessedly free of traffic and had some decent rollers, but nothing I would call a major hill.  Great roads, lots of corn and soybeans, cute country homes, nice smells!  When I got back to rest station, I asked if anyone knew the exact mileage of the loop and where they were at, and people who HAD NOT BEEN LOST at the beginning like me (I must have missed just a single turn) had like 38 miles where I was up to 46 already, so yay me!

I was a bit hungry-ish at this point so I chowed a 1/2 PB&J and washed it down with Infinit.  I looked at the map on the wall to see which loop I'd do next--while I really liked #1, I didn't want too much excess mileage since I'd planned on riding again next day, maybe even another century.  Of the other 2 loops, one was labelled for "advanced riders," and I asked if that meant HILLS because I LOVE FUCKING HILLS but no, they said it was just on major roads with a lot of traffic, WTF???  So I decided on Loop #2 next.

Loop #2 rocked (Kaneville loop) because it started out going into the wind, which meant we'd have some tailwind on the way in.  I got about 1.5 miles in and passed a small girl on a tri bike riding next to a guy on a road bike.  About 30 seconds later, she rides up on me pedalling like mad to catch me, gets right next to me and says, "Are you a misfit?"  My addled brain is trying to process what she just asked me and I had no idea how to answer, so I just said, "Excuse me?"  She said there's a tri group called Misfits, and she thought I was one because of the skulls on my bike.  I smiled and said, "No, I'm not in any club," (except the one in my head LOL), then a few seconds later added, "I am a social misfit at times, though."  She could not keep up with me and dropped back.

I continued on Loop #2 and into a headwind (going south, I think), and then we hit this road called McGirr, which was fucking awesome.  The name reminded me of the ERMAHGERD meme, and I had miles of laughs saying ER MCGIRR to myself or even out loud.  I was needing water and pissing regularly, so luckily about 15 miles into this loop, just after we turned off McGirr was a library, with a porta-potty.  So that was good.  Then 10 more miles and back to rest station, and this time the loop ACTUALLY WAS 25 miles!!!  Well, 25.5.

I talked to and met some guys, 2 of them doing Ironmans, and 2 of them just riding, and we were laughing and stuff, and they got all gaga when I told them what the hell I've done, including Ultraman.  It still flabbergasts me that people think it's such a big deal, since I figure if *I* can do it, almost anyone can.  Anyway, I had to decide on my last loopage, and decided #2 again would be fun, so I asked these 2 guys (not the triathletes since I already knew they were faster than me) how fast they were riding, and they said 15-16.  I thought they were kidding or sandbagging, and told them to suck my wheel so we could ride together.  Well that lasted all of 2 miles and then I was gone. Once again, I had total fun on ER MCGIRR Road, and this time when I turned off, I needed water.  I asked a maintenance dude outside the library, and he said it was open and there were water fountains in there.  Which there were!  And they were ice cold!  I used the "Girls" bathroom, too!

I was happy to be heading back, and maybe 5 miles later who do I run into but the 2 dudes who weren't as fast as me, and I'm WTF how can this be?  They said they were right on with the turns and all, so I guess there was some turn I missed which caused me to get an extra 3 miles on this loop!  Once again, YAY ME!  I passed them again, got back to rest station and chatted again with the triathlete dudes (one doing IMAZ and other doing IMFL), we had some more yucks, then I had to get out of there.

The way back to Dekalb consists primarily of FUCKING KESLINGER ROAD which was the most hilly road of the ride PLUS A HEADWIND!!!  Fuck.  Oh well, gotta get 'er done.  I forgot to mention I'd been riding all day with a fucked up right foot, care of some shoe/insole/metatarsal pad experiments I'd done on Friday with my running shoes.  It cause my anterior tibialis and peroneals to go all FUCK YOU on me causing the front of my ankle to hurt like a mofo.  But I kept thinking as long as I didn't feel like I was making it worse by biking, I was OK.  It did hurt to unclip, but oh well.  That is why I wasn't riding like a bat out of hell.

FINALLY we got off the road from hell and were close to Dekalb.  A volunteer had said it was 14 miles back, which meant I'd end with 111 miles, which was cool, but of course the voices in my head are saying RIDE MORE SO YOU GET TO 112 YOU DUMBASS, but I was resisting them.  Finally I saw a sign WELCOME TO DEKALB, and I said DE-FUCKING-KALB I was ready to be done!

Well I roll into town and I'm already over 111 miles, I'm like, OK NOW I have to get to 112, and I was maybe 2 blocks from the theater, and I yell to some dude who'd just finished I'M AT 111.75 DO I RIDE AROUND TO GET 112???  And he knew the correct answer, which was YES!!!  However, I rolled past the theater into the parking lot, got to my car and was like HOLY FUCKING HELL LOOK AT THIS!

I mean, what are the odds that I added just enough lostness and extra miles on Loop #2 to get to this?  It made me smile hugely!  I wiped down my face and Skull Kingdom and put her into the car and grabbed my Endurox.

Here's what I had during the ride:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• 6 hours of 1/2 Money Shot and 1/2 Money Shot 25% Less Caffeine custom Infinit mix.  245 calories per hour
• 1/2 of PB&J on white bread sandwich
• 1 fun-size Payday
• At least 6 16-oz bottles of water, probably more like 10.

I went back into the Egyptian Theater, and was giggling like a little kid I was so happy to be done, and they had a big spread of food, so first I headed there, and then sat down to chat with the volunteers and gave them this ride feedback:

• Have beer when we are done.  DUH.
• Have a whole pile of extra maps at the rest station since we are all clumsy and drop them like they're hot.
• McGirr Road is FUCKING AWESOME!

The 2 dudes who'd tried to ride with me came in a few minutes later and the 2 triathlete dudes went for a short run and came back to eat and we all chatted and exchanged names (if they are brave enough to read this blog and/or my Facebook page).  Here's what I ate immediately post-ride:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• 1/2 egg salad sandwich on white bread
• 1/2 tuna salad sandwich on white bread
• 2.5 cups of beef/vegetable soup (YUM!)
• single serving of Lay's potato chips
• 1.5 scoops Endurox R4 mixed w/water
• about 5 1" cubes of cheese and 4 crackers

I had to get home to shower and stuff and meet my brother Mike for dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant.  But it was already 3:30PM and we were to meet at 5, so I called him and said 5:30, knowing full well I'd be ready for another meal in 2 hours!!!

I drove home rather fast, using the cruise control because my right ankle and glute were hurting like mofos.  Got home, immediately cracked a beer, OMG it was the BEST BEER EVER!  Unpacked the car, showered up (BEST SHOWER EVER!), dumped pics out of camera and onto Facebook while icing my right glute and ankle.  When I looked at my ankle, I actually had this 1" red lump on it, whoops!  But it went down pretty quick with the ice.

Then I met my brother Mike for sushi and me talking 200MPH because I was hopped up on caffeine and having had such a great ride and I've got 11 weeks until IMCOZ and I am so happy and feel great!  Here's the rest of the food I had yesterday:
FOOD ALERT!!!!

• 1 Harp Lager
• 1 Giant Sapporo with dinner
• 1 Raspberry beer just before bed and when I woke up 2 hours after my first sleep
• 2 brownies that I brought home from the ride.  I should have brought more
• At least 23 pieces of assorted sushi rolls and nigiri, possibly 30
• 2 small fortune cookies
• 1 bowl of Miso soup
• 2 small pieces of Hershey's dark chocolate

And guess what?  I woke up this morning with A HOLE IN MY STOMACH!!!  So had "real" breakfast today, 2 eggs fried in butter, English muffin slathered with butter, next I am going to have like 8 fresh figs and a banana.  FOOD CHANNEL!!!

I didn't add up my calories from yesterday, but I probably needed at least 5,000, so I will just keep working on them today ;)

Oh by the way, I averaged 18mph yesterday, not bad for an old lady with a bum ankle!!!  Today I'm signed up for another ride, but it's going to rain all day, so fuck that, I'm going to have fun with my girl, Lori, on the trainer (and she might run on the treadmill), for about 3 hours, and then we are going to EAT FOOD!!!

Two more big weeks of training and then a rest week.  YAY!!!  My ankle should be fine by Tuesday, which is when I do my next scheduled run.  Meanwhile...MORE BIKING!

Crazy Like a Zeba! (IMWI Race Day Report)

I say "zeba" due to my knowledge of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis.  My friend, Susan, sent me a book of his comics a few years ago, and many of them feature one or more crocodiles trying to outsmart zebras.  Take a look:

I am now only ELEVEN weeks out from IMCOZ, which means I am in BEAST MODE. Even though I am pretty organized, it is becoming difficult to do things besides work, train, eat, sleep and the basics of a life.  But I'm trying.

Last Sunday was Ironman Wisconsin.  I ran my 2:10 on the course while my peeps were biking.  As I came back into Madison near the finish line, the first pro was heading out on the run!  I was so shocked, as the race clock was only at 5:30!  WTF!!!  And then Tom Ziebart admonished me to get the fuck off the course (my words, not his).

I'd gotten a text from Dark Knight's wife about when she expected him out on the run.  I am sure I misinterpreted it, but at any rate, I did not have much time to get back to the hotel, shower, stuff my face with as much food as I could, do a costume change, and head back out onto the course to be prepared to intercept DK.  I had saved like 3 pieces of bacon and 2 mini pastries from breakfast, and when I got to my room, I literally stuffed them into my mouth, got a bottle of Endurox R4 out of the fridge and began drinking that.  Then I stripped off my running clothes, which were soaked from the humidity, and tried to finish chewing the food, and I started packing my Kona 2004 sling bag with what I would need out on the course--camera, snacks, phone, etc.

I donned my outfit that I'd been excited to get on for WEEKS!

The guy working the hotel front desk was super smiley when taking my pic, and he thought it was cool what I was about to do.  I got out there just beyond the first turn off State Street and waited.  Meanwhile, I was getting some interesting looks from bystanders, and when some of the fast people were coming through and they saw me, many of them had a huge smile on their face.  Some spectators would ask me to take my pic, and others just did it in stealth mode.

I saw DK come by and he didn't even notice me!  I began yelling at him and running madly after him!  He was running faster than he should have, so it was hard for me to keep up, especially since I'd already run 13.5 miles (I know he was doing an Ironman, STFU).  But I caught him and we talked about pace and he had a huge smile on his face when he saw me.  I mean, why not?  He didn't mention whether he'd intercepted the Batman action figure that I had slipped into his T2 bag.  So I just tried to keep up, but was mainly behind him because I didn't want to cause race interference or a DQ, and boy did I get some cheering going!  I went out to Mile 2 and then left DK to his race and headed back downtown.

I hung out and waited for people to come through, all of course while everyone was checking me out.  I even went up to my former coach, Rich Strauss, in full dress mode, and he didn't even bat an eye when he turned around and saw me.  Sigh.  I guess he just expects this behavior from me!

I intercepted Lori to check on her and she didn't want/need me to run with her, and next I found AJ, and asked him if he'd like me to run with him a bit, he was cool with it, so I did, and once again, the college students were digging on the Bat Girl.  I was having a blast doing this and keeping AJ on pace (I don't know if I was running too fast for him or not but he had a good race), and again went out to near Mile 2 and back.  So I was up to maybe 21 miles of running already.

I did a few more here and there, in between jogging back to the hotel where they would hand me another giant cookie to fuel my madness!  It was all good!  Then I settled in on hanging out with a most excellent bunch of professional spectators like myself who were right outside my hotel, which is right on the run course.  We were being totally silly, and there were 2 girls with amazing bodies that were giving the racers something nice to look at, along with one girl's husband, who was in a Speedo holding up funny signs.

That's as far as I want to go with the report, since I would let the racers themselves tell their own stories.  Suffice it to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I was pretty damn tired by the end of the night!

This week began my binge running week, and since I kind of overdid it at IMWI, I took a rest day on Monday.  Well, fuck, I ran a marathon, so on Tuesday guess what?  Sore legs.  Oh well, the show must go on!  And to help me run, it was over 90 out, and I thought it was because of the heat that I couldn't manage faster than 9:45 miles, but hey, it was because of Sunday!  Wednesday was the same thing, only it wasn't quite as hot ("only" 86), but I knew I was just tired.  I have been hitting it hard, so yesterday instead of running, I used the Cybex elliptical, which claimed I was burning 700 calories/hour, which may be correct, because I was going to town on it!  This was a good thing for me to do because I'm on the edge of running injury, and I can stave it off now by doing stuff like this.

This morning I'm running 2 hours, and I think it will go well.  If anything hurts, I will back off and head back to the Y for elliptical.

This weekend I decided just for shits and grins to do 2 century rides--Ride Like an Egyptian on Saturday because I want the T-shirt, and Tri-Smart 101 on Sunday because I get a hoodie.  I am such a sucker for swag!  I hope the weather cooperates, which is why I will for sure get at least one century in!

Meanwhile, the training is super intense right now and I have 2 more BIG HUGE FUCKING WEEKS and then I get a rest week (17 hours, LOL!!!) that is mainly a reduction in run volume.  I can't wait for it!

I will try and blog at least once a week, but if I don't, GO BIG OR GO FUCKING HOME!!!

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!

Fashion Update

I've been monitoring how I feel for months now, to understand if whether how I feel is tied to the synthetic thyroid hormone (I will just abbreviate it as STH from here on out), the high amount of training I'm doing or what have you.  I noticed when I began sleeping less, but I have years of data on how much I sleep alongside how much training I'm doing, and I decided that my doctor prescribed too much STH.

2 days ago, I left a message at my Dr. that I think they stepped me up too high, and could we change the amount because I have been feeling a bit edgy, sleeping less, and occasionally my heart gets jumpy (but not during exercise).  I had requested that my TSH level be medicated to 1-2, but it came back at .676 last test, which is technically not hyperthyroid, but I can tell that for me, I'm just a little bit too wired.  Anyone who follows me on Facebook no doubt has seen the dramatic change of me going from background or completely absent to highly active.  My friend Susan has been the victim of me talking close to the speed of light, and while I get close to that warp speed while in heavy training normally, this has become a bit much.

I didn't hear from my Dr. yesterday so I called and left another message.  This time, I was a little agitated when I left it, stating that while this is not a medical emergency and I do not need to go to the emergency room, nonetheless I need this to be fixed right away.  The pills I was taking are 75mcg, and my prior dosage was 50mcg, so trying to cut the 75mcg's to make something halfway between just wasn't going to cut it.  LOL I made a pun there, did you catch it?

So I did get a callback yesterday mid-morning, and I asked why Dr. had stepped me up such a big increase from 50mcg to 75mcg?  Previously, I'd started at 25mcg, then 37.5 mcg, then 50mcg, and then 75mcg.  So you see the other jumps were gradual.  Do you know what the fucking nurse said?  "We moved you to 75mcg because there are no pills made between 50 and 75."  DA FUCK.  Lucky for her, I was not inclined to jump down her throat (I actually commended myself for this).  I had to initially make a case for getting my TSH down to 1-2, and then they pull this shit on me and turn me nearly dangerously hyperthyroid? Cool.  Well it was fun while it lasted!  Before any of you become outraged at my attitude toward the nurse, know that I know she didn't do it, and I truly didn't react to her.  I thanked her profusely for calling me and answering a bunch of questions I had, and I am guessing the entire time she was like FUCK THIS WOMAN NEEDS TO CHILL GOOD THING SHE ASKED FOR LESS STH!

I now have a bottle of 25mcg pills, and I am to take 2.5 (which is 62.5mcg) per day.  They told me to buy a pill cutter, but assholes, these are tiny pills and besides they are scored, so I can just break them in half for the .5 piece.  I bought the pill cutter anyway, in case I need it down the road for something else, since I'm an old lady and who knows what the hell else will be wrong with me?

You may be able to tell from my writing that this little science experiment had gone a tad too far!  Also I noticed that all I want to listen to is NIN, but that usually occurs about this time in an Ironman training cycle, so it's tough to say whether that's from the training or the drugs.

At any rate, I need to be able to sleep more than 5 hours at a time.  I truly don't believe the STH has had any impact on my workouts...it has just accelerated my leaning out, MAYBE.  I say this because I noticed some fat coming off in early July which coincided with me going over 18 hours of training per week, and at that level, well, it just is impossible for me to NOT lose fat.

That is what makes this science experiment difficult to analyze objectively--the fact that some changes that normally occur with me at certain training levels are coinciding with the increased STH dosage.  Certainly my Dr. would have no way of knowing all the variables that are in play here in as much detail as I do.  So once again, I am glad that I keep track of not only my training hours, but how much I am sleeping, because without that, I wouldn't have been able to look back historically to see whether what I've been experiencing is normal or not.

Jesus fucking Christ am I typing fast!  I'm a pretty fast typist anyway (north of 100wpm), but it's like I can't get the words out of my head and into the machine fast enough.

It shouldn't take much more than a week for my body to settle with the new dosage of STH, and thank God because I know I need more sleep. 

On the plus side, I am just about at my fighting weight/body comp.  Thing is, I am not dropping weight, which means my fat/muscle ratio is shifting.  I can see it in my face, my abs and my legs.  Cool thing is that I am about 2 lbs. heavier than what I used to consider my fighting weight, and I don't think it's from more fat, hey!  So I guess I really DID manage to pack on some more muscle last year while I was allegedly noodling around doing nothing.  But I do plan on getting tested, that plus my BMR so I can see just how my body is performing, but I will wait for at least 3 weeks until the new STH level has taken effect.  I have a master "to do" list, and one of the items is QUIT BEING FAT.  I struck it out just now!

Here's a recent picture of me

I've been looking at older pics to see how I compare to other times when I've been pretty lean, and I think I'm there.  My legs are a bit fuller now, but that's OK.  Everything else it right in line with where it should be.  Another way I can tell is that when I'm running, men are nearly crashing their cars to get a look at the Crackhead.  I feel confident in rolling my run shorts down now, there's nothing disgusting there to see on my abs anymore.

Speaking of running, yesterday I did a tempo run and was about 1.1 miles from home when I saw this man on a bike (upright touring style) that I see frequently on my usual running route. We waved at one another (I started waving at him this spring, and actually I've been waving at any runner or cyclist pretty much all the time, which is fun because it makes me smile, and I hope that my smile is infectious), then he did a U-turn and I knew he wanted to meet me.  Turns out he's 57 and was a serious runner in college.  The first thing he said to me is that he'd always wanted to tell me how great my running form is!  I told him that was the best thing I'd heard in awhile.  Lots of people who see me running think that all I do is run, so his first question was how much do I run per day?  And well, then I had to tell him about the other stuff I do and I could see his brain working overtime to process what I was telling him. I rattled off what I did last week (35 miles running, 180 miles biking and about 10,000 yards swimming) and he was a bit incredulous, which is fine by me!  I told him that I'd only been doing endurance since the age of 42, he asked me my current age was a bit taken aback.  He also commented on my abs, and yes, I know this is why people stare--there aren't many women PERIOD who have definition.  Mostly I was just happy to finally meet this guy (his name is JR, which I will remember from the old TV series Dallas--now I guess this is another strange coincidence wow life is really throwing them at me lately), and so now when we pass one another we can shout our names out!  The poor guy probably thought I was a bit wigged out, because like I've said, my speed of talking has gone supersonic lately, and I really hope it chills out in another week.

So, to summarize, the way I know I'm at race weight/body comp is:

1. Men nearly crash their cars trying to gape at me when I'm running.
2. I want to listen to NIN and nothing but NIN.
3. I feel confident rolling my running shorts down (zero muffin top!).
4. I feel light as a feather running up hills.  Yes, this is happening now, too!
5. I have no problem taking and posting nearly naked pics of myself (the above is the fault of one Jeff H. who posted a pic of a little girl doing pushups next to her row of Barbie dolls, and of course I had to replicate it).  But I will avoid this mostly--everyone has seen enough pics of me nearly naked!

I am still pinching myself (despite the over medication) at how wonderful I feel.  Knowing that I really HAD trained a fair amount last year and seeing that I am able to pick up speed NOW is such a great feeling, and looking forward to being up at Ironman Wisconsin to cheer and then it will be only 3 months until Ironman Cozumel!

Life is good, but should be even better in another week or so!

Super Fun Week and Bike Psychos 200k Ride Report

I can't believe all the great stuff that I did and that happened to me this week.

• I selected and ordered a new laptop for work.  Another DELL.  They make good machines.  This one comes with a webcam, and I know what you are thinking---OH NO CRACKHEAD HAS A FUCKING WEBCAM!!!  The NSA and Quebec are going wild as we speak, see below.
• Quebec disallowed a friend from accessing my blog.  He was up there getting ready for his Ironman Mont-Tremblant, tried to read my blog from his hotel and got the following message: Reason: Weighted phrase limit exceeded.
  Categories: Pornography, Pornography (Malay), Pornography (German), Proxies. I had my friend, Susan, check some other areas of Canada for me, and B.C. was able to access, and also in The Netherlands.  Although I told her it would make sense for The Netherlands to not have any filter since they are OK with whores and pot.
• I ate about 8 Italian Beef sandwiches for dinners from Monday through Friday, with sweet and hot peppers.  You might think that is not good training fuel, but apparently it worked out quite well.  However, on Saturday, I gifted my brother, Mike, with the remainder, as I knew it was time to get back to a whole lot more carbs!
• I got new tires put on my car!  The POS feels a whole lot nicer to drive now!  I am blessed to have had a great, reasonable mechanic for years--Beard Auto in Downers Grove--who told me I needed the new tires.  Sears put them on and tried to claim I hadn't paid for disposal when I got there, so I paid $10, then when I got home I checked the invoice and I HAD paid, called Sears, and they fixed it.
• I had my annual eye exam.  Last year, I went while I was in the dregs of depression.  My eye doctor is a really fast triathlete, so he usually listens to me go off about all my races and crazy training.  Last year, I was very subdued.  This time, he told me I'm a completely different person!  And I know that he meant it in a good way.  My eyes had improved over the last year, too!  Last year I had these huge, annoying floaters in my left eye.  They are still there, but nearly gone now.  Dr. Kampschroeder told me my eyes are in excellent health!  When my exam was finished, I was waiting to have my bill made up when these frames just screamed at me TRY ME ON!  I wasn't planning on buying new glasses (my prescription hasn't changed and I have 2 perfectly good pairs), but I tried them on, they are gorgeous, and decided why not.  When I got home, I realized that I had set aside plenty of money in my FSA to cover them (my vision plan will cover either contact lenses OR glasses in a year, so I'll use the benefit to pay for the glasses, which are more expensive geez the frames are like $250), which made me feel good about an impulse purchase.  But they are beautiful, and I can't wait to get them.  Hint: the front of the frame is black, and the sides and inside of the front are HOT PINK!!!!!
• I had another blood draw to test my thyroid function and it is finally in working order!  I feel FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC and CRACTACULAR!
• I ran into a friend at the grocery store and caught her up on things, and she remarked that many times last year when she would see me she could tell I was on the verge of tears, I felt that bad. She could see how great I feel again (my normal self), and I told her, and this is the truth, that lately I've been on the verge of tears at least once a day because I feel so good and am so grateful for everything in my life.
• I got a massage on Friday evening from my most excellent masseusse, Mike.
• I made my coachee, Brad, an official NothingMan finisher shirt (black with white NOTHING letters on the front, and nothing on the back), and I made us matching shirts for IMCOZ that I am not going to show you until we are close to race day or I can't stand the suspense any longer.  I was so excited waiting for Brad to get the package on Friday, because I knew it would get him pumped for the weekend's training festival.  I wore my own NothingMan shirt on Saturday and Sunday.  When I was coming out of the Y on Saturday, a man saw me in it and said, "Cool shirt."  I smiled broadly and spun around and said, "LOOK IT SAYS NOTHING ON THE BACK, TOO!"  We both laughed hysterically at that. I think Brad and I are going to flip some people out at IMCOZ by going to packet pickup with our homemade shirts in our hands, slip them into our bags, and then pull them out as if they came with the swag, and go "LOOK AT THESE!"  Trust me, they are awesome and one of a kind!  Brad actually thought I had the shirts custom silk screened, but I ironed on the letters (and numbers for IMCOZ) myself.
• On Saturday, I did (so did Brad) an inside out mini-NothingMan sprint.  1 hour really hard bike ride (I accidentally deleted the Power tap file, but know that I was hitting some really good wattages), then a :40 brick run which didn't even suck, and finally I swam 1,000 yards really easy.  
• Saturday afternoon I picked up my new MTB, christened Death Machine.  He's (yes, this is my first male bike) a beauty, has 700cm wheels with Presta valves (no more Schrader, fine by me), the frame has room for TWO bottle cages (meaning I can ride many miles without stopping to refuel), is fairly lightweight and just fucking cool looking. While at The Bike Shop, I had them adjust the saddle height and fore/aft, and then they sent me off for a test ride.  I was like how the hell do I shift this thing, because I've never had the thumb shifters.  I must have looked pretty funny and clumsy while riding and trying to figure it out, but I did!  When I got back to the shop, I asked my most excellent mechanic (and Bike Stylist, as I now call him, since he finds cool parts that will look good on my bikes) if he would wrap the hand grips because they were a little smaller than I liked.  And I showed him how big I wanted them to be with my hands.  Well, let's just say that Drew and the other 2 mechanics had a good laugh--I didn't realize right away what it looked like I was doing with my hands, but then I did and I turned beet red!  Drew asked what color, and of course, RED would be the only logical choice, so Death Machine is all ready to go.  I also got a matte black Giro helmet, whose model name is, oddly enough, "Savant." Huh.  Kinda fits me, don't you think?

Death Machine in front of my POS car (but it runs fine!)

Got the grips wrapped because they were too small for me

• Saturday night, I had dinner with my brother, Mike.  We ate a bunch of sushi and I had 1 huge and 1 small Sapporo with dinner, and I also had a miso soup.  I was not wearing any Ironman shit.  A man, shaved head, looked like late 40's or early 50's, swaggers into the restaurant wearing an M-dot shirt.  After him comes his out of shape and not too attractive wife.  Then another guy, not very buff, wearing an IM shirt and his fat, unattractive wife.  I was wearing a shirt that says SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.  Well the 2 men were eyeballing me the entire time to try and figure out what my thing was.  Mike and I finished dinner before their table, and on the way out, I flashed the M-dot on my bag (it's from Kona).  Set them straight, huh?
• Gave my old MTB, Clipless Fuck, to my niece, Michelle (she can rename it since she probably won't use clipless pedals).  She seems excited to have a pretty nice MTB, and I look forward to the day when I can go riding with her!
• Began getting excited about going up to Ironman Wisconsin in 3 weeks to be a professional spectator and dispense immense amounts of HTFU to both racers I know and completely random strangers!
• Slept 8 hours last night.  This is the frist time I've slept that long in about 3 weeks.  I've figured it's because I've been so excited at feeling good again, and also that maybe I just needed to really tire myself out in order to sleep well.  Mission accomplished!
• Yesterday I rode 129 miles at the Bike Psychos 200k Invitational Ride. The remainder of this post will be about that.  My friend from Miami, Peter, was texting me to see if we could get together afterwards since he was in town for his Mom's birthday (she's 95, I believe), and I called him and had to say no, I would be pretty tired, and I was.
• I tracked a few people I know at Ironman Mont-Tremblant when I got home from riding and was perturbed that ironman.com displayed the athlete tracking data in kilometers.  I was joking, though, when I posed about it on Facebook, although a few people became outraged and hurriedly told me how to convert kms to miles, which I know how to do, except my training spreadsheet does it for me automatically and I'm not used to doing it "by hand."

OK, so for that ride report...I woke up so excited to ride far, and did my normal routine:

• Cup of coffee. Gather up clothes and shit to go with me.
• Apply chamois cream to my bike shorts and hang over bathtub.
• Wait 1/2 hour to take the thyroid pill.
• Eat regular breakfast, catch up on Facebook.
• Chug down Ultrafuel, strip and put on sunscreen.
• Drink 2 more big glasses of water.
• Load the cooler with my bottles for during and after.
• Pump my tires.
• Put my contact lenses in and put on my bike clothes. I wore black tri shorts, a black tank, my usual low cut socks, my silver Sidi's and the white Catlike helmet.  I had really wanted to wear my Bell aero helmet, but thought I'd be too much of a dork if I did.  Well, I'm a dork anyway, but it's tough to talk to people with it on.
• Grab a Coke from the fridge for the drive over.
• Load the car.
• Drive to Coal City, IL, about a :40 drive

On the way there, there was a bunch of fog, and the temperature was high 50's.  I knew I'd be cold to start, but depending on whether the fog dissipated by starting time (6:30 was the plan), I might or might not wear arm warmers.  The plan was to meet a friend, AJ, and ride with him, as he was doing the century. 


I got to the start at like 6:10, so I could sign in and wait for AJ.  I was freezing cold (someone took a pic of me, but it's not yet posted anywhere).  We got these rad neon technical shirts, that I will be able to use on cool fall runs.  Many times I don't want a t-shirt because I have so many, but some are now worn out and I do enjoy keeping the ones from 100+ mile rides now.  Lots of people were lusting after Skull Kingdom, and why not?  I think it's the most unique, beautiful bike I've ever seen.  How can you go wrong with skulls on a bike?

AJ showed up around 6:30 and still had to register.  He was smart, and had worn a long sleeve shirt that he intended to toss at one of the rest stops.  We immediately started babbling on about this and that (he's doing IMWI I can't wait to cheer him on!), as it had been a few years since we'd spent any time together, and at best, it would be passing remarks during or after workouts.


I decided I needed to go with the arm warmers, and I was actually shivering waiting for AJ to be ready to roll.  We headed out, and I don't think there was a moment of silence for 53 miles!  We rode side by side most of the time, and we passed loads of people.  We were just laughing our asses off, sharing stories about our wild youths (his was more wild than mine until my 20's, but I still refrain from divulging all of that because it was let's just say EPIC), being OK with packs of roadies passing us, and generally having a great time.  I quizzed AJ about his training and race preparation, and I hope he shares his race plan with me because I want him to have a great IMWI, which will be his 2nd IM.

Early in the ride (I think it was about :40 in), we were at about a point where it would have been nice to have a rest stop because I always have to piss right away especially when it's cool and foggy, and AJ saw what he thought was a rest stop, so I pull in behind him and it turns out it was a bunch of tables set up (with place settings) for what I thought was going to be a wedding reception!  We had a huge laugh over this, because, well, bike ride rest stations don't usually have tables and chairs and tablecloths!  Later on there was another area that we thought was a rest station that turned out to be a campground!  We had another huge laugh over that.

We were pedaling and talking and laughing the entire time.  I don't think there was a minute we weren't both smiling or thinking of the next story to tell one another.  At one point, AJ says he has to tell me this story that is going to make me laugh, so he starts in on once when his wife was at the Y on a treadmill, this 'woman' came up to her and started grilling her about the Ironman hat that she was wearing.  All of a sudden, I remembered the incident, and "that woman" was ME.  I thought I had written a blog post about it, but I can't find it if I did.  AJ described to me the encounter from his wife's perspective, which was that I was basically a stark raving lunatic who chastised her for wearing an Ironman hat when she hadn't done an Ironman race.  Turns out the hat was AJ's, and HE never wore it (until he'd done an Ironman), but he hadn't told his wife "the rules."  At that time, someone used to call me "Crazy Sheila" all the time, because I was the only swimmer who did triathlons way back when.  Well "someone" has now qualified for Kona a few times, is a good coach and is living the dream.  Who's crazy now?

It was funny to me that I could remember just how riled up I felt at the time, and how now I wouldn't say anything if I saw someone who looked "unqualified" wearing Ironman stuff.  Whatever.  You do an Ironman, you wear the shit.  You haven't done one, it inspires you, wear the shit.  You are a lazy, fat slob, wear the shit.  It's no different than NFL gear or stuff from any pro sports team. I rather like the idea that even when I'm not wearing the shit (and I don't wear it all the time), I get people coming up to me and telling me I look like I do Ironman.   No shit, Batman!

Back to the ride...we got to the turn around for the 100-miler, and at that point, the 200k ride does a separate loop from there, so unless AJ went with me, we were done riding together.  He was making some calls, and I was talking to some people about my dilemma. I considered lying to AJ and telling him that the 100-mile route was really only 87, so he should go with me, but I decided to go with the truth.  I tried valiantly to convince AJ to keep going, but he had other commitments for the day, and so we said goodbye, and I kept on riding.  But I had SO much fun riding with AJ.  It was almost exhausting trying to keep up with his stories (and comedy, which apparently runs in his family).

Also at that same stop a guy who I ran into last week on a ride came and said hi to me and I forgot who he was and he said he'd tried to keep up with me last week but it only lasted about 3 minutes ;) There was also a group of 3 roadies who remembered me from years past, and they always were just a few minutes ahead of me.  I think they were secretly worried I'd catch them.

On the loop that was only for the 200k, I was not far behind a guy on a road bike, so I figured I'd just follow him.  When we got to the town of Tonica, I remembered I'd been lost there a few times, but was confident since I was following someone that I was OK.  Note to self, NEVER assume who you are following knows where they are going or that they are even DOING the ride you are on (I had made this same mistake a week ago trying to chase down some roadies and successfully intercepting but then discovering I was nearly lost). He stops all of a sudden, and I yell, "ARE WE LOST?"  And he says we missed a turn.  I really didn't care, since I knew it couldn't have been that far back.  But the guy didn't wait for me or anything, so I was on my own finding my way to the turn.  I stopped at a kid's baseball game and asked some locals where E 550 is and they said, "We don't know the road numbers."  I laughed and rode on, figuring I'd only ridden 1 mile out of the way but it turns out it was more like 2.5.  Whatever.  I found the turn and remembered the road, which was awesome.

I was all by my lonesome for the rest of that loop, and wondered just how many people were even doing the 200k, since you'd need to have started early.  I circled back to the same rest station where I'd left AJ, stopped briefly, and then started back with mostly 100-mile riders. I don't remember when I started counting how many people I was passing, but it must have been awhile.  There were 2 more rest stations, and I really looked forward to the next one, as it was getting warmer out and the wind was picking up and we were riding right into the wind.

I forgot that the way back takes a different route than the way out.  We ride along the Illinois River, and it's just beautiful to see it, and there are tons of motorcycles out riding in that area.  Many of the motorcyclists would wave at me once they could see the skulls on my bike!  

There are lots of ups and downs, too, as we pass through valleys of the river and its tributaries.  One really cool part is Ottawa Canyon which goes through a part of Starved Rock State Park.  The road is all windy and twisty and up and down and lots of WOO HOO downhill and just really awesome!  I bombed through there and passed several people who I think were a bit shocked when I flew by.   We get back along the river and then there's this tall hill on the right and I'm like, "I hope they don't make us go up that," but they DID, and it wasn't really that bad.

When I got to the second to last aid station, I went over to a table where they had a big map of the ride and asked one of the volunteers, "WHERE AM I?"  It made me laugh to ask the question, since I just follow the road markings and go where they tell me having absolutely no clue where the hell I am. 

I ran into a guy, Fred, that I've know for years (and ridden with a few times).  He and his 2 sons and their wives are ALL doing Ironman Wisconsin!  They should get McDonald's to sponsor them (that's their last name)!  I thought Fred would ride with me, but he left before I did, but then I caught him and we stayed together a bit, but then he got well ahead of me or so I thought.  Turns out I was only ever may 30 seconds behind him, and we rolled into the last rest station nearly together.  At that one (and all the other ones) there would be at least a handful of people (mainly guys) staring at my bike.  Sometimes I say nothing, and sometimes I say, "Cool bike, huh?"

Well it was time to get back and be done, and I'm riding and riding, and thought we were close, and I could just tell I thought I'd already done 200k, because I've ridden that far on numerous occasions.  I'd had the Power Tap on elapsed time only because then it tells me when I need to take in nutrition, and I hadn't looked at actual mileage.  Well I did, and I was at 126 with some miles to go!  I laughed because I was dead on feeling like 200k.  I passed a few more people with only 1 mile to go, and one group of guys I said, "Sorry, but I have to pass you now even though we are almost done."  I needed to be done.

There were 2 girls riding together that I was about to pass, and I noticed one of them had a really poor bike fit, so as I passed I yelled, "YOUR SADDLE IS WAY TOO HIGH," and she actually yelled back, "THANK YOU," and I thought maybe she then added to herself COMMA BITCH, but whatever, her saddle was way too high.  I didn't think anything of it and rode on.

I got to the turn into the parking lot of the Coal City High School at 128.75 miles, so you KNOW what I had to do...noodle around in the parking lot to hit 129 miles!  I said goodbye to Fred and said I'd see him (and his famous family of McDonalds) at Ironman Wisconsin.

I then see 2 women and one of them looks like the woman I'd yelled at, and I asked, and she said yes, we talked, turns out she (Caroline) lives near me and is doing Ironman Cozumel (and her friend, Monica and her husband are going to cheer)!  So hopefully we will get to do some training together, since Caroline is an ultrarunner turned triathlete, and I suck at running so maybe I can get some HTFU from her.

At the end they had an ice cream truck giving us free either ice cream sandwiches or cones.  I got a sandwich and went into the school to shower and change.  I ate only 1/2 the sandwich and laid it on top of some extra toilet paper in the locker room while I showered, then I panicked while I was showering in case someone took it!  But nobody did, and another woman and I were babbling and laughing and thankful for the post-ride shower.

I went back to my car to start the drive home.  I immediately ate a Twinkie I'd brought along, and it was actually quite good after being heated up in the car, except the creme filling was liquid.  Then I grabbed the can of Pringles that was on the passenger side floor and the top popped off and a bunch fell out on the floor, but I didn't care, so I munched those on the way home and drank Endurox R4.  I called my friend, Peter, from Miami, to tell him that no, I didn't want to drink champagne tonight, and we decided to skip a bonus meeting since I'd be too tired and he wasn't having dinner with his folks until 7:30, at which time I'd be nearly pass out.

I got home, unpacked the car, inhaled 4 pieces of sushi left over from Saturday and cracked a beer, put stuff away, put a Lean Cuisine in the microwave, got on the computer to start tracking some Ironman Mont-Tremblant people, ate the Lean Cuisine, waited maybe 15 minutes for more hunger to arrive, decided on a big, fat avocado stuffed with tuna, one more beer, more water, and that was all I could manage before passing out at 8PM.

What a week, huh?