Ironman... the long and winding road

"Your body will argue that there is no justifiable reason to continue. Your only recourse is to call on your spirit, which fortunately functions independently of logic." Tim Noakes

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." T.S. Elliot

9.12.2006

The start of training for El Tour

This past week, was a good one for getting into the saddle again. I was able to ride Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun. I was happy with the performance on Sat, because this week the guys did not kick my butt as bad as the week before. Hopefully this means that I will be kicking their butts soon (heeheehee). I was able to keep up with them for the most part during our 50 miler.

During the week, my friend asked if I wanted to meet up with GABA because they were starting the training rides for El Tour de Tucson. For those of you who do not know, El Tour is an awesome cycling event that attracts cyclists from all over the world. They are expecting 9,000 riders this year and most of them are signed up for the 109 miles. There are shorter distances also if distance is not your forte. Although I am slow, it is mine :) !! So on Sunday, my sister and I met up with Garry. We picked the 35 miler, because I had ridden 50 miles the day before and I thought that I would need a little rest.

Our ride had some flats (not tubes), down hill and small hill climbing. The hills were ok because what goes up must come down!! We had a good time except, I felt a little bad, because there was this girl that was cross chaining and for her bike this put a big angle on the chain. She was a strong rider, but really seemed to be laboring up the hills even though she was keeping up with the front riders. As I sat back and looked at her chain, I rode up to her and told her that I did not mean to be rude and that she was a strong ride however, she should really change the gearing that she was using. She just looked at me and said "THANKS". I sat back for a moment and then rode past her. As I caught up to the guys in front of me, I told them that I think I pissed off their friend. They asked me how I had done this?? I told them about the cross chaining and then all of the sudden, they busted up laughing?? :( They then proceeded to tell me that they have already told her several times about cross chaining, and she still does it.

As my friend caught up to me, I told him the story from earlier and he had told me that he has watched people with their shifting and you can learn a lot from that. My other friend told me on a ride recently, that I had made his cycling easier?? I did not know how, so I ask. He told me that he had sat behind me on a ride and watched me shift gears. He said that he mimicked what I did and it had/has made riding a lot easier for him! Yay, that is awesome I thought. Moral, you can teach a rider new tricks, they just have to be willing to learn.

Garry, my sister and I had a great ride. We ended up going 44.55 miles and it has been the fastest ride of the year so far for me. I told Garry, that I would like to ride with him on these rides, because I am doing the 109 and I need the mileage.

Hopefully this will be the start of some good training :)!!

Hope everyone is well and have an awesome week. I will be at a wedding in Iowa!!

Swim, ride, run, move!

BIG HOLLER :)

This is a post to let you all know that Chris finished his first Ironman on September 10th!! He did Ironman Wisconsin. This was not an easy course... :) This was his first and he really trained hard and kicked some major butt. He battled rain, wind and cold weather and came out unscathed to post a killer time!!! Chris came in at a time of 14:53:27. If any of you would like to read about his journey, his blog is Becoming Ironman Congrats Chris, way to go!!

9.01.2006

Into the Groove

I think that I will finally be into the groove of training again. I have only 2 more trips and then that is it!! :) Yay. Last weekend I rode 37 miles with some guys that I know. They kicked my butt, but I hope that is not for long. We had a good ride and I was quite happy how I did considering I had not been able to ride in about 3 weeks. We took a new route that I had not taken before and I quite liked it. There were not a lot of cars and for part of it, you felt like you were on a quiet country road.

This week I went to a trade show for work, it was really exhausting. We worked 12 hours the first day, 11 the next and 10 the last one. We were not allowed to sit and had no chairs in our booth. I was really just tired, but my legs did not hurt like the rest of them!! Which was a good thing. My feet throbbed, because my shoes were old and no comfort to them :( . Although I was really tired, I made a point to get my butt to the pool and ended up swimming 500 meters on Tuesday and 700 on Wednesday.

My flight was delayed for 2+ hours, the first class bathroom was broken on arrival and they were given the choice of taking a different flight. They did not, the bathroom was fixed, but there was still a lingering smell, which ended up making me sick. As I got home, I promptly went to the bathroom and puked.

Today, I am feeling the effects of it all and I am just resting. I hope to be at the pool later on...

I do have to admit though it was a good trip and we all had fun. Just like I hope my training will become!!