June 14, 2015
I signed up for Tour De Cure for a training ride planning to do 65 miles. The good news is I did it.
It began on a very rainy Sunday morning. I had packed dry clothes for after, had a rain coat and a poncho and long pants as well as a jacket because it was also cool. The rain began pouring down as I got at the parking lot and it did not appear to abate at all. For an hour it just came down in buckets. I had planned to ride starting at 7:30 and figured I'd be alone most of the day since I had not tried to organized meeting up with anyone.
I got to the registration and had to pay the balance since I had also not done any fundraising beyond about $50. I was okay with that. I didn't want to ask my AIDS supporters for their help with this race due to fears about donor fatigue. My AFC fundraising would start after this ride.
Pretty soggy already, I walked away from registration and heard my name called. There stood Amanda Moswin, Art Moswin, and Amy Flowers under a tent. I joined them and decided I'd start the ride with them, knowing that Amanda was a pretty fast young rider with whom I would probably not keep up. For the first five miles we followed Art and I kept up pretty well. I had put a bunch of stuff in my back pack like my rain coat and long pants thinking I'd likely need a warm up along the way.
However, the warm up was not required. In fact that backpack became heavier the longer I rode and I really regretted carrying it at all. In addition, I had a new water bottle system in between my aero bars and that thing would rattle over every bump and eventually popped off. Fortunately it was when Amanda had to stop so I got the chance to reattach it.
After that stop, Amy and Amanda decided Art and I were too slow so they took off. We lost them pretty rapidly but at the next rest stop ran into them. That's where Chris found us after Amanda and Amy had taken off again and we kept up with him for a short while but he's also a stronger bicyclist and eventually he left us behind. It began to warm up and turned into a nice day, but I confess I did not focus on that. I was under this dang heavy back pack and the wind had kicked up so I was focusing on just keeping moving for much of the ride.
Everyone had talked about how great the food was along the ride. Apparently the best food was on the last leg between 65 and 100 which I did not do. Much of the food was also not gluten free so I couldn't eat a lot. I ate a hamburger with no bun and some other stuff but don't think I got nearly enough nutrition on the ride so it became a survival ride rather than a fun ride. The hills and the wind really got to me over time. By the time I go to the last rest stop, Amy had stopped there while Amanda and Chris went on to do 100 miles. Amy was in some distress and eventually called it quits very regretfully. I hated for her to do that too, but she did the right thing for herself. I admired her for knowing what she needed and calling it though. That last 8 miles was more enjoyable. It was through the city and shielded from the winds and was more interesting to look at.
I felt good that I had done the ride. It wasn't as much fun as I had hoped it might be because of the heat, wind, rain, hills and fatigue due to lack of nutrition. I was pretty tired the next day so I didn't swim, but wished I had gone ahead and done an easy recovery swim because the cold water and movement tends to help with the stiffness. I did make it to my HIIT class and the brick afterwards for a two hour session that wore me out so I got back on my schedule with a Wednesday rest day. By Thursday I was pretty good to go for my double workout day of computrainer in the morning and track in the evening where I did a 5K time trial in 37 minutes on still tired legs. Friday was a pretty intense swim class followed by a 24 mile ride Saturday morning with a 1.5 mile run after. I had tried to keep up with Amanda on the Saturday ride and actually did pace with her pretty well so I was not only surprised but pleased that I could do that. However, the run after was really ugly. My legs were totally shot by the end of that week. Yesterday I went out to do a long run of 8 miles. I had to do a lot of walking and used a 4 min run, 2 min walk which worked well on the Soldier Field 10 mile run for a 2:08 finish. I felt pretty good on the run and listened to NPR the whole way. I also ran north along the trail for a pretty lively level of activity and enjoyed people watching and looking at the lake along the run. I ran into a couple of friends on the trail as well which made it a great pleasure to be there.
I'm pleased that my recovery from a very long ride: the longest ride I've ever done, was pretty fast and I'm still doing well. Today is Monday and I did 1000 yds focusing on technique this morning and managed to do 1:24 100s twice, which is 3 sec faster than my fastest time. I also did it with less energy output than in the past, HR = 144, not 168 which was required for those past times. So I'm seeing improvements in recovery and HR management which is a good sign. I'm also having trouble with my jeans being really loose these days. No weight loss, but definitely smaller size. I'll admit that at one point that was the focus of my efforts but these days, my weight is not an issue. In fact I tend to eat what I want and am enjoying the pleasure of good food more.
My life is complicated these days with career issues that can have me up at night at times, but even sleep is improved. I pretty much begin crashing by 9:30. I can't sleep that early but I do let myself do some catnapping and rest.
One major thing I do when I'm resting and watching tv or reading is sit on my Infrared Heating pad. It's from Therasage and I find it helps my recovery from sore muscles very much. Yesterday I was very sore and used my heating pad and today I'm not stiff at all. It works by reducing inflammation which is what happens when you exercise. Reducing inflammation does not happen with Ice. Ice simply masks the problem. Infrared eliminates it. I highly recommend it for anyone, but in particular, older athletes.
Happy trails!
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