I had a long bike ride on tap yesterday. Mind you, "long" for me is not nearly as long as it is for many of you. I've finally gotten to the point where 45 miles doesn't kill me, so yesterday I did a 58 mi ride that I found on MapMyRide.com over in the East Bay. (East Bay because it's been cold up & down the coast and I wanted to get some heat training in... usually it's much warmer over there.)
Since I don't have a car, I took the bus to the downtown BART station and then caught the train out to a small town called Orinda. A cool front came in on Friday night, so instead of 70, the weather forecast called for mid-60s for Orinda. Ok fine, that's still not too bad; it usually feels warmer if the sun's out. Thankfully I layered up in order to get out of chilly SF -- jersey, arm warmers, and a wind jacket over all of it -- because it wasn't much better in East Bay. I only took off my jacket twice, once in the beginning of the ride when the sun was out, and once grinding up a very long hill that was sheltered from the wind. The rest of the time I wished for tights to keep my legs warm.
Oh, did I mention wind? I got a lot of wind training yesterday in the middle third of the ride, which is much needed and I wouldn't have minded if it wasn't freezing and I was dressed more appropriately. A few other issues contributed to the negative chatter in my head and the pain in my body: first, I needed to bring a small Camelback to put a change of shoes and my jacket (as I'd assumed I wouldn't need it in East Bay), and discovered that it's rather awkward being in aero wearing a backpack. So I sat up a lot, and my butt paid the price. I'd also adjusted my seat before I left and must have tilted it up just a bit... so midway through the ride anything touching the saddle hurt. I was also having trouble unclipping my left shoe at stop signs; at the time I had no idea why.
Midway through the ride was the ugliest stretch of road along a highway with cracked pavement, high (cold) gusting headwinds & crosswinds, painful butt, and the worst negative chatter you have ever heard. "I'm only 35 miles into a 58 mile bike ride and I'm done... this wind sucks... I'm cold... my ass hurts... how am I going to do a HIM in 4 weeks if I can't make it 40 miles... I'm cold... OH, a BART sign, I could catch the train home early... of course I won't do that, time to HTFU... this wind sucks...I'm going to die of heat stroke in HI if I keep training in 50-ish degree weather... blah blah blah...."
By mile 41 I'd turned off the ugly road and hit my first hill... steep but not too bad. And then after a fun downhill, the road turns through 10 miles of regional parkland that was absolutely beautiful. It was sheltered from the wind but slow and steady climbing for a good chunk of this section of the ride.
I finally started to warm up and feel ok -- although my body hurt, something about birds chirping in the forest and no other human beings around made for a nice ride. VROOOOOM!!!! WTF? Ok, seriously?... a motorcycle safety class was practicing fast cornering on these curvy roads through the park. Up and down, up and down, occasionally cutting the corners a bit close (and I happened to be on those corners slogging up the hill very slowly!) So much for "no human beings"... Grrrr. Share the road, Jen...
And then I started hitting some beautiful views... my crappy iPhone camera doesn't do it justice:
I stopped to take pics, adjust my seat, and take off my jacket as I was pretty warm from climbing. Oops... a half-mile up and I hit the wind again. BRRRR. Jacket back on. I make it through the park and by this time I am definitely hurting. My body is not happy being on a bike for this long... my shoulders, neck, lower back, butt... everything hurts. I am done. 2 miles to the nearest town and 7 miles to the BART station.
I end up pulling into the first fast-food joint I see... a Jack-in-the-Box. Yuck, but I don't care. I AM SO DONE. I eat a burger, email a couple friends, and work on unearthing my happy "I love riding" attitude so that I can make it back to the train station. Just 5 miles.
Ok... ready. Through the parking lot, apply brakes to stop before I get to the street, unclip... UNCLIP... *(&#$@!~! UNCLIP ALREADY!... crash. Hmm. Turns out I lost a screw in my cleat. Ouch -- my first biking "incident" in years. I know, I'm lucky:
A woman who saw my "incident" checked to see if I was ok and offered a ride somewhere. "The BART station?" I said hopefully. The look on her face was priceless... total stress. I told her never mind, I'd be fine ... and I was, although both knees were hurting and I was wondering how I'd make it 5 miles without one functional cleat. (I need to learn bilateral unclipping... I can only unclip left and start riding on my right.) Anyway, I finally make it to BART without incident and head home. I've never been more happy to end a ride in my life.
After icing my knee and sleeping 10 hours, I'm getting ready to head out on my long run... my longest yet. Usually the wheels fall off the bus around mile 9, and today I'm meant to push 10 - 11. I'll be honest, the confidence I felt after last weekend's race has vanished and I'm worried about being able to do these distances on the bike and run in less than a month. I am hoping that a couple more long rides and runs will convince my body to HTFU.
Way to power through it! Next time you're looking for EB routes let me know, I have a few I did during IM training!
Posted by: Molly | 05/08/2011 at 11:34 AM