Last week was a big training week. Lots of miles, lots of mental strength,
even more grit. When I looked at the week ahead, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But I made one promise to myself, you WILL complete every workout this week to the best of your ability and give it all you have. I’m happy to say I did (minus one brick run that was undoable because of thunder and lightning and you all know I do NOT mess with that.)
One of the biggest challenges of the week was my century ride on
Saturday – 100 miles on the bike! My coach and I decided the best way to tackle
this ride would be by going down to the IMMD course and riding it. I asked a
few friends to see if anyone would be willing to come down with me but sadly I
didn’t work in anyone’s schedule. So it was me, myself and I – me, my thoughts
and my inner feelings for what I was expecting to be 7 hours.
100 Mile Recap
So I headed down to Cambridge on Saturday around 6 a.m. getting me
there at 8:30 a.m. The drive was super easy and looks as though it will be easy
transit on race weekend. My goal was to get on the road by 9 a.m. I parked at
the local high school which I knew was park of the race course and well marked
based on the race’s Facebook group I am a part of. (Note, if you plan on doing
any IRONMAN 70.3 or IRONMAN event, join the event’s private FB group. Now only
if is full of knowledge, feedback and answers from experienced racers, you see
some of the most hilarious content because you’re all going through a
rollercoaster of a journey.)
Before hitting the road I prepped all of my items – my liquids and
bottles were filled, my nutrition was portioned out for two rounds (first lap
and stop to restock on the second loop), tires were good, gear is all on,
talked to a really friendly guy in the parking lot and I was off at 8:57 a.m. I
knew the day was going to get warm, so I opted for my bike jersey on top of my
tri kit to help me from getting fried on my shoulders and back. Plus, I also
like that my cycling jersey has extra pockets in the back which I filled with
an extra tube (besides the one in my repair kit justtttt in case), my car keys,
cell phone and BASE Salt.
First three hours/50 miles: Everything was spot on – at the end of
each hour I finished an entire bottle of Nuun endurance and a sleeve of cliff
chews as my coach and I have been working on all training season. Pedal, eat,
drink x 1,000 and repeat again and again. It was great to see the course and
understand what I’ll be dealing with in September. Majority of the bike course
is on the National Wildlife Reserve went meant LOTS of nature to take in and
experience. With high tied there were actually a couple spots where I was
riding through some deep water. It was fun to get wet, but salt water on your
bike isn’t good for your bike and I felt the effects towards the end of my ride
where my gears felt like they were grinding.
Roughly the first two hours were with cloudy conditions which was
nice. The Facebook group members weren’t kidding in saying that it is a windy
course, but nothing unbearable. In my mind I felt it was super similar to the
SRT I train almost every weekend here in PA and to be honest, I thought the
wind at Ohio was terrible. September is hurricane season and I’m prayinnnng conditions
are decent on race morning. The thought of frying my legs before the run makes
me want to vomit, so I need to be strategic on the ride to make sure I still
have gas in the tank or its going to be a longgggg marathon. I needed to tack a
little more time on the end to round to round it up to 50 so I went through the
downtown area which was a little shady so I looped back to the car. I got back
to the school parking lot, refilled all three of my bottles, restocked on my
chews and off I went – at this point my clock was right around the 3 hour mark
(good timing!)
Miles 50-65: I headed out on
the second loop – again, eating, drinking, fueling repeat. I’m going to call it
the back side of the course, but the back side of the loop is definitely more
friendly with less wind, so I took advantage of it. I saw more wild life,
another trip through the water which was lower than earlier and I saw a pair of
random boxer shorts I missed on the first loop. Must be a shitty day for that
person…
Mile 65-85: This is where shit
hit the fan. By mile 60/65, the sun came out fast and it got hot. It was 95
degrees and 98% humidity and again, I was by myself. With no sag or support, I
knew I was semi fucked. I remembered from the first loop that I thought I saw a
convenient store or gas station somewhere along the way, but could not remember
for the life of me how far out it was. It was far. By mile 70, I was completely
out of fluids and milking the little bit I tried to keep. I was boiling hot and
my HR was sky high. I just kept telling myself to eat and keep pedaling, moving
is better than not moving at all. I made it to mile 85 and stopped on the side
of the road, had a good cry for about 5 minutes and honestly contemplated
calling the cops to pick me up and bring me to my car because if I were to
guess there is no Uber down that way. All I kept telling myself was to move
forward so back on the bike I went and two miles later at 87 I found a country
store. The store lit up like God was pushing down rays from the clouds. I went
in, got a Pepsi pounder, two bottles of water and a Gatorade. Soda is a God
send. Crushed the pounder. Poured an entire bottle of water on me, refilled a
bottle and put the Gatorade in a bottle. I must have looked like I was in bad
shape, or the cracking crying sound in my voice, but both employees and
customers were asking if I was okay and how much longer I had. The one lady
told me to go stand by in the ice cooler to cool down. I got my drinks and that
was enough of a kick to help me feel human again and get back to finish at 100.
I added some distance and make it back to the car at 100+ miles.
After a long, long 6 hour and 22 minute ride, I still needed to put in some
work and run for 25 minutes. After riding 100 miles it is nearly impossible to
feel your legs, so I headed out jello-legged with a run/walk to get myself use
to moving post bike.
Saturday was a long day, but race day will be even longer. While I
have noted some big things for race day nutrition and items to back with me,
one largest lesson I learned was that I can do this! I was able to do all of
this, on my own, with ZERO support. My mental toughness has to be the factor
that gets me through September 28. I’ve been training it and building it. And
Saturday proved to me that I am stronger than I know!
For a fun laugh, check out these amazing tan lines I got on Saturday's ride…
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