Sunday's 80 miler

Why 80? Because the 'official' training plan said so.

Miles 366 to 446 on my polar/cycle computer. Yes, that's correct... 80 miles...

Total time on the bike: 5:47

Number of movies watched: 0 (more on this later)

Things more boring than nearly 6 hours on rollers:

Driving across the state of Ohio on the turnpike

Things more painful than nearly 6 hours of no scenery change:

The last 3 months of writing a dissertation

Things more painful than listening to nascar radio coverage for 15 miles:

Nothing

Number of Power bars consumed: 3

(I have a feeling that when this is all said & done I'm gonna hate powerbars)

Shots of espresso consumed: 6

(caffeine is good)

Ounces of Gatorade consumed: 40

(I haven't drank Gatorade in years)

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Pre-Ride Activities

Since I wanted to be done at a reasonable hour, I let myself 'sleep in' until 7am & was at my bike's location by ~8am. I needed to do a little work on the bike, so I pumped up the front tire & tightened everything that needed tightening. No problem, easy enough, maybe 5 minutes of work.

Then the movie fiasco began. See, I've already done 2 40 milers and a 55 miler on the rollers. I had decided that for the longer rides, I'd want to watch movies. This is a big deal. If you know me, you know I'm not a movie person. As in I don't go to the movies, I don't rent them, I rarely buy them... Why? Cause I get bored and I can't sit still to watch them.

But, movies have to be more interesting than 6 hours of this view. I took that photo while sitting on the bike. You can see how even I, the queen of 'I don't watch movies' could be willing to watch a movie or two. (side note: I accidentally deleted this picture 3 times tonight.. stupid blog editor.)

Easy enough right? There's a TV & DVD player on a movable stand less than 20 feet from my bike. All I need to do is roll it over, plug it in, pop in the DVD of choice & I'm golden... right.. Well, apparently there's a secret button cause I couldn't get it to work..... after 20 minutes.... denied..

But I don't give up easily.... I know of a laptop... So I take the wheels off the shelf you see in the picture & go get the laptop.. which I might add isn't super easy for me to get to... Plug the laptop in, ..... and it's locked under some one's name... even if I turned it off, I realized my password had just changed, so I couldn't log in unless it was plugged into the network... denied.. I put the laptop back up. Another 10 minutes

Third try... there's a computer & monitor on a rolling desk in the same room as the laptop & the TV... so I unplugged it & rolled it in front of the TV. I had to leave the TV out so I could use the power strip mounted on the rolling stand. Okay, so the computer is plugged in, fired up, I'm logged in... All I've got to do pick one of the many dvd's I borrowed, drop it in, & hit play.... nothing.... denied a third time... Apparently this computer didn't have a 'dvd' 'decoder' that would allow it to play the dvd... Another 15 minutes

I decided to cut my losses because at this point it was after 9am and I really, really, wanted to finished this ride before dinner. I still didn't have a clue how long it would take me. Forty miles the previous weekend took 3:30, so I thought I was looking at a 7 hour ride...

I turned on the radio, picked out a station, turned my fan on, & started the ride. (I deleted this photo once... notice the tv & the computer in front of the TV... DENIED..)

Miles 0 - 20, time:1:30, avg speed: 15 mph

First 20 miles went by easily. I'd love to tell you what I thought about, but I don't remember. Next weekend I'll write this blog during my breaks.

Pit stop 1

I've got to say that the first 20 miles felt pretty good! My initial plan was to chunk this ride down into batches of 20 miles. But after this first stop, I decided I was going to do the rest in 30 mile chunks. Mainly because I'm impatient & get distracted during breaks. Fewer stops = getting done faster. Especially important considering the lack of movies.

After hopping off the bike, the first order of business is refilling the waterbottle, refilling the Gatorade bottle, & making sure I've got enough water in my sponge bowl (to help stay cool). Next order of business was to put some of dvd crap up I had dragged out earlier. I'm sure if I didn't do it during my breaks, I'd have no interest or motivation to do it after 80 miles. So I dragged the GINORMUS TV stand back to where I got it. (Mother would be so proud)

After chores, I ate another powerbar & 2 shots of espresso. I'm slowly learning what my body does & does not like to process during the ride & what gives me energy & what doesn't. So far, powerbars work on both fronts... As does coffee/espresso! Protein powder fruit smoothies: not so much.

Back on the bike for the next 30 miles.

Miles 20 - 50, time: 2:17, avg speed: 13 mph

This 30 miles, especially the last 15, was possibly one of the most painfully boring periods of my life. I don't know who I offended, but that clearly was punishment for some sort of sin, somewhere, to somebody.

I tend to ride w/the lights off because I'm convinced it's cooler like that. Normally, there's plenty of light from the windows, but not sunday. Sunday turned into a rainy, stormy day.... it just kept getting darker & darker... and I got sleepy. I think I actually fell asleep while cycling.

And then... then my radio station switched over the Nascar pre-game show. Is it even called a 'pre-game' show? I have nothing against Nascar...... It just is not conductive to getting me pumped up to complete my ride... I guess I have to confess that I was indeed listening to a country station. ...... I know..... It's a recent affliction, but Country is fun to sing along with. (As is Jimmy buffet *Greg*.... I've just not found him on the radio here). My radio is WAAAAAYYYY across the room from me, so when I'm on the bike I'm stuck with a given station. I wasn't getting off the bike to change it .... noooo......I was finishing that 30 miles before I got off...

You cannot possibly imagine how happy I was to finish. I will say the final 10 were a lot faster than the middle 10..

Pit stop 2

Shorter break this time! I really wanted to crunch out the last 30 miles & get done ASAP. I quickly put up the computer I had dragged out earlier, filled up all water & Gatorade bottles, & wolfed down another power bar & 2 shots of espresso. Oh & I changed the radio station & turned the lights on!!

Miles 50 - 80; time: 2:00; avg speed: 15mph

Quite possibly the best ride I've had to date. I felt very, very good. Proof in my mind that I had done a good job with nutrition this time..

However... even with a station change, even with the lights on, even with feeling good & being in the home stretch.... I still have to distract myself... so I started playing games & doing intervals during the final 20 miles.

Games? Think of the games you play with little kids in the park, or at home, or in the car... Games like " I'm gonna keep my eyes closed & not look at my cycle computer for 1 entire song"..It took me 4 weekends to do this one. Not my strongest suit.

Games like: "I'm gonna sprint for 2/10ths of a mile, rest for 3/10th & then repeat for 5 miles"

I'm good at this one.

And finally, I started converting miles per hour (my speed) into minutes per mile... and then figured out how long each 10th of a mile took... wait, I'm not done yet... Then I counted down the remaining time based on how long each 10th took... I did this for the last 2 miles.. which @ 15 mph = 4 min per mile.. = 24 sec per tenth. Counting backwards from 8 minutes by 24 every 10th of a mile is not so easy... especially when you are trying to maintain speed.

Yes, I am a dork. But it did make the time go by quicker.

Post-Ride Activities

Clean up & pack up... Need I say more? Oh and I had sushi & half a tray of cookies for dinner.. I got a bit sore that nigh, but I felt great monday!

I can say with certainty that riding 80 miles on rollers was not on my life's list of activities. I can also say the biggest reason I did every mile was pride. If I can't handle the ride this fall, it won't be because I got bored and stopped early.