today's ride, part 1 - miles 0 - 23

Today's ride is a 57 miler, which if I was on the 'easy' setting of my rollers, I could probably knock out in a little over 3 hours.

However, since last weekend's revelation that the 'easy' setting was far too easy and Monday's dicovery that I could indeed make the rollers very hard, I've set today up as a challenge.

All I can say is it is both humbling and encouraging. Humbling, because once again its HARD and it SUCKS sometimes, but encouraging because I can see improvement since tuesday.

So yah, I'm 'slow' again and yah my body is responding to the increased difficulty by bottoming out my blood pressure & refusing to accelerate my heart rate & cardiac output.. But thats OKAY.... thats what caffeine & sudafed are for... and patience.

The first 41 minutes sucked, I went ~ 8 miles, stop & go cause I couldn't keep cranking w/out mt blood pressure bottoming out. Literally, it was crank for 30-90 seconds, stop for 5-10, repeat... for 40 minutes. I think maybe breakfast wasn't as good as it could have been. So I hopped off @ 8 miles, ate 2 power bars, several ounces of espresso, took a sudafed, turned the roller resistance up a little more & got back on. And I felt great! The next 15 miles took 90 minutes & I cranked steadily.

I'm taking a break now, getting more food, more espresso & updating you! I turned the resistance up again & hope to do another 10-15 miles at this new level.. I expect to be on the bike another 90 minutes before resting, which should hopefully put me somewhere between miles 33 & 38 of 57. After that batch I'll turn it back down several levels & try to keep a high cadence for the remaining 10-15 miles.

But I feel good & I feel positive. I really think I'll be ready. But the more I think, the more I realize this really is about the journey. I really will be okay with whatever I'm able to do come october. There are tons of people to meet, sights to see, etc.... And not all of that needs to be done from a bike.