Horsey Hundred (half Century) Recap and other things.

This is late...We've been pretty busy with house stuff lately. Also, since this is more biking, I almost felt like I needed to do another running post again. However, with it being officially "taper time", there really isn't much of anything going on here.

The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend I went to Georgetown, KY, with Ryan and my dad. Ryan rode the full century ride and my dad and I did the half. This was pretty much my first big official ride (with the exception of childhood zoo rides completed on a Huffy). I was pretty excited about it, and it fit well with my training schedule. I had my road bike due to the issue with the bike rack, but that seemed fine given that this was a big tour style ride.

We got up super early to drive out and get registered. They actually had a "hard start" for the century riders at 8am. Ryan met up with some Wolverines, but didn't really do the hard (mass) start with tape and pacecar. It seemed really crowded and I am glad I didn't do it either. The half century didn't start until 9, but that was a "soft start", which meant we could start whenever. They did have a timing clock set up, but it was for "entertainment purposes only", with no official times. I was mostly nervous about getting lost or getting a flat. Thankfully, the course was really well marked. There were also lots of rest stops. Probably more than I should have used. I was super excited about all the yummy food they had at them too. I ate way to many cookies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during this ride. I didn't use hardly any of my gels. It was good and bad. I enjoyed the food, but I didn't really get to practice my race day nutrition. I also really want to figure out how to pack a PB&J on my bike. Any tips there? I am not kidding. It was what I was craving during my long ride with Cristina, and when they had them at the stops, I just devoured them! They were cut into small squares, and I think I only had 1 full sandwich worth, but between those and the cookies, I was set! I love that biking does not upset my stomach at all. I felt like I could have eaten anything during that ride, especially with all the stops. There were probably too many stops for my training purposes, but again, maybe it was ok being about a week out from my big race. I used them to link back up with my dad. He wanted me to go ahead after staying together for almost the first 20 miles. I told myself at the last stop, which was only 9 miles from the end, that I wasn't going to eat any of their food, but I just couldn't do it!

In addition to the food on the ride, it was hilly and beautiful. It went through lots of horse farms and was very green. For the most part, there were always other riders in sight. There was one stretch where I felt like I was all alone for a while, and worried I was lot, but finally caught up with some people.

It took me a little over 3 hours to finish the 50 miles, not including the stops. I wasn't setting any records here, but I wanted to keep the pace easy and enjoy the ride. I came away from this feeling really good about my next race!

Here are a few pictures.

The post ride food was excellent. My dad and I finished up a bit before they were ready to start serving it. It was a rather expensive ride, so we were not about to miss this meal! The had pulled pork, chicken breasts, burgers, cole slaw, baked beans, and more cookies.

The really cool thing about this ride was that it was a weekend long event. It had rides on Friday through Sunday, of all different distances. It seemed like there really was something for every rider's ability.

Anyway, I am totally serious about the pb&j on the bike at my next race. Any advice for this? I am limited by the space on my bike where I can store things due to it being so compact. My bento box from my road bike doesn't fit in the same spot on my tri bike, and I can't reach it very well where it does fit. I am not allowed to accept food from spectators. I also think if I eat it in the middle of the bike ride, my stomach might actually be ok for the run. When I did my marathon training in the afternoons, I would eat a pb&j sometimes for lunch, and run a couple hours later. I did have more access to bathrooms, though, in between. Ah, the details to figure out!

Finally, I had an awesome day today. I finished up my taper and then took my tri bike in since I am a total bike dork and was having trouble with my rear brake rubbing SINCE MY WHEEL WAS ON CROOKED!!!! I should be embarassed to be an engineer for that one. They did make a few more adjustments than just that, though, since the cables have stretched a bit all over.  However, I did run into Shelby at the shop! Totally random too!  She was bringing Colin's bike in.  It is sweet, and my bike was totally jealous of its awesomeness.  We chatted for quite a while about all sorts of things and she was super helpful with keeping my kids from destroying the store while I was able to explain my stupidity to the guys fixing it. I think I really shocked him when he learned the distance of my race. He first asked how many miles were on the bike. My answer was maybe a hundred or so? It really hasn't been ridden much, and this half century was on my road bike, as well as  over 40 miles of my 100 mile week. I was asking about where to put my Garmin since it is so huge and I NEED the Aerodrink for this race. He gave me a few options that they could do, but we discussed that it might just be easier to wear it on my wrist. He stated, "you will have, what, 12-15 miles on the bike in your race and have time to look at your watch". I corrected him with 56 miles...., and he was like, "Oh, you're doing the real deal". He probably thinks I am going to die on the bike course, but hey, my bike is brand new so I couldn't have had it that long to have racked up too many miles, especially with this crazy weather the midwest has been getting!

This evening, Keira and Soren biked to get ice cream. It was awesome watching them. Soren had a tough time heading out, and wanted to be pushed in the stroller (which I had just in case this happened) about halfway there. It is a little under a mile each way, I think. Keira is super fast, so he (as well as I) was getting frustrated trying to stay together. Keira was zipping along on her balance bike from last year, and he just could not keep up. The ice cream was sufficient fuel for him, though, and he made it the whole way home. It helped that he had gained some skills on the way out and Keira was tired and goind a little slower. He was actually sitting on the seat and gliding along some of the time instead of just walking with it by the end!

Oh, and those little kiddo's bikes cost more than my Huffy that I did my first zoo ride on...and they don't even have a drivetrain at all!