Food Glorious Food

Currently there are bike shorts and jerseys strewn haphazardly throughout my room, slowly but surely drying in the markedly cooler breeze coming through my window. Tomorrow is game day. 100 miles riding, roughly 7-8 hours in the saddle, a good 6 hours of that likely to be pretty uncomfortable. To date my longest ride has been 45 miles. That day I maintained a 16.25 mph pace (relatively slow when you consider it was mostly flat, but I did keep it up for 2 hours and 45 minutes). At that rate 100 miles would take me 6 hours and 9 minutes if my math is correct. There is absolutely no way I can keep that pace up for 100 miles, and when you factor in stopping here and there I'm guessing we'll roll in around the 7.5 hour mark. 7AM to about 2:30-3ish.... a veryyy long day!

According to figures I've read online a person can burn anywhere from 5000 to 7500 calories (or more) biking one hundred miles. So that means we have to try to take in calories on the bike as we go. This will be more of a trial and error type deal for us since we've never had to continuously ride for any longer than 3 or 4 hours. My goal is to balance real food with the energy/ fuel products made for endurance athletes. I've been sampling products here and there and have decided on using Hammer's HEED for electrolytes, Perpetuem Solid tablets for later on in the ride, Clif Shot Bloks and PowerBar's Energy Blasts because I like them, Stinger Waffles for right before the ride and possibly to combat hunger at some point. I will also bring a few PowerBar Energy Gels. As for real food I think I'll make a peanut butter sandwich and bring some Fig Newtons. I'll either be well energized and never hungry or sick to my stomach. I'll report later...

We're all anxious to get started tomorrow and hoping the day finds us all energized and feeling our best with no rain in sight. 6 AM check in will come early, so for now I've got to go pack up my stuff, make some pasta salad for dinner and make sure my newly cleaned bike is in peak condition for tomorrow! Wish us luck and if you're anywhere near Verona Beach stop by to support a great cause!

Fit for a Queen

Well I may not be royalty but about two weeks ago I finally had my bike fitted. I always sort of felt that my Trek was a little too small, my legs constantly felt cramped, and I usually thought I was crowding my handle bars. My expert solution to this problem was to pull my seat back as far as it could go to extend my reach... problem solved right? Apparently not the greatest logic as I still felt like a giant on my bike. 

So despite my reservations about changing my position on the bike, I took it to a real professional. The changes he made seemed small enough; lower the handle bars, lengthen the stem, and finally raise the seat and bring it forward. The next day when I got to take it for a ride I was impressed with how much bigger the bike felt. It was  much easier to get into aero position, I felt like the strength in my legs was being utilized more efficiently and I didn't feel so scrunched up through my back. I wish I had gone for a fitting a long time ago.

The bike is taking some getting used to but I think once my muscles have adjusted to the correct riding position I'll be getting a lot more power out of my legs and hopefully avoid any problems with my knees this year. 

A big Thank You to Gene from

for fixing up the bikes for us!

Check him out if you ever need a fit!

http://www.fulltiltfitting.com/

Lessons Learned (fingers crossed)

This is exactly why I purchased SPF 85 spray on Sunscreen today.

This is two showers + additional scrubbing later, you can imagine the mark in it's original state.

Listening to: We Own the Sky/ M83

Soaked up the Sun, Got my 45 on

                                                       Yep the odometer says 45 miles :)

Possibly tomorrow I will post a picture of wicked sunburn # 2 of the year... although I did attempt to put sunblock on today, I couldn't be bothered to reach around to my completely exposed shoulders. As it stands now I have funny burn lines outlining my tank top and hand prints in addition to the cycling shorts tan I acquired last weekend. Wish I had a camera with me to record the excellent example of a chain ring tattoo that I so artfully crafted over the entirety of my right leg when I came to an abrupt stop at an intersection. I've heard they're also called "rookie marks" so I better try a bit harder to avoid touching the right side of my bike. 

It was phenomenally large, even for me : )

It's also worth mentioning that ice cream, while an excellent choice post ride, consuming while still on a bike ride is not so much a good idea. Guess we'll have to look into nutrition for long rides, GU's and Shot Bloks just aren't going to cut it.

Coming to a City Near You!

I've been meaning to write this post for sometime now, haven't had much down time lately but it's too big a deal to keep quiet any longer. Angela, Kris and I are riding our very first Century in a little less than 4 weeks! We've all signed up for the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure. I'm getting pretty excited about it, if a little nervous. As of today my longest ride is only a 35 mile trek. While my overall mileage is slowly growing, I wish my puny muscles and endurance would follow suit. I am at least trying to prepare. If the weather would cooperate it would be a bit more helpful.

However, in the last 12 days I've managed to ride the following:

31 miles of the Syracuse 70.3, 17 miles with hill repeats, a FAST 18 of the Iron Girl, 30 on the Tour de Loop course with a 5 mile detour to Fair Haven Beach, a recovery 12 on the Iron Girl course in the rain, and a 14 miler on our normal roller route on the Loop. A grand total of 127 miles. While I wish that number was higher I should mention that I also did the 5k and a few swim workouts, lifting, and short runs on top of all the biking.

So as usual we signed up for a ride that's a bit over our heads and probably going to leave us walking funny for a good week, but man will it feel good to ride across that finish line! And the best part I think is the cause we're riding for, to raise awareness and funds for the American Diabetes Association. There are so many people that are affected by Diabetes, who deal with it on a daily basis whether it be themselves or a family member, I feel like the least I can do is show up to ride, raise a little money and give a worthy cause my support for the day. Hopefully I can bring in a few more donations and get some long rides in before the 100 miler!

Let the Fur Fly

 6 Legged 5k! 

 This morning we ran our first 5k of the season. After a 31 mile hilly bike ride yesterday we were both dragging a little, lucky for me I had Boomer to literally pull me through. It was a fun race and the proceeds went to a great cause, The Syracuse SPCA. There were a lot of fellow dog lovers all out enjoying themselves with their furry friends. We ran past a girl and her black lab who had decided he had enough of running and did a belly flop into a big mud puddle. I love that animals never take themselves too seriously. I thought this was a great race to start off with, lots of fun distractions, fun people and their canine counterparts and a very laid back atmosphere... my kind of race!

Boomer and I crossed the finish line at around 28 minutes and then he ran the last 100 yards with Angela as she finished shortly after.

I was certain Boomer would misbehave and definitely trip me at least once but he behaved like a perfect gentleman and happily made doggy friends jogging along like an old pro. He made me proud : )

He's been pretty much out cold since we got in the car to drive home and a few minutes ago he was catching a snooze giving his paws a well deserved rest!

Running Buddies!

Listening to: One Foot/ Fun.

Battle Wounds

So today was interesting. I expect to get clobbered in an open water swim, cut up my feet and nearly drown, I've fallen off my bike and been stung by a bee while out riding... where I don't expect to get hurt is out on a run. Guess what happened today?

It was a gorgeous day out, coming off a cold and snowy two day stint we managed to climb back in to the 50's with sunny skies. I thought I'd bring Boomer since it was good running weather. The 2-3 miles were a bit of a struggle, adjusting to warmer weather and being pulled around by my overjoyed pup was wearing me out. In the last 200 yards or so I felt rough but just wanted to finish so I kept going. Boomer was just ahead no longer pulling, just panting and looking forward to being done as well. Out of nowhere the toe of my sneaker decided to pin itself to the concrete and it was as if the necessary message from my brain to my foot got intercepted and I tripped, turned over my stubbornly non responsive ankle, hyper extending it, swore and essentially slid through the gravel like I was stealing home. Good old Boomer just stopped and looked back with an expression like, are you kidding me right now? I gimped back to the car with Angela and tried not to think about how much it was going to suck trying to clean out the dirt and gravel. To top it all off I ripped my favorite running tights and my knees were cut up underneath. So all-in-all not a great run, possibly one day I will acquire the dexterity required to move and breathe at the same time :)

I'm just hoping my hands don't get infected, I couldn't clean the cuts any better than I did but they don't look so hot at the moment... it would also be nice to avoid any lasting damage to my ankle, fingers crossed.

Ouch : (

Listening to: Some Nights/ Fun.