Tour de Madison

On Saturday Guillermo (henceforth referred to as G) and I did the Tour de Madison ride. It is a yearly ride that Madison County puts on to tour the country-side of rolling hills. This year 280 riders did one of three courses - 15 miles, 40 miles, 62 miles. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Just barely 70, some wind (but not enough to push us over), and clear skies.

G & I got there around 7:45 to pick up our t-shirts, enjoy a pancake breakfast, and watch the impressively in-shape people arrive. It seemed like most folks had some sort of sponsored jersey from a previous ride and that was rather intimidating. If I knew anything about bikes besides they have two-wheels and some gears, I might've been more impressed with the quality of bikes there too. Some of the riders were clearly in groups with matching apparel and some even had support vehicles following them. We also saw a handful of tandem road bikes. I can't imagine riding with someone else on a road bike, I can barely keep myself stable.

They started the ride at 9:30 with a bag-pipe player and the 62-mile group going first then having the rest of us roughly stage ourselves behind that group. The entire ride was nicely organized and set up. There were bright arrows painted on the roads for all major turns and even straight arrows for minor roads we were supposed to pass by. In addition, for the 40-mile ride, there were 3 rest stops set up. Gatoraid, water, fruit, pretzels, and cookies.



The first little bit was nice flat (for VA) road where the group could really spread out and I felt rather comfortable just taking off on it. The first real hill of any sort G & I passed a bunch of people on the way up and that felt great. The route we do from work has a much worse hill, so we know how to keep going and climbing, where as a handful of the folks got off and walked it.

The real b*tch of a hill went on for what was probably 3 miles and a good 30 minutes. (All times in this paragraph are relative because I didn't check my watch). At first I didn't think too much about it, but after about 20 minutes of riding up hill it was getting rather tiring and steeper. I just stayed in first gear for what seemed like forever. Not really passing anyone, not being passed, just slowly grinding up the hill. The one thing that made me smile is that just when I was getting to the point of physical and mental exhaustion of "when will this ever end?!" I came across a note painted on the ground "Almost there!" It made me smile and meant the folks marking the course weren't actually trying to kill us and did want us to make it.

After that b*tch of a hill, I was determined to enjoy all of the downhills from then on out. Up to that point I was rather scared of going too fast and losing control, but now it was just a matter of shear "me against the hills." The hills may get their pain on the way up, but I was going to take my pleasure on the way down!

After that first killer hill, none of the rest were all too hard. Right before the 3rd rest stop there was a rather long one, but we took a break mid-way up so I could eat (not quite the right word) a power-gel because my energy was starting to fade.

All in all, I kept up with G reasonably well. We did approximately 10 mph. That is pretty slow all things considered, but hopefully as I do more hills (both up and down) I'll be able to speed that up.

At the very end, I was rather sore but I accomplished a lot of my goals of just making it all 40 miles with minimal whining. I enjoyed a nice rest in my car and plenty of advil (see picture).

Tastes like chicken

I have nothing really against meat. If it happens to be in my food, sure, I'll eat it. (As long as it isn't bacon.) Though in general I never go out of my way to try to incorporate it in my food. However, as part of training for the triathlon I acknowledge that I probably need to get in more protein. Given the choice between beans and meat, it's easier to hide the meat in my food. Thus, over the weekend I purchased a George Foreman grill and make my first chicken breast on it to incorporate into my pasta dish. I think I cooked it for too long because it was a little tough in places, but I suppose it's better than under cooking it.

72 and sunny

72 and sunny is perfect weather for just relaxing, enjoying the slight breeze, and taking a stroll. It's not so good for going on a 4 mile run along the side of the road. By mile 3 I was really feeling the heat and it was slowing everything down. In addition, my face turns and stays red for quite some time after from the heat. Guess it's time to consider doing running in the morning and only biking & swimming midday. Though I'm sure I'll hit a point soonish that biking midday will also be out.

Thump

The sound Nicki and her bike make as they fall over. I'm told that pretty much everyone falls over at some point when they are learning to ride a road bike clipped in. True to what I've also been told, there is that instant you realized you are falling over (because you didn't unclip and tried to put your foot out) and there is enough time to anticipate the fall but not enough time to stop yourself. You also don't want to stop yourself at that point with your arm because you'll likely break it, it's much better to just tuck it in. Also true to biker form was "Oh, I hope I didn't break anything on my bike." I heal, my bike doesn't.

1500m finally!

Last night I swam 1500m in ~40 minutes. Yet another very zen like experience. Swimming is quickly becoming my favorite part of the triathlon. The 1500m is the distance I would have to do for the international length triathlon. Therefore, I am going to try to work up to doing 2000m and also improving my speed.