58 Miles - Completed

Long rides have become increasing longer over the past month and a half and usually every weekend I will say "wow, that was my longest ride ever!" I'm really great at psyching myself up for the rides all week but come the actual day of the ride and I'm usually freaking out.

As soon as I start thinking about the actual distance of the ride I panic and I usually am quite successful in convincing myself that I can't do it. I know, great plan, and a great way to start out a long ride.

We woke up Saturday morning to a downpour. Unfortunately we were riding whether it was raining or not because Erik had another mountain bike ride scheduled for Sunday that has been planned for months. So we checked the radar and waited around a bit until things looked fairly quiet. The forecast showed sun but since the area is surrounded by hills the weather forecast is rarely accurate. The weather ended up being a mix of drizzle and rain with a killer humidity. Luckily it wasn't too hot or else it would have been a tortuous ride.

Overall the ride was a success but there are still a few things I need to practice. I really need to work on fueling, I did great on fluid intake this ride and since it wasn't a total sweat fest I actually had to make a bathroom stop. Of course I passed up the opportunity for a bathroom stop when we stopped in a small town for snacks. Lesson learned - you can't "hold it" for 30 miles. I made it about 4 miles before I demanded a stop. Erik also learned the important lesson that when your girlfriend says she can "hold it" for 30 miles she is bluffing...force her into the sketchy bar to use the restroom or else you'll be bushwhacking a trail into the woods since she will be convinced that cars can totally see her from the road and will need you to test whether that's actually true or not.

Around mile 20-26 I was dragging...my legs didn't want to pedal and the climb we were on seemed endless. I kept commenting that it felt like I had sausages for legs and that pedeling was not in the game plan. Of course once you are 20 miles in you are pretty commited to the ride and you kind of have to just suck it up and do it. My guess on what happened is that I was ruining low on fuel and I definitely need to start bringing something to munch on along the way...whether that be chews or bars or whatever. Once we had some snacks at the halfway point my pace picked up and everything seemed so much easier. The good thing about these long rides though is that I'm learning (trial and error of course) what works and what doesn't so hopefully by the 100-miler I have it all figured out.

Minus a few issues on the ride, I survived without crying or hyperventilating on the hills so I would declare it a success.

Sunday Erik had a  mountain bike ride all day (7-7) and I spent the day with no real schedule. I'm pretty positive it's the first day in months where I had nothing planned and could do whatever I wanted. Of course on weekends I am at Eriks which is about 90 miles from when I live the remainder of the week so it's hard to get anything done off my to-do list, especially when that's nothing near his house. I woke up Sunday and had a bagel craving, however, the nearest bagel shop is 25 miles away and it's hard to justify a 50 mile round trip for a bagel that I know isn't even all that great. So I made myself breakfast and watched a movie on Hulu...Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead...while I can't say it was my favorite movie ever, I didn't hate it. I'm not quite convinced that juicing will cure everything...like MS...but to each their own. People always tell me to go gluten free because it will "cure" my MS which annoys me because every person with MS is different. Plus, is it really is it the diet that is "curing" you or are the drugs you are on just suppressing the MS? I give people props who decide to go cold turkey off of their medications, but it just isn't for me.

Anyways, it was in the 80's yesterday with about 80%+ humidity which meant every activity turned into a sweatfest. I started out with a short ride on the mountain bike and then a hour of yoga to stretch out. I ran a few errands, rented a few movies and mowed the lawn. I figured if I couldn't check things off my own to-do list I could at least take one off of Eriks. I haven't mowed a lawn in years, so I'm sure the neighbors got a kick out of me trying to figure out how to get the thing started.

It's supposed to be another hot day today, but I'm going to attempt to get some miles in on my bike after work.

Have you seen Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead? Would you go on a juice fast for 6-10 days? What's the weirdest thing you've blended? Maybe some day I'll try it, but lets be real, I like chewing my foods and a diet without bread just seems wrong. When I was in the hospital with swallowing issues (MS related) I could only have pureed foods for about a week and a half. I convinced my parents to puree a donut...sure enough they brought in a pureed donut and it seriously disgusting.