4:12

Four hours and twelve minutes.  That is how long I sat on my bike seat today to cover 60.85 miles.  It was not a brilliantly fast ride, but it was 10.85 miles longer than I've ever ridden before.  With the low speed came a fairly easy recovery.  I was hot and tired (and really dirty!) after, but not especially sore, and even now, hours after finishing, I still feel good in all the places that I might have guessed would hurt.

Partly the slow pace came from the route I took, which resulted in lots of places where I had to stop for cross traffic.  Also, lots of other bike/pedestrian traffic to manage (surprising for a Tuesday morning).  And also the temperature when I started was 81 degrees, and by finish had climbed to 91 degrees in almost completely full sun.  At one point my bike computer read 97 degrees.  I don't think that is quite accurate, but it felt hot out there with no shade cover.  I managed to eat a peanut butter & jelly "Uncrustable," take a gel, drank plenty of water and gatorade, all while moving.  I was happy that at the end of the ride I really had to pee--a sign I had managed my hydration well, especially in all the heat and sun.

I skipped my planned post-ride run (again), because I am a wimp, it was hot, I was tired and, honestly, I had something I needed to do and didn't want to postpone it another 30 minutes.  Lame, and now I regret it.  I knew that was going to happen.

My bike spent a few minutes in the shop yesterday to get ready for today's ride.  It needed a new tube in the rear tire after the flat I got Sunday.  $20 and about 15 minutes and I was back on the road.

I thought about a lot of things while riding for 4+ hours:

1. The temperature
2. When I planned to eat, and a plan for when I was going to drink which drink
3. What I was going to eat when I was done
4. How long it takes to ride that many miles
5. How riding double the distance to train for a full Ironman seems insane
6. Ironman triathletes are bad ass people
7. How I wished I had some company
8. That I wished I had worn different shorts, or maybe any shorts would start to be irritating after 4 hours on a bike seat
9. Ice cream, ice water, snow, winter...ok, kidding.  I was thinking about ice cream, though.  Did I mention it was hot??
10. The creepy man that kept passing me then slowing, then passing, then eventually talked to me.  Was he going to knock me down, club me, and toss me into a van?  Turns out he was harmless, or I rode on before he had a chance to abduct me, but that I was thankful for conversation the last 2 miles because my will to finish was being strongly tested.  Actually with 2 miles left I was fine; it was the point about 6 miles before then that I really needed a kick in the rear.

Anyway, I am happy that it's behind me, and looking forward to another lake swim tomorrow and a run in the high heat again.  I hate this weather, but getting a few good workouts in now will help acclimate me for race day (I did a 6-miler right before Ragnar in about 90 degrees and it was torture, but on race day my long leg 9.6miles, was in the heat of the afternoon at 80+ degrees and full sun...and yes it was hot and miserable, but I felt very prepared and was able to maintain a solid pace, so I'm sticking with this plan of acclimating myself).

Anybody racing this weekend?