cold+wind+rain=100 miles in VT

There's always a first time for everything right? Well on Saturday August 29, 2009 I completed my 3rd century bike ride with JDRF's Ride to Cure in Killington, VT. I've been riding and raising money for them for the last four years - so what you may be asking was a first? Well it was a little thing called hurricane Danny and his after effects hit the east coast on ride day. I think in the history of the ride it was the first time it has ever rained. So it was a first time for both me and JDRF to ride in the rain.

I had planned on going to bed early Friday night because I knew I had to wake up around 4:30/5am. Well things don't always work out as planned. There I was sitting on the floor of my condo room watching TV and stretching when I feel something crawling on me. I look down and see a small silverfish!!! I scream, jump up and grab a tissue and head to the bathroom to flush it down the toilet where it can't get me. On my extremely short walk over there in my paranoia I feel something else on my arm - my burnt bubbled up arm. So what do I do? I swipe my arm to rid it of the imaginary creepy crawley and in doing so swipe off two patches of bubbled up skin. Leaving myself nice and raw a few hours before my long ride day. I call up Brock (our medical coordinator for all JDRF Rides - he's awesome) and he swings by wraps my very raw arm up and we have a beer to relax - then it's off to bed.

I wake up around 4:45 dress and head off to breakfast - it's freezing outside and drizzling. The whole team is eating and we're all ready to go back to bed kinda hoping they delay the start or cancel it all together. Throughout the whole season I said I would be doing the 100 but once morning was there I was leaving it open to how I felt. I mean I'd never ridden more than 10 miles in the rain and that was only once! I wasn't going to pressure myself it was enough to deal with the weather. The National coach gives us an update on the weather and tells us the ride will start at 8am. Perfect for me - I can relax :).

BG is fine before I start the ride a nice 95 but I had a couple of units still on board so I ate a banana and didn't bolus (I'd regret this later). We went out in waves of 100, the first 12 miles were downhill with the first 1 1 /2 miles being paced by coaches due to the rain, snakes in the road and poor road conditions overall. I LOVE a downhill but I was on my brakes the whole time! It was really scary in the rain especially when I'm riding my brakes and still going 15+mph. I was not taking any chances. When the ride started it wasn't raining, but the joke was on us because as soon as we started going downhill it started to come down. So you know what I did? hehe I got some other riders to start "singing in the rain" lol it was great.

It was suggested the night before to prepare for the cold and rain by wearing a shower cap over your helmet (I did mine was yellow), slipping your feet into some baggies (check), and putting some newspaper in your chest to keep your core warm (I had the sports section haha). I'd never done any of this before but it all worked great except for the baggies. The genius who thought of that...I'm not sure what he was smoking cuz by the time I got to ck pt 1 I had a fishbowl in my shoes!!! The newspaper was fantastic, it worked so well I actually wished I would have put it on under my leg warmers.

We all feel really good once we get passed the first ck pt and I am highly optimistic about the ride despite the conditions. I would also like to mention here that snakes in the road are not moving snakes. They are cracks in the road the perfect size for our road bikes and they were big and very dangerous. I'd never seen it before (we had it throughout the whole course)! We were also in a valley for a good portion of the ride now and it all seemed relatively flat and I thought of my rides with Denise (although that was actually flat). My BG once I got to ck pt 1 was not so good though - it was 296! I was pissed but I gave some insulin and had some coffee because by the time we got through riding those first 12 miles it was really cold. The medical team was concerned about people getting hypothermia.

Throughout the ride I was usually by myself or playing cat and mouse with a few of my teammates. I am not afraid of going fast on a downhill, so that along with the flats is where I excel and can make up ground since most of them are much better climbers than me. I checked my BG at each ck pt and it was going up and down like the rolling hills I was climbing. I wasn't going to let it affect me though I jut needed to ride and for the most part I felt good. I just had to squeeze my gloves and socks out at each stop because they were soaked. I was honestly concerned about getting frozen toes from the cold wet feet. My whole body was soaked through (except my head thanks to the shower cap) by the time I was at the halfway point.

When we got to mile 46 there was a 14 mile loop we had to do and then we would be on our way home. One of my teammates gave me the heads up about a really tough long climb. I kept that in the back of my mind...right before the hardest part of the climb there was a downhill and I could see it coming so I geared up and prepared to fly but it was like a rollercoaster downhill - I HATE rollercoasters. It felt like I was going to fly off the road into the unknown because I couldn't SEE anything! I mean it was such a drop down I was scared but going so fast down got me 3/4 of the way up that hill. :) Then we get to the really hard part and let me tell you you it was H-A-R-D. I wish I knew the grade of it, it really felt like it wasn't going to end. It was a joke because you had a killer climb to get through and you've got this cute little innocent barn at the top of it.

Riding along now I know I'm doing the 100 since I made the time for the cutoffs. I felt really good too. I didn't feel so tired and on the flats I was leading my team. However, by the time we get to the last ck pt I was starting to feel tired, I was going a little slower and the rollers seemed harder. We all took some pics and refueled to prepare for the last 10 miles because it was all uphill. I knew this the whole ride so mentally I was thinking of it like our Bear Mtn ride since the last 7 miles of that is all uphill.

Let me tell you those last 10 miles were hard. I mean WHY do we have to work so hard after all those miles to get back home? It's like a mean joke. I was pedaling 4-5 mph in my granny gear the whole way up the hardest parts of the hills. I know this is gonna sound bad but there were people walking up those hills and I was smiling inside (on the outside all I could focus on was breath in breath out) because I was able to keep going and NOT walk. I know sometimes it shouldn't matter if you have to walk a little. I know this but I tend to feel like I failed if I have to. But I didn't have to and that made me so happy!! Were in the last 1 mile of the ride and one of my coaches, my friend Les and myself are riding in together. Of course my chain decides to pop off just to prolong my finish-we fix that and ride in together. My coach is cheering along side us, I'm hip hip hooraying cuz we did it. The three of us ride into a cheering crowd. It was awesome and I was so proud of myself and my teammates for riding so great despite the conditions.

Motivation...or lack thereof

I've been zapped by the lazy bug. The humidity saturates the air making it unbearable just to walk to the corner. I haven't done any exercise since my Bear Mtn ride and it's making me feel like crap. This is not conducive to good training.

BUT guess what I did? I just got a little inspiration from my teammate Kevin from Triabetes. He's training for IMAZ (Ironman Arizona) and he's made the decision to not miss any more of his workouts to ensure that he is as prepared as he can be for the race. He's also going to try his best to take better care of his diabetes control.

While I've been lazy this week in terms of exercise I have also not been eating as well as I could be. I mean I have these goals of wanting to shave some time off of my 2nd sprint race, I want to continue in loosing weight (cuz guess what?? I have!!), I want to be better. Yeah I'm doing real good at being better with doing nothing! I tell you when I'm training I complain about it but I do always feel really good about it after wards. I've been in a spell of laziness lately but that's ending tonight. If Kevin can make that promise to train every night til IMAZ then I can make the promise to do SOMETHING everyday until my race. Whether it's working on my strength training I learned in PT, tracking my BG's and caloric intake for 1 week per month, running, swimming or biking I'll make the same promise. And I mean now that I've said it I kinda got to do it.

Thanks Kevin for the inspiration. Thanks for making me realize I'm not alone.

I'll keep you kids posted on progress...

Bear Mtn.

So this is how Saturday and the great Big Bear Mtn and I fared (my apologies as it's a bit long):

Turns out I had to change my distance :(. I really did WANT to do the 75 but as I started I was the turtle as usual and I didn't have my legs. I wasn't feeling all that great/strong. It never helps when you start out going up and kinda continue that way for about 5-10 miles. lol So as I'm riding I'm talking to myself saying "what was I THINKING?" No way am I gonna do 75. Maybe I can add a little extra at the end (one of my coaches suggested this for anyone who wanted to do more than 54)."

You see the thing was I really did feel stronger this year and I thought the best way to show that would be in doing the longer distance. However, I can change course/goals if I think I won't be able to do it. I mean the point is we always want to finish strong right? So my new goal was to do the 54 and feel better and hopefully do it in less time than I did the year before (last year was 57 miles).

I didn't feel like I had my bike legs til I was at mile 20. My BG was between 250 and 280 the whole time. It was sooo frustrating. I think my mistake was that I wasn't correcting enough and I never gave myself enough coverage for the food I was eating. I'm realizing when my numbers start off good the rest of the ride is ok and the when they're climbing well it's not just not just my legs doing the climbing. The heat/humidity I'm realizing is also a huge factor (not sure why I never thought that before) so that was icing on the cake.

One of my coaches was also trying to teach me about shifting my gears properly. I was struggling with that. I mean I've been riding for 4 years now and only LAST WEEK did I find the perfect gear to ride in when on a flat. As the day is moving on I'm feeling much better on the bike and I fkeep going. I found my groove! It was awesome. The hardest part of the ride (despite all the climbs throughout) is the last 4.5 miles. I found a description of it: "about 650 vertical feet in 2 miles, for an average grade around 6%, with one short section around 10%. Or if you start from Route 9W (we did) down by the Hudson River, the total is about 1250 vertical feet in 4.5 miles, average grade around 5%."

So it was hard. lol but you know what? I've realized the longer the distance the better I get cuz I was the turtle throughout and guess who got to the top of Perkins first? I did!!! lol I know it was just with my teammates and not a race but I was slow, strong and steady so I was happy. Best thing was that I found the right gear on the climb too! So I made my goal and I beat my time from the year before by roughly 30 min and I definitely felt like I could keep going. Challenging but great day. Next year I will do the 75...til then I'll do what my coach says and "ride more".

Weekend of firsts...

So I left work early on Friday and took the bus from Port Authority to Tom's River NJ to go spend my first training weekend with Denise Ricci. I've never taken the bus with my bike before so there I was with my big duffel bag on one shoulder and carrying my bike on the other. You should have seen the looks I was getting from people. I think they might not realize how light the bike is (and it's not as light as other bikes).

Before I tell you about a weekend full of training I want to let you know that Denise is one great lady. So much fun, easy to train with, great at pushing you. And she is HIGHLY organized. She has a bag or bin for EVERYTHING. It's great.On to the training...

I'd like for you to keep in mind that I have not really been training in the 3 sports. I've only been cycling in preparation for my century. The last time I swam was about 3 weeks ago and I only swam maybe a 1/2 mile. The last time I ran was about a month ago and I only ran maybe 2 miles. So here I am going to train for the weekend. I warned Denise that I'd be slow and I wasn't as fast as her on the bike. I was also concerned with hills while we were cycling but she told me it was a flat course. I did not believe her. I thought what she would consider flat would be considered a small hill to me or more. Everyones perception of a hill is different.

Friday comes we eat dinner then head out to swim with 2 of her training buddies. We swam for 50 minutes in a bay (never swam in one before), I'm not sure what the distance was all I know was time. The good thing is that every time we were going towards a marker I was always on course so I was sighting well. The water wasn't too deep so when we got to buoys we were able to stand on tiptoe (much easier to catch your breath). At the end of the swim we did 3 drills. I've never done a drill before. The first one was where you have your hand fisted and swim. Let me tell you I felt totally off balance like I was falling sideways with each stroke! I guess you never realize how much your straight hand makes a difference especially with balance. The next set was kindof like playing catch up with your hands. You had to swim til your hand almost touched on the stroke (helps with gliding), the 3rd was called an OK and it just makes sure your elbows are in the right position. After we finished swimming we went for a run. 26 min. they told me we ran 3 miles but I thought they were pulling my leg, trying to make me feel good. cuz I was slow. I got tips on making sure I keep my chest out so I give my poor lungs some more air. I managed to get through it - the whole time I was thinking "oh lord what did I get myself into this weekend?" It was only friday night! I still had 2 whole days to go. I'd also like you to know that I've never done more than one sport in a day. We end the night by getting some gooooood ice cream as a treat. Deeelicious. :)

Saturday comes around and we wake up bright and early for a ride of 70 miles. I've never ridden my bike more than 55 miles other than the annual century. We start out (Denise, Mark Woolf & me) and the two of them are much faster than me. I tried for like a second to keep up and realized if I wanted to finish on a good note I needed to just stick to my own pace. I was cruising at 16, 17 miles an hour so they had to have been going 19 or 20. But no matter they waited for me at every turn. At one point maybe at mile 25 I asked Denise if their were going to be any big hills coming up. I mean it's nice to go 16 miles an hour but I didn't know how I was going to maintain that if we had the hills. Her answer? "nope what you just did is the whole way of the ride." You should have seen my smile! Oh my god the ride was like a treat! I've NEVER ridden a flat continuous course before. So I changed my focus of the ride to keeping my cadence consistent and my speed above 15. We stopped off at a sandwich place at mile 33 ate and were on our way again. I'd just like to note during lunch Denise told me about doing a combo bolus for my food over a duration of at least an hour so I wouldn't rise. I never thought to do that during exercise and it totally worked! I felt really really good. Weather was great and I felt like I was going strong. On our way back maybe at mile 55 or 60 Denise got a flat. It sucked we were there for a while. but she fixed it and we kept going. I was in a good rhythm. Mark wasn't feeling so hot but he pushed through like a trooper. We're now 5 miles from home and Denise gets another flat she had to call Fred (her hubby) to come get her, since she used everything up the 1st time around (we had changed the tubes 2x and tire). Denise was talking about doing a run after the ride and I was saying in my head "after 70 miles??!!" I thought no way. We pull in after riding 73 miles and guess what we did? We ran. She convinced me to only go for 20 min. I've never done a Brick before (other than my triathlon). So we ran. Again I was far behind but I didn't really care. After 7 minutes I had to walk for 2 and they were on their way back. SO I started running again and felt myself wanting to walk again. So I did for a min. and Denise circled around me telling me her IM crack walk story in order to hear it I had to start running. So I started and I didn't stop til we got home. The crack story helped. Now I'll think of that whenever I want to walk. After all that I was seriously tired and couldn't WAIT for a cold shower. Oh yeah and my average pace throughtout the ride had been 15.1 - I was happy all around.

The next day guess what we had? Another ride! I've never ridden 2 days in a row with that much distance. We rode 43 miles and despite having my chain pop completely off it was a great ride. But my quads were killing me! 2 miles from home I told Denise there was no way I was doing a Brick - she had mercy lol. The surprising thing was after I checked my mileage and speed I was actually faster the next day with an average speed of 15.8. I was shocked and a little impressed with myself. The other thing was after each day of exercise my average heart rate went down. I was also impressed by that bit of info. Again I've never worked out that many days in a row.

Throughout the weekend we talked about Ironman, volunteering for next years Lake Placid IM, and racing/training in general. It was AWESOME. I had a great time at her beautiful house for the weekend. We'll be doing it again for sure. On our way to the bus station we stopped for some ice cream mmm mmm goood and she also gave me a bag of stuff in case my BG dropped on the bus all ziplocked and everything lol. Such a mom.

It was a weekend of firsts and I'm so glad I went and pushed myself.

THANK YOU DENISE!!!! Looking forward to next time...

-J