Too much!

4th of July weekend I went up to my parent's place in Ridgefield, CT. Liz and Justin who recently moved from Boston to DC were going to be there as well. Although they are not racing anything longer than a 70.3 this season, they suited up and joined me on my rides to keep me company. Saturday morning we rocked out a short 30 mile loop in Ridgefield as a warm up for Sunday. It's a fun route, scenic, on great cycling back roads, and still throws 2500 feet of climbing in there over that short distance. It's my go-to ride from my parent's house if I need something in the 2 hour range. Then all of us, and my other sisters went to the beach in Fairfield, CT where my sister Lesley lives. We got there at about 2pm and Lesley and I did an open water swim in the ocean, Lesley was in for 1/2 mile and I did a full mile. The water was a little choppy for the 1st 1/2 mile but started to settle down for the 2nd and then went dead smooth after I got out. Figures. I felt great on the swim considering I haven't started my swim training yet. No idea how long it took since I didn't wear a watch.

We got a good night's rest and started our 100 mile ride at about 6:30 am Sunday morning. When we started the ride it was 65F and when we finished it was 105F. A very large portion of the ride was well shaded so even though it was hot as Hades I can't really complain about that. We took a 10 minute break when we got to Lake Waramaug at about mile 40. 20 miles later we took another break under a giant tree at the end of a road. It was HOT. We were all laying on the ground on our backs in the shade trying to cool off. The homeowner came over from the house across the street and asked if we knew it was 100 degrees out, or if we were just insane. After finding out we were just insane he filled out water bottles back up with cold water and offered his garden hose if we wanted to squirt down, we declined the hose...but took the water.

At about mile 80 or thereabouts, we hit some long stretches of roads exposed to the sun and significant amounts of climbing. Every road on my Garmin GPS bike computer had either the word "HILL" or "RIDGE" in it. We all started to crack out there, possibly me the worst. We ran out of water with still 20 miles to go which wasn't good since we were already physically in "the hole" a little bit. OK, 17 miles to go, try to grin and bear it. 16, 15, 14...hmm signs saying "bridge out ahead, no through traffic", that can't be good. With heat exhaustion doing our thinking for us, we continued to the bridge...I mean, how "out" could the bridge be, right? We got to the bridge and it was completely gone. The detour route would have been a few extra miles which NONE of us were interested in. So we dismounted and used some cyclocross-meets-rock-climbing skills to cross the bridge construction by foot. That's the picture up top of Justin and Liz coming up the side of it. I would have swam across a river if it meant not adding another mile to the ride...just to give you an idea of where our heads were.

With only about 4 miles left to home we faced Cains Hill. I was pretty sure I couldn't make it up, it is STEEP and I was TOAST. Justin didn't know how steep it was but didn't care, he justed wanted fluids. So he went direct up the hill while Liz and I took a short detour that spread the climbing over an extra 1/2 mile. With just 1 mile to go, Liz and I pulled into a gas station to get water. I felt like that survival show where the dude squeezed elephant dung to just get a few drops of water out of it, I think I would have done that too at this point. We sat on the sidewalk drinking PURCHASED water wondering how 1 lousy mile could seem like such an epic task to complete. But alas, we climbed the last little hill and made it home.

The ride was supposed to be "easy" since the maymyride route I saw only listed 3400 feet of vertical. We did a LOT more climbing than that. My computer logged 7222 feet of vertical over 104 miles. That's kind of a lot, especially for 3 people just winging it. But, it's in the bag and I'm stronger for my ironman and Liz/Justin are stronger for their 1/2 irons.

I'm still on the vegan/raw diet. My steady weight now is about 160, so I'm down about 9 lbs in 2 weeks. I am well on my way to 150 or beyond, whatever weight I end up at where I'm super lean. I have a feeling it'll be under 150 at this point, in the 140's. Unfortunately I will probably need a new wardrobe in another 10 pounds. But those are good problems to have, I'll deal with it.

The comeback show is in full effect! Thanks Liz/Justin/Les for training with me! And again, sorry about the 105 miles...I really didn't intend for the mileage to be so high once the heat kicked in. Totally my bad.