The Long Ride

Today was my long ride. It turned out to be only 1 mile short of my longest ride ever.
116 miles.
That's long. That's a long long ride by yourself. At least that's the attitude I started with. However, by the end, I realized it wasn't so bad!!!!
I think that might be a sign that I'm ready.
One month from TODAY!!!! Did you hear that Mary??? 1 month. Time's up.
Here's how the day went down:
3:50 a.m. Beep. 3:51 Beep.
This was NOT my alarm!? How annoying. Mark's blackberry received an email from spam! He had his phone on in case I called from my ride. Except I was still in bed.
4:20 May as well just get up and get going. Beat the alarm by 5 minutes. That's sad. I beat my 4:25 a.m. alarm. What's become of me??
I hurried through my typical ritual: coffee first, wash face, brush teeth, eat oatmeal, top bottles off with ice, decide 3x what to wear on a humid + foggy morning that would turn into afternoon, and finally pump tires and off I go.
5:10 I'm on the road. I'm psyched there's no rain but the fog was SO thick that my glasses covered wiht droplets and I feared for my life. My quiet rural road was busy busy today!!! Do you guys All need to go to work Now?? Just kidding. But seriously, the traffic was baaaad and I am Not used to that. I'm spoiled with quiet roads in Western Maine. I truly worried that the giant log trucks hammering up behind me couldn't see me in the fog since I couldn't see 10 ft ahead. I was sure they weren't keeping their eyes out for little me on my "pro racing bike." (explanation comes later.)
Well, I didn't get killed. Phew. I did however attack the hills as Jen told me to. And the hills were plentiful. I decided to do my super hilly route x 2 and then add an out and back to make 115. (loop is 50 mi) So, up and down I rode. I was also determined not to mess up the nutrition. I had a plan and I stuck to it. Like clockwork. I felt full. I think maybe I ate more calories than I burned. I mean seriously. I was consuming Something almost every 30 minutes, at least! I never do that. I realize I was burnign calories, but it seemed impossible that my calories burning was keeping up with my consumption. Whatever. I know it's necessary. I did it. And it worked. Glycogen stable. Energy stable. NO bonking. No cramping. No GI distress. All good. Got it.
Loop one felt a little scattered. First, my husband called as Soon as he woke up. Just to check on me. "yup. I'm fine. Ok. Call when boys are up. Ok. Gotta pee but otherwise fine. bye!" Off I went. I have a favorite spot in teh woods...you know why. I was desperate. there was a guy walking his dog!!!! he was stopped Right at MY spot! the Nerve. I pedaled on. Now what. I was totally distracted by this. Finally I found a decent place but then at the wrong moment, a car started up! There was a driveway Right there adn a guy was about to drive by me. Oops. I made it quick and acted innocent. Twenty more minutes and the phone Again!! I had to stop and say goodmorning to all the boys. I am glad I got to do this. I woudn't see them until after lunch.
Ok, all that was done and it was time to focus again.
Just before my pit stop, I rode past the house where my son was playing for the day. His friend is moving to Germany next week so this was their final playdate. It's sad for the boys. I missed Tommy this morning so I stopped in for a hug. The 3 little 7 y.o. boys ran up. "Mrs. Bancroft! Your bike is weird."
Tommy:. "its' a PRORACING bike!!" Andrew, "yeah? How fast does it go?" Tommy, "LIke 40 miles an hour!" :)
I finished up the first loop at Marks' office. He had a cooler with the next round of bottles, some other 'practice snacks for special needs bags' and ahhh, a real bathroom. Cant' pass that up! Off for loop two. My legs were tired but I was on a mission. 10% in z4-5. Okaaaay......that's scary. I have to kill myself to get there on the bike. So off I went to kill. I passed all the spots I noticed on the first loop...the dead porcupine, the single boot in the road (what Is that about?), the totem pole with cats on top of each other (I'm serious, the glove, the mini dumptruck that says "Buckfield" (Patrick Dempsey's hometown I'll add), and finally route 4. Route 4 is a busy busy highway-like road. But it's flat. My 7 miles of flat in the middle of this long hill ride. I was ready to focus. To hammer. HR here we go! I was in the zone.
And then, ring ring ring. OH my gosh. Again???? I see the window says, "home." Must answer. You never know! they were with a sitter.
"Hello. Hi hun"
Cameron, my 9 1/2 year old, "Hi Mommy. Um Mommy, sometime between 6:30 and 7:00 the tooth fairy came!"
(Cam had 2 teeth pulled yesterday. He put them under his pillow and failed to see the quarters I snuck under him in the night.)
Me out loud " oh that's great CAm. I'm so glad you called. " In my head, "Ok, this could have waited. gotta go!!!"
Cam, "one of the quarters is from Hawaii so I put it in my book. And Tommy left for Matthew's and they're going to the lake. Can we go to the lake soon."
ahh!! why am I talking about this at mile 77?? The challenges of mixing training with parenting doesn't alwasy involve time.
We finished up and I worked like a dog to get back in the zone and kick the HR back up there.
I was feelign good. I was moving along. No problems. Knee ok. Nutrition good. Still stuffing my face. Oh I forgot to mention that I ate 1/4 peanut butter & jelly sandwich on my half way pit stop. It was a nice treat to have real food for a minute! I'll remember that.
Up and over the 5 mile climb...again. Streaked Mountain. It's steeper than the LP climb into town but a few miles shorter. I think it is a good one to train on though. This was my third time up and over the beast this week. I was feeling like a tough Mama. :-)
The hardest part was the final 16. My two loops covered 100.4. I had to do an out and back to cover the final miles. I was feeling good...but ready to go home. The best part, because I was so ready to go home, I went fast. And I love that after 100 miles I could even consider going fast.
It's a good sign.