Kickin' the Cindy

Training has been going along as usual: eat, swim, work, eat, eat, eat, run, eat, sleep, weights, eat, work, eat, eat, eat, bike, eat, sleep, etc. :-)

According to my training calendar I was supposed to run about 5 miles for my Pig training this week. However, last weekend I was supposed to run 7 and only did a 10k and this weekend I was supposed to do 9, but have another 10k. So I squeezed in a 9 mile run Friday night (yes, that *is* my rest day) so I could take all day Sunday off. It did get a little creepy running along the trail as darkness rapidly approached. Some punk kids yelled out "hey baby" and I thought about yelling back "Kid, give me a break. I'm old enough to be your mother", but thought better of it and just ignored them instead. 9.1 miles at about 9:30 pace. Not too shabby.

Saturday was the big Cindy Rella bike ride. 65 whopping miles. Since it was a ride, not a race (yeah, right :-), we could start anywhere between 7 and 9, and we opted for 8. We picked up our numbers, I grabbed a banana and we rolled out, but not before asking where the first pit stop was. Hey, what can I say, we get hungry.

The first section wasn't bad, no hills to speak of. The worst part was that it was a bit chilly and windy. I would have liked less wind and more sun and asked T to order that up, but she just wouldn't do it. Around mile 7 we passed a group of SAG wagons and and ambulance that was loading up a rider. Don't know what happened, but it was a sobering site. We found our way around the route and made it to the first stop at mile 17. Mmmm, food. We grabbed some snacks and hit the road since we were rapidly cooling down from the breeze.

The next section we had ridden on a training ride and remembered one stretch in particular. Cross Road, we remembered, was uphill for about 2 miles. Awful. So when we hit that section I was mentally prepped to die. Surprisingly it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered. Nice surprise there, I guess we *are* getting stronger after all. :-) I really started fading toward the middle/end of this second stretch. I wasn't drinking nearly enough, and I think the ride combined with the 9-miler the night before had me a little wiped. Eventually we made it to the aid station, where lunch awaited. There was a bit of a line, but we grabbed some goodies and chowed down. Then we had to get moving because T noticed that my lips were starting to match my jacket.



The third stretch was an uphill climb into the wind. Nice, eh? We managed it just fine and even snagged a lemon drop from 'the lemon drop man' at the top of the hill. About 5 miles from the rest stop I realized that I was soooooo thirsty. Definitely *not* a good sign. I just don't want to drink when it's cool. But I forced myself to drink about 1/2 my bottle of water so I could refill it at the next aid station. I think T and I would have been satisfied to climb off the bikes for good at the stop, but troopers that we are we just grabbed some snacks and got back on.

We finished up the ride in about 4:45 (not counting lunch and pit stop time). Not too bad, I'd say. So, metric century....done. Do I feel the need to do a century ride (100 miles)? Not any time in the near future, thank you very much. :-)