Banjo Music Anyone

Ok I just have to blog about my ride this past Sunday. But of course I will need to tell you why I was riding on Sunday instead of running.

To make a long story very short, I crashed and landed completely on my head during my 60 mile ride last weekend so I never completed it. I spent most of this past week recovering and completing adjusted workouts. Coach Bill was awesome and sent me a workout each day to make sure I was not having and headaches or dizziness.


My workouts from Thursday to Sunday were supposed to be:
Thursday - Swim 2000 at Lucky's Lake /Bike 2 hours
Friday - Bike 2 hours
Saturday - Bike 30 miles run 4 miles
Sunday - Run 13 miles, swim 1500

I did everything Coach Bill asked EXCEPT on Sunday, I decided I needed to complete the 60 mile bike workout from the week before instead of running. Yes I know Bill is the coach and I should be listening to him. However there was the little insecure voice in my head saying: "You need to ride or you will not be able to do the Ironman."

I decided it was in my best self-interest to ride. Please note I said best self interest not best interest. I loaded up my bike and headed over to Missey's house. She wanted to ride the General James A Van Fleet State trail because it was 29.5 miles in one direction with little to no road crossings, completely flat with a lot of wind. This of course closely matches the IMFL course so I was thrilled. Well maybe not thrilled but definitely up for the challenge. Too bad my legs did not agree with me. LOL! More on that later. This trail runs from Mabel, Florida to Polk City, Florida and there is nothing out there to distract you from your riding. I mean nothing......

We headed out to the trail. Ok just so you guys know, I have never seen the movie Deliverance but I have heard the banjo music that is the signature tune from the movie. When we turned off Highway 50 onto the dirt road leading to the trail, I could have swore I heard banjos. I was even more convinced I was hearing them when we pulled into the parking lot and realized we were the only two people there. Other than the sound of the wind blowing and our own voices and the banjos in the background, we were completely alone. Or so I thought.

We had not been pedaling more than 3 or 4 miles when a deer ran across the trail in front of us. Next we saw a family of turkeys, a few squirrels (one of whom had a death wish), a turtle, several lizards and a rabbit who tried to hop along with us. This caused me to start singing "Here comes Peter Cottontail hopping down the bunny trail." I told you I was not in my right mind. I could not get that song out of my head for the next 5 or 6 miles much to Missey's chagrin. Poor thing, I cannot sing on key to save my life and it is no where near Easter. Although, the bunny did have a white tail.

We stopped every 10 miles to take some gels and if we were lucky refill our water bottles. This trail only had 3 water faucets on its entire length. If you are going to ride and run here, you have got to carry all of your required essentials. This is good and bad. Since there are no distractions, you can really focus on your riding. But since there are no distractions, you also can focus on what hurts. Which for me is not necessarily a good thing.

We made it to the mile 29 turn around with smiles on our faces. We had been exchanging the lead back and forth and had kept up a great pace somewhere between 15 and 17 miles per hour. At one point Missey even threw in a mile long sprint at about 20 miles an hour. I thought I was going to shoot her. We took our pictures with the mile marker and headed back out. We had to get back to our car. Trust me there is no public transportation out here.

On the way back I started feeling the long ride, as well as the fact this was the fourth day straight I had been on my bike, in my hips. At some points the pain was horrible. But I just kept pedaling. Missey was having cramps in her right foot so she was behind me a bit. I was alone. I knew I was in trouble when I started having a conversation with the lizards on the side of the trail. For some reason I was PISSED that they kept passing me. However had I been in my right mind I would have realized, it was not the same lizard. Insert the sound of banjos here .....

About mile 55, Mr Turkey and his entire family of cutlets decided to cross the road in front of my bike. Mr Turkey was quite offended when I started yelling at them to get out of the way. I was only going about 15 miles per hour at this point but still having to slam on the brakes or run over a bunch of turkeys did not sound like a great option. Remember my crash the week before was the entire reason I was doing this ride. I was not going to hit the ground again.

After having safely navigated through the turkey road block, I tried to speed back up. I wanted to be done. My hips however, had other ideas. At this point, I felt as if there were two hot pokers one in each hip just twisting and turning. No matter how I adjusted my position on the bike, I could not relieve any of the pain. So I decided I would stop. Not sure what I was thinking. Remember, bike or no bike I was still 5 miles from the car and the only way to get home was get to the car. I tried to stretch but short of laying flat out on the ground nothing was helping. I got back on my bike and started to pedal again. I made it to mile 56. I had to stop and stretch.

This scenario played itself out over each remaining mile until the finish. I rode a bit. Stopped my bike, stretched, yelled at the lizards passing me and then remembering I was out in the middle of nowhere, jumped back on my bike before I was another casualty from Deliverance. I know at this point 5 miles does not seem like a lot but for me it was FOREVER.

I was never so relieved to see the car in my life. As soon as I got to the car, I got off my bike and laid out on the top of a picnic table stretching my hips until Missey arrived a few minutes later. I was quite frustrated with my hips and my performance at the end but I know that I have to just keep on training.

We loaded up our bikes and gear and started the drive back to Orlando. I can tell you I have never been so glad to see traffic as I was on Sunday afternoon. After some lunch and a nap, I started to feel more like myself just tired.

Of course being the good Catholic girl I am, I had to tell Coach Bill the truth about what I had done. And of course being the good Coach he is, he had to tell me that I had over done my training and I should be listening to him. Thanks Coach Bill I promise I will listen to you from now on.

Here is my training schedule for this week.

Monday - Bike 2 hours in small ring spinning my legs out.
Tuesday - Swim 2000. Run 5 miles do not do a brick.
Wednesday - Track workout
Thursday - Swim/bike brick
Friday - Rest day or if I feel great run 5 miles.
Saturday - 13 mile run
Sunday - 65 mile bike/3 mile run.

Anyone want to join me?

XOXOX,
Elizabeth