threadwalker

Before I forget and just incase I pass from delayed exhaustion because my body decides, "enough is enough", today I did my first "half century".

Yes, I rode my bike. for. 56. miles!!! All at once!

Sassycat (who I've mentally nicknamed "Fiesty Cat") will either help me stay young or help me kill myself; jury is out. If I wake up dead, we know the answer. She invited me to join her on a loop that started in Vacaville at Alamo and Hwy 80 and wound up through the hills to LAKE BERYYESSA!!!! up 121, down 128 and back. And we rode up hills... big damn fucking hills! We started at 7:30 am and I got back to my car at 1:15pm. Factor in some breaks and I still spent over 5 hrs riding.

The catalog of pain is long and boring. I almost cried when I saw a landmark that was just a mile or so from my car, but cursed that I was still a mile or so from my car. It was too hot to actually kiss my car (104 per car thermometer), but I was super-glad for the cold beverage I picked up at the Markely Market because all the gatorade in my car was hot-hot-hot. And blessed air conditioning... oh how I adore-thee.

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ninevirtues.livejournal.com

Way to go!

(I remember the first metric century (65 miles) I ever did. I trained for months and when my odometer clicked over to 65 miles and I was still 2 miles from the real finish because my odo was off?? I thought I was going to D-I-E right then and there and I'd never make it.)

But you, you did it! Hooray!

thread-walker.livejournal.com

You've nailed it on the head... that sense "I'm going to die with only 1 mile left".. that's where I was. It was a harsh reminder that head-space is just as important as physical conditioning. I can push myself to extreme limits as long as I'm mentally in the game. But if my head isn't in it, then it's all suck-tastic. The first several hours were very pleasant and I had a wonderful companion; what could be better than a beautiful ride with great company? But at noon when I realized there was at least another hour to go and I just knew the family was climbing the walls wondering where I was (I'd promised to be home my noon), my headspace tanked out. I got to the point where I was mentally ready to be done. Though it was a lovely ride that I plan to do again before the end of the year, it was twice as long as I've ever ridden before and I wasn't mentally prepared for setting personal benchmarks. So the last 12 miles were the worst and I was seriously examining the list of people I could call from my cell for a rescue and calculating if it would be faster to keep riding or to wait for a pull-out.

head-space, head-space, head-space!

I'm determined to do that loop a few more times.. maybe even 2x in a row next summer as a pre-Death Ride thing; it was beautiful, challenging, and had a conveniently located market for pit-stop and restocking gatorade, etc. But I need to get comfortable with 6 hrs in the saddle first. I'd say I'm up to 4 hrs, so I'm not there yet.