I Want to Ride My Bicycle I Want to Ride My Bike

All is well on the running front..welll at least as well as can be for the Queen of the Plodders. I managed to run 5 miles with only one Leo assigned water break. No knee brace...minimal knee discomfort. It was slow it was steady but only one tiny water walk break! I do believe for the most part that I am healed. So I will be uping my running days to three days a week. THERE WAS ZERO WHINING ON THE CLIMATE RUN...well except for the plea for relief when I saw the climate runners turn toward downtown. I am not healed enough to do PUKE MOUNTAIN. Leo took pity on me and he took me on a flat five mile route...all I can say is Thank you thank you thank you Leo!

On the bike front....EVERYTHING IS EXCELLENT!
August 23 I did a 65 mile route...well actually 68 miles as I missed a turn and had to back track! 13.8 average pace..which is kinda slow but for my longest ride ever I am quite pleased. I did have an average pace of almost 15 till I hit that last 20 miles which was mostly hills...not baby hills...puke moutain hills...one hill in particular I just wanted to get off my bike and push it up the hill...but pride...pride...pride...pride...kept me on the bike and kept me pushing pushing pushing up the hill, even though I really wanted to cry like a baby and walk my bike up the hill. 68 miles is a long way to bike by yourself and I desperately missed my friends. The sag stops were set up great with lots of food and drink. However, I am not the get off my bike and chat kinda girl...I stopped...refilled my water bottle, one with gatorade, one with water and walked around for 5 minutes to stretch my legs and try to get some feeling back in my rear and then got back on the road. I did meet a really nice lady who told me I would be really fast on a road bike as I was keeping up with her on my hybrid...talk about giving a burst of confidence to a chubby middle aged weekend warrior. About 11:00 it heated up and it heated up fast. I went thru fluids like crazy (by the way orange gatorade taste like spic and span bleck..give me my powerade zero..yummy) and with 10 miles left to go I was out of fluid...... At last I saw a two mile marker. I don't know who said it was 2 because my odometer clearly showed I went almost 4 miles from that marker when I turned into the finish...and my odometer is right. The last mile I passed a biker laying flat on his back with his bike by his side. I went past him and then thought "Kim you should stop...what if he is dead...". So I turned around and went back. I asked him if he was okay. He said "Yep..its hot...discretion is the better part of valor" and then he laid back down. Then he says, "You should only have another mile left". At the finish line I was offered a sandwich...bleck...real bikers that can bike across states can eat sandwiches after riding 65 or 101 miles. Weekend warriors want to throw up at the sight of lunch meat. However, weekend warriors will eat popcicles and drink lots and lots of water. The rest of the day I could not get enough fluids. I drank and drank and drank. Surprisingly I was not in the least bit sore. I managed to go to the Jazz festival and walk around. I was advised that I was fatigued the last 20 miles and that my pace per mile went down because the only thing I ate on the ride was a small dixie cup of trail mix and nothing else. Matter of fact I was not hungry for the rest of the day but finally made myself eat at 10:00 at night....BIKING IS BETTER THEN DEXITRIM. Per my heart rate montitor I burnt an estimated 3400 calores on my bike ride! Thank you big giant hills!

I think I found my sport!

This weekend ride: Barb and I rode this Saturday. I got 26 miles in and it felt great! I am looking foward to another 65 mile ride soon!