Taking Revenge on Dick.

I received an email early last week about the Challenge of the Centuries ride happening this past week. I thought, “Guess it’s about time to start the tour of Georgia centuries that always happens during Ironman training.”  I first texted Yoda.  “Have we ever done the Challenge of the Centuries ride?”

She writes me back, “Uhhh, yes. That’s Dick.”

OOOooooh, yes.  Dick!  Oh my.

Then I remembered.

 

I had blocked out that ride in my mind. Mostly because it was a rough day in the Swim Bike Family’s encyclopedia of workouts. But also, because I had failed to even start or finish the Assault on Dick’s Hill.

That’s Dick in the background.

This was my revenge ride!  Okay maybe not… but it was the first century ride of the season.  And with the countdown to Ironman Lake Placid scarily short… (61 days. Oh. Em. Gee. Breathe)…I figured now is the time. My friend Columbus had agreed to meet and try and ride together (he rode the century the day before.. uh, hello).  Which means I could ride WITH him, instead of getting dropped BY him, per usual.

Then, surprise! Richard Simmons was also there. (Some of you may know him by another name, but his outfit indicated that he was, in fact, Richard Simmons in the flesh.)

Reasonably non-hilly ride… but then the rollers began around Mile 30.

And Dick showed up around Mile 40, and I had terrifying flashbacks to Ironman Coeur d’Alene… a 26 minute climb (except at CDA, you do that like, all day long)…

Columbus, Richard and I all survived it (and a lady who was riding in what looked like Merrel sandals! I bow to you, missy)…

I felt amazing for about, oh, 75 miles and… then I didn’t. But that’s pretty much every century ride. Around 80 miles I start cursing myself. Mile 90, I start cursing everyone else and poking my eyes out with ice picks.

A beautiful drive heading to the ride.I can tell you, though… I have finally (praise sweet baby Jesus) found a saddle that I can tolerate.  After suffering for seasons with many saddles (yes, including Cobb, Adamo, Terry), I finally settled on a Selle Italia DIVA gel, and it has been the best saddle by far. I rode a good 65 miles before any discomfort appeared, and then even until 90 before I wanted to remove the Queen by hand.  That’s a record.

But it was a great ride. Too far of a drive for me–two hours each way, plus 6:30 of riding, then two hours home. I stopped for Starbucks on the way home just to stay awake.

I am proud of a few things about the ride:
1) I did not fuel with Munchkins;

2) I did not eat ANY of the sag stop junk (and they had Nutter Butters!)… although Richard Simmons would say I had half a small bag of of Lay’s chips. Salt. Okay… maybe like 8 chips; but really, I had my rice breakfast cereal (see Gulf Coast 70.3 post for recipe), and then fueled with Tailwind Nutrition (about 250 calories an hour), and I felt good.

3) I did not wimp out on Dick. Lots of granny gear on this ride, but excellent persistence and a decent 15.3 mile per hour average for 5000 feet of climbing in 98.9 miles. 16 MPH would be best, but I’m pretty happy with it.

4) I screeched to a halt on the bike to snag this beautiful Memorial Day-esque picture. Loved it.

5) Finally, I did not post-ride sabotage. You know… the “I just rode 100 miles so I can have a Big Mac, a milkshake, large fries and six pack of beer.” (Not that I have EVER done that. Ever. Nope. Yes. No.)… I drove through Arby’s after the ride, and ordered a large roast beef and an unsweet tea. I disposed of the bun. When I got home, I cooked salmon, green beans and made this awesome heirloom tomato and avocado salad.

I won’t lie. There was a beer and two glasses of vino as well… but not junk food. So it’s the small victories. I definitely had an 80/20 day–which is what I am shoooting for.

Of course, I had a really rough week at work last week, and it felt wonderful to pull off this ride AND a speedy-for-me 8 mile run on Saturday… my legs felt surprisingly thrashed from sitting in traffic and at a desk all week (and only making 3 of the scheduled 8 workouts happen), so getting it done once again was refreshing.

The biggest victory, really, was to handle this crazy week without sabotaging my nutrition… I managed to eat clean during it all (give or take a few cocktails.) Even when the boss ordered lunch for us and I ordered like Sally on “When Harry Met Sally” as pointed out by one of my co-workers: “You just ordered a Greek salad, hold the Greek.” (Large Greek salad, no feta, no red onions, no Greek dressing, add avocado, Salmon and olive oil). 🙂

The kiddos are out of school now, and summer is officially here… I am so glad. I didn’t realize how seasonally affected I was over this winter. I never knew how much I loved the sun and being outside to train. I feel like a million bucks after these last few weeks of racing and training.

The tan lines are back… fantastic…

In other good news, The Expert didn’t kill himself with this rigged tree-cutting-down shenanigans…

And… we have a Swim Bike Boy with a first season of baseball accomplished.

It’s going to be the best summer ever! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.