100 miles of suck

ok, so maybe that's a little melodramatic. it was more like 90 miles of decent, 10 miles of suck.

"oh so THAT's what a 100 mile ride should feel like!!!" i get it now.

my buddy max's 'hell week' began today. 300 miles riding, plus all kinds of other crazy shit miles swimming and running. my coach told me i had to wait 3 weeks before doing another century ride. so, what did i do? i waited 3 weeks and one day. i'm actually just realizing that it's only been that long, i swear i wasn't doing it to be a smartass. for once that statement is true. i know, shocker.

same route as last time - michael landon across from pepperdine out to las posas, back, and then all over again.

weird shit - 7, count them (because i did) SEVEN singular flip-flops. 5 lefties, 2 righties, but who's keeping track? one baby's left sandal, no baby attached. handful of dolphins, including a momma and baby. one squirrel who scared the shit out of me. one rabbit whom i'm certain i scared the shit out of (he watched me pee, even though i warned him fair-and-square) (convo went something like this: 'mr rabbit, not too sure you wanna stick around for this part.' rabbit: *nose twitch/blank stare* i tried). 2 deep inhales of weed this time, evidently pothead surfers aren't big into mondays. noted. countless number of run red/yellow lights. i totally did NOT pause. i did look closely all around me for cops though. fuck it.

blew a flat at mile 76. max was nice enough to watch me change my tire. moral support. but damn, i was pretty fast. surprised myself. we got rolling again. then max blew a flat at mile 84. doesn't that suck cowballs...it does, actually. and could either of them be fronts? oh no. that'd be way too easy. fuckers. really screwed with our mojo.

max kindly asked/nudged/hinted last night that maybe i should get 30-1hr head start. i thought sure, no problem, i'm out there to keep him company, at the random 2 second passes i'd see him (he's damn fast). then on the drive to michael landon this morning, it hit me. i was serving as his own personal fake rabbit, just like the ones on the damn pole at the dog races. hmmmm. something's not right with that picture. but i did my job. sometimes with a smile, other times not so much.

knocked 40 min off my saddle time from my last century. same amount of singing/dancing. but more 'wtf am i doing' talk going on in my head. guess that's only natural. the wind was wicked the first loop out, calmed a little on the second. a text i shot to max in the first loop: "oh how i love the bitch slap from my chin strap". wind sucked. or blew, depending on which end you're on.

nutrition was good. stuck with gus and chomps/bloks this time. and in my endurance i added in some pedialyte. didn't really make much of a difference that i noticed.

lessons learned - 1) don't do a 100 mile ride 2 days after your first workout at core performance. bad idea. had to stop numerous times to stretch out my quads. 2) knowing i'm being chased does wonders for my speed, but refer back to #1. not good either. 3) my stomach is made of steel. not my abs (you're funny, thanks though), my literal stomach. i drank chocolate milk on the way out to our meet-spot and had no problems on the first loop. then at transition, i noticed there were a couple gulps still left in my cup, so i downed 'em. delish. i know, "that's sick" you say. but it wasn't THAT warm. and my point is, my stomach had no problems, chocolate milk or no chocolate milk. sweet. i'm sure there'll come a time when i find something that i won't handle, but we'll see. 4) 41.5mph on a bike is pretty fucking fast. just so you know.