Kick Ass Bike Ride

Otherwise known as "The Ride that Kicked My ASS!"  Holy. Freakin'. Crap! Walter, Brie and I met late this morning and knocked out 31 miles.  Boy am I feeling it!

First - the temperatures:  I thought it was supposed to be sunny and warm.  It was overcast and super windy.  It felt cool when I was getting my stuff together so I thought I'd try out my new bike jacket (came FedEx yesterday - yay!).  I also wore tights.  And full-fingered gloves.  Oh yes - have I mentioned that I have no idea how to dress for biking this time of year.  And then, it snuck up to almost 70°!  Can you say "Overdressed"?  The up side was that my new jacket wicked all that sweaty nastiness away.  But the whole inside felt damp when I took it off almost three hours later!  And my face was crusted with salt.

Second - the wind:  There was one section that was actually a slight downgrade and then flat that I was pedaling my ass off just to maintain going forward.  It was crazy how awful having that in my face felt on my legs.  The good news is that the wind was from the south and that overall the loop was mostly east/west.  But there were also a few times that the cross-wind felt like it was going to push me right over.  And you absolutely could tell anytime we were going south.

Third - the hills:  Oh, the hills!!  Jefferson City is actually known around here for its crazy hills.  I remember when I first started working at the City in 2002, I asked what the maximum street grade allowed was and the public works review engineer said that they had to take a specific number out of the standards, but that they were pretty happy with anything under 20%.  But of course, what fun would it be if we didn't include some doozies on our ride.  Walter says they build "character". 

First, we took "Seven Hills Road" from the Ellis parking lot - so right off we had to climb a few crazy steep ones.  Then we may have broken the 30 MPH speed limit going down Eastland.  Then up and over through the East McCarty rock cut.  Then up the High Street hill.  Later we did the East Capitol hill with a loop-de-loo around the state archives building.  But the real boogers were around Binder Lake - I'm not sure which was worse, the never-ending uphill or the terrifying downhill with a sharp turn to the left at the bottom.  Then climbed more hills coming out of the park heading towards St. Martins.  And down/up, down/up, down/up, down up, all the way back to the start.  One lady putting out her wreaths on Old Lohman Road saw me at one of my huffing/puffing moments towards the top of a hill and said that there was only one more "bad" hill - little did she know how much further we had to go.  Because then we turned on "Rolling Hills Road" and there was more "character building" to be done.  By the time I was cranking up the last big hill on Hwy C, I was so freaking sick of the wind and the hills.

The bad thing is that I start to not enjoy the long downhills because all I can think about is having to crank back up the other side.  But I just keep cranking away.  That's all you can do.  But I'm feeling it tonight.  Oh how will I ever build up to 100 miles?  Probably the same way - just keep cranking away.

Eating is still crap.  Going to try to plan out a menu (I seem to do better that way) tomorrow afternoon while my husband sets out his hunting blind for muzzleloader season that starts in two weeks.  We are all heading to the farm and then to the parish fall supper down there.  Nothing like the Catholics and their fried chicken to fatten a girl up.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warm again.  Maybe I can get a short ride in after church and before the basketball game - that is, if I can get out of bed and walk without gimping tomorrow.

YTD
Swim: 14,700 yds / 25,000
Bike: 804.9 mi / 1000 (WAHOO - over 800 miles!)
Run: 322.7 mi / 350

Days until Tour De Cure: 182

HBBC Points = 10.3

P.S.  FedEx man also brought my new bike trainer and riser block.  Yay!  As soon as this crazy warm weather is over, I'm totally setting that baby up.  So what if it was supposed to be from "Santa" - kids saw the package so now it is just a gift to myself.