I am going to write this without looking at any of my previous posts and then go back and read them to view the course of events for the past summer.
I have not posted in quite sometime which doesn't mean much to amyone reading this because at this point I am the only one reading it. Right now this blog is just a fancier way of keeping up with a personal journal. If someone happens upon it then fine and if they do not then that is fine also. I do think that eventually I will let folks in on this but who knows.
About a month ago a friend of mine, we'll call him "Rick". Mentioned an organized ride that was going to take place in Cape Giradeau Mo. It is called the Tour de Cape. My goal has been to particpate in one of these this year. I even tried to block off one of my weekends to praticipate in the Misaligned Minds ride that is put on in Paducah, KY by the Chain Reaction Cycling Club. That one was blown becasue of work.
So anyway, I told him yes and made sure this time that work did not get in the way. Rick has been doing triathalons and is in great shape so he wanted to ride the 62 mile route in the Tour de Cape. We rode about 4 weeks ago around town here and I figured at that time I would start making time for rides however brief they may be. I had only done one ride over 25 miles (see previous post) and I figured I needed to train pretty hard.
Fast forward to last Sat. I did not ride my bike one time since the ride 4 weeks ago. Not only that, I did not get one exerecise session of any type in. The only thing I did was the week prior I made sure I cut out all bad eating habits.
We get to Cape around 7:00 a.m and proceed to get ready. I am very nervous but comforted by the fact that there are rest stops. There were 3 of us and we made a plan early that we would work as a team. We also decided that if someone was dropped then we would continue on. The only thing I was nervous about was the fact that I do not ride alot of hills and I knew this route had them.
We're plugging right along and within the first 5 miles BAM, the longest and biggest hill I have encountered. I was wearing a heart monitor at the suggestion of Steve from Wood-n-Wave (earlier posts). When I reached the top my max heart rate was 194. I thought to myself. . .I am not even going to make the 15 mile journey much less the 62. The guys dropped me on that hill and I managed to catch them in the last half mile before the first rest stop.
The second leg started off nicely. We stayed together and it was quite a group effort. About 3/4 the way through I was dropped on another hill but I always had them in sight. We reached the 2nd rest stop and it was a welcome sight. They had all manner of fuel for us to eat and restock.
The thrid leg looped around Horseshoe Lake in Illinois. It was about 3/4 around this lake that I was done as far as keeping up. My heart rate was fine and I was breathing normally but my legs just would not push any harder. They weren't really hurting bad although I was in sort of a constant feeling of pain all over. They just wouldn't push any harder. It was then that I decided I would just keep plugging on and finish when I finished.
Here I am all alone and I lost sight of the guys early. I assumed they were way ahead. I started to look for the next rest stop and just pushing and pushing. Plowing right throught the pain in my back and neck and my legs were just giving me all they had.
Then here it came. Another monster hill!! I really thought I was going to cry. I almost reached the top and for a split second I almost got off and walked. But something inside would not allow it. It was gut check time and I didn't want the asterick by my ride (*had to walk up hill).
I made it over and finnaly to the last rest stop and surprisingly only 5 minutes behind the group. This rest stop was awesome, in addition to the fuel there was some Jazz music playing and it was a very queit countryside setting. I almost didn't want to leave but my legs started seizing up so we left together.
We rode the last 12 miles in pretty close to each other. Myself and another guy from Murray, we'll call him "Chad" remained together and Rick and a "Gary from St. Louis" rode ahead of us.
See next post for the conclusions.
