Florida Ride, Part II

After apparently forcing the intruder to jump to his death, I was stoked to hammer. 65 degrees at 0930 in the morning and not a cloud anywhere... Perfect!

Now, my previous long ride was 43 miles, although on some seriously kicka*s hills. So I was not sure what to expect from my body when exposed to 100+ miles.

The first thing I noticed... Wind... Ohmigod the wind...

Now I read a ton of blogger race reports from the Florida Ironman, and EVERYone mentioned/complained about the persistent headwind over the first 40 or 50 miles of the bike. Surely that wind isn't there all the time though...

Wishful thinking...

Ok, now I was riding those same miles, and the same damn headwind was making me feel like I had a parachute attached to my bike... Does it ever stop??

Yes! It stopped about 50 miles in, just as I turned on Hwy 231 and took a break for fuel. Re-energized and without the wind fighting me, I felt surprisingly great for about 15 miles until.... No!! More headwind... What a tease she is...

Another 10 miles of wind fighting me...

But like all else, it too passed. And I was free of the wind for the final 30 miles. Its amazing how fast 30 miles can fly by when it's relative to a 100+ mile journey.

And when I made the final turn onto Front Beach Rd, and my hotel came into sight, I thought I would be exhausted. But for some reason, despite this being the longest ride of my life by 61 miles, despite having been in the saddle for 5 and a 1/2 hours, despite having a sunburned nose and wind-parched lips; despite it all, I felt amazing.

I wanted more... If I hadn't reached the scheduled end of the trip, I could easily have been convinced to keep on riding.

What had seemed impossible now was done, and I was laughing at how easily possible it actually was...

I learned alot from this 104 mile bike ride (I started/finished 1/2 mile from the race s/f, and I didn't ride the 3 1/2 mile down and back portion... thus, 104/112 completed).

I learned that you can think about it and plan it and dream about it, or you can just do it. On 2 days notice I rode my bike more than a century! There was no planning... No specific training... None...

I learned that the wind can be your worst enemy, or make you feel like Lance... And when she is your enemy, you know she is to blame... But when she helps you, when she is helping to push you along, she doesn't get her props...

I learned that after mile 75, every crack in the road, every unexpected divot and crater, sends little cattle-prod shocks directly to my knees... And I curse, repeatedly, with every stretch of light gray road I see approaching because I know, my knees know, that light gray road means more shocks...

I learned that I can keep a reasonable pace over a 100 miles and NOT feel like ass the next day. I visited the hot tub a couple of times on the night of and morning after the ride, but I felt great... Maybe I should have pushed harder.

And I learned, finally, that there is a squirrel, or there was a squirrel, lost and weary and hungry on the Florida beach going from room to room in search of nuts... Heh, I think he found 1 in my room...

Thanks for joining me on my daily spin...