clear eyes, full heart...

my alarm went off on Saturday morning at 5. i was supposed to meet Roo between 715-730 for a 54 mile ride. i snoozed until 530, knowing i needed to get my breakfast in sooner than later with the way my poor stomach reacts to food and riding. everything down, packed and ready to go - i was out the door and on the road by 7.

here you maybe asking yourself "why in the world would you go from NOT riding your bike in three months, save for a short 25 mile ride 2 weeks ago, to riding 54 miles in one stint? do you really think that's the best idea? have you thought this through?"

your answer would go something like "no because i'm katie b. i have no qualms about killing myself on a training day. i actually welcome it. i want to see 1) if my brain can react to my bodies nutrition needs 2) how my knees will feel now that i am back on Muffasa instead of the too small road bike i was riding before and 3) what exactly my body could do at this exact moment in time. and because i can do anything i put my mind to."

or so goes the conversation in my mind whilst on the one of the dumbest ideas of a ride i have attempted yet. in the end, it turned out well and i am quite happy with the lessons learned and the results achieved.
1) i was slightly faster than Roo last season. she completely kicked my ass on the ride - as in she could have easily dropped me early on and i wouldn't have stood a chance trying to find my way through the route mainly because of my complete inability to sense directions and for the fact that she had the map. thank God we were riding together and she felt responsible for keeping me within sight :)

2) 20 miles in i had the very real, clear thought "this was a really BAD idea."

3) i didn't bonk at all which is HUGE! i had 200 kcals in liquid nutrition from my one water bottle and 400 kcals in vanilla bean GUs. i felt good. actually, surprisingly good for a what seemed to be endless romp of ups and downs, with more ups than downs of course. i finished off the ride by getting down my other bottle of just water and that seemed to be perfect. i did start to feel hungry about a half mile from the end and could have afforded one more GU, but decided i had a feast waiting for me in less than 20 so i opted to wait for that. MPC would have made me go ahead and choke another one down, but he wasn't there so i got away with it. i do think that all of the progress made on the nutrition riding front is due to his diligent harping on our rides together so thank goodness it stuck with me and i was able to know my needs and answer them before they even became a question.

4) my knees felt pretty damn good. even with the excessive addition in mileage, even with all the climbing - my knees never got angry. slightly cranky later in the day, but not angry like they usually are and THAT people is FANTASTIC news! this does not, however, mean that i will be attempting to run today or tomorrow. it does mean that this weekend i may try to do a walk/run combo and see what that produces.

5) total mileage ended up being 56.5 miles (which included a couple of missed turns and round abouts to get back on track), 15 mph (which is SO slow for me, but hey - what did i really expect? - i think Roo probably average at least 16-17) that included hitting every single solitary red light in between Solano Beach and Elfin Road, if i remember correctly 3 hours and 40 minutes of ride time or somewhere there abouts and i think Roo said it was something like 5600 ft. of elevation gain - i didn't really pay too much attention to the numbers, i was just stoked that i had a) completed the ride without dying and b) was about to gorge myself with good food.

6) my friends are great support. thanks Trent and Sam for the route map. thank you Roo for letting me ride with you, for not completely dropping my ass and for being so nice along the way. thank you Iris for everything - there's too much to list, but thank you for all of it. oh and thanks BG for letting me do a load of laundry :)

in the end, i was EXHAUSTED. i felt like a had been thrown up against a brick wall at a hundred miles per hour. i had a seriously hard time moving around for the rest of the day and when i finally got to bed, slept like i always do after a kick-you-in-the-teeth workout - like shit, but oh man was it worth it...