New Tires, Part Deux
by IronMo @ IronMo Returns: The Road to Ironman USA
Sat 7/8 - Woke up early (seriously, do I need to say that? Probably not), still feeling a little sore and congested, but not all that bad. Due to meet Heather at 8 to put new tires on her bike, then ride our silly little taper workout. Except. I forgot it was Time Trial day for the Tour, and that clearly takes precedence. Which it did.
By the time the (turned out to be pathetic – Bobby! You heartbreaker!) TT finished, I made it to Heather's, we changed her tires, and left on the ride, it was almost 10:30. We only had to ride 22 miles, or 90 minutes, so we rode through Golden Gate Park, and headed out around Lake Merced. There's a nice bike path that goes around the lake, though by 11:15 or so it was completely crowded with walkers, joggers, and a few other cyclists. We called out whenever we passed, but (Is it a full moon? We were speaking in tongues? Something?) no one seemed to hear us, and we had quite a few near-misses. One man in particular motioned to the road, as though we ought to be there, and yelled something unintelligible at us. But, it's a bike path, with a big sign that says "bikes here" so I said some very naughty things my mother would cringe if she heard (sorry mommy). My teammate Karen coined the term "IIS" -- Irritible Ironman Syndrome -- and I have it in full force. Thankfully, the rest of the ride was uneventful.
We ran 30 minutes after, and then were done for the day. Woo! I celebrated by going to the movie theater for the first time since New Year's Day (!), and then watching two more movies at home. Yeah. By the end of the night, my throat had entirely closed up, and I couldn't breathe. Maybe I celebrated too soon.
Sun 7/9 - supposed to swim 40 minutes in open water, then run 10 miles. I will take any excuse not to swim in Aquatic Park (though I'd actually been hoping to do one more open water swim). For you guys outside the Bay Area who don’t know this: when women get out of the water at Aquatic Park, we often have a slimy "beard" of crud. Which, among other things, says to me the water's not so clean. It's bad enough going in there with full immunity, but I decided I need every advantage to feel better, so I sat out and watched everyone's stuff while they swam. (Oohh, aren’t I magnanimous. Uh, no. Selfish, actually. I knew I’d never run 10 miles unless I went with some teammates!)
When everyone finished, I ran with John and Paul. (These two are both soooooooo much faster than me. Thanks to you guys for slowing down today so I had some company!) We had a very uneventful run, out past the Golden Gate Bridge, out the costal trail (very cold, fog rolling in, happy July in SF), down to Baker Beach and back. In celebration of taper, we opted NOT to run the Sand Stairs -- and thus also missed the naked men on Baker Beach. Hooray. Capped it off with a 15 minute soak in AP to "ice" the legs down.
Tomorrow we send the bikes, so I'll head to Sports Basement after work, take off my little guy's pedals, and wave goodbye. We're also allowed to send ahead a bag. At first I thought I didn't need to do this - planning what I need in two weeks seemed too overwhelming. I remembered the gigantic duffle I sent ahead to Canada in '04 (it included, among other things, my floor pump and a food processor), and Izumi convinced me to send a bag after all.
Well.
We have a 25# limit, and I don't own a scale, so I'm only guessing. But already this bag includes: wetsuit, 10 servings of Perpetuem powder, 3 water bottles, 6 M & M containers (empty! To hold Endurolytes on race day), a full bottle of Endurolytes, bike shorts and bike shirt (I hesitated to put these in, thinking, "what if they get lost?" But, if they get lost, it means my BIKE is also lost. So there's probably a better chance of these arriving than my luggage from the airline), 7 HammerGels, Assos, Body Glide, ear plugs, a whisk, Immodium, duct tape, 8 CO2 cartridges, a pedal wrench, a can of Pringles, soy butter, honey, and 4 700cc tubes.
Jesus.
Hopefully TriBikeTransport doesn't own a scale, either!
By the time the (turned out to be pathetic – Bobby! You heartbreaker!) TT finished, I made it to Heather's, we changed her tires, and left on the ride, it was almost 10:30. We only had to ride 22 miles, or 90 minutes, so we rode through Golden Gate Park, and headed out around Lake Merced. There's a nice bike path that goes around the lake, though by 11:15 or so it was completely crowded with walkers, joggers, and a few other cyclists. We called out whenever we passed, but (Is it a full moon? We were speaking in tongues? Something?) no one seemed to hear us, and we had quite a few near-misses. One man in particular motioned to the road, as though we ought to be there, and yelled something unintelligible at us. But, it's a bike path, with a big sign that says "bikes here" so I said some very naughty things my mother would cringe if she heard (sorry mommy). My teammate Karen coined the term "IIS" -- Irritible Ironman Syndrome -- and I have it in full force. Thankfully, the rest of the ride was uneventful.
We ran 30 minutes after, and then were done for the day. Woo! I celebrated by going to the movie theater for the first time since New Year's Day (!), and then watching two more movies at home. Yeah. By the end of the night, my throat had entirely closed up, and I couldn't breathe. Maybe I celebrated too soon.
Sun 7/9 - supposed to swim 40 minutes in open water, then run 10 miles. I will take any excuse not to swim in Aquatic Park (though I'd actually been hoping to do one more open water swim). For you guys outside the Bay Area who don’t know this: when women get out of the water at Aquatic Park, we often have a slimy "beard" of crud. Which, among other things, says to me the water's not so clean. It's bad enough going in there with full immunity, but I decided I need every advantage to feel better, so I sat out and watched everyone's stuff while they swam. (Oohh, aren’t I magnanimous. Uh, no. Selfish, actually. I knew I’d never run 10 miles unless I went with some teammates!)
When everyone finished, I ran with John and Paul. (These two are both soooooooo much faster than me. Thanks to you guys for slowing down today so I had some company!) We had a very uneventful run, out past the Golden Gate Bridge, out the costal trail (very cold, fog rolling in, happy July in SF), down to Baker Beach and back. In celebration of taper, we opted NOT to run the Sand Stairs -- and thus also missed the naked men on Baker Beach. Hooray. Capped it off with a 15 minute soak in AP to "ice" the legs down.
Tomorrow we send the bikes, so I'll head to Sports Basement after work, take off my little guy's pedals, and wave goodbye. We're also allowed to send ahead a bag. At first I thought I didn't need to do this - planning what I need in two weeks seemed too overwhelming. I remembered the gigantic duffle I sent ahead to Canada in '04 (it included, among other things, my floor pump and a food processor), and Izumi convinced me to send a bag after all.
Well.
We have a 25# limit, and I don't own a scale, so I'm only guessing. But already this bag includes: wetsuit, 10 servings of Perpetuem powder, 3 water bottles, 6 M & M containers (empty! To hold Endurolytes on race day), a full bottle of Endurolytes, bike shorts and bike shirt (I hesitated to put these in, thinking, "what if they get lost?" But, if they get lost, it means my BIKE is also lost. So there's probably a better chance of these arriving than my luggage from the airline), 7 HammerGels, Assos, Body Glide, ear plugs, a whisk, Immodium, duct tape, 8 CO2 cartridges, a pedal wrench, a can of Pringles, soy butter, honey, and 4 700cc tubes.
Jesus.
Hopefully TriBikeTransport doesn't own a scale, either!