It has been a while since my last post, but not much has been going on. My training has tapered down and I was focusing on my biking in order to knock an item off my bucket list. Coach wanted me to complete a century this year in hopes that it will work to my advantage for Boulder IM. Well I DID IT, and then some.
In August, Stephanie I and I went up north to Fond du Lac, WI for Gather Race the Lake. It was definitely a challenge of a ride, as we were not allowed to drop into our areo bars. The first half was great, nice flat and fast. With the exception of Oshkosh that the roads were a mess, we kept on track for that half. The second half was OMG a challenge. Talk about rolling hills. At the half way point, we refueled and tried to decide how to tackle it. We first had to tackle "king of the hill"... I didn't know what I was gonna do. Will I walk it, will i fall over will i make it.. no one knew until I started. Then of coarse at the top of the hill is the photographer so I had no choice but to push thru it and get it done or else there would be proof of me walking it. But in the end I did it and I was soo happy. Stephanie encouraged me the whole way and that helped me a bunch. But with the rolling hills that came up I saw my pace starting to slow down, but we finished it and we were both happy. That was the furthest I'd riden to date.
Next on the agenda was a full Century. This one was for Rich and I to do together. I knew after Gather that this shouldn't be too difficult, especially since there isn't any rule about using your aerobars. I had that advantage. I also had my cassette updated on my bike in hopes to help me tackle those rolling hills. Although it felt like it helped, I still need to learn how to change my gears and really tackle those hills. This was such a great ride and it was awesome to be able experience it with Rich. I was so proud of him to get thru the ride on his mountain bike, which I'm sure was a challenge in itself.
The ride itself was pretty uneventful, at least until mile 48. I was ahead of Rich but didn't think by much, and so as I was waiting for him and for traffic to clear, I managed to fall. Yup first fall on my bike, I leaded toward the right, where my foot was still clipped in and BOMB I went down. The riders there were so great helping me up and making sure I was ok. Then when traffic cleared we crossed and headed off. Eventually Rich and I were together again, it seems that at that same intersection, Rich had a flat. So once he fixed that and I got an extra rest waiting at another intersection, we were on our way to the finish.
We decided that this will be our yearly tradition and that we will keep tackling the 100 and hills as our thing :)
