Saturday, March 28, 2009

Really?






























Really? It's Saturday morning and I'm out in the cold and rain for a bike ride? A 45 mile ride with hills?
This was the same ride I did last year that I ended up cutting off about 20 miles because we were beat, behind, and sore. This year I had something to prove, so although I really wanted to turn around at the aid station, I somehow managed to talk myself into continuing on to Pumpkin Ridge.

The ride started out with Coach Jane giving us a little speech that basically said, "it's raining. Suck it up!" She told us what her coach told her - for every negative that comes out of our mouths (or into our minds) we need to counteract it with two positives. This short but sweet speech actually ended up playing over and over in my mind today. Any time a negative entered my mind: "I can't feel my feet anymore, but I know that they are probably turning to rot right now in these soaking wet shoes" got counteracted with I HAVEN'T HAD A FLAT YET!! YEHAW!!
"My chafed crotch has now fused to my seat" got counteracted with I HAVEN'T HAD A FLAT YET!! WHOOHOOO!!! "My fingers won't obey my commands to shift or brake (uh oh)" got counteracted with I HAVEN'T HAD A FLAT YET!!! THANK YOU, GOD!!
So you see, Jane was my hero for this ride and so when I saw her at the finish line I gave her a nice wet, muddy, stinky hug. I feel kind of bad about that now...

So we went up and up and up and up and up and up skyline. Sucked! But, I counteracted that with, "hey, I remember this hill from last year when I WALKED UP IT!!!". YES!!! Rode that last hill all the way up!!! Out of my seat and with nothing left to give, but I did it!! Downhill from there - and we were flying at one point - scary flying - and then hit a hill that did in my bike. My chain got stuck in a very wrong gear and it was pointless to try to keep riding, so I got off and when I realized I was walking as fast as everyone else was riding, I just gave my crotch a little break.

Back on and away we go to the aid station where we realized just HOW WET and COLD we were. This was where my mind told me turn back and not attempt Pumpkin Ridge - I've never done PR before and all I knew about it was that it is 7 miles uphill. I was concerned most that I was going to bonk because although I came well prepared with gels and bars and drink, I wasn't using any of them because it was too cold to try to eat/drink while riding with fingers that already were not braking or shifting and it was too cold to stop to try to get stuff in me - didn't seem worth it to get the shivers back...so on we went.

The rain felt like hail or tacks flying at our faces on the downhills, but I was stuck now...too far out for me to reasonably make it back on my own without getting lost, plus I wanted to kick this ride in the butt!! We made it up Pumpkin Ridge no problem. Michelle talked me up almost the whole way and before I knew it we were heading back down. Sooooo
Coooooooooooooooooooooooold. I've got nothing else to say. It just sucked. Sorry, Coach Jane.

We made it back in 3:25:19 with 45.77 miles under our belts. FELT FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!
I thought I was going to start crying trying to get my bike back on the truck. I had to sit in the truck for like 15 minutes with the heater on full blast just to get me warmed up enough to drive safely. I couldn't feel my feet at all. Actually that's not true, it just felt like I had two big blocks attached to my legs. I was shivering so hard my jaw locked up. I'm not making this stuff up.
ALL WORTH IT, THOUGH!!! It's workouts like this that make you all fuzzy for the rest of the day.

Well, my head is starting to get kind of woozy and warm...so I'm off to hit the couch for some well earned zzzzzzzs.

UPDATE: Of the entire team, 8 people made it through the entire 45 miles to include Pumpkin Ridge. All 8 were...

GIRLS!!!!! WOOT !!!

5 comments:

GClef1970 said...

Jules, you are AWESOME!!! I am so proud of you! (& so happy that someone as amazing as you wants to run Disney with me!) You are unstoppable!!!! WOOT!!!

Anonymous said...

Julie that is unbelievable. I mean...I believe you :) it's just that I"m sitting here going "WOW".

~Helen

A Prelude To... said...

Melissa - I can't wait for Disney with YOU!!

Helen. I thought it was pretty unbelievable when I was out there, too. I couldn't believe how incredibly bad it sucked! But I'm still flying high from it!!

Visionquester said...

Congrats! I loved this account.
Got a great visual of your chafed crotch though.

~C.

A Prelude To... said...

haha - nothing like crotch talk to liven up a post. I had to clean up my post a bit before I posted it on my TNT Webpage ;o)