Udder Century Ride

This past weekend I rode in the Udder Century ride, an organized and supported bike ride in Union, IL. The course offered 30, 50, 62, 75, and 100 mile options, and I opted for the 75 mile one - time to up the ante! The good news was that this is the first time I've rode a flat course this season - it was SO NICE to just ride and not think about technical gearing to efficiently tackle the up and down of a hilly course. The bad news was that it was incredibly windy on the way out - the kind of wind that blows you off the road in the middle of flat farm land. To add insult to injury, it started pouring the last 5-7 miles. Just have not had great luck with my long-ride weather so far! At least I'm training in all conditions! The 75 miles went pretty well - it was a big jump from my longest ride so far of 56 miles, but great to be in the saddle for that long for the first time in my training.

I've been lucky to find a few girls to train with. One of my colleagues at work is also tackling IM Moo as her first attempt at IM. She has introduced me to some of her other triathlon friends, and they have been nice enough to include me in events like Udder - always nice to see a few friendly faces out there - and it makes 4.5 hour rides pass much faster when you can chat! :)

Here's the group before the ride - we didn't line up in any specific order, but we certainly coordinated our colors well!

Less Than 100 Days!!

May Training

Swim – 21,100 yards; 6 hours 15 minutes

Bike – 367 miles; 23 hours 7 minutes
Run – 104 miles; 15 hours 27 minutes
Total – 44 hours, 49 minutes

The end of May marked the halfway point in my IM training – 15 weeks down, 15 weeks to go. That is crazy! I definitely can’t believe that I’m over halfway through the training program. So far, its been relatively enjoyable – although it has been difficult to fit the workouts in (especially since I’m working a TON and traveling to NY almost every week….), the fact that every day it’s a different sport to work on has so far kept my interest – so much different than marathon training, where I would get burned out thinking that I had to run almost every day. So far, so good on the injury front too.

Since my chilly, awful ride of the IM bike loop, I have ridden the course two more times. Both times it was close to 80 degrees, but still MUCH more enjoyable than the maiden journey. Wow, do I LOVE biking this course! Its tough, but its so beautiful! One of these times I’m going to take some pics to share. So the new goal has been to find my “outfit” for the race. Yes, the outfit is more important than just finding the right colors, I have to be comfortable in this all day (and most importantly, my butt has to be as comfortable as possible while I’m riding for 7 hours). Here is my recent purchase, Orca 226 Tri-gear:

Going to try this out on my next ride and see how it goes. Up next this weekend is an Olympic distance triathlon in Madison – 1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, and 6 mile run. I’m excited to do a race and will post pics.

Because of the pending race, last week I did my first swim in Lake Michigan in my new wetsuit. Even though I have swam all of my life and am a pretty strong swimmer, the open water swim scares the crap out of me. My theory is that because I have spent all of my life swimming in nice clean, chlorinated water staring at a black line, that swimming in murky water without a black line and with a wet suit choking me sends my brain into a tail spin and I panic. So I made my way down to the beach, got the wetsuit on, stood in shallow water for 5 minutes trying to calm myself down, and finally put my face in the water. The swim was a success - tried out my wetsuit and managed to swim about a mile.

This months goals:

1) Not panic in swim this weekend

2) Change out my cassette on my bike so I have an extra easy gear for the IM hills!

2.5) In the same trip to the LBS, have them check my aero positioning

3) Swim 3000 yds every swim workout

4) Stretching and core workout three times a week

5) Hydrate more and eat better! I have been eating like crap since I am never home!

6) Look into a new saddle for my bike