DONNER LAKE HALF IRONMAN-THE BIKE

In any triathlon I’ve done, the swim is always my strongest leg. I swam in college and have always maintained a pretty decent fitness level swimming. Well, you all know how my swim leg went… so that didn’t bode well for the rest of my race. After getting out of the lake at 38 minutes, I got on my bike and headed up old Highway 40. It’s 3 miles of straight up. It’s a grind, but I’ve done it before and so knew what to expect. At the top, I was preparing to just settle in and make sure I stayed on top of my nutrition. Nutrition was key for me in this race since I couldn’t really work out for 2 months leading up to it. I had to have good nutrition!! At the top of 40, I heard this weird “zip” followed by an odd “splat.” 2 minutes later, the same weird “zip” followed by an identical “splat.” WTH? So I look down and two of my Gus, which Lynn had painstakingly taped to my bike, had ripped off and splatted on the road. CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!! All I have in this race is nutrition!!! And now, of my 3 Gus taped to my bike, I’ve lost 2. I quickly grabbed the third one and stuffed it in my sports bra. That baby had to be safe. I also stuffed my bra with 2 of my homemade power bars (recipe for these nuggets of goodness to come as well… if I can convince my partner in the kitchen, Ken, to give up the recipe!). So now, instead of eating every 40 minutes, I was going to have to extend it to about every 1 hour and 10 minutes. Not ideal. After the big climb out of the lake, the ride went from Sugarbowl Ski Resort down to Cisco Grove, back up to Sugarbowl, back down to Cisco Grove and then back up to Sugarbowl and finally back down to the lake.  Total of 56 miles.  My first lap was actually pretty good. The downhills were super fun and the up hills were super challenging. But I was still in a good mood, so life was ok. The second loop,everything changed. The downhill seemed longer, the uphill seemed to never end. My mood went from jovial, talking to fellow racers, to pissed off asking myself why I would ever sign up for something like this, let alone pay good money to do it! Maybe it was because I had about 70% lung capacity, according to one of my doctors. Maybe it was because I hadn’t worked out in 60 days. Or maybe because it was simply a brutal course.  I don’t know why I hated this ride so much, but it doesn’t matter.  This ride was a bitch… and the last thing I wanted to do when I finally got off the bike after 3 hours and 50 minutes was go for a run… let alone a 13 mile run.  I’ll let you know how that half marathon went, tomorrow.