Catching Up: Mud, Good Samaritans, & 18 miles

Geez... I gotta blog more!!! Ok, so we'll start with my Thursday Mar 27 mountain biking adventure at Chickasaw. Final pre-ride before the big race! I took the day off work and spent the night and next day with my mom until around 1:30. I had a hair appt in the boro at 5:30 so I was really pushing it. It was a beautiful day and I felt like I should slip in a final lap at Chiki before race-day! And boy was it a good ride! I took another 4 minutes off of my lap time for a 55:29, 8.8 avg speed! I was so shocked!!! As I gathered all my stuff up to leave, the first thing I always do is remove the helmet, I sat it on top of my car and said "Don't you leave that!" and then got all my gear together, bike on the rack and OFF to the boro I go to get a hair-do. I was totally pumped!!!

Got my hair done, and went on my merry little way for the rest of the wet rainy weekend just like all week had been :-/ Not good at all for mtn biking especially at Chickasaw. Evidentally... it's like a nightmare trying to ride there if it's the least bit wet. Saturday night I got all of my things together for the race. Let's see....... got my shoes, shorts, gloves, jersey, water bottle, camelbak, helmet in the car - always leave that in there. It started raining again in the middle of the night. I had called Angela earlier that evening to see what her feel of the trail would be -- and she had gotten word it was terrible!!! Sunday morning I am wide awake at 5:30 raring to go and all the sudden I get this awful feeling. After hearing about the damage mud can do to my precious gary fisher, and watching a Youtube video of some dudes mtn biking in the mud..... I had second thoughts. I finally decided my first race did not need to be a miserable one and I chose not to make the trip. I was totally bummed for a couple of days until I saw the results and saw that last year's winner in my class was 17 minutes faster than this year's. Then I heard from Angela and she had some major crashes because of the mud and ended up with a really terrible cut which required 5 stitches! So I am content with my decision now! :-/

So, Monday I ran 4.5 miles in Normandy where 2.5 of those miles are brutal hills. Then Tuesday, nothing - rain. Wednesday I plan to hop on my road bike for the first time off the trainer. I planned an easy spin during my lunch hour. I go out to my car to get my clothes to change and discover the helmet is not in my car. Wait a minute.... it's always in my car. It can't be at home??? When's the last time you saw it Holly "the first thing I always do is remove the helmet, I sat it on top of my car and said 'Don't you leave that!'" Oh no. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am devastated. It's gone. What a careless ridiculous stupid freakin mistake!!!! So I thought I'd try one last thing before ordering another Giro Atmos black size small - $185... I emailed Angela with the Columbia Cycling Club to see if there was a chance anyone woulda turned it in IF it was found and not smashed and if so.... is there a place or a person to contact. 1 hour later I receive an email from a man over the club telling me that a good samaritan by the name of Wade Combs had found my helmet -- last Thursday! OMG... you are kidding. There really ARE good people out there! I was ecstatic! Wade -- my HERO! So I call him and describe the helmet and sure enough - it's mine! YAY!!! So it's prob a good thing I didnt make the trip to Columbia Sunday to race withOUT my helmet. I woulda felt like a tool with a capital T! Turned out Jamie works next to his work in Franklin so she delivered it to me yesterday on her way to the big Niota, TN! :-) Thanks Wade. Thanks Angela, Thanks Columbia Cycling Club, Thanks Jamie!

So, Thursday evening after work I did a 6 mile run. I felt pretty darn good the whole time! 53:39 - 8:56 pace. I'll take it! No knee pain. At ALL! This morning my plan was to fill up my fuel belt with sport beans, shot blocks, and fluids. I took off from Rayfields around 8:45 thinkin I MIGHT make it around 12 miles before I fall out and die. I have no idea what I am capable of right now - probably not much! But we'll find out - and this is going to determine if I am going to scale down for the half mary on Apr 26 or if I am going to go with my original plan prior to 2 knee injuries and a deathly stomach virus. Well, it just so happens.... I went freakin 18!!! Total surprise! Here's how it went: Mile 5 - 3 oz of water. Mile 6 - 3 oz of water and a shot block. Mile 7 - 3 oz of gatorade endurance formula. Mile 9 - 3 oz of water. Mile 11 - 3 oz of gatorade EF and a half of a shot block which had to be expelled because I got a bad nausea feeling and couldn't stomach swallowing part of it. Mile 12.25 - I died. I was hurting... and still feeling sick and light-headed. I conceded and speed-walked .25 of a mile - around 2 minutes worth. Starting back hurt like hell! But I tell myself my body will only do as much as my mind allows. So, mile 15 I do 3 oz of water. Mile 17 I do 3 oz of gatorade EF and I ended up seeing that I would only hit 17.1 if I went straight back to my car. So I had to run back and forth on the greenway (I picked a flat section) until I hit 18!!!! I DID IT!!!!! Victory!!!!

So... I don't see that it's possible to add 8 more to that. How in the world will I ever do that in 3 weeks? I can't imagine adding 2 more to be honest. At mile 16.5 I had the dead robot leg feeling - like they wouldn't bend and I was doing all I could do to push out a 10 minute mile. It was not pretty. Total time: 2:49 Pace: 9:23. And guess what - no flu like stomach issues after my run finally!!! Talk about self-fullfillment! Wow! It's been a great week!!!

My mother is improving my leaps and bounds recovering from her surgery. That makes me so happy :-) I got to enjoy about 3 hours of fellowship, wine and dessert with Bethany Friday night. Good times! That was good for the soul! :-)