Century Ride
I rode a century yesterday organized by
Crista Borras. The ride start was in Hyattstown, MD at 7am and the mercury was in the low 20s.
I started drinking from my water bottle, but it turned into a slurpee. I tried my Camelback, but the hose was frozen. I shoved the hose down the inside of my shirt.
When I got to the rest stop at 25 miles, I looked inside my water bottle and there was a half inch of ice around the inside of the bottle. I stepped into the porta-potty and before I could pull down my shorts I felt a waterfall down my front. It turned out the ice in the camelback hose had pushed the little lever out enough that it was letting a flood of water out and once it melted it let the water flow. The last thing you want to happen in 20 degree weather is to get soaked, but it turned out I had enough layers on that I didn't really feel the wetness.
Lunch was a sit-down affair at a restaurant. This was a bit unusual, spending an hour at a restaurant in the middle of a century, C'est la vie.
Cold weather tip of the day: Blow the water back into the Camelback to keep it from freezing when you leave the car, don't think that it can wait 15 minutes. Also, blow the water back in everytime you take a drink.
Link
Looking Ahead
I'd like to hear from you.
1) What Cycling or Training related lessons have you learned in 2004.
2) What was your favorite ride and why?
3) Send me your training related questions and I'll have the coaches respond here.
Send email to
Transplant Athlete. Please note we will not reply unless you ask for a reply. We hate Spammers as much as you do. I'll post the best ones here and you'll get full credit!
Blood Pressure
I always have a hard time controlling my blood pressure in the off-season. I tend to take weeks off at a time, when I do ride, I ride less. It has been worse this year, my job had me working many hours and frequent weekends. Which as we all know are the key to riding when the days are shorter. For instance, the Thanksgiving week, most people at my company worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I was stupid and volunteered to show our bikes at a Bass Pro Shop on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I took Thanksgiving off, but I was so tired, I skipped going up to my in-laws. Now, I know you're thinking, "I'd do anything to skip visits with the in-laws," but the in-laws have been getting better and Thanksgiving is a major holiday. My family always does Thanksgiving huge. Appetizers, Pasta Course, Turkey course, desserts. There is so much food on the table its insane. OOOPs, weird tangent.
So back to work, I worked Monday through Sunday with Thursday off and totaled 60 hours of work time, not counting some of my travel time. I did manage to get in some riding time on the exercise bike at the
Fairfield Inn. Anytime I travel, I run the risk of increased blood pressure, see my earlier post on blood pressure vs. nutrition; so, getting on an exercise bike really helps.
I just quit my job,so at least for the next couple of weeks, I should be able to keep a tight rein on my blood pressure. Also, its time to start ramping up my training for the 24 hour race in Sebring, Florida again. I loved working for
Wavecrest Labs The people were great and the product is cutting edge. I should write more about Wavecrest, but I'll leave that for another time.
The consequence of not controlling blood pressure? My mother's 52 year old cousin hadn't been taking his blood pressure meds in nearly two months, he just had a stroke.