Me, my bike, and Ironman

It's been an interesting week. Home sick with the stomach flu for a few days of it. Finally started to feel a little better on Friday. Was able to get in 3k in the pool, all of it really easy. We then took off to Bend as we had some wedding stuff to attend to. I got up early and went out for my long ride of the week Saturday morning. I originally had another century on tap, but with the way I had been feeling lately we had decided to do this ride based on feel. So if I was feeling absolutely great, then maybe I would go the full 5 to 6 hours. If still feeling like crap, well then I would go an hour. You see, it doesn't really matter at this point. I mean it does, but it doesn't matter like you think it does. Going out and hammering a 6 hour ride 3 weeks before IMC isn't going to help me go faster. Getting sick again by doing this well most certainly help me go slower though!

So I set off from our hotel room and headed up Century drive towards Cascade Lakes hwy and Mt. Bachelor. I didn't feel great. Muscles were tired, low motivation, etc. I could tell I was still recovering from being sick. So I took it very easy, spinning up the hill. Despite this I was flying by people heading up the climb which made me feel great. I crested the summit and headed down the back side to Elk Lake where I turned around. I climbed back up to the summit again and then back to the hotel room. Overall I felt pretty good about the ride considering my current health. The thing I was most happy about is that my asthma (knock on wood!!) has yet to be impacted!

While on the ride, my bike and I had a few conversations. I told her she needs to go fast in 3 weeks. She told me she would. I thanked her for going hard at IMAZ, but asked why she was so slow at Boise 70.3? She laughed at me and told me to be smarter in my training and not race sick. I had to admire my bike at that moment. Not only is she worth more than me, but she was talking smarter than me to :) So we made a deal, I told her I would be smart the next 3 weeks and taper like a champ. I even committed to riding a strategic race in Canada, including not hammering out to Osoyoos or up Richter. In turn, she committed to a strong second half of the bike and promised my legs would be good for the marathon.

Let me tell you, it's good to have friends in this sport :) Thanks for reading,

-T