Century Sunday

Big Bike Sunday!
I plotted out a great Century ride for myself while Mrs LoTC headed out for her own ride with her Girlfriend. I planned to do the same first peice of route with them except her friend showed up early and they left without me! Not a problem as I quickly through my gear together and rushed out the door to catch up to them. Either they were waaay quicker than I expected or I was slower at getting ready than I thought because it took me forever to catch them. I opted to follow a longer portion of their course to catch up to them since I wanted to snap a couple of photos of them in action. Unfortunately I had to add in a significant number of climbs to finally catch them. They were faaaar ahead of me. I got my photos though!
I came across another tri-dork that had the same bike as me! A rare find, especially since he claimed he bought it used on Ebay with a cracked from and he 'fixed' it himself. I'm not sure how he fixed a cracked carbon frame himself but I wish I would have asked!
We parted ways and I got down to business heading out on my solo century ride. Cutting across to Woodstock from Cambridge meant some great scenery but where the heck did all those hills come from? I could have sworn that road was flat, I remember it being flat - except this time there was hill after hill! It probably wouldn't have been so bad but it was coupled with a killer headwind.

Once in Woodstock I went and pre-rode the 30km race course for the following weekend's triathlon. I kind of got lost but a quick check on the iPhone using that little 'find me now' feature and I was back on course. I met a fellow tri-dork that had a thick accent, Alex. Woodstock will be his frist triathlon and he had already signed up for Ironman Muskoka 70.3! Thats exactly what we did last year, signing up for a half-Iron before ever first doing a triathlon of any kind! hah, I liked this guy already! After some brief tri-talk he made it painfully obvious he wanted me to take the lead. I obliged and took off, I figure he felt pressured to go faster with me hanging around. By the time I finished pre-riding the race course I was running out of gas. I certainly had enough to eat and drink but my energy levels were dropping, most likely the result of sprinting all those hills earlier trying to catch the gurls. I welcomed an extended stop at a gas bar while I chatted with the local has-been cyclist turned overweight handy-man. He sure could talk, but it was interesting and I was trying to procrastinate making that return trip home. After what felt like forever, I started riding home and paid the price - no tailwind! I waited so long that the wind died down and the fierce headwind gave way to nothing at all! I thought for sure I would have a fast ride home.

So given that this was only 100 Miles, I got pretty tired which sort of concerns me considering IMLP is much further. Then again I just ran 26Km and swam 3Km the day before so thats not exactly the best taper for a big bike. Every mile was a quality mile so I'm glad it wasn't any further, no garbage miles needed here. :)

Recovery beers. That hit the spot. Drinking piss warm powerade and ass-hot gels gets old real fast. Them beers were like heaven! Even after pigging out on food all night, I still woke up 2.2lbs lower than my record lightest weight! WOW! I figured dehydration lol!  166.4!!

Open Swim Race Course