77 days and $1485 to go!

This has been a good week. I've been looking forward all week to my brother's century (100 mile) ride, which was Saturday. But, I'll tell you about that later.

The training week started for me, as usual, on tuesday with a three mile run from home, looping through the park and returning home. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet some of my TNT team members so I joined a training ride that evening in Chagrin Falls. I flatted about a mile into the ride but we still completed about 24 miles, one mile short of the olympic distance ride. I met two of my TNT members and enjoyed a cold drink with them at the local pub after the ride.

The next two days, I ran five then three miles. I'm feeling rather sluggish on the runs, so I discussed that with one of my friends, who just completed her first iron man. Awesome! She suggested that I plan a one mile easy warmup to let my muscles ease into the run. I'll try that this week when I run.

I have a second road bike that I use on the long rides with my brother. It has a rack for saddlebags and works well for touring. I haven't ridden it for a while so I checked it on thursday only to discover that the rear tire was flat. So, I went to the bike store and bought four tubes, four patch kits, chain lube, and bike cleaner. After replacing the rear tube and giving my bike a quick cleaning I judged that I was ready to go.

Saturday, the day of the century ride, in Cincinnati was sunny and clear with temperatures rising into the 90s during the day. Seven people started the ride. Two people, my brother and I, finished. The secret for me was making sure I had plenty to eat and drink during the ride. I started with a big bag of trail mix and three full water bottles. I grabbed a handfull or two of trail mix each time we stopped and sipped water every few minutes. Breakfast was a three egg omelet with a side of bacon and the biggest glass of orange juice I've ever seen. Lunch was a bowl of beef barley soup and a spinach salad.

My legs felt good after the ride but I was pretty wiped out. I'm still smiling, though, as you can see from the picture. But, I took the next two days off. Back to running tomorrow. :)