All aboard the pain train!

Heya,

By now the butt and crotchal(is this a word?) area was getting quite tender. Two words come to mind Chamois butter(ok that's 2 words right there) and polysporin. If there's one thing I learned this weekend was to keep the boys happy down there. This day would prove to be another long day in the saddle. We got up early, some left an hour earlier to get a jump on the bike course. Yes that's right the whole IMC bike course today. All 180km of it, well 160 if you skip the out and back.

The second group got started and we tooker pretty easy all the way to Richter pass. Staying in a pack and even mixing it up with the Crit. speed guys, why those wheel sucking bastards!!! ha ha j/k. We also had a tail wind which made the effort pretty low and I think my heart rate never crossed 120 cept for climbing the somthing creek road? That first bigger climb out of town, oh McClain somthing. Anyways you know which one I'm talking about. We even rode with Coach Cal for a bit, till we got tired of his slow pace and decided to drop their grp. ;)

The first stop of the day.... you guessed it Husky in Osoyoos. Yesterday we took a left turn, today we go right and go up Richter. This is where the pace picked up and Greg very quickly showed us his climbing legs(gotta get me a pair). I think Trevor and I kept up with him for the first section and then got dropped on the second. For those that don't know there are 4 sections up Richter with a break between each. Trevor had a tougher part so I moved on ahead of him only to have him come back at me when we got to the top. I had to really work hard to keep on his back wheel when he came by me at the top. As you see on the pic I did manage to stay with him, but barely.

Maybe this was my doom, I'm not sure. I really don't care and am not worried in the least about my pacing. Training is for testing your limits, blowing up, taking risks and I certainly did. as we descended Richter and hit the rollers I knew I was in trouble. My foot started to swell again, aughhhh I couldn't even keep up on the down hills and Greg and Trevor quickly dropped me. On the last couple of rollers I could hardly put any weight on the pedals, and thats about the time the head wind hit. I normally like a good head wind, I love the challenge, but not today. Oh I had also forgotten to bring my debit card, I had my nutrition, but I was already thinking worst case scenario. I was riding so slow I was sure Greg, Trevor, Andrea would be leaving the Big Bear fruit stand already. Leaving me to fend for myself.

Oh well I rode on alone trying to keep positive, I kept looking up and trying to spot the roof of the fruit shop. I didn't know exactly where it was, which only made me worse. I passed a fork in the road earlier, I wasn't seeing any more cyclists, should I have turned down that road??? Oh well there weren't too many options for roads and I was making my way through the valley so I knew I was at least headed the right direction. Finally I spotted Greg up ahead, ahhhhh my saviour, I tryed to act cool but honestly I was quite happy to see him and relieved that I wasn't that far back. He quickly pointed out the directions(I was on the right road yayyyyy) and told me the others would be waiting for me at the fruit stand. That was good news as I really wanted to ride into town with them.

I got there and quickly took off my shoes, my toes were really happy to get some fresh air. I was also out of infinit so I made some more and quickly got ready to go again. Starting out with Trevor and Andrea I got to draft a bit again till we hit yellow lake. I even felt good enough to help Trevor pull at times. It's amazing how the body can feel utterly destroyed at one moment and with a 5 min. break can feel almost 100% fresh again. It's called fitness, I love it. Yellow lake wasn't as tough and the pitch was actually quite gradual. This time I didn't go as hard and let Trevor go almost right away. He was nice and waited at the top for me and Andrea. This chick can ride!!!!

The ride down hill into town was nice, there were some cross winds as we winded down into the valley so you had to watch the speed a bit, but it was all good. It was a relief to see Penticton. We made it!!! I tryed to imagine how it would feel race day, I'm guessing no matter how many miles you do in training finishing the 180km time trial will always be a relief. Hopefully I will have fresh running legs come race day so I can really make use of my so called strength.

We took a bit of a longer route through town which meant Mark actually caught and passed us by taking a more direct route, down main duhhhhh. Oh well we're not racing, he beat us fair and square so we headed out for a quick run to the lake and along the beach. We did maybe 20 min tops and decided to go in (Trevor, Andrea and myself). There's nothing like that cold water to help you recover. It feels soooooooooooo good.

After today's ride we had planned to go to a nice restaurant, but some of us couldn't wait so we ordered pizza from the hut. It tasted so good and I literally couldn't stop eating till I was over full. I didn't count but I did eat a lot, and we also went to some Greek place, I think it was called Theo's. I wasn't hungry there and just helped someone with their appetizer and had a couple beer. Yummyyyyyy That was pretty much it, we got back to the rooms, talked a pile, ate some more(I'm not sure we actually ever stopped) and went to bed feeling good about the 3 day mileage. I think it was 160+90+160 = 410 km (our 3 day total) In the words of Borat "VERY NIIIIIICE!!".

The pic at the top is me desparately trying to stay on Trevor's wheel as we crest Richter's pass. I'll be going much easier come race day, don't worry coach.