Route 5

The training is goign well. Saturday is scheduled a 50 and 3 brick - 50 mile ride, 3 mile run. I plan with Diane, Mary, and Teresa so we can push each other through the ride. We meet at 7am at shiplock park. (haven't heard of it - yeah no one had!). but it was a good location to hop on over to route 5 and begin our journey. we all make sure we have our nutrician and hydration, cell phones, emergency cash, and oh yeah flat kits, too! we're ready.

the journey beings with a 50 yard straight up hill! mary and teresa look at the hill and decide walking up it to start it the way to go. diane and i...no no no. we can ride it from a dead stop. heave ho. heave ho. get to the top - and we were panting! ummm we do have 50 miles to go...maybe we shoudl start off easy! smart thinking mary and teresa!

we gang to gether and start trekking. the road is rather bumpy - then BAM! on bump big enough and like slow motion the contents of my bento box scatter themselves in the road. cellphone...and the battery seperated, shot blocks, sandwiches, car key! i see a van comins so i jump off my bike (how did i not fall) and i ran in front of mary (thank God she didn't fall) and I scooped up everything before the van crushed the phone permanently! and it still works. minor coronary. everything was saved...well not the shot blocks :(

back off on our way down route 5 and we take the advice of deanna l and veer off to osborne turnpike. this was lovely. diane and i were able to ride side-by-side and chit chat making the ride even more enjoyable. we take this back to route 5 for the last 10 miles before the turn around point. shortly after we continue on we ride right through 2 villages of gnats floating like clouds in the road. luckily i was far enough away that i only get hit by about 3 but unfortunately diane went right through the boogers and they just stuck to her face. i couldn't help but laugh as she has to wipe these dead creatures off - yick! but in trigirl spirit she noted...it's protein right!

we hit the 25 mile mark (15.5 pace) and there is a perfect little gravel area on the side of the road and a trail into the woods (thank you vcu). perfect bathroom! we all hoble in our bike shoes down teh mud and rocky path which comes back to haunt us. we eat some peanut butter sandwiches and head back. we quickly realize that we all have mud in our cleats and have to knock them out on teh road to clip in. we all are ready to start abck when we see an 18 wheeler coming....waaaay too fast and we have to run from the curb to not get run over as this gu was out of control - that was frightening! as we start out - oops! diane and mary have a few rocks in their shoes that requires minor surgery to get out to clip in. mission accomplished.

the trek back was not as pleasant as the first half. i realize right away that i ate too much - ugh. and although diane was doing soem great pacing the first half i ask her i f i can lead and slow us down a bit until i digest my ENTIRE peanut butter sandwich. note to self- next ime - only half! as we continue down route 5 we are passed by a few cars that get uncomfortably close. i think they just liked the view of our bums and wanted a close up :) finally we get to the turn off for osborne (at a 16.4 pace)

back to osborne and social riding like we litk to do. but now...ugh. legs are hurting some. 15 miles left. that's all. 5 miles left. that's all. diane gets ahead of me and my quickly fading quads. we make our way back to main street and the bumpy roads and i practice some drafting to try and keep up. da-da-da-da-da that is the sound of my bike on the road. i thought the silver bullet wa going to just fall apart piece by piece, but she hung in there like the champ she is. and after the alst quarter mile of the ride beign uphill then the hard descent we trekked up in the beginning, we decided it is in our best interst to walk our bikes down the hill considering there is a road at the bottom that we woul dnot be stopping for!

we change into our sneaks and head off for our 3 miles run. without a way to know how far we've run we estimate that we just need to run 15 minutes out and back. up cary street and cut over to canal walk. up and down a few sets of stairs and talking abotu the potential it has. 13 minutes out and a big set of stiars. yeah this mean we will trun around haha. so we turn around and run back down dock street towards the cars. 24 minutes total so we hit a negative split somehow! it's now noon and the sun is blazing. time for the pool. all in a day's work.