Pancakes never tasted so good!

Saturday night Karel and I joined some of the Gearlinkers for dinner at the Thirsty Marlin in Palm Harbor. Good music, food, drinks (for them, water for me) and company made for a great evening but with all the fun comes a late night. Karel and I had a big day of training planned for Sunday so we were anxious to get to bed and get the day started. My morning started around 5:15am when I prepared the coffee and oatmeal. I got Seduza ready w/ extra CO2's and I got my nutrition ready. As I was getting myself ready, Karel and I went over our plan for the day. He was going to San Antonio for his group ride at 8am which normally ends around 11am. But because he wanted to get in extra miles for the day he drove to San Antonio and he was going to ride home to Clearwater after his ride. As for me, I was going to ride to San Antonio on my bike and finish my workout in San Antonio w/ a run (shoes were in his car). The plan worked out great even though Karel and I never saw each other in San Antonio. My day was tough. For the first hour I was a little faster than the first hour of my century last week but I was still a little slow. Holding a 17.4 average for the first two hours, I was noticing that it wasn't my legs keeping me slow. I was heading in head wind for every turn I made. Because I was heading north and east I was never greated with the west tail wind. After around 3 hours of wind, I was trying to pick up my pace along the suncoast and noticing that the grass was blowing to my right side. HUmmm, this could be interesting. I am about to go east on 52 and as I am going north the grass is blowing to my right. Oh man, this is going to hurt!! I made the right turn onto 52 and the wind was blowing in my face. I knew this was my long stretch to San Antonio and it would be a long time until I got to san antonio. Speeds were between 16 and 17 mph and I had no power to go any faster. I was approaching mile 60 when I saw a sign which made me feel like I had just started my century. "San Antonio 16 miles" My legs just wanted to cry. I tried to keep myself entertained and forget about the wind and hoped that more cars would come along beside me so I could get some kind of draft. Of course this was a quite time to ride on a sunday morning but I was praying for traffic (which I got none of!). Right before I went under the 75-overpass I stopped for a refreshing gatorade which never tasted so good. Once I was in San Antonio I texted Karel that I was there and I started my last 20 miles in THE HILLS!!! What was I thinking on sunday. 80 miles in headwind, 20 miles in the hills and then a run afterwards. I had to tell myself to keep going to get 100 miles around 10 times in those last 20 miles so I don't know how i did it. I tried to make excuses "with all that wind, it seems like a century already" "It's ok to finish with 90 miles...but you are only 10 miles away you have to keep going" I thought of them all and I decided that there was nothing else I would rather be doing than doing 100 miles on my bike. I was rather pleased with my 17.2 average and finished my 100 mile ride in around 5 hours and 50 minutes. After the ride I was so thirsty that I could only get myself to run 15 minutes. AS long as I run off the bike, I'm ok with any type of run. After a nice 6 hour workout I was ready to drive home around 1:30pm. I received a phone call from Karel around 1:45pm on my way home from San Antonio. He had beaten me home!!!! Of course he enjoyed his tailwind all the way home but I could only imagine how his legs felt after his 3 hour ride in the hills. To make things even funnier, Karel finished 104 miles in 4 hours and 50 minutes and I finished my 100 miles an hour slow than him. So Karel, ever think about an Ironman???? I barely had enough strength to drive home but when I walked in my house and saw Karel cooking pancakes I was looking forward to eating my well-deserved pancakes. YUMM!!!!! My parents came over in the evening and we ordered Domino's. YUMMM again!!My two favorite foods after a hard, long workout- PIZZA AND PANCAKES!!! And now as I write this blog, I will enjoy my full day of NO training!!!