BOO-YA!!!!

Finally! A 100 deposit into the bank of Ironman!!!!!! Yahoo!

I haven't done 100 yet, several 80 - 85 milers, so I feel like I hit a milestone today. Two out and backs of beautiful remote undeveloped Colorado roads with no stop lights and the type of scenery you'd expect when you think of Colorado. Definitely a ride I will look back and smile about when I think back to the training I did for IM. If you live in Colorado, the stretch of Perry Park Rd. from Sedalia to Palmer Lake makes for an amazing ride.

Thanks to my good friend Scott for doing the first 50 miles of that ride with me. That's especially meaningful if you knew what a speed junkie he is (and you consider what a speed demon I am not!)

Some notes to self - Second loop was only off 6 minutes from the first. Nice job Turtle! I slowed down eleven minutes on the way out, and made up five on the way. I'm pretty happy with that. I need to eat more often than I did. I don't drink coffee or soda for the most part, so I really felt the caffeinated gel kick in half way out on the second loop. Maybe I should keep the caffeinated gels in reserve at the race? 6:50 pedal time, 7:30 actual time. I took three 10 minute plus stops, plus two shorts breaks to take in gels. I need to cut those breaks if I want to do 112 in 8 hours or less--but I really did feel oh so much better when I got off the seat for a little bit. The time cutoffs make me SO nervous. Butt hurt the worst between hours 3 - 4 1/2, then I forgot about it. I did take on 1500 feet in elevation on the two outs, dropped 1500 in elevation on both backs, but that could work out to be the same if I end up with strong winds on the flat course in Florida.

Overall, a great ride. This was the type of ride that I can look back on and know that I enjoyed my training. Now... On to my taper!!!! (Yep, an Ironman taper... That means I only have to run for two hours tomorrow instead of three! Yippee!)