Long workouts = dead legs

First of all, mother nature and I are NOT on good terms. I woke up Saturday at 6am prepared for a 6 hour ride. I was ready to go! I guess as excited as you can be to do a 6 hour solo ride. I took Junior outside to see dark clouds. Uh oh. I came in and checked the radar. It pretty much looked like this: (Drawing not to scale)Seriously, that's what it looked like. The weather man said it would be in Germantown (where I ride to) in 45 min. Well GREAT. Can't go ride just yet. I wouldn't mind a little green, but that big red blob was what worried me. Emailed coach...we decided as long as I got it done this weekend I was ok. I decided to go back to bed :)

Woke up at 10, and it still hadn't rained, but the sky still looked like it did at 6am. The radar still looked the same, but the storms were hitting everywhere BUT Memphis. It was like there was a force field around the city and it was breaking up the storm. It still looked like it would pour any second, so I decided to just go for the run. I decided that at 1:30pm...the heat of the day.

It started off pretty well. Until my asthma (which has been bad lately) started getting worse. I was hot. My legs hated me. Did I mention this run was supposed to be 2:15? I had mapped out an 11.5 mile course. After 5 miles, I stopped in a church parking lot and called Corky. I did NOT want to run. Scratch that...I kinda did, but my body didn't. I wanted to cry but conserved the salt. Corky said run 2 more miles and call her back. I ran a mile, and decided to stop at the gas station to use the restroom. I also talked them into letting me have a little espresso shot cup of coke. They were probably very confused why a runner was asking for coke, but it works every time I tell ya!

Back on the road, after the shot of coke, I was feeling much better. I ended up cutting the run about another mile short, so it was 10.5 miles. About 3 miles from home, I saw P$ in his truck. He pulled over and said hi, while trying to give me the toaster oven he's been trying to give me for a week. His excuse was "oh come on you're not THAT far from home".

Once home, I wanted to collapse, but instead had to babysit.

Sunday, church day obviously. Worked in the nursery and then attended 9:30 service. Normally I make my Kroger run right after church, but I was so tired I went straight home and laid down for an hour. I knew I had my ride to do. I was up and on my bike by 1:30. I was trying a new route, so I was a little nervous since I wasn't familiar with the roads. It actually turned out pretty good! This is the route I took:I did the loop twice, and it totaled 84 miles. My legs were just tired of moving by the end. Plus, doing it solo was not so fun. But I do know that when I get to IM, it will all be solo for the most part. So suck it up!

Also, I would like to speak to the two d-bags I came in contact with on my ride. To the first guy, on highway 64 with the ridiculously large truck who said on his intercom system "Get off the road, its for cars dumbass!" - you are not cool. You're truck is large, and gas guzzling. That wasn't even funny. However, I did pray for you, so I hope you experienced something post-yelling at me.

Also, to the man who drove up next to me while I was on Houston Levee Rd. and just stared me down - was that really necessary? I was already working my butt off, trying to stay as fast as possible so I don't make drivers upset. 99% of the people passing me did it correctly by going into the other lane to give me plenty of room. So did you really have to be a d-bag and drive next to me staring at me like I didn't know I was riding my bike in the road?

All in all, my nutrition was good. Though I did get dehydrated, even though I was taking my thermolytes (2 per hour) and consumed over 150 oz of liquid (100ish of those gatorade). Next Saturday, I have a 7 hour ride. PLEASE someone ride with me, even for an hour?