Tour De Burger (bike ride) 6-10-18

What better way to get in a long ride than by doing a event bike ride?  I don't like to ride on Sunday mornings because I miss church, but sometimes that's when the rides / races are that I need for training to get me ready for Ironman. 

When Lisa, my coach, told me about Tour De Burger I had never heard of it.  Which it was only the 2nd annual ride (I believe).  It's hosted by the Gulf Coast Bicycle club.  It was going to be on the hills in Stone count, so definitely a ride I needed.  

Here's a pic of the rolling hills.  They roads in Stone county are so NICE!!! Most are newly paved!  Not much traffic at all on the ones we rode on.  I was told that since that 67 rode was put in that it cut down on traffic on many of these back roads.  It's beautiful country side and there is only 1-2 dogs that sometimes come out.  One guy had to kick one pretty hard.  Thank goodness I didn't have any come out on me.  

They offered a 20, 30 & 50 mile loop starting at Danny's Ironman Corner and followed by burgers from Danny's grill.  Jason and I who are both training for Chatty and also use Lisa as a coach had 70 miles on our schedule to ride so we parked at Sunflower church which was about 10 miles from the Tour De Burger start and rode to the start, did the 50 mile loop and then rode back to our cars to get our total of 70 miles for the day.  

It was a beautiful morning.  I actually watched heat lightening in the dark clouds on my very early morning drive to Stone County.  I actually wondered as the lightening danced around and lite up the sky if we would get to ride.  But once daylight hit, there was no more lightening.  I was glad because I really didn't want to do another long bike ride in RAIN. :>)  That 100 miler in the rain really was a bummer. 

Right before the ride.

I believe there was around 60-70 people so we had a nice group.  Jason, who is faster than me, got up front with a group of guys that were all fast.  I managed to keep them in my sights for several miles and I looked down and I was averaging close to 20 mph so I knew they were getting it.  Soon I lost them, but caught up to them at the first rest stop.  They had not yet pulled out.  Jason and I chatted a minute.  He told me that at one point they were doing like 25 mph!  Yep.. they are FAST!  Plus you can draft in a bike ride and they were taking turns being the leader.  I haven't drafted much because it's not legal in ironman races and it also kind of scares me when you are in a big group and like 6-8 inches behind each other.  If one person does something wrong, you could take down the whole group.  YIKES.  

As we left the rest stop I rode off with them for some reason. I stayed in the back and drafted off the last guy.  It wasn't long though till the distance between me and the last guy got wider and wider when we hit several hills.  Plus my head was telling me there was no way I was going to keep up that speed another 25 miles. ha  So I backed off.  One of the guys slowed down and came back and told  me to get behind him and he'd pull me.  I told him to go on back to the group. I couldn't keep up that pace and I would be fine riding alone.  Yep, I looked back and no one was behind us that I could see.  LOL  

However, after awhile a guy came up behind me.  He told me he was with that fast group and they had left him at the start and he hadn't been able to catch up with them.  We started chatting how we were alone riding.  So he asked me if I could draft and told me we would take turns drafting off each other.  So we did for about 10 miles.  He had done Chattanooga so we got to talk about that.  He's advice on Chatty was for me to run some hills.  I think it's neat that every time I meet someone new that's done Chattanooga Ironman they all have a different opinion and tips.  Although most say bike hills.  :>)   None of them have said anything about the swim other than the river is so nice.  I guess they are all swimmers. :>)  The swim part is what I worry about most.  :<>)

I ended up having the fastest mph pace for a 50 miler than I ever had.  PR for me. :>)  I can tell I'm getting stronger each day.  I think that's what gets me out of the bed on the days that I really don't want to get up and do another training session.  Two years ago when I was training for Augusta half ironman which is 56 bike miles, I hoped to finish under 4 hours.  I finished it in 3:43 for the bike.  But today at Tour De Burger... I did 50 miles in 2:45!!

WOW  Talk about an improvement.  I do think I'll have to slow down and pace myself for the full ironman.  I don't think I can ride that fast pace for 116 bike miles.  Guess we'll see over the next 15 weeks how my training goes.  :>) 

My burger after the ride.   Boy it was good!

This ride was so much better than my 65 mile ride with Jason the other weekend where I fainted!  I hydrated on my drive, I paid close attention to my nutrition while on the bike riding and felt great!  It really helps if you do what you're supposed to do. :>) 

So that's a wrap.  I leave next week for Hawaii!  I haven't ran in 3 weeks.  YIKES.  This PF is really an awful thing!  It's better, but still there.  I'm hoping I can somehow manage to pull out the 26.2 miles at the Kona marathon in Hawaii.  :>)  It's their 25th anniversary of the race so it should be so much fun.  I'm beyond excited!  

Happy training to you! Keep pushing.  There will be days you just don't want to get up and do another run, swim or bike.  But trust me... it will pay off.  I have those bad days too.  Just because you see my post of finishing a ride or race doesn't mean it's always fun and good.  There are days I just don't want to...... but the voice inside me tells me to get up anyway and usually within a few minutes of getting into that swim or bike, etc.  I feel so much better. :>) 

Love, D