Ninety miles is the distance from my house in Arlington to Baltimore and back. That is what the weekend training schedule called for. Whew!
The weather forecast was going to be favorable for a day on the bike. Good thing. The day was going to be challenging enough.
We started out from Riley's Lock along the Potomac River, about 30 miles from Washington DC. It's one of our more popular starting points, but we were going to visit unchartered territory.
For the first 10 or so miles, the ladies were all together before we all became spread out, following our own individual paces.
I was riding with Carol at about the 15 mile point, when I got the sinking feeling we were on the wrong route. I knew we were supposed to head toward Point of Rocks and I had seen the directional sign toward the town a ways back. Our road had changed names too, which is usually noted on our cue sheets. However, I still saw our support vehicles passing by in my same direction, so I must have been on track. Alas, no. People started to come back as 99% of us missed an unmarked turn. Yes, we were supposed to turn on the road toward Point of Rocks. By this time, I had biked about 8 miles out of my way. Ug. As if 90 miles wasn't long enough! I did find out later that we would be able to take a little short cut at the end of the ride, shaving off 5 miles.
At least the detour helped regroup everyone, albeit briefly. It was nice to have some company.
From Point of Rocks, we continued to the town of Jefferson, then into the town of Burkittsville. Burkittsville ringed a bell. Again, I was alone with Carol. We agreed. It's where the fictional Blair Witch came from! Burkittsville was a quaint town actually, population 171. Only a small part of The Blair Witch Project was actually filmed in Burkittsville. Most of the
scenes were filmed in Seneca Creek State Park, near Riley's Lock. Several residents of Burkitsville were interviewed for the film, claiming they had heard of the Blair Witch. However, the Blair Witch was completely fabricated by the film's producers, the town of Blair never existed (supposedly the town's former name), and several landmarks shown in the film do not exist.
Nevertheless, our pass through Burkitsville was a nice diversion and perhaps made us bike a wee bit faster, just in case the Blair Witch was in fact lurking about.
The next section of ride took us through Arnoldstown, Picnic Woods, and Bidle Roads to the town of Middletown, the northernmost reach of the ride. By this time, Carol and I had joined up with Andrea and Christy. The pair of us leapfrogged the two of them several times for the remainder of the ride.
I struggled a lot through the second half of the ride. It was rather windy outside and we either had head winds or cross winds seemingly nonstop. It began to take a toll on me mentally.
The last 10-20 miles of the ride I was absolutely drained mentally, physically, and emotionally. I actually cried twice during the ride. I began to question my reasons behind training once again for the Ironman. I refused to quit, however. I felt like if I quit, I'd let myself down and let down Carol, Andrea, and Christy.
My struggle came from several factors. For one, my shoulders were completely sore. Painful in fact. I am long overdue for a massage, and have that scheduled for Friday. Another is allergy season. It's the reality of May in this region. My body is almost sickly. Lastly, I worked at the vineyard the day before. Standing on my feet all day prior probably did not help.
Needless to say, I did manage to finish the ride, but truthfully, I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide upon finishing. Collin grabbed me a Coke. I think he read my mind knowing exactly what I was craving. The Coke definitely perked me up.
Afterwards, I stopped at Chili's To Go for a much desired steak and mashed potatoes dinner. Dessert was in order as well. I ordered the most decadent dessert I could find on the menu: some cake with caramel and chocolate and ice cream. I brought it all home to enjoy with a glass of wine. Eight hours on a bike is a long time.
Then I just crashed. Hopefully the next long workout goes better. My mom mentioned that my blog entries sounded a little depressing as of late, so my goal is to have a happy report next go-around.
The weather forecast was going to be favorable for a day on the bike. Good thing. The day was going to be challenging enough.
We started out from Riley's Lock along the Potomac River, about 30 miles from Washington DC. It's one of our more popular starting points, but we were going to visit unchartered territory.
For the first 10 or so miles, the ladies were all together before we all became spread out, following our own individual paces.
I was riding with Carol at about the 15 mile point, when I got the sinking feeling we were on the wrong route. I knew we were supposed to head toward Point of Rocks and I had seen the directional sign toward the town a ways back. Our road had changed names too, which is usually noted on our cue sheets. However, I still saw our support vehicles passing by in my same direction, so I must have been on track. Alas, no. People started to come back as 99% of us missed an unmarked turn. Yes, we were supposed to turn on the road toward Point of Rocks. By this time, I had biked about 8 miles out of my way. Ug. As if 90 miles wasn't long enough! I did find out later that we would be able to take a little short cut at the end of the ride, shaving off 5 miles.
At least the detour helped regroup everyone, albeit briefly. It was nice to have some company.
From Point of Rocks, we continued to the town of Jefferson, then into the town of Burkittsville. Burkittsville ringed a bell. Again, I was alone with Carol. We agreed. It's where the fictional Blair Witch came from! Burkittsville was a quaint town actually, population 171. Only a small part of The Blair Witch Project was actually filmed in Burkittsville. Most of the
scenes were filmed in Seneca Creek State Park, near Riley's Lock. Several residents of Burkitsville were interviewed for the film, claiming they had heard of the Blair Witch. However, the Blair Witch was completely fabricated by the film's producers, the town of Blair never existed (supposedly the town's former name), and several landmarks shown in the film do not exist.Nevertheless, our pass through Burkitsville was a nice diversion and perhaps made us bike a wee bit faster, just in case the Blair Witch was in fact lurking about.
The next section of ride took us through Arnoldstown, Picnic Woods, and Bidle Roads to the town of Middletown, the northernmost reach of the ride. By this time, Carol and I had joined up with Andrea and Christy. The pair of us leapfrogged the two of them several times for the remainder of the ride.
I struggled a lot through the second half of the ride. It was rather windy outside and we either had head winds or cross winds seemingly nonstop. It began to take a toll on me mentally.
The last 10-20 miles of the ride I was absolutely drained mentally, physically, and emotionally. I actually cried twice during the ride. I began to question my reasons behind training once again for the Ironman. I refused to quit, however. I felt like if I quit, I'd let myself down and let down Carol, Andrea, and Christy.
My struggle came from several factors. For one, my shoulders were completely sore. Painful in fact. I am long overdue for a massage, and have that scheduled for Friday. Another is allergy season. It's the reality of May in this region. My body is almost sickly. Lastly, I worked at the vineyard the day before. Standing on my feet all day prior probably did not help.
Needless to say, I did manage to finish the ride, but truthfully, I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide upon finishing. Collin grabbed me a Coke. I think he read my mind knowing exactly what I was craving. The Coke definitely perked me up.
Afterwards, I stopped at Chili's To Go for a much desired steak and mashed potatoes dinner. Dessert was in order as well. I ordered the most decadent dessert I could find on the menu: some cake with caramel and chocolate and ice cream. I brought it all home to enjoy with a glass of wine. Eight hours on a bike is a long time.
Then I just crashed. Hopefully the next long workout goes better. My mom mentioned that my blog entries sounded a little depressing as of late, so my goal is to have a happy report next go-around.
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