5/22/11 100 miles
I have spent weeks and months training for this ride, overcoming hurdles and facing challenges. Every ride has been a lesson learned and a milestone achieved. I can see and feel how much I have progressed simply by my level of comfort on the bike. And I am officially tired... not sure if that is allowed considering I haven't even done the event yet. But todays 100 miles were greuling. I wanted it to be over before it even started. I love being on the bike but the last couple of rides have poses some new challenges. I couldn't quite get into the groove of things todays. My quads were screaming, my eyes were sleepy, my body fatigued, and my mind floating somewhere on cloud 9 with thoughts of "this is crazy, just stop and go home". I was stuck in a split personality battle of "stop" and "go" and I will be honest the stopping sounded damm good today. But I didn't. I did however spend a fair amount of time analyzing why I felt crappy... is it my diet? Sleep? Mind? Body? Bike? It has to be something!!! For one, sleep definitely plays a factor in performance, especially MY performance. I barely slept last night, tossing and turning (time to do away with the mid day coffee) and jumped out of bed around 4:30am (sounded like a resonable time to give up on sleep). I ate breakfast and made my way to the meetpoint and was suprisingly energetic. It lasted, oh about, an hour, and then I came crashing down. Imagine that for the next 6 hours! Sleep is extremely important and plays a huge role in energy transport, lesson learned... sleep more!
I also learned another valuable lesson as I was climbing up a hill. In hopes to close the gap between some other riders, I started to sprint up the hill. Within a few minutes I had passed up the other riders. Job done, I sat in my seat and tried to keep up the speed. Obviously I didn't do a good job, not a minute later I heard "on your left" ... dammit, I thought, hes passing me ... a few seconds later "on your left" ... arghh what the hell... all this work and I am back where I started. Then these words trailed behind one of the riders "slow and steady" ... ya ya I know...slow and steady wins the race. Yah I knew it but definitely didn't follow it. A part of my mental turmoil is fueled by being surrounded by speedy riders. I am so caught up in keeping pace with them that I can't see how far I have come in my training and recognize that I am doing okay. This was told to me a few times and I wasn't hearing it. The very first training ride I remember saying that Im not trying to compete, I am just here for the cause. Today I found myself competing (with myself) it made the ride miserable, and it gave my head the power to pump in negativity. Granted a part of the riding fun is the challenge but to keep it real this ride is beyond me... I am passionate about the cause, the people, the actual ride, and the journey... the accomplishment and challenge are simply side effects. I somehow forgot that but a conversation with another rider that was full of passion seemed to reinstill that in me. Thank you. I think I will make this my ride mantra "it is beyond me"
As for sleep... I will be hunting down some good ear plugs. Sigh. 14 days and counting.
MettaLOVE
Ritu
by Ritu Riyat on Sun, May 22, 2011 @ 9:10 PM
