JHC MADISON RIDE.....

Ok, so I am trying to play catch up on my blog. Now that I am in taper mode I have some more time..:-)


On Sunday July 28th my coach Jen Harrison had an organized ride in Madison, WI. I woke up very early that morning to make the 3 hour drive & be ready to roll by 8am. I had my coffee & breakfast in the car & got to the meeting place about 30 mins early. The weather was ridiculously cold for the end of July so I bundled up like it was a winter ride. I had my ice breaker socks on & toe covers on my shoes, tights with my cycling shorts, a cold gear shirt & gloves....AND I was still cold!

The plan was to do two loops(80 miles), taking it easy on the first loop & pushing harder on the second. This was the second time I went to Madison to ride these hills & the first time left me feeling like I had a lot of work to do, the 25 mph winds didn't help either. I expected the course to be tough, after all I live in flat Illinois & have tried to travel more this year to hit hills I will face in Kentucky. Despite the cold of the day I started off feeling really good, the hills were challenging but doable. After the first loop I was supposed to push it & I started off with another girl named Jenny that  soon pushed ahead of me & I was alone for most of the second loop. When you are out there alone, cold, on hills, & things start to hurt, it becomes difficult to keep pushing. I stopped at the sag stop & my left quad near the knee was really hurting now. One of the sag girls, Nathalie was a massage therapist so she spent some time helping to relieve some tightness. I was only about 15 or 20 miles from the finish but that's where the hills become longer & steeper. Nathalie was great as support ahe was at the top of almost every climb making sure the quad was holding up. During one of the climbs another rider passed me & Nthalie yell, ugh, you almost had her.....damn! I recovered from the hill & set out to catch her, I did! I finished the the second loop which seemed windier than the first feeling like I pushed. After I got another quick massage on my quad I was off on my transition run....30 mins. I got to start off my run with my coach but after a few minutes what I thought was a not too bad pace after 80 miles was obviously too slow for Jen so she went ahead with another athlete of hers. I was just glad I did not end up in a field like tha weekend before....haha!

I was tired on the 3 hours drive home so my newly found wake up call is a monster & some beef jerkey. I made my stop & I was happy & alert the whole way.

Catch you all up more tomorrow....
C~