Okay, that’s a really random title. But I bet it got your attention, eh?
I rode my bike today. It was a very, very windy day – 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph* . I rode a new route which proved to be very, very hilly. There were times where I was going up a hill into the wind and it was HARD!
John Edwards:
The new route took me down Old Greensboro Road, past John Edwards house. His home is along a lovely country road nestled among horse farms and rolling hills in Orange County. The property was heavily wooded, so I couldn’t see the house, but I could ride part way up the drive to a little picket fence where a sign was posted saying “Thank You…John and Elizabeth”. I snapped a photo of it with my cell phone camera, half expecting secret service agents to jump out from behind the trees and confiscate my phone.
About 20 miles from home, I looked at my average speed,and it said 15.0. I had intended to negative split this ride. Whenever I negative split a ride, I switch my Cateye computer to show average speed, and then ride hard and enjoy watching the numbers tick upwards. I was shooting to get average speed up to 17.
Flat Tire:
I was about 10 miles from home, feeling rather exhausted, yet still riding hard. Got a flat tire. GRRR! Why are my flats always on the BACK tire!?!?!? Actually, I think that using a trainer wears out the tire. It’s such a pain to change the back and it takes me forever to figure out how to get the wheel back on the chain. It took me 17 minutes…if I ever get a flat in a race, I’ll be out of the game for sure.
One thing I did notice as compared to last time I got a flat: it was much easier to work the tire back onto the rim. In the past, I always had a really hard time with this step because of weak hands, but I’ve been using hand grippers to strengthen my hands for swimming. I don’t think that’s done much for my swimming, but it has helped me have stronger hands in general (opening jars is easier, too…feeling very old now).
After changing my flat, I was out of the groove, so I just rode the rest of the way home easy.
Honey:
I was out of Gu, so before heading out on my ride, I googled “homemade energy gel recipe”. I found a recipe that uses honey, molasses and salt to make your own Gu. I put that into my fuel belt gel flask, tucked inside a ziploc bag in case it exploded again. It didn’t. The honey was so thick that I could not squeeze – or even suck – it out of the flask. So, I stopped and mixed about one third of water into the flask, and that helped make it just about the right consistency. Still no explosion, luckily.
My energy levels felt good on this ride. Anybody use honey on a regular basis for training and/or racing? Post a comment. It sure tasted yummy! It reminded me of when I was a kid and ate toast with honey butter on it.
Ride stats – Time: 3:27, Average Speed: 15.6, Distance: 54 miles.
Photos from my adventures today: (click to enlarge)
* PS: You can look up weather statistics for just about any day, including the current day at Wunderground. Just to to http://www.wunderground.com/ and type in your zip code. Then scroll down to the History & Almanac section and look for the Detailed History & Climate box…click picture below to see what I mean.
Hi … I´m Paula, brazilian triathlete.
No, I don´t use honey instead of energy gels, but, my nutricionist did recommend me to have a spoon of honey right after every hard train – it´s supposed to help you recover faster …
Oh, my, what a ride! Hope you had fun, though.