Gotter done...

First off I want to congratulate Simon Cross (who has the blog Tritwins) for his awesome 10:15 and 5th place finish at Ironman Malaysia. It was exciting watching him online. I went to bed at 2 am and had to get up at 5 am, I couldn't sleep not knowing his finishing time and if he qualified for Kona.

Today was my last long ride over 5 hours on the schedule before my taper. Prior to leaving to California, I figured this last ride was going to be outside in warmer weather. I didn't anticipate snow on the roads. I wasn't mentally prepared to do this ride indoors on the trainer.

I started the morning slow and did everything I could to avoid getting on the bike. Finally at 1 pm I got started. The first 30 minutes was mentally tough. I was pulling out every motivational thought to get this ride done. I wanted to quit, but I'm too close to China and this being the last long ride, I felt it must be an important ride.

I started reading the Ironman China website and watching their videos. It helped to keep me motivated to continue. The video was from the ESPN coverage of the 2008 race. As I watched, I started getting "butterflies" in my stomach, like I do just before the race gun goes off. I also kept asking myself "what did I get myself into, this race is not going to be easy and probably painful".

On Friday, Rodney sent me a joking tweet that I should use a mountain bike to do my long ride outside in the snow. At first I blew it off. Then at 1:39 of the ride, I couldn't mentally take it anymore. I remembered his comment and decided to go for it. Alice told me it was nice outside, she was shovelling the driveway earlier in the day. (What a good life I have, eh?)

I pumped up the tires and off I went. The only mistake I made was I didn't wear proper foot wear and no chemical toe warmers. I only had runners on with two pairs of socks. Within 30 minutes my feet were cold and on their way to becoming frozen. At the 1 hour mark I had to stop at a gas station to get a sandwich and warm up. The owner wasn't too happy that I was loitering and reading his newspapers as I ate my sandwich and drank my chocolate milk.

Growing up in Winnipeg, I've had frozen feet to many times to count, especially as a kid playing outdoor hockey in - 30 C. Sometimes a brief warm up will get the blood flowing and the feet start to naturally stay warm.

The pitstop helped, but not for long. My feet started to freeze again. My plan was to ride home and finish the balance of the 5:15 ride indoors. As I got close to home, my feet were so frozen they weren't hurting as bad and I knew they weren't in frost bite territory.

My plan was to ride as much as I could outside until I couldn't handle it anymore. I kept thinking of indoor riding and it kept me motivated to ride outside. It became dark outside and I had an hour left. I started riding a 10 minute loop around my neighbourhood. My feet were getting wet from riding through puddles. The upside was the water seemed to warm my feet.

Right from the beginning of the ride, my buttocks and legs were sore. The mountain bike was causing me to use new muscles. As I rode, I thought it may have been a good idea going out on the mountain bike because it was working new muscles. It never hurts to build your buttock muscles, the stronger they are, the better for power riding.

Eventually I finished the balance of my ride outside and didn't have to finish indoors. My legs and buttocks had a hell of a good workout. It's been a long time since I've had tired legs. When I got in the house my feet were frozen, especially my right foot. I couldn't feel it. It was awkward to walk on, it felt like something was stuck to my foot. Like a big piece of gum.

As they thawed, they started feeling hot and itchy. I did everything in my power not to scratch. I knew if I started scratching it would break the skin and eventually scab up. It was beyond hard to not scratch. I was jumping around the house in pain with my hands on my head and fingers locked. There was no way I wanted to start scratching. I was going to have a helpful hot bath, but Reid used all the hot water. Doh!

Eventually the itching went away. I needed to eat and was irritable, so Alice picked up some Chinese food. It hit the spot. I was still mentally fatigued, but felt better. I couldn't even push myself to do my post workout stretching session. My mind was "burnt toast".

I'm so glad this was my last long ride of my Ironman China training program. This riding during the winter indoors or outside in cold weather sucks. Although, on the bright side, I'm proud to say in the past 9 weeks, I've done 8 long rides between 5:15 - 7 hours. I didn't cut one trainer workout short, even though Mark Allen said I could if I needed a mental break. It's a little surreal that I stayed the course and did those 8 rides. I consider it a major accomplishment unto it's self.

Long Ride Part 1 - 1:39:17 / 51.40 km / 31.06 kph / 133 avg hr

Long Ride Part 2 - 3:40:01 / 88.99 km / 24.27 kph / 126 avg hr / 3184 ft climbing

Total Ride - 5:20:18 / 140.39 km