Ironman training, like race day, involves dealing with the unexpected. I wanted to do my favorite pre-ironman ride and thankfully Shannon jumped at the idea. I showed a bit of gratitude by making homemade fruit/nut bars for our journey (copying my favorite Clif bar ingredients).
--Grind walnuts and raw sliced almonds in the blender (amount-no clue. I never measure, but I'll guess here. prob 1.5cup of nuts). Set aside. Grind 20 unpitted dates, 1/2C dried cherries, 3/4C unsweetened coconut, 1/2 lime juiced, 3T apple juice. Fold fruit mixture with nuts until well mixed. Flatten into cookies and bake at 350 for 15mins (flipping half way through).
By 6am I was on the road in search of my favorite mountains. Shannon was waiting for my by the time I made it up and over the first. She informed me that she'd already suffered a bad puncture and had to boot her tire with a wrapper. We thought that was the worst of our bad luck! but boy were we wrong. 11 miles down the road I could have sworn some kids were letting off their left over fire works. Then I remembered you can't set off fireworks in SoCal, let alone east county! Nope, it was my tire. Huge puncture and hole in the side wall of my rear tire (as in the one I just replaced last week). Tube replaced, and rolling again. OR NOT! POW. We booted the wheel (thank you Clif bar wrapper), and tried to slowly inflate the wheel.
We were screwed. No way would both of our tired hold for the next 90miles! Someone rolled by to tell us there was a bike shop 2 miles away. Thank you Hidden Valley Bicycle for saving our ride. $80 later we rolled on. I refused to let anything get in the way of completing this ride. Ironman is about dealing with the present, making the best of the future, and just finding a way to get 'er done!
Onward- Palomar bound. Then past my favorite street in San Diego County: (it's at the midway point on the climb). Every time I go by it I think of my Grandpa -Harold Lee, I love you!!! I think about how proud he'd be of his youngest granddaughter out touring the wilderness.
Besides our long pause to buy new tires we didn't stop rolling until we absolutely needed to fill the bottles. A quick fill and we were off in search of the next climb.
Shannon was a complete trouper to hang with me to this point, but had more on her days agenda than just riding. So when I approached the climb that makes this loop considerably more challenging I had to go it alone. Bye bye Shannon. YOU are my rockstar for the day-!
From there on it was up to me. It was an absolute perfect test of strength, endurance and mental stamina.
I became one with the mountains. It may have been cool on the coast, but the temps were soaring inland!
Thanks for keeping me company Bessie...and Mr. Ed
I eventually made my way back to the coast where friends were waiting to join me for an eating marathon...
It was an awesome ride! I'm feeling more fit than ever, and know I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was on this ride a year or two ago. Riding this looop means one thing to me: Ironman is fast approaching! Hell's ya =)
And the quote of the day courtesy of Shannon: "Well, if a ride costs $80 in rubbers, it had better be a good one!"
