Friday

Good morning! Looks like a nice, cool day ahead. It's going to be a good and busy day for me. That's what I get for taking a Thursday (mostly) off. I'm quite ok with all that. Nothing like a deadline (Sunday) for bringing focus.

The plan yesterday was to roll out of Lighthouse at 7:30, which I knew probably wouldn't happen. Still, it was a good goal. Jimmy and I were going to ride our 100, and Roy would be doing his on a different route. There was a slight chance of intersection along the way.

We all woke to a heavy mist/light rain. Roy decided to ride with us, and Jimmy overslept. Texts were exchanged and plans changed. The result: the 3 of us rolled out from Lighthouse a little after 8. The conditions were not super pleasant, and the delayed start was probably a blessing. It was on the dark side. I was really glad Roy was along. He is great to ride with, as is Jimmy.

Jimmy and I both had 2:30 appointments. If you do the math, then you know we had to get after it and stay after it. We had a northwest wind taking us out, and we knew it. We needed to avoid the Amish Super 2 because of chipping and sealing. We decided to head to Fredricksburg in a fairly direct way, turn, and begin the return, knowing we would need to pick up 15 miles or so to make the 100.

We decided to stop at Campbellsburg on the way out to get more water. We were 25 miles in. It was the only stop of the day, except for 2-3 more "very adequately hydrated" stops along the side of the road. The cool weather definitely made hydration easy.

Experimenting with nutrition was one of my main goals. I set a timer to go off every 30 minutes. (Jimmy had one every 15 minutes and ate often.) I ate religiously for the first 4+ hours. I started out doing 300 calories an hour, alternating between a 200 cal. bar and a 100 cal. gel. It worked pretty well. I really had no problems. I do believe it may be a little much, so next ride I will try 200 calories per hour.

The ride was good and solid. We ran into a decent rain between Campbellsburg and Fredricksburg. It was unpleasant, but I didn't get cold. We turned around and headed back into the rain and the wind. I was pleased that we were able, in the end, to come back at the same speed with we went out, 17 mph, easily breaking 6 hours.

If you want to see the data, then you have a couple of options: Garmin data and Strava data. The thing I always notice and don't understand is the difference in calories consumed. Strava says I used 2686, while Garmin has me burning 1722. I could probably research this but don't care that much really.

Today is a rest day, and tomorrow I attempt my first 20 miler of the training cycle. It looks like a great morning for a long run. Sunday is another long swim. Have a great weekend!