Tour de Fun 50K ride

The beauty of Facebook is that it makes it easy to be peer-pressured into an event.  A few weeks ago this happened for the Tour de Fun bike ride.  A friend posted a picture after packet pickup for the ride and showed how cute the event t-shirt was.

The FB post that captured me and had me deciding to ride 12 hours before it started! 

That proceeded to getting pulled in to join on the ride with two friends.  I made it to the race site nice and early for registration and got signed up.  I got my number situated onto the back of my jersey and then proceeded to get my bike set up for the ride.

The 50K ride started at 6:45 and just before the start I found my two friends.  The start is in downtown Rogers and there are brick cobbles which always make me nervous.  We got started with a wave to Janet's husband who was taking photographs for the event.

Here we go! Wearing my International kit to support the start of World Cup! 

The first mile of the ride is pretty much downhill with little pedaling required so you aren't really warmed up when you hit the hills into Prairie Creek.  The girls and I separated slightly on the hills so I was looking for a spot to pull over and regroup when I spotted a $20 bill lying on the ground.  The money was near a drive thru ATM machine so I pulled through and picked up the bill.  What a find! The girls passed me so I hollared that I would catch up with them shortly.

Biking across the HWY 12 bridge

We continued on the curving hills and enjoyed cycling across the HWY 12 bridge over Beaver Lake.  It was a gorgeous morning and the lake was beautiful.  We hit the 50K turn and knew we had about 5 miles to go until our turnaround point.  My friend Jeff Spencer came up along side me during this section and so we pedaled and chatted for a few minutes.  We hit the turn around point and we all stopped to refill our bottles and eat some of our nutrition.  We were back on the road a few minutes later and made our way back the way we came.

I forgot about the long decline we had coming out of Prairie Creek but definitely felt the incline on the return trip.  I was going along and couldn't understand why I felt so slow until I realized that it was an incline!  It was quite the relief to realize I wasn't as slow as I thought! The final mile back into town is an uphill that is pretty draining.  I was glad to get up it and make my way back to the finish line.  I finished about a minute ahead of Jamye and Janet and cycled back to join them.  I think they got stopped at the stoplights getting into town.

Finish time! 

After wards I racked my bike at the car and fixed myself an Abloc Nutrition chocolate milk for recovery.  It was fun to enjoy the beautiful weather and chat with friends near the finish area.  However I eventually had to head home and get some real food in me! Below is a Flipagram video that Jamye put together of our day!

Post by Jamye Perry.

Why not take a traffic cone with you?

Tonight's workout was a fast interval bike ride that was a special request by my friend Britt, the traffic cone!  Britt is training for Ironman Wisconsin in 9 weeks and normally doesn't dress like a traffic cone but today was a special day and she did! She works with a coach and gets workouts every week and sometimes asks for company on them. 

Is that a traffic cone? Nope, just Britt!

Her coach had prescribed 8 x 5 min at hard effort with a 2 min recovery between.  Kyla, AJ, and I all were able to join her and none of us has been doing interval work on the bike that much.  One thing is for certain with interval workouts...they are always easier when you have company and you always work harder when you have company pushing you.  Another thing that might be certain is how sore we will all be tomorrow!

Really, my friends aren't in the Witness Protection Program. I swear!

We started out by riding through town as our warmup.  We decided that once we passed the Home Office we would be on roads that would be okay to start our intervals.  Truly we were still in town in some neighborhoods so our first 2 intervals were a little slower since we had hills, turns, and stops to navigate. 

Speed over time...you can see a definite jump during the hard efforts. Some hills were thrown into the 1st two which is why I didn't hold consistent speed on them.

Once we were out on the highway it was much easier to do the intervals.  We had a nice wide shoulder to work with and the road is mostly flat with very small inclines.  We did 3 more intervals heading out of town so that we would only have to do 3 intervals once we turned to head back.  This helped us so that our final interval didn't have to be in a neighborhood!

Overall, the intervals were tough especially when we had a headwind.  Just before our turnaround, we saw a friend of mine pass by. He and his riding partner had a minute or two headstart on us and I wanted so very bad to catch them.  It took all three intervals that we had left to do it, but Kyla and I did finally catch them with 1 minute to go on our very last interval! Persistence pays off!

One thing I didn't like about the ride was that there wasn't any time to be social.  During the intervals we were all working way too hard to try and have a conversation.  And 2 minutes recovery time isn't enough time to tell a complete story.  We were all so glad to be done with the hard efforts and we took a nice leisurely pace to finish up the remaining 6 miles. 

We finished up at the Bentonville square and met up with some of our running friends for dinner outside.  They had already finished up eating by the time we got there.  We made it to the coffee shop with 10 minutes to spare before they closed.  Just enough time to order a sandwich and lemonade.  It was nice to sit outside for a few minutes and catch up with friends. 

The day I took my bike on a hike

Every so often I join up with the Bentonville Women's Bike Group for bike rides.  Last Thursday was one of the nights when my schedule worked out to join up with the group.  It was super hot...super hot that night.  I had put in a request for a route that we hadn't done in a while which included a long section in shade. 

Three of us ended up on the longer route and a group of six or so ended up on the shorter more casual ride.  We headed out of town and within a couple miles I could tell that something major was wrong with my beloved Koi Bear (that would be my bike!)  I could shift just fine but there wasn't any tension on the gears and I was pedaling with a super high cadence which isn't my normal style.  It wasn't too bad so I kept going.  

Our route winds through some residential neighborhoods in order to avoid a section of highway that is pretty busy after work.  It lets us skip some of the more dangerous parts of the highway and still get in decent riding.  As we were making our way through one neighborhood I saw a funny sign.  It read something about "Find a new Shortcut, this is our home where kids play."  I took it to mean that cars are bothering this section of the homeowners but that bikes were cool.  Well, bikes weren't mentioned on the sign so I decided for myself that we were cool!

We soon were on the highway and relatively flat ground.  The high cadence wasn't working for me so I switched up to my big ring and still had a high cadence while pedaling. Not a good sign! We made it to Hiwassee which is a normal stopping point to allow people to regroup.  We took the time to hydrate...the heat was crazy!

Erin, me, and AJ

We made our turn to continue the route and saw a bad sign...Road Closed! We decided to go ahead and pedal along to see whether the route was salvageable.  About 1/2 mile down the road we came upon the road construction.  They are building a bypass and had torn out part of the road we were on for a new overpass that is being added.  We decided that we could easily hike our bikes across the dirt and so we did. 

Construction...no problem!

It was well worth it since we got 5 miles of shady road to enjoy for the route! After our sojourn in the shade we made a pitstop to refill our water bottles at a gas station.  I bought each of us a $1 lottery scratcher but sadly none of us had winning tickets. 

We finished up the route back at the square and saw several friends hanging out finishing up dinner.  They yelled out that there was leftover carrot cake and with those magic words we headed over to join the table.  It was great to hang out and enjoy the cooler temps as the sun went down and cap off a great ride. 

The next day I took my bike into the shop for repair...the diagnosis was a super stretched out chain.  It had even done some damage to my cassette.  Not cool but having a great bike mechanic who takes care of you makes it all better! I'm still looking into what to do about my cassette.  I think I'll replace it in the next few weeks but I need to check in with my mechanic to find out if we'll have to special order it since I like the gearing options I currently have. 

Fierce Biker Babes in Purple

Saturday mid-morning I met up with the girls for a bike ride.  We all met up at Kyla's house and didn't have any communication in advance other than deciding on the time via text.  I showed up first and Kyla came out in the driveway...she had on an orange long sleeve and a purple short sleeve shirt.  I was wearing a purple/pink shirt too.  AJ pulled up a few minutes later and had on a purple tank top too.  While we waited for Maja to get there, AJ and I headed inside to chat with Kyla's husband Kurt and see their 3 month old son. 

As we were talking, Kurt looked out the window and started to laugh.  Maja had pulled in and when she got out of her car she had on a purple jacket too.  We had a good laugh about it and then Kurt took our picture and sent out a tweet about us. 

We headed out on our favorite Bella Vista loop which includes several good sized hills.  The weather was overcast for most of the ride and we couldn't decided whether it was hot or cold.  The air just felt damp and humid which made it feel cooler than it actually was out.  Either way, we had fun chatting with each other and enjoying the day.  The headwind we encountered wasn't the most fun and made us realize how awesome the tailwind was earlier in the ride!

We got back and Kyla offered to cook some breakfast waffles.  AJ had a coffee date already scheduled with her son so she couldn't stay.  Maja helped Kyla make the waffles and I held the baby! I'm not a fan of waffles so I passed on them but from the looks of it Kyla and Maja enjoyed them!

50 Miles with the ladies

A few weeks ago on September 11th I had my final big training ride before my half ironman.  I met up with the Team HCWDI crew.  HCWDI stands for Holy Crap We Did It! and is a great group of friends that I sometimes train with. 

On this weekend, we ran into storm chances on Saturday that led to postponing the brick workout until Sunday.  I was travelling on Sunday and had time constraints which meant I could only fit in the bike ride.  The group was made up of Mark and Cord and then for the ladies it was Pauline, Kayle and myself.  Mandy was going to ride with us but she was sick and had to skip out. 

The ladies were ready to go before the guys so we headed out.  Our plan was to do a couple out and backs to hit 3 1/2 hours on the bike.  The route we selected was fairly flat like we would get on our goal race.  The morning was a little chilly but was gorgeous and sunny.  Our turnaround spot was at 16 miles so we headed back and stopped at a gas station for a potty stop.  While we were at the gas station I made a dumb move and walked my bike backwards.  The clips on my pedals swung up and sliced up my leg.  All of a sudden, my leg was bleeding pretty badly.  I went into the gas station and got some gauze and the ever helpful duct tape to craft a makeshift bandage.  We still had 30 miles to go after all!

Impromptu bandage!

Wounded at mile 22 and still bleeding after 30 more miles

The guys caught up to us while we are the gas station tending to my wound.  We were still waiting for the bathroom to free up which had us extremely worried.  No one likes to use a restroom after someone has been in it for a long time! After a few more minutes, we finally were all able to get my leg wrapped in duct tape so that the bandage would stay on for my ride.  I thanked the gas station attendant for the help and made sure to make a purchase on our next stop there an hour later. 

For the remainder of our ride, we picked some out and back additions so that we would hit our time goals.  I ended up with 52 miles in just under 3 1/2 hours and was pretty pleased with the ride.  I didn't have any time to run after and instead had to rush home to get ready for my work trip. 

Weekend Wrap Up

It is Summer Hours season at my office so my weekend started off Friday at 11 am.  We work an extra hour per day in order to leave early on Friday.  I go in early on Friday too so that I can leave at 11 am instead of noon so that I can go to lunch hour Masters lap swim at the Memorial Park Pool. 

This was my first week to go to Friday lunch swim.  I had been travelling the past two weeks since the pool had opened and missed those sessions.  The pool was full when I got there and I spent a few minutes trying to figure out which lane my friends were in.  The lap swim starts at 11am but I don't get there until 11:20 so I generally miss out on the warmup.  Friday I swam with Carie and AJ and we did one of Carie's workouts from her time in Omaha Masters club.  Carie keeps a stash of these workouts in a small Ziploc bag and she picks a new one out for each workout.  The workout we got included a bunch of 100m repeats and none of us knew what time to use for the interval since we haven't been swimming long course that much yet this summer.  We all started on a 2:00 min interval which we held pretty well for most of the first set of 6 x 100.  Between the 4th and 5th, we took a little more rest but then got back onto the interval.  Little did AJ and I know that there was another set of 100m and that they would need to be faster than the first set.  We talked it over with Carie and she thought we swam the first set too fast so we slowed it down to a 2:05 min interval for the next 5 x 100. It was a good workout and ended with an easy cooldown.  There is something great about circle swimming a tough workout with your friends! We were all business during our sets but we had fun between sets!

Saturday morning I headed out from my house for a run.  I had intended it to be my long run but I knew within a few steps that it was going to be a tough run.  It was warm and humid out and the hills around my house kicked my butt.  I just couldn't get my head in the game and overcome the external challenges.  I pushed myself to get a total of 4 miles which is better than nothing! After I finished I took my dog for a walk and got another mile in with her.  From there, I headed out to the lake for an open water swim with AJ.  We parked and saw that the swim beach was very different looking this year...there was no beach.  The water level in the lake is really high so the swim beach is somewhere under the water.  We were both a little concerned with all the geese hanging out in the area but luckily they didn't bother us any.  The swim went really well and we did two loops on a course that is an out and back.  We practiced sighting and buoy turns and were together for the first loop almost the entire way.  The second loop we held different lines but stayed on about the same pace the whole time. 

Sunday morning AJ and I met back up for a bike ride from the Arvest Ball Park in Springdale.  This is much closer to AJ's house so this is more of her territory than mine.  I've only ridden from that spot a few times but it is nice to mix it up and try out new routes and terrains.  We hadn't really discussed a route just wanting a distance of around 40 miles.  At 8am it was already super warm and sunny and we decided to stop at 10 mile increments for a water/snack break.  At our first stop, we talked about the lack of gas stations along this route and thought about what route changes we could do.  AJ thought she could put us on a loop course and she proclaimed that it would be 38 miles.  The saving grace for this route was that we would pass a gas station...perfect for a mid-ride Gatorade stop! We decided to switch to AJ's route and we soldiered on...enjoying the shade when possible.  We passed a couple funny sights.  The first was someone fueling up their car using a gas can in their yard.  The second was a farmer calling his cows to come home for feeding time.  It was something funny to hear him call out to the cows and them moo back.  In the end, our ride ended up exactly at 38 miles just as AJ had predicted.

Tour de Fun Recap

Saturday the Teen Action and Support Center hosted the 5th Annual Tour de Fun event from Lewis and Clark in Rogers.  The Tour de Fun offered several different bike ride distances and even a 5k run.  I signed up for the 50 mile ride which is an out and back route of 25 miles.  This was going to be my 2nd time to complete the 50 mile distance!

The ride had a very early start time of 6:45 AM which really sucks when it comes time to get out of bed.  However, towards the end of the ride as the heat was really starting to build I was definitely thankful for the early start! I got to Lewis and Clark and headed to pick up my registration.  They had a ton of volunteers working the registration table so it went super fast.  It was also great that the store was open so that we could go inside and use real restrooms before the start of the ride.  I ran into AJ and we both took time to cover ourselves in lots of sunscreen.  We were curious about our other friends, Rhonda and Maja, since it was getting close to the start time.

At 6:40 Maja and Rhonda showed up...they had ridden to the start and were running a little late obviously.  We skipped a pre-race picture since they were rushing to store gear and things.  As we rode to the official start line, the rest of the bikers were riding out.  We didn't communicate very well and at the last minute Maja unclipped and stopped.  I barely got unclipped but my friend Kier wasn't as lucky.  He wasn't expecting the stop and ended up toppling over which is more embarrassing than painful.  I felt awful since he fell because he was avoiding hitting me.  After the last biker passed us, the group pulled out to join in. Sadly we were on a small incline and I couldn't get clipped in and started for the life of me.  I had to walk my bike to the end of the store driveway and then sprint to catch up to the rest of the group.  Thankfully, the start was the only eventful part of our day!

Me, Maja, and AJ at the rest stop.

The route follows some of the roads that we ride on for our Tuesday night group rides so I was familiar with the terrain.  I had only done 2 rides of 30-35 miles this year and was a little worried about the distance.  I was mostly worried about the final 5 miles of the route since it included a couple of good sized hills.  I wasn't sure how my fatigued legs would handle those climbs! 

The organizers had two rest stops (one halfway and one at the turnaround.)  This equated to three total stops since we hit the halfway stop going both directions.  It was good to fill up our water bottles and have a few snacks but it also felt great to get off the bike for a minute or two and walk around.  The middle 10 miles were on one of our most common routes and we got pumped up and really worked it for that section.  The funny part about this section is that it always seems to be uphill and always seems to be into the wind no matter which direction you are headed. 

At mile 40, 80% done and starting to get a little hot and hungry.

I was really surprised by how fast the ride flew by even with our stops.  I expected us to slow down a lot more on the second half but we were pretty evenly spaced between the two halves.  I think our time at the turn around was 1:32 and our total time was 3:05:15 and change.  Not bad for my second 50 miler!!!

A Mighty Wind Blows

It's as if Oklahoma wind has come to visit Arkansas the last few days.  We have had serious wind gusts going on!

Yesterday I headed out for a bike ride with Britt.  We were going to do the tower route from Britt's house which meant that we began the ride heading South straight into the wind.  There were moments where it felt like we weren't moving at all.  We prayed that the return trip would be easier with a tailwind.  We got to our turn and discovered that the bridge was closed and we couldn't proceed on our route.  We decided to be adventurers and see where the road we were on would take us.  We ended up crossing the highway and taking a nice 4 lane road with wide shoulders that let us add on some mileage.  The beauty was that it took us East/West without the wind bothering us too much.  Our average pace for the 30 miles was a lot slower than normal but that makes sense with a 20mph wind as our constant companion. 

After the bike ride, I headed out for a short brick run.  Britt lives in a little valley so no matter what direction I went I had to go uphill.  It wasn't a pretty run but I got in 1.5 miles and probably half of that was uphill. 

Today I had my long run on deck and my goal was an easy 8 miles.  I have let my long runs slip over the last month and I'm feeling the pain of having to rebuild that base.  It was warm and humid out when I started at 8:45 but the wind was again blowing.  Today I was enjoying the wind because it was helping to cool me down and keep the sweat from dripping in my eyes.  It is definitely time to start taking a sweat rag with me during my runs! I know the pace was slower than it should be but given my lack of long runs and the heat I'm happy with it.  I took walk breaks when I needed to and fought the urge to shorten my run.  Oh yes, by mile 1 I was contemplating making it just a 3 mile run, then thinking of places where I could cut back to my car and shorten the mileage! It was a good mental exercise to keep going even though I didn't want to.