4:50 Bike Hurt

I have been home now for about 20 min from my 4:50 bike. It was a good ride and it was a bad ride. First the bad. I am really starting to question my sanity, if I had any to begin with. Why am I doing this? The longest bike I had yet, and it killed me. I made 80 miles in 4.5 hours and then did a slow cool down around the neighborhood. I guess I wasn't really tired, my legs just hurt and my saddle region was screaming. It would have been better if I was able to stay aero and be comfortable because then my legs stopped hurting when I was down. I had to sit up a lot the last hour. I will get to that in a bit. My quads are what was yelling the loudest. Oh man. I am still struggling with my nutrition. I will elaborate more in a second. If I had to add any hills today, I think I would have just died. Ok onto the good: I did ride 80+ miles today. I have figured out that being in the aero position is a start to my nutrition problem. I started having stomach problems today right at 1:15, when I have the other times as well. I found that after 5-6 min of taking a gel is when my stomach reacts to it. I started sitting up after 4-5 min and sitting up for 5 min and then going aero again. This worked really well until after 3.5 hours. I started to have to sit up longer before I felt better, but by the time I could feel it settling in my stomach, it was time to eat again. Ugh. I did not have a strong urge to throw up, but it was on the way. By 4 hours I wanted to throw every gel I had at passing vehicles. I was getting upset. Just then, my boyfriend text me and I asked him why I was doing this and he said "because you are awesome". That really helped get me through the last miles. I will have to plant signs and pictures of him around the course that I can read to keep me motivated. Today I also tried Elite. Um...no reaction to it, I guess. I liked the salty taste it left on my lips when I ripped open the packet. This got me thinking that I do need more salt. Would it be weird to just carry a salt shaker around. Then I passed Casey's and thought, I should stop in there and see if they have those little salt packets. Hmmmmm....this could work. Well I didn't stop because I wanted to get home so bad. I did stop about half way on the bike to pee and right when I got home so I feel I was not dehydrated. This problem is driving me nuts. The upset stomach was what was causing me to sit up longer, which was brutal. Today, even the light 5-10 mph wind out of the West was pissing me off. I try not to think about it because it takes so much energy to be pissed at something you can't control. I also decided I would rather do a hilly course than have a flat windy one. I discovered today that the old Lincoln Highway between Ames and Nevada has a bike lane. That was sweet. Today I was also very tempted to eat the nats that were stuck to my arm. I could have eaten for 2 days with all of them. Gross. I also got sunburned on my forehead where the vents are in my helmet. So I have 2 red vertical marks there. Great. Good thing my hair will cover it up, hopefully. I did not get burned anywhere else other than my face. That was where I put the most sunscreen. So maybe less is more? Or mostly I just sweated it all off. I also think I have figured out why people in their 60s still feel like they are in their 20s. Because I feel like I am 60 years old today. So when I am 60, I will remember that I felt like this in my 20s and it will be the same :) At the rate I am going, I hope I make to 60. Geez. Thursday morning I ran 45 min the morning and then biked for an hour after work. I went on the trail that heads up to Big Creek. I couldnt remember why I don't like that trail, and then I remembered. Holy Crap, that trail is in horrible shape. I think I had more water on me than I did in my water bottle. I lost the straw and sponge from my aero bottle about 5 times and then I just took it out and held it in my hand. It was so stupid. On the way back I took the road. Never riding that trail ever again. Well, maybe if I had a full suspension mountain bike. People are insane to ride on it. Friday was my day off. Well kind of. I hadn't mowed lawn in 2 weeks now so I figured I would do that last night. hahaha. it sucked. First off, the grass is about a foot tall, second it is really think because I over seeded it this year and third, it was very wet. So my normal 20 min mow turned into a 30 min mow plus another 20 to rake. I never even got the front mowed. Ugh. I was dripping wet so I came in and showered. Took a short nap and then went out for a couple drinks with some friends. So maybe sometime today I can get the rest mowed. I need to hire someone to do my yard work because the weeds are taking over my raspberries and rubarb. Tomorrow I am going to attempt a 1.5 hour run and a short 30 min bike after. Might have to take the mountain bike so I am not sitting on the same place as I was today. Decided I am not going to do much of a taper this week for Hyvee. Probably will take Tuesday night off and Friday and only do a short bike/run Saturday before dropping off my bike. I like the excitement of Hyvee, I had the logistics of it. The mandatory meetings, registration, the expo, bike check in, race morning chip pick up and marking, the parking. It just goes on. I liked Kansas because you could get so much done the day before and get it all done in one swoop because it was all at the race site and I didn't have to drive 30 min across town to get there. The traffic much better too because busy roads were NOT closed. I am going to crash on the couch. I just found a fucking cockroach in my spare bedroom. Holy fuck I am going to burn down my house to get rid of these bugs. The ants have discovered last night where I feed my dog so they were all over his food bowl this morning. I had to spray it to kill them because there was literally a hundred ants on it. So I filled up his water and set it on the floor while I cleaned his stand. When I set his bowl on the floor he looked at me like, you want me to eat off the floor? But I am a God. I said you stuck up little monkey, lol. Just eat. I cleaned up his stand and then put his food and water dish back on it, then he came over and ate. Spoiled rotten. He is now laying spralled all over my bed so I have to sleep on the couch. At least I get the big tv then, lol.