Day 39 / 42

Last two weeks of hard training before the half-ironman race. Today was one hard ride. I was only supposed to ride for 4 hours but because most of the people I rode with today are training for IM Utah, they needed to do a 4.5 hour ride.

"Is it ok if we ride a little longer today?" they asked.

"Sure - if you don't mind waiting for my slowness..."

Everyone I ride with is much faster than me. This is discouraging to me, because I feel bad that I am holding them up. They have to stop and wait for me at specific points. I've told them to go on and that I feel bad that they wait for long periods of time occasionally, but they (well, one of them at least) has assured me it is not a problem. When am I going to get to a point when I'm not the slowest? I just want to be faster than ONE person!

Anyway, today's ride was challenging. We managed to avoid the rain predicted for today, but it was still very cold. We ended up going over our projected time as well which put the total ride time around 4:40 instead of 4:30. Around the 3-hr mark, I almost felt like I was bonking, even though I had been eating the same amount I usually do on this ride. D informed me that we need more calories when it is cold because we're burning more trying to stay warm... hmmm... never heard that one before (anyone know?) but eating at that point did seem to help.

And of course we ran afterward... because we can. :)

One other note - yes, still using processed crap during exercise because it seems to be working for me and I'm scared to try something new this close to a race. But next month, I want to make all intake -- including exercising intake -- ETL if possible.

B - (during ride): 3 GUs, 2 odwalla bars, 1 diluted juice + electrolytes drink

L - green smoothie: 8 oz bok choy, 1 T flax seed, 1 orange, 2 pears, handful of blueberries

D - salad: romaine, 1/2 red pepper, 3 oz carrots, avocado herb dressing + dried persimmons

E - bike: 4:40, run: 0:30