Update

Saturday's ride was a long three hour ride followed by a 20 minute transition run. Actually I found it easier than doing the Muskoka Long Course probably because a) I didn't swim 2 km before b) the route wasn't as hilly. I really need to push myself harder when I ride. Interesting I rode for 89.7 km and would have went further if I wasn't doing hill repeats. To make things harder, coach told me to come to a complete stop at the bottom of the hill and choose a harder gear to ride up. Seems to make a difference. This Saturday's ride should put me close to the 100 kilometre ride (depending on how many hill repeats I do). Who would have thunk I'd be doing 100 kilometre rides? What's next, 180 kilometres rides?

I took my bike up to the coach's place as there were funny clunking nosies coming from the pedals after Saturday's ride. The crank was loose so coach tightened it up so for Monday's ride it seemed ok but by the end of the ride it was making even louder nosies and I could clearly hear metal on metal with every pedal stroke. That could only mean one thing....more $$$. Again I took my bike up to the coach's place and this time I told him just replace the part as the last thing I needed was my bike falling apart during Muskoka 70.3. Turns out the ball bearings were toast and it was grinding every pedal stroke. I haven't got the bill yet but there goes another $250. And that doesn't include the $350 I dropped at the Running Free sale the week before.

This morning's ride was only a 75 minute ride but Tammy wanted to go to the 6:15 am pump class so that meant I had to be out of the house by 4:45 am. As summer comes to an end, it ain't light out at 4:45 am. That meant riding up Warden ave in total darkness. Coming down the hill on Kennedy road (south of Bloomington) normally I'm hammering down going about 65 km\hr but because it was fairly dark and also mist was rolling across the fields onto the road, I took it easy (only 60 km\hr). I figured visibility was about 100 metres and also as I stayed in the aero position, I hoped the road was clear or I could see any crap on the road and avoid it in time.

I've must have had a good workout as I've been totally starving all day long. Leaving that early in the morning, actually gave me time to do a workout after my ride and I even did some Abs!

Getting back to the coach, I was talking about pacing Tammy for the Toronto Good Life half marathon but because I run over one minute per kilometre faster, I knew it would be a painful run for me. My brother Paul paced Sarah for the New York marathon one year and I think he was hurting more than she was simply because its hard to run at a significantly slower pace than your used to.

Coach suggested I borrow a jogging stroller and run with Jake inside. That would put us on the same pace. Hmmm running up Hoggs Hollow on Yonge street with a stroller. How fun would that be? Can you say, burning quads?