Got Chunked!

One downside to having your "A" race in June, it really doesn't leave much to train for during the rest of the summer.  I'm still training about 10 hours a week but haven't really decided on my next race.  I originally had planned to do Calgary 70.3 in July and then Rev 3 Ohio in Sept but with my dad in the hospital for the last two months, any long trips are out.  I thought about doing a couple of sprints with Lisa and the Toronto Triathlon Festival is next week but last Monday, Toronto got hit with a massive storm and lots of crap got washed into Lake Ontario.  The bacteria count is 10 times the safe limit right now but I'm sure it will drop by next Sunday but we'll see.

In the meantime, I want to keep the bike fitness up so I've been riding for four hours the last couple of weeks.  Rom came over to my place at 6:30 am and we headed out up to Zephyr.  It was already hot out and I knew this was going to be a sufferfest.  My biggest worry is running out of water.  Once I run out, its game over and with this heat and humidity, the chances are high unless we plan out our water stops.

By the time we got to the York/Durham county line (30 minutes later), Rom was already far ahead and I was struggling to keep up.  I was already sweating like crazy and my heart rate was around 150 (max is 175).  We made it up to Zehpyr and reloaded with water.  I wanted to do 120 km so we decided to push onto Lake Simcoe and then turn around back to home.  This was the route we took last year for Ironman training.  Once we got up to the lake, we rode along Lake Road and its such a nice ride.  I was worried about time as I told Tammy I would be four hours but if we rode over to Warden, we would have to ride back to Mccowan and that would be closer to five hours which "could" lead to trouble.  We agreed to limit the breaks and just hammer it down Warden but we stopped off at a conivence store on Kennedy to get more water.  Walking out of the store, I got stung on my chest by a wasp.  I hoped I wasn't allergic to wasp stings as we were 50 km away from home.  By this time, it was around 10:30 am and getting hotter.  As usual whenever I ride back from the lake, I'm always riding into a headwind so because time was a factor, I planned to draft off Rom for the entire ride home....if I could keep up. 

We headed south into the wind and I stuck to Rom's wheel.  My watts were really low and I figured it must have been a really good draft.  Eventually I got bored and passed Rom as he had mentioned his legs felt tired from Thursday's ride.  This would be an opportunity for him to draft off me for once.  I took off and cranked it up to try and keep a pretty good pace.  I expected Rom to be right on my wheel but when I sat up and looked back after 15 km, Rom was about one kilometer back.  Odd, he's hates when he's not leading.  The temperature was soaring and the winds were strong. 

I put my head down and grinded out the miles.  My heart rate was bouncing between 155-165.  I was fried, hot and dead tired.  The good thing about coming south down Warden, is that its much flatter than if we went the way we came north.  Now that said, Warden isn't completely flat.  There are a couple of rollers and I suck at hill climbing.  I always get passed by everyone.  I came up to this one girl who was meandering along.  She was a little bit heavy and probably weighted more than Rom.  I thought nothing of it when I passed her on the flats as I was just grinding it out but when we came to some rollers, she breezed by me.  More flats and I passed her by only to get caught on the next set of rollers.  Rom was way back and I had the choice of waiting for Rom to catch up or smoke this chick.  Well she smoked me on the next set of rollers.  My legs were on fire and my heart rates was 165.  As she passed me again, I said to her, "crap you're killing me" and she laughed and said I would catch her on the flats.  Finally at Bloomington Side Road I passed her and then waited for Rom.  Just south of Bloomington, there is a small hill and then a long flat straight away.  She passed me while I was stopped and got about one kilometer ahead before Rom caught up.  I decided I was going to smoke her on the flats and when bombing down the hill.   I roared by her in TT position and finally left her far behind (Rom as well).  She must have turned off the next road as I didn't see her again.  By then, I was totally fried and literally limped home.  No way I was running after that bike.  I had wobbly legs and it was just too hot.