At the height of my training blocks, I’m thankful for everyone supporting me (including you!) and also for some successful training sessions!  Here’s a review of my 55 mile ride and following transition run.

After a highly successful volunteer post at the Run for Boston 5K on Saturday, I prepped for a “big” training day for Sunday.  I’d skipped a long ride last weekend for Ragnar (post to come) and I have the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon next weekend, so I wanted to make sure I got a long ride in this weekend even though it has technically been a recovery week.

This was also important because I wanted to try out a few new things and to start to make decisions on what I’m wearing at Racine.  Bottoms clearly are most important because you’re spending hours with your butt planted on the bike seat.

The Good:

• New Bento Box.  I wasn’t liking my previous one as it kept matting up my shorts with the velcro.  I’d bought it for 3 dollars at a swap sale, so I was OK with paying for a new one.  My FuelBelt zip bento box is great!  Enough space for cell phone + all the fueling goodies I need.
• Tried out new-to-me fueling on the bike — and rocked it both tummy wise as well as eating-while-riding wise!  I had:  Hammer Perpetuem (a protein included liquid that many others have been liking), a Bonk Breaker bar & Gu Roctane (both will be on the Racine course), and Salt Tabs.
• A lovely ride out in the North Shore!  I’ve kept mostly to the North Branch trail for my rides so far, and this was a beauty!   We rode along Green Bay & St. John’s roads through Evanston, Winnetka, Glencoe & Highland Park (& I’m sure I missed a few), and ended up at Fort Sheridan.  I’ve run up here before and it was so peaceful on a Sunday morning!
• A very successful brick run after the ride.  Yes, my legs felt like cement for the first mile, but I did get some speed after that!  I cut the run a bit shorter than planned because I hadn’t brought a handheld water bottle out with me on the run and was starting to feel a little parched.

The Bad

• my bottle top that opened up
• riding home on Ashland… not necessarily the best idea.
• my front wheel and how silly I felt when it turned on I’d put it on backwards.  Thank you to Green Bay Cycles for switching it around and not making me feel too stupid.

The Ugly:

• Riding wise – not much!!! 
• I did see a ’70′s yellow mercedes car while in Evanston.  This may not seem like much, but for me its a wistful memory of a good high school friend who I have lost touch with.  She was a great friend, and it makes me sad to think of how I did not work harder to keep our friendship alive.

I finished up with a transition run – nothing too exciting to report here (although the absence of tummy troubles is, as always, noteworthy).  I did stop my run a tad early to stop and enjoy a Wicker Park fave: Glazed & Infused donuts.   Definitely a win.