Birthday Bike Ride and Other Stuff.

So let’s talk about my 30 mile birthday bike ride on Sunday, shall we? I haven’t ridden 30 miles in approximately 178 days (give or take 7 days) and so we set out on this beautiful Sunday morn to do just that.

It was my husband’s idea.

He likes me to push limits. He thought it would be a great birthday present.

Which it was.

I started out strong! It was great! It was windy. I started to slow.

Here we go again, the voice in my head starts in, becomes angry that it was having a hard time keeping up with the pack of my friends who’d come out for the birthday ride. Ya know, the ones who are training for a half-ironman, who have been boot camping for the past 6 years, whose training has gone mostly undisturbed. Those ones.

And so as that voice grew louder I had to reprimand it. I really just had to tell it to SHUT.UP.

I told it that it was BEING IRRATIONAL. That I haven’t rode 30 miles in 185 days (give or take 7 days) and that it is beating itself (me) up for not maintaining 18-20 pace for 30 miles. Seriously. What is wrong with you.

Which wasn’t a question, it was rhetorical.

Approximately half of my workouts in recent weeks have required a dialogue with self. Reminders of going my own pace. Of building it back gradually.

Mostly it’s about the following: I can do things hard, OR I can do things long, but I can’t do HARD AND LONG. (That’s what she said.)

*snicker*

Sorry. What I mean is that I can do intervals and go fast for shorter distances, or I can go for a while at a slow pace. Not for a while and a fast pace. That’s the way my training rolls right now.

So back to the 30 mile birthday bike ride. I made it strong just over halfway. Started to seriously peter out in the last 5, the ones where my midsection was on fire and where I decided I officially found my cycling limit for now.

There is a surprising amount of crouching, bending and core work involved with riding your bike for 30 miles. At the end, I had to sit straight up and when I got home I had to take off my spandex immediately. My midsection still hurts and it’s a little bloated with the swelly belly, which surprises me at 4 months later but is still common.

OH yeah. Remember my inner thigh nerve problem? I have answers! I went to my gyn/oncologist last week for a routine checkup…

Turns out that some of the lymph nodes they removed were wrapped around that nerve in my inner thigh and my nerve is stunned. It’s pretty common. I feel like Darla in Finding Nemo.I want to shake it and make it wake up:

“WAKE UP NERVEY! WAKE UP!”

“Wake UP!”

The doctor said a lot of people do physical therapy but she thinks I’m already doing that. I’m sure she’s right because it has gotten better, it’s just not there yet. Like all things.

Perhaps 30 miles was a little ambitious since I’m a little puffed up but I can’t help it.

It felt good. Can’t wait to get on the new birthday bike. 

Ps. TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR FITBLOGGIN! I CAN’T WAIT!!

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