Flow State

Last week accidentally became a rest week after Friday. Honestly, it was needed. I was beat up, had some life stuff going on, and training just wasn’t going to happen the way I wanted. Even after two full days off, my legs still hurt. That should’ve been a clue.

Because next weekend is also going to be goofy schedule-wise, I decided to flip the week around and do my long bike today and long run tomorrow. Seemed smart enough.

The plan was to ride the Rockford 70.3 bike course. I drove up to Rockford and was rolling by about 8:15. Unfortunately, I was hurrying because I wanted to “still have a day left” afterward. That rushing led to a spectacular collection of unforced errors.

First mistake: I didn’t bring or take any pain meds even though I knew my back would start hurting in the first hour. Which it did. It eventually loosened up, but I spent half the ride standing up to stretch it out.

Second mistake: I accidentally left my phone in the car. Not a huge issue… until it potentially becomes a huge issue.

Third—and this one was genuinely stupid—I didn’t notice my water bottle came out in the car. I noticed about two miles in that I didn’t have it. I absolutely should have turned around. Even if it added time or mileage. Instead, I figured, “Eh, I can go a while without water. I’ll just stop at a mini mart somewhere.”

Which would’ve been a great plan if there had been a mini mart somewhere.  The only “town” I rode through wasn’t even halfway, and I thought, “I’m sure there will be other chances to buy some water.”  Nope.  Not a one.  It got so bad that I was looking for any farmer with a hose on the side of the house.  Didn’t see any of those either.

Hurrying also meant I didn’t check the weather carefully. Which I should have because it was 85 degrees and sunny. So now my arms and knees are sunburned because I also forgot sunscreen. Great work all around.

By mile 50 of 56, I had to stop and sit in the shade by someone’s house for five minutes because I felt faint. Pretty sure I was flirting with heat exhaustion between the heat and the no-water strategy. This was also the point where not having my phone suddenly seemed like a much bigger mistake.

At mile 53, I had to walk one uphill block because I was absolutely cooked. Some of that was dehydration, but honestly, the bigger factor was the wind. The entire second half—about 28 miles—was straight into a headwind.

I should’ve known the first half was too easy.

In the front half I was actually wondering whether I should extend the ride beyond 56 miles to hit a total time of 3:30. The universe answered that question for me. The headwind took care of any “extra miles” thoughts immediately.

So did the heat.
And the lack of water.
And the elevation.

The course map claims 1,931 feet of climbing. My Garmin says 2,733 feet. One of them is lying, and I’m siding with Garmin. It felt like 10,000 feet by mile 50.

Also, I swear there was no downhill. Mile 54 might’ve had some. Maybe.  I know I sound like some old man saying they rode to school uphill both ways, but that’s what it felt like!

And despite having turn-by-turn navigation on my Garmin, I still made a wrong turn. Thankfully, it didn’t add distance because part of the course is parallel to out-and-back roads, but naturally, I’m convinced the route I missed had all the downhill sections.  You can see on the Garmin file where I should’ve kept going straight instead of turning onto 70

Final numbers:

• 56.69 miles
• 3:34 ride time
• 2,733 feet of climbing
• 16.5 average speed

When I finally got back to the car, I chugged water and drove straight to a mini mart where I purchased:

• one gigantic water
• one gigantic soda
• one bag of chips for the salt

It took most of the drive home before I could even eat the sandwich I had packed.

Initially, sitting in the car, I was discouraged. The whole ride felt like a disaster. And honestly? It was kind of a disaster.

But I stopped the negative spiral pretty quickly and reframed it as a learning ride. Because it was.

Lessons learned:

• Water matters. (Groundbreaking…smh.)…My Garmin estimates I lost 2910ml of water.  For someone 205 lbs, that’s 3.1% of my body weight lost and puts me in moderate dehydration.  So, MORE WATER!
• I need a second bottle cage before race day.
• Sunscreen exists for a reason.
• Feeding still needs work.
• Bananas mid-ride don’t sit well for me.
• Honey packets are magical.

I also recalibrated my goals for the 70.3. This is really just a training race. I’m probably not PR’ing compared to my last 70.3, which was 12 years ago. And that’s okay. The race is basically a supported long training day.

Honestly, I’d like to ride the course again before race day if I can. I like reconning courses, and Chicago doesn’t exactly prepare you for rolling hills and endless false flats.

Once home, I took a long shower, kept sipping water, sat on the couch reading, and had a nice family dinner.

Tomorrow I’ll attempt the long run, though I may scale it back to the actual planned 7.5 miles instead of the How Not To Train version of 9.5.

We’ll see.

But I will bring sunscreen.
And water.