Ok, so where was I at yesterday... oh yeah the tail that involved 3 bikes,
a trip to Cambridge, and killer dogs!!!
On Sunday,
Victoria met Jason and I at our place, bright and early, so we could make our way to Cambridge, MD to ride the Eagleman bike
course. We fussed with trying to fit one of our bikes in the back of the car
because I promised Victoria that our car does fit three bikes. So, the question
is: how many triathletes does it take to get said bike in car? This day it was
three :)
Once on our way it was an easy drive from DC and we were the first people
at the park! That is because we have #goodideas and no one else wanted to be
riding when it was still cold and cloudy out. The one strange thing about the
Cambridge park though is that there is no bathrooms! Which meant my pop-a-squat
I reserved for when I was riding took place at the beginning of the ride as
well, oh joy.
Ok so onto the ride itself. It was definitely cold when we started (48
degrees) and my hands were freezing. Lets not even talk about my poor feet. I
don't think I could feel them 3 hours later. Yes I know toe covers have been
invented but wearing them would have been too good of an idea. I had rode the EM
course once
before and thought I would be ok direction wise and remember the
streets having lots of arrows on them. This basically would take all the
guessing of what direction you are suppose to go out of the equation. Well turns
out the arrows on the road are confusing. Just about 6 miles or so into the ride
we got lost. HA. and started following the Chesapeake Man course instead. At one
point we almost rode right into the bay. Our course compared to the EM course
looks like we were smoking crack or something. Or we just love doing out and
backs.
At one point while riding, two dogs came running out of someone's yard and
onto the street and started chasing us. I thought the one dog as going to bite my
ankle and take me and boomer down. Victoria thought she was going to run the
other one over with her front wheel. Maybe this is point I hit 22mph as we
pedaled harder to escape the dogs.... for now....
Overall, I felt great on the bike and our average speed was 17.9mph. Folks
this is fast for me for 54.4 miles! And the best part was my legs felt so good!
Yes this course is as flat as a pancake but we did get nice head winds which
made it more challenging. I will be more than thrilled if I can keep this pace
up during my 70.3. It was a great confidence boosting ride and I am still
excited about it today.
Once we got back to the car, we changed shoes and set off for an hour brick
run. Now I didn't have a brick on my schedule, but I didn't want Victoria to
have all the fun, so I set off running with her. My feet basically felt dead
since they were frozen solid. It wasn't until about 15 minutes into the run that
I could start feeling my toes again. And good thing I could because as we were
running down a small street about 1.5 miles into the run course two dogs came
out of no where. Now I grew up with dogs and am not scared of them, but these
little F-ers were coming right at us. The one jumped on my thigh and bit me!!!
Luckily, he mostly got my long running spandex I had on, but his teeth still
left marks on me (no blood). My leg is actually still a little sore from the small bite and is nicely bruised. Anyhow, I had no idea where the owners were? But we had to slowly
walk away for the dogs to leave us alone! We finished the run avoiding that
street at all costs. Besides the stupid dogs, the run went great. Once again my
legs still felt good and I could have ran 13 miles without an issue. Oh why was
this not race day? I can only hope I feel this good in 8 weeks.
Anyhow, at the end of the day we battled 3 hours of cycling, 1 hour of
running, and fought off 4 dogs! Not dying, strong legs, and going fast FTW!!!!
Happy Tues All :)
And please be careful out there when you see dogs running
towards you. I learned that it does not help to run and the best thing to do is
not to look at them and walk away slowly if one is trying to attack you.
