IF ANYONE FINDS MY LEGS,CAN YOU GET THEM BACK TO ME PLEASE!!

yes friends it's another weekend recap. when we last left our hero, she was about to ride the furthest EVAH for her. 75 miles. oh, and it would be followed by a 6 mile run. coach intended for me to ride 75 miles with hills. by hills he meant hills that would take 6-10 minutes to climb followed by flat recovery sections. hills that should make up about 40 percent of the distance. so our hero went a little overboard. she really had no idea what she was getting herself in to. but let me digress, for a moment, on the topic of nutrition, "the 4th event" if you will, cuz i think our hero is on to something...


the mad scientist is at it again

so i bought this plain Hammer Perpetuem so that i could experiment with mixing it with a variety of different flavor additives. this weekend i tried a few different things. for one, you can find the same Tazo Chai tea concentrate that Starbucks uses for their chai lattes at Costco in bulk size. so i mixed one gel flask with Perpetuem powder and the chai concentrate instead of water. let's just say it's my own little *$ in a gel flask!!!! YUMMMMMMM. but i know i'll get sick of that really quick, so i went on the hunt at the store for other flavors i could mix in. i found a tin of that General Foods International Coffees instant stuff called Dark Mayan Chocolate. oh man, if this is what i think it is, i'm in heaven. if it's called Mayan Chocolate, they're probably referring to the same kind of Ibarra Chocloate from Mexico that i loved as a kid. my grandpa would use the Ibarra to make this Mexican hot chocolate drink called Champurrado. only problem is that Ibarra is a super hard chocolate that has to be broken with a hammer, so this General Foods instant stuff is perfect!!! so now i have 2 super sweet flavored flasks, and now i want something savory. that's why i can't do all the gels, they're just too damn sweet. and here's where i'm probably gonna gross y'all out....

3 flasks: breakfast, lunch and dessert...

yep, onion flavor. i mixed the 3rd flask with Lipton Onion Soup Mix, you know, the stuff your moms makes the chip dip with. now that's probably revolting to a lot of you out there, maybe even Steve in a Speedo who seems to do most of the grossing out here in the tri blog world, but i've been trying to spread the word for a while now that there's a place in endurance nutrition for savory flavors. it's beginning to feel like the astronauts freeze dried meals, but it's gonna keep it exciting out there for the long haul. which brings me back to the ride....



i decided i'd take another venture into "The Bu." that's Cali talk for "Malibu." i've ridden along the relatively flat section of Pacific Coast Highway along the water before. remember the ride with Mr. Creepy Mc Creeperson? yeah that route. nothing too crazy, about 45 miles round trip. but what lies just inland from the coast are the Santa Monica Mountains and a variable treasure chest of routes and climbs through canyons that GO ON FOREVER!!!

having never ridden the canyons, i found a route on Map My Ride and just went for it. i really had no idea what i was in for, but it was great practice for Ironman. i was alone, i had no idea where i was going or how far the next turn was, and it took me 7.5 friggin' hours. mind you, i stopped a ton of times to take pics, eat, pee and look at my map, so the computer says 6:22 of actual ride time. all i could think was, shit, Ironman is gonna take me forever!!! but when i went back and looked at the elevation, i realized that it was pretty much all climbing and very little flat recovery sections. total ascent was 3,606 ft!!! after all was said and done, i made it back to my car just before dark and decided to bag the run. coach didn't mean for me to take on such a gnarly ride and then do a brick. plus i had 12 to run on sunday which would still feel like a brick to me.

met up with Iron Maiden Cindy on sunday to knock out the 12 miles in Griffith Park. she only ran the first 8 with me as she'd just returned from running the Disney Goofy Challenge in Orlando last weekend. Iron Maiden Juliet is gone to Pucon, Chile for the 70.3. can't wait to hear her race report!!!

so i'm dialing in the nutrition and that's been fun. i'll keep you posted on other great flavors, both savory and sweet, that i come up with. today, i'm a little slow moving. it's tough when you can't feel your legs ya know?? really looking forward to gettin' my stretch on in Sahara's yoga class today. it'll be my first time back since the shoulder went out. got a recovery swim too. and i need to get better sleep. this week's goal is 8 hours every night.....