Finally...

I finally did it. After much deliberation and procrastination, I have finally logged in a 180+ km bike ride. It wasn't as easy I had expected it to be and as Nic and I agreed somewhere between the 80 to 85 km mark, today's ride was certainly blog-worthy material for me. 

The morning began unofficially at 4.50 am. I proceeded to hit the snooze button so... officially the morning began at 5.35 am for me. Nic and JJ didn't fare much better either with the Z so... we proceeded to shift the rendezvous time to about 6.50 am. Nic started out first and finished about 2/3 of a coastal loop before joining up with JJ and I. With the addition of Nic, the fellowship of the May 17th 180km ride was complete, and the ride of the week (for me...) began. The first two loops went pretty fine although I must say that we maintained a slightly higher pace then we should have. I would have done pretty fine keeping my average bike speed on the first two loops at about 31.2- 32 but we finished the two loops at about a 33 - 34 km/h pacing. That did have an effect on me later in the ride... but I guess if you don't push you'll never know aye?

We took a pit stop at the 60 km mark. I wasn't too keen on stopping so early in the ride especially after we did take two or three very short breaks (Nic had a puncture earlier... haha Nic 0 Random Thumbtack/ sharp object by roadside 2) prior to this pit stop. But the three of us were in this together so... its all for one and one for all. It turns out that I was starting to dehydrate already judging by the volume of H20 consumed. After a 10-15 min pit stop, tons of liquid and random nuts and snacks, we headed out for the next leg of our bike ride. The next leg lasted about 80 km and took the most out of me. The sun was out by then and the headwinds along coastal had started to pick up. JJ and Nic were doing fine... and I just looked fine. My legs were aching and I was starting to loose focus. The heat works wonders when you're not prepared for it. JJ was without a doubt the pillar of strength on this ride. Without him and Nic, I doubt I would have been able to successfully complete the ride (or at least complete it before nightfall) Anyway, the rest of this 80 km leg did eventually come to an end and we took our final pitstop before finishing up the rest of the ride.

I pretty glad I accomplished what I had set out to do today (the other item on the to do list was to mow the lawn... which I did too). So here's my training sum-up for this week.

Monday: 3 (800m Swim + 4 X 50m Fast stroking) + 1500m Swim 

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 8 km Run + (??) Swim 

Thursday:  1 hour 5 min run + 10 mins cooldown

Friday: 55 km Bike Ride

Saturday: 9 km Run

Sunday: 183.3 km Bike Ride

All in all, the week has been a rather good one. Let's hope the upcoming week would be better.... now to get started on that training program :)