Ride for the Donuts, Take 1

Homer Simpson would be proud of me. Today's mission? Ride to the donut stand. It was our 25 mile reward.

I met up with fellow blogger Kristin @ The Lazy Marathoner today (she ain't a lazy rider! she pushed me both up the hills and on the flats) and we knocked off a 50 miler, including knocking off three donuts each up @ Outhouse Orchards. We both agreed this was possibly the last day of good riding this fall before the inevitable happens. There were SO many other cyclists out this morning. I have never seen that many before and I would ride this same route every weekend! We also saw tons of hordes of motorcycle peletons and tons of Ferrari's (new and old) and other classic cars.

I think everyone was on the same wavelength: It is getting colder outside and now is one of those last chance days to get that last ride or drive in before hibernation occurs :(

But man oh man lemme tell you that those donuts were totally worth the trip up there! :) I am convinced those are the best cider donuts in my area.

For those of you who don't know or follow Kristin, she is a three time Ironman finisher, including doing two (yes two!) Ironman this year, Lake Placid and Wisconsin. It is always great to ride with an Ironman finisher especially when you are an Ironman virgin. I still haven't wrapped my brain around what it takes to do an Ironman yet, so getting answers & suggestions from an experienced Ironman finisher is totally invaluable.

Some of her recommendations? Stop and smell the roses...aka stop and great your family on the course. For being out there for 12 hours, is stopping for 30 seconds really going to hurt your day? Probably not. She kept mentioning the energy you receive from the crowd and your family that gets you through the race. I was at mile 56 of the Lake Placid course seeing folks hit the halfway mark on the bike. One guy stopped, got off of his bike, and greeted and hugged every member of his family who there waiting for him. The surrounding crowd went WILD! He probably wasted a minute, but was probably 10X happier with his day.

She also recommended that you try to enter the finish shoot alone, else Mike Reilly doesn't mention you specifically or your finish line photo is of you and others.

Drinking liquids? If it is going to be liquid, at least let it have some calories in it. (this is of course personal per person). I was only doing water by the end of the season. Gonna rethink water only and experiment with this as 12 Gu's & water is going to make me gag on the bike @ Placid. I also have to rethink Gu. It will remain in the regimen, but I need to find something to supplement the Gu, something more solid. Bananas agree with me well.

So thanks Kristin for the ride and sharing your experiences with me!