I've always said "make a face" but I believe "pull" a face is the same thing. In any case, last Monday was my first ugly face; I realized my first race was a month away and it is 48 miles. When in my best shape last fall, my longest race was 28 miles. Actually, the longest race I entered was 33 miles, but I was so far behind after the first 10, it turned into a training run. So, 48 is quite a stretch, especially for February. Thus I made a face and went out and rode 47 miles. The pace was pedestrian and I really just wanted to know what it felt like after a lot of time in spin class and weight training. I gave thanks for my tights, in that I'm sure they were the reason my muscles didn't fall off the bones.
The other ugly face came Tuesday morning. Monday night the weather forecast called for overcast morning and 20+mph winds starting around noon, with the temperature rising from mid-40's to mid-60's. I planned my hill ride for 10am, thus finishing at 11:30am. Early Tuesday morning my favorite weatherman opined he thought the wind would have come through by now (7:10am). So I got myself together after making a face, and managed to be ready to ride at 9am. The wind started around 8am.
Temperature on the marquee read 47F. But, putting my best spin on it, the wind out of the north gave me 30 minutes to warm up before turning back into it. That counts as "Good."
Monday's mileage and the wind in my face climbing Courtyard and Jester is the "Bad." Once again I thanked my tights for holding my muscles together.
Wednesday I previewed the race course, which is two 24 mile laps. I'm expecting the winners to come in around 2 hours 15 minutes. I did it in 3hr 10min. Hmmmmm. While that sounds bad, I'm not worried yet. My heart rate monitor showed a lot of time in Zone 3, not much time in Zone 4 and zero time in Zone 5. Three weeks to bring my speed up to something respectable.
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