WWCWD?

Today's ride was exhilarating and common sense-defying with a little bit of near-death by car thrown in for good measure.

Now, I know that I always make every workout sound like a Latin Soap Opera, but if simply reported that it was a ho-hum ride, you wouldn't keep reading my blog, now would you?

Moving on....

Earlier this week I was fighting some pretty moderate chest congestion which made everything slow and painful. My swim time suffered, my runs were slow, my bike pathetic. The worst was that I had this constant pain with every breath. Not a good way to spend a week in training.

Today it all cleared up and I set out for a bike ride after work. Since I rode 40 miles two days ago, I was planning to go 30---more if I was feeling good. Lemme tell ya that chest congestion was the best thing to happen to me because with a clear set of lungs I was FLYING! I was seeing speeds I had only seen in races and was just blazing along with a perma-smile a la Chrissie Wellington*

The sun was out, I was biking on the beautiful North Shore with the ocean right at my side, and I felt like I could ride forever.

Then, the heavens opened. First, a drizzle. When I started to get grumpy I thought WWCWD? and kept on. Eventually the rain turned into an absolute downpour and I was forced to seek refuge at an abandoned gas station. As I waited out the rainstorm, the clock was ticking. As much as I wanted to keep riding, I had a BBQ to go to that I was already on track for being 1 hour late to. I made the decision to turn around and go home. As soon as I hit the road, it started raining again. Great. Just great.

Somehow, despite the rain, I was able to stay in the groove and keep flying along at a decent pace and cadence. Suddenly, I felt the all too familiar whrrrrrr-hiss. A flat. Awesome.

This was only my second flat on the road, and my first flat out of the "safety phone a friend" zone. To make matters worse it was at an area along the road that had almost no shoulder and no place to pull off too. My first instinct was to reach for my phone and call my nearest male friend. When it went straight to voicemail I almost had a girl moment, but then I thought WWCWD? and began to take action. Not 30 seconds into fixing the flat I realized I had another problem to contend with: the mosquitoes. In the process of fixing the flat I got about 20 bites on my legs, a half dozen on my arms, three through my bike jersey, and one right below my nosering.

While all this is going on, I am doing my best not to get hit by cars. Amidst all the chaos, I did remember to snap a cell-phone photo for the blog:

That photo cost me three mosquito bites, so you better appreciate it!

The one good thing was that the rain temporarily stopped when I had to deal with the flat. At least God had some mercy on me. I also have complete confidence in my CO2 cartridge since I was able to use it properly during my crisis (Ironman fans will know this time I did not follow my WWCWD? motto).

By the end, I had mixed emotions about my 50 mile ride. I was angry from the rain, but proud of myself for fixing a flat under pressure. I was also ridiculously itchy and 2 hours late for my party. In my quest to better integrate training and my social life, I tried to make my recovery socks part of my outfit. Normally I wouldn't wear the socks out in public, but I had a 14 mile run the next morning and needed some fresh legs. My friends are no fools--the first thing they say? "Yo, what's up with the socks?"
My response: "We are so not talking about the socks tonight. Socks are off limits.


*WWCWD stands for What Would Chrissie Wellington do. If you don't know who she is, google her. This girl has a perma-smile in all her Ironmans and I try to remember, during my toughest workouts, that this is supposed to be fun. So, when I'm struggling, I try to think WWCWD and put on a smile.