All things being equal...

...I had a great weekend!

but first, my perseverance quote for the week:
You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures. ~Charles C. Noble

Saturday was a jam-packed day. The plan was to get my bike fit (check), go on a long run with Jason (check), open water swim at Jason's lake (nope), run home to shower/change (check), see Dude for a little bit (check), then head to Alexandria for the Team Z Ironman party (check). Also had to add a trip to Conte's, a stem install, and a trip back to the bike fit.

The Bike Fit - HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Steve at 90 Revolutions for the Medical Bike Fit. It started with a strength and flexibility assessment. Then the static bike fit where the bulk of the adjustments were made. Once that was done, he video taped my pedaling and made the final adjustments. All in all it took about 3 1/2 hours and was worth every minute. He raised the seat almost 2 inches (more on that later), I had to get inserts for my shoes, wedges, and a new stem (go figure since the seat was raised so much)!

The Run: The route Jason came up was through his hilly, hilly neighborhood. I tested the run/walk after the first 20 minutes and overall we were about 30 seconds slower per mile which I think that was a mix of the run/walk and all of the hills. Legs felt great at the end and I enjoyed the run for the first time in a long time.

No time to swim (but time for a beer) then rushed home to shower, see Dude, then rush back to get my bike looked at with the new stem.

The Party: Showed up 2 hours late (2nd trip to the fitter), missed the group photo but really enjoyed seeing everyone, meeting new people, hearing tales of Ironman past, training ideas, and Pete's funny stories.

Headed home for some much needed sleep. Whew - what a Saturday!

Sunday - Headed out at 0615 for Riley's Lock - it was overcast and drizzling but 60 degrees. Started the ride with Jason (!) and Joanna (!) so yes, I was a little faster with the new fitting and tire not rubbing. Before the first hill I told Jason I was going to have to adjust the seat after the ride because I could feel the pull behind my knee. Stuck with them until I got caught in traffic. Rode with Matt Wolfe (!) and KC (new guy I met at the party) to the first rest stop.

By now the rain was coming down hard and the temperature had dropped. Headed out again and the knee was progressively getting worse.
Mile 19-25: "hmm, this is starting to really ache"
Mile 25-39: "ow, ow, ow" New plan: Go to the mile 71 rest stop and get a ride
Mile 39-44 "holy hell, this fricking hurts" - ignored the detour signs and soon found out the bridge was out. Had to head back up the hill to follow the detour. New new plan = go 60 miles and stop/catch a ride
Mile 44-50 (rest stop) "Expletive, expletive, expletive" - Jason and Matt saw the pain in my face and declared my cycling day DONE! Bought a hot coffee, warmed up in Susan's car, caught a ride back with Ed (and 4 others).

Lessons learned:
Nutrition was spot on - drank even when I wasn't thirsty and even took in extra calories because of the cold.
When you need to make an adjustment - make it! My day would have been completely different had I done that.
There's a thin line between training for mental toughness and stupidity. Thank goodness Matt and Jason stopped me because I'm an idiot and I would have kept going (all the while saying to myself "It's IRONman not SISSYman") and would have ended up injured.
Know thy body and listen to it!

I was disappointed that I didn't complete the ride but looking back it was the best decision. Concentrating on the positive - I did do 50 miles on an extremely hilly course, in the cold and rain. Other then the other crazy Team Z peeps how many other people would do that?!