It was only yesterday that we swam more than 1.5 miles, and here I find myself following Bora towards Kensington Park early afternoon. The day started off with a slight accident, with one of my gatorade bottles top coming off while in the bag, spilling all over not only the bag, but the seat of my car as well. It took about 10 mins to get over that mini-disaster, and I reached about 10 mins late to the meeting point.
It was a good 50 min ride out to Milford, and another 10 mins trying to find where everyone was meeting up. I had originally thought it was going to be only myself, Bora and Courtney, but I was pleasantly surprised to find our coach Stu, Jason & Ron getting ready for the ride too!
I started getting all my equipment out of the car, only to realize I had forgotten one minor thing, my long bike pants. I was wearing my regular track pants, but they were too baggy towards the ankles and would get stuck in the chain. Ofcourse as usual, the Mean Machine was there to the rescue and gave me a couple of leg warmers!
Everything was all set and I was off with the team heading out on the road. Just as we were pulling out, Bora realized he forgot something in his car, and headed back to get it, while the rest of the team headed out. We had barely gone a few yards when I heard some whining from my rear tire. Considering I had just had my bike tuned a couple of days ago, this was somewhat annoying. What was worse was, it turned out to be the brake I had just gotten adjusted!
I just unhooked the brake, and it seemed to get a little better. We had maybe gone up a couple of miles, when we realized Bora had still not caught up. We chilled out by the light at the intersection, while Jason headed back to see what was going on. Both of them eventually made it back, and we started our bike run again. Once again, I had barely gone around the bend that my brake started acting up. Ron and Bora stopped to help and we loosened the bolt to allow the brake to function normally. It seemed to be going ok, except that the brake got stuck next time I pressed it. This time we had Coach Stu take out his tool kit and fix it, enough to get me back on the road. The rest of the ride went fairly without brake issues, but I suddenly seemed to be having issues with the cleats on my shoes clipping on to the pedals. I had Bora looking out for me all through the day, and I felt bad because I was slowing him down. I am not sure whether it was the fatigue from the swimming yesterday, or whether I was just not up to the task yet, but I was unfortunately the last one in the group. One major issues I was having was my sinuses all blocked up which was causing issues with my breathing. In any case, I still did keep up with group, despite the issues, so I am proud of myself for that! :)
At the end of the run, we had done a 27 mile trip which included hilly terrain, pointed out to be significantly harder than the Philly Triathlon. I was really glad that we were not running after this, since I was in no condition to be doing any more activity with my legs. Luckily for me, neither was anybody else, so that was a pleasant surprise! :)
We ended the day with a lunch at Gus O' Connors in Novi, where the Peidmontese burger seemed to be salvation for our bodies. It was much needed reprise from the longest ever bike ride I have done since as long as I can remember.
As I write this, I am slowly falling asleep due to the exhaustion and really looking forward to my rest day tomorrow......so stay tuned!!
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