13 weeks to Ironman Cozumel!!

So far it's been a good training week, good swims on Wed. and Fri. a good Tri Zones ride on Tues and a tough but good run at Pease Park on Thurs. Today was a 5 hour ride. I had assumed I would have to do this one all alone since Sandra was in Wichita Falls for Hotter 'n Hell and Kendra is in Alaska, and most of my other riding buddies are doing much shorter distances. I posted my plan on the forum anyway and actually got lots of people interested in at least 1 loop of my 4 loop ride- cool!

Jody picked me up (Thanks Jody!!) and we met Tom, Vanessa, Katherine, Linda, Nydia, Laura, and Christina at Lake Pflugerville. It was actually cold this morning, I had to wear a jacket pre-ride! And for the first few miles I wished I had worn my arm warmers! We left just in time to see a gorgeous sunrise as we rode down Cele Road! It worked out that I got to ride and talk with everyone at some point on the ride. Carolyn even came out to drive SAG for us! I decided to ride as continuously as possible today since Coach Jen has given me a hard time about stopping too often/too long. So I never stopped to talk to Carolyn, but it was still so nice to see her out there! Believe it or not, we even had a tailwind on Manda-Carlson Road!

I started loop 2 and didn't even think about stopping at the lake since I knew it would be a long stop if I did. A few miles into loop 2 Shayla pulls up beside me! Apparently she was waiting at the lake to start loop 2 with me and she and Carolyn were yelling at me, as I rode by completely clueless! So I got to ride a lot of the second loop with Shayla, and we didn't even see any dogs on Cameron! Tom and Vanessa were also riding 2 loops and as Shayla and I were talking about Vanessa being ahead of us and Tom being behind us, Tom rode up right beside us- good timing Tom!

Loops 3 and 4 were Coach Jen's TT route. Jody came out to chat with me at the beginning of loop 3. By loop 4 I was ready to be done, but I think some of that is just mentally knowing that I only have 10 miles to go. 75 miles total, and what I had thought would be a boring, lonely ride turned into a really fun ride! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to ride today! My run around the lake after the ride went well too, but my legs are a little tired now, so we'll see how the 14 mile run goes tomorrow.

Hard to believe Ironman Cozumel is just 3 months from today!