Fine tuning

Time to start locking things in.  The long hard work is just about done, and now it is time to put the finishing touches on training.  After two 17+ hours weeks of training, I’m actually feeling pretty good about things.

Saturday was a 110 mile ride followed by a 6.3 mile run.  This was the longest I have ridden thus far (evah!!) and it wasn’t horrible.  Toward the end I was bored and wanted to be done, but this is what the race is going to be like, so it was a good time to practice some mental toughness.  It turned out that the biggest challenge I would have was developing my urinary toughness.  I have never had a STD, and never experienced an intense burning sensation when urinating until Saturday.  Kids, it is not fun.  A quick search of the internets revealed something called ‘traumatic urethitis.’  Or, you irritated your urethra.  Bummer.  Not good at all.  I was hoping (no praying) it was not a UTI.  A quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on cranberry juice (girls, you know what I mean) and time to chug Ocean Spray’s finest.  The pain subsided from a 8/10 to a 6/10 by the evening.  Guess I shouldn’t have put a new saddle on the bike. It had one of those cut out things that is supposed to alleviate any problems. I have been having some (ahem) numbness with my other saddle. No numbness with the new saddle, but the hot poker-like sensation was not a great trade.  Hopefully I have some time to work the kinks out of the saddle (and the urethra) before the race.  The moral to the story is don’t ride 110 miles mostly in the time trial position.  Oh, and the run went well with around 7:00/mile pace.

Sunday was a 18 mile run which went well.  Legs felt moderately fatigued, and the urethra was much better.  Now, onto a couple of races this week to hammer before the taper, and onto Lake Placid.  20 days and counting!