The Worst

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I felt this Saturday as I made my way around the IMC bike course. Dramatic? Perhaps, but also very accurate on that day.

We were in Penticton again for our 2nd mini-training camp style weekend of the season. The weather was HOT HOT HOT, but that is exactly what we had hoped for, so you won’t get any complaints about that. I will whine and complain about a few other things however.

So yeah, I’m pretty sure that Saturday may have been one of the worst days I have ever experienced on the bike. No joke. It sucked. From the very moment my chaffed crotch touched my bike seat, I knew I was in for a world of hurt.

We started the day with a short 30’ aerobic swim at Okanagan Lake. The water was warm and the swim felt great, and you know, I was actually kind of looking forward to the bike that was to come. My last two long rides have gone relatively well and I was ready to keep that wave of awesomeness flowing out onto the IMC course.

Then I got on the bike.

Enter the Suck.

As we pedaled through town my legs and my body felt like they just had nothing to give. My tummy started growling and within the first 15’ I was already eating a banana, hoping to stop the grumbling in my gut. I was struggling to keep up with the others and really, it was still early and it wasn’t like they were moving that quickly.

Just before Mclean Creek Rd, a coach from LifeSport who was out with a training-camp group rode up beside me and asked me if I was okay. I tried to smile and shrug it off, but at that point, I realized I must have looked as bad as I felt. When a second, different coach from that group asked me the same thing about 10' later, I really had to laugh.

From there it was just a struggle for the whole day. As much as Shane won’t believe me, I did try to get myself out of the funk and think positive thoughts, but I just had no energy and my body was so tired and achy. On top of that (and probably TMI) my crotch/butt has never been so chafed ~ I was having so much trouble even sitting on my seat!

Richter came and went and while it wasn’t fast, I didn’t feel like that climb was too horrible.

Then the rollers hit and I just about fell apart. The headwind was INTENSE! Of course, this should not surprise me, but when you are already struggling, it just takes that much more out of you. I had trouble turning my legs over and felt like times I was going backwards – even on the descents.

The next while is a bit of a blur. We took lots of stops in order to regroup and refill water bottles, etc. Our last stop was at The Bear fruit stand, and as I got off my bike, I had to sit down.

I had thought I did pretty well with hydration, but I think I may have slacked off a bit on actual calories, especially as we got longer into the ride as my stomach was kind of unhappy. By the time we hit The Bear in Keremeos, I pretty much felt like a zombie. Sitting on that picnic table was perhaps the best feeling in the world. I actually think if some wonderful person had offered me a ride back to Penticton in that moment, I would have taken it. Would I have felt guilty after the fact? Of course, but in that moment, I was done.

Alas, we had to get back on the bikes and finish the final 45km-ish stretch back into town.

Shane stuck with me as we headed toward Yellow Lake (which was probably a good thing as I was feeling pretty zoned out). He’s definitely a trooper for putting up with my whining and complaining. Encouraging me and yelling at me like a drill sergeant to drink and eat. He got me up and over Yellow Lake and even tried to get me excited for that beautiful “lane ends 200m” sign. While I may not have shown it in the moment, I was very thankful for his encouragment.

Oh, and might I add, it's really hard to climb when you are holding back tears [total girl moment ~ crying for no real reason but not really being able to do anything to stop it].

The descents back into Penticton are always my favourite part of the ride, and while they were still fun, they weren’t fun enough to erase the rest of the day. Really, you know it’s bad when even going downhill was a struggle.

I was happy to be off the bike. Happy to know that even though we were out on the course for a tortuously long time, we still would have made the bike cut off in the actual race.

Anyway, I guess, looking back on the day, I know every day can't be a good one. I would have liked to have been tougher mentally and fought through the bad feelings a little better, but as much as I tried, I just couldn't shake it while I was out there. I felt like a bag of crap and I let that eat away at me all day long.

Today, I’m feeling better about it. It’s done. It’s behind me. Hopefully I got all that bad biking mojo out of my system before race day. And hell, I don’t think it can get much worse than that, so at least I know I can survive, even when I don’t really want to.