Taper day 10 – Marine Drive easy 25 miles

My spirit and overall mood has been a lot better today then the last few days. I swear I’m in a bi-polar state in taper, one day hot the next day cold. Thankfully I have a kick ass co-worker who has adapted to my taper mood swings and does what’s needed to help me pull my head out of my ass. I guess I could say he’s like the older brother I never had, anyhow I’m grateful for his support. This evening I had a 25 mile easy ride on the schedule. I decided that I would hit Marine Drive with the PDX tri club and just take it nice and easy. As departure was nearing I realized I would be the only girl riding. Frick! Marine Drive is usually always windy, I can’t ride with the boys and I would have no one to pace line with on the way back. Lol, the guys I was riding with were kind enough to say they were going to take it nice and easy, lol, what does that mean? I’d have to bust ass to keep up with their easy pace, it was a nice gesture though. We head out and immediately I’m dropped, but I expected it. It’s unrealistic and would be unreasonable to ask any of them to hold back and ride with me. We all have our own training goals and I’m a big girl, I know the ride, I can handle it out on my own. So on I went, pedaling Cadence (my bike) into the sun. What a beautiful evening to go for a bike ride. I couldn’t have asked for better weather, it was picture perfect riding along side the water. I could tell the guys were really taking it easy I could keep them in my view for the most part. There were points that I was close to catching up but I held back. My goal for this ride was to keep my HR under 160, which I accomplished for the most part. I hit it a few times but quickly backed down. As I would draw near them I would have a mind/body struggle. I REALLY wanted to catch up BUT I knew as soon as I did then I’d have to hold a pace that was over my HR goal and that would frick my taper….so I stayed back. At one point they must have stopped pedaling because I caught up…but just as I had indicated I fell back as my HR reached 164 holding the pace. This taper is for my A race of the season, it is not worth screwing up. So again I fell back. Thankfully the wind was gentle and did not unleash her wrath on us tonight. And for the most part I highly enjoyed riding alone tonight. I had a lot of one on one time with Cadence. We talked; ok so I talked, she listened. I sang, if she had ears they would have been covered. I pedaled and she soared. When we returned back to the start a few of the guys went for the usual brick/run….I so wanted to go. It took everything I had to say no……I really miss running so much. Although I was sad I could not let my legs fly free I had a sense of satisfaction. I controlled myself today. I didn’t push my legs and HR when I wanted to. Today my mind won.