Eat, Drink, Sleep

My ride yesterday afternoon was good and bad. Good because I realized I've been training fairly smart recently (not counting this ride) and bad because I suffered for most of the ride.

What I've discovered about myself is that if I want to ride my bike a lot, I need to eat, drink and sleep a lot as well. It means eating continually throughout the day, making sure I'm always hydrated and trying to get at least 9 hours of sleep a night. If I'm doing those things I tend to have the energy to ride strong and I can push the pace when I go out.

If I miss those building blocks (food, water, sleep), then I pay the price.

I was out all day at a bachelor party on Saturday and when Sunday afternoon rolled around I found myself dreading a bike ride. A few years ago I forced myself to always ride no matter how bad I felt. This led to a bad attitude and a _lot_ of painful rides. Last year I decided to take more days off and allow myself the opportunity to rest and it paid huge dividends.

All that to say it might have been smart to rest yesterday instead of riding for 4 hours. I found myself wanting a teleporter so I could go from being on the trail to being at home resting. The heat and a general lack of energy made it quite difficult.

Despite the tough times though I still managed to beat a guy in Whiting. Haha. He passed me at the entrance to the park and for once I did not feel like chasing him down. I decided to stay within striking distance and just hang around in the hopes he would slow down on Mustard. He got tired of me shadowing him after a while and pulled over to stop so I could ride ahead. Sucker. Haha.

I should have been able to maintain a 10mph pace no problem, but I ended up around 9mph. I went through _THREE_ camelbacks worth of water and was overjoyed when the ride was finally over.

Now I'm trying to eat, drink and sleep my way back to a rested and ready state.