Bonkarific

I'm ashamed - there's no other way to describe it.

Today was the Daffodil Century. Last year, it was my first century ever, and we did it in about 6 hours or so.

The routes had changed from last year, but I expected the same.

But then again, the deck was stacked against me from the start. Some things were within my control, some weren't. I've got my period - so I feel kinda yucky. Not my fault. I ate WAY too much yesterday and the day before, so I feel kind of sluggish and bad. Totally my fault. And I skied yesterday and burnt out my quads. Plus, I was following that silly seven-year-old boy I like to ski with, and he made me go on these little trails with jumps on them, and let's just say the trails are better left to kids with 120 cm skis and not me! I landed flat on my back once, on my side once, on my butt once, and twice I actually hit the jumps, got air, and landed properly. But that was a lot of pain in my body. Pretty much my fault.

AND THEN - I decided to practice "race nutrition." The one thing everyone who has given me Ironman advice has to say is that I absolutely must get my nutrition down. So I figured I'd skip the cookies, bagels, granola bars, and fruit at the rest stops and stick to my liquid and bar nutrition.

But I didn't actually think through my plan very well. For the first hour and a half, I had a bottle of Gleukos with two scoops of Carbo Pro in it. That was 365 calories.

Then I switched to plain water for an hour and ate just 160 calories in the form of a Clif Nectar bar. I ate another Clif Nectar bar at the next rest stop.

I decided I'd do Perpetuem for the next section - but that was NASTY. Gross gross gross. I could get it down, and it didn't bother my stomach, but I hated it. I think I had just 130 calories worth.

We completed the first loop - 62 miles - in 4:30. That includes stops and Liz got a flat tire, though, so it was more like six hours elapsed. It was a pretty tough 62 miles - more than 2000 feet of climbing, which doesn't seem like a lot, but almost none of the climbing was really steep, just relentless. In looking at the elevation profile, you go gradually up for miles and miles and miles, then you have fast, steep downhills to lose the elevation. And much of it was over chip-seal, which I just find so difficult to ride on.

I had burned 2400 calories by the time we finished. And I'd only eaten a total of 815 calories. Okay, clearly not enough. But I hadn't done the math...I didn't know then.

I did know I didn't want to do the second, 40-mile loop. But I thought I was being a weenie. I ate another Clif Nectar bar (160 calories) and dumped the rest of my evil Perpetuem out. I got GU2O and water (75 calories) in my aero bottle, and we set out.

Pretty much whenever I wasn't in the lead, I was dropped. By now it was just Danielle and Su; the others had planned to do 62 and were enjoying their beers and late lunch, I imagine. I was miserable. My legs were sore; when I started climbing, even shallow climbs, they BURNED immediately. My shoulders and neck hurt. I couldn't get comfortable in the aero position or out. I kept yelling, "UGH!!!" as if that would make the annoyance leave me, but it didn't. I just got slower and slower and slower.

Just before mile 8, my mind wandered and I nearly fell into a ditch. On a road where there was no traffic - so there was no reason for me to be riding near the ditch. I tried to talk to Danielle, but I was incoherent. While I babbled, we reached an intersection with a convenience store and an espresso stand. Danielle said I needed to eat - no more "race nutrition" practice - and we stopped at the espresso place. She got me an iced mocha and a chocolate chip cookie, and I could feel myself returning to my brain as I ate and drank.

When we finished our snack, we set off again. My brain felt better, but my legs were still sluggish. And by mile 13 of the 40, I realized I wasn't going to be able to complete this ride. I kept trying to decide, though, whether it would be better to keep pushing - because if I felt like garbage during my Ironman, I'd still go on - or know my limits and stop.

I decided to go with 'know my limits' and stop because it's still so early in the season. Who needs to ride a century today, for training for an Ironman in the end of August? It's just not necessary. And obviously I learned something huge: my idea of "race nutrition" needs to be doubled. I don't eat enough, even when I think I have planned things out.

So at mile 13 of the second loop, I knew where I was, and more importantly, I knew John knew this part of the route and could come get me. But I could see the Foothills Trail, and I knew the trail was 30 miles, flat, and paved. I thought that I was maybe 10 miles from the start of the route (yeah, we'd gone 13, but a convoluted 13) and that I could get back if I could just cruise on a flat trail.

Well, Danielle decided to go with me, so we parted ways with Su (who is training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, so she needs to put in the miles more than we do at this point) and headed back on the trail.

Unfortunately, the trail ended after a couple of miles, and we were back on roads. I recognized where we were, though, and easily navigated back towards Orting and re-found the trail (it just doesn't connect all the way where we ended up). We cruised along the trail - it ended up being 12 miles total from where we turned around.

Then we hit the bar where John, Matthew, Liz, and Wendy were waiting for us. No one made me feel bad about quitting - but I do feel like a quitter. I didn't finish what I set out to do. Maybe I set myself up for failure by skiing, eating horribly, and not doing the math to see how many calories I'd be consuming per hour (plus, I think I have to go based on total time, not cycling time - I'm still burning calories even when I'm off the bike at rest stops and stuff). Regardless, I still feel bad about it.

I want a do-over.