Surreal Bike World

This past Saturday, I took advantage of the cooler weather and hit the road for a long bike ride. The 68 miles I pedalled was a deviation from our training schedule, but with many TRIgirls competing in various races or on vacation, offered the opportunity to ride by myself - to gain some experience riding long - alone - and to focus on playing with my nutrition.

I have to say, riding by myself is helping to gradually boost my confidence - the clipping in and out, the unnerving proximity to macho trucks trailing boats, the heightened awareness of the surrounding environment. While all these factors make the rides more stressful - and tire me mentally - I am hoping they are also fostering skills that will eventually help me develop into a stronger cyclist. But I am also thrilled and relieved that next week's 75 miler will be led by Coach B and will include many TRIgirls!

Nutrition continues to be a struggle. From what I've heard and read, I should be aiming to consume 300 calories per hour during longer training sessions. Part of my problem this weekend was that I only packed half my snacks thinking I'd do two loops and make a pit stop at my car. Instead, I was feeling brave and ventured further than I intended to make one long out and back. Another part of the problem was that the shot bloks just started to taste too sickly sweet - so I didn't even finish what I'd stuffed into my Bento box. The final part of the problem was not even thinking of buying more food during a stop at a country store. Why? No idea - didn't even consider the option until I was driving home and practically smacked myself in the head when I realized I could have purchased food along with water and Gatorade. Doh. Overall, I probably took in about 500 of the 1200 calories I should have. Coach B and Ironwoman Canada have been on me about my training calories - I've really got to nail this down better over the next few weeks.

So, anyway, though I felt fine, I started to wonder if I was hallucinating as I finished up the last few miles. Something skinny and very tall was riding toward me. Wow, must be a giant bicyclist. As our paths crossed, I saw it was an unusual tandem bicycle, with the front rider on some type of double-decker construction. A couple of cyclists on regular road bikes followed behind and gave me a big sh** eating grin.

Interesting.

I chalked it up to a few friends goofing off until a few miles later when several more of these freaky tall contraptions rode by me. As I loaded Patriot Sangria onto my car, my eyes started blinking as I saw the other end of the spectrum - several full grown adults riding bicycles that looked too small for a five year old.

I later Googled to find these pictures of similar "tall bikes" but couldn't track down anything about the tiny bikes. And I still haven't been able to find out what kind of out of the ordinary bike event took place in Richmond last weekend.

Then I chuckled to myself picturing what it would be like to run into one of these bikes at triathlon. Throw on aerobars for maybe even an Ironman!