Psyching myself up for Amtrack Century Sep 8th

[Jiffer]

Hey guys. I haven't posted in a while. I've been out of cycling obsession mode, believe it or not. I didn't ride for a couple of weeks, which was huge for me, because of a play I was in that took over my life. Then I tried to get back into riding and only did one short and slow ride followed by ... nothing for another week or so. Then I finally kicked myself in the butt because Dh and I simply HAD to get ready for the Amtrack century we're doing next weekend (Irvine to San Diego).

We're doing it on the tandem and it's my first century ever. Lucky for me, Dh's training never stopped. He does some sort of a race pretty much every weekend, whether a road race, MTB race, running, etc. He just did his first two triathalons. So, he's in top form. I, however, am not quite in top form to say the least, but I think I'll be alright. A little nervous, mostly about how I'm going to tolerate that seat for 100 miles. We've been riding for a couple of weeks. We did 41 miles a few days ago, which was somewhat miserable for me, 45 yesterday which was much less miserable, praise God, and we're doing 65 on Thursday, our longest before the century. I'm doing a couple of moderate rides on my own tomorrow and Wednesday.

Anyone else here doing Amtrack? Well, it's good to be back. I guess I'm partially here to psych myself up to ride all by myself tomorrow. It's been nice lately to have Dh get me out of bed and on the tandem. Different when it's all on me! But I do enjoy it once I get out there and want to be prepared as much as possible for century day.

Toodles!

[Fredwina]

One thing to remeber/ visualize is that you only have to make to the next rest stop. That way you're not thinking "I have to ride 100 miles"
If I remember the rest stop for Amtrak are
San Juan Capistrano
Oceanside
and Torrey Pines

[Jiffer]

Thanks, Fredwina. I was sort of thinking that today. I DID go on my "all by myself" ride. Just got back. My goal was to ride moderately for an hour and a half, which I did. My other goal was to only take one break, which I didn't do because I didn't take ANY breaks! A huge accomplishment for me. (No counting stops at signals).

Anyways, as I was just about to my house I thought, "Okay, now do that a few more times." At first I thought, "No way." Then I thought, "Well, with a bit of a break, I could keep going." So, I'll just focus on those breaks. But I know I can't take too long of a break or the lactic acid starts settling in and I'm miserable when I get back on the bike. Dh already knows to be prepared to let me take breaks on the hour, if only for a couple of minutes. He has learned that when I say I need a break ... I NEED A BREAK!!! But, I'm also trying to learn tolerate staying on the bike longer, hence NO BREAK TODAY!!!!