Its the evening before my first bike race, well, I guess its not really a race, its more of a ride since its not timed and its all for charity. I kind of feel like I did before my first 5K race 6 years ago, and i’m not sure why. I’m good on the bike going solo, but when there are people all around, it may be a different story. Its very possible that I could come in last place tomorrow .. somebody always does. I’ve only done 25 miles on the bike once before (last week), but I figure this is good practice for the triathlon in just 7 short weeks.

I got my bike back from the shop on Wednesday, she’s all prettied up now and ready to go. They adjusted the front derailleur for me so I can actually switch front gears now. Its funny that they came back and told me that the mechanism is wearing out and will need replacement soon, i’ve only had the bike for under a year and it really doesn’t have that many miles on it. Regardless, we’ll have to address that sometime later in the season I guess.

This morning I had a long swim, and man was it long.. I did just about 1.5 miles non-stop which took me almost 50 minutes to complete. It was so long that my right calf muscle started to cramp … that didn’t stop me from pushing out another quarter mile before wrapping it up. All I can say is that I’m tired from it, it really is a full body workout because pretty much everything is sore from my arms to my legs to my core. I have no doubt I can swim the triathlon distance, its just getting in open water that i’m worried about now, but the open water swim workouts that start at the start of May should help that. I found out today that the Wenonah Lake open water swims don’t actually require a sign-up like I thought. I just have to show up… May 5th will be here before I know it, I still have to order my wetsuit.

So the weather for tomorrows 25 mile ride is looking a little chilly, but no worse than I dealt with last week on my ride, plus it will be a little later in the morning and the sun will be out.

I’ve got the car packed and am ready to go … my bike looks pretty good on my new roof rack (note the picture) .. I had people tell me that a roof rack would scratch my car, but I can’t see how. I spent the money on the model that is made for my car, so no worries…

Hopefully another post tomorrow after the bike ride ….