Chocolate??? What Chocolate?!?

I had a 3.5 hour bike ride to do yesterday... I considered going outside as it looked sunny. However, that can be deceiving of the true temperatures outside around these parts. That thought, coupled with my rememberence of my hypothermic experience last year had me inside on the trainer for my ride. Sigh...

So there I found myself, in my dungeon, with just me, my bike, and my thoughts. Well, that and my mom as she called me when I was just starting up so I could to chat as I warmed into the workout. I had to hang up when the sweat started making it difficult to hold onto the phone.

The first bit of my workout wasn't too bad... Kind of typical. However, the last 2.5 hours were a mental toughness game.

It happened it was just one of those days were I couldn't for the life of me get comfy on the bike. An achy pain started up in my right glute and wasn't painful enough for me to think something was seriously wrong so I had to get off the bike, but it was just enough to annoy the freaking crap out of me. If I sat up straight the pain in my arse eased, but my low back hurt. My thoughts....'Oh for Pete's sake!'. Or something more explicit than that.

I promise. I tried many many times to get into a Buddha mindset. I focussed on my breathing. I focussed on my cadence. I snacked on a fruit bar. I looked at Tiggers photo and begged for strength. Alas, there was to be no relief from the achy breaky arse.

I HAD to stay on the bike though. I knew I did. If I want to be a Lance wannabe then I was just going to have to HTFU. So I did.

Thankfully, I had two motivating factors to help me. One was that the focus on my race has changed and I know that I'm doing this for more than just me. Two was the fact that my mother mentioned she hid some chocolate in my house last time she visited. Mmmmm. Chocolate.

I had found and devoured the first bit of chocolate that she hid and that I accidently found. Chocolate does not last in this house...I have no willpower when it comes to chocolate and I make no excuses. Needless to say I clung to the thought of celebrating my sticking out the entire ride with chocolate.

I'm happy to report that I did ride for the length of time, even though I wanted to get off the bike at the 2:00, 2:20, 2:26, 2:40, 3:05, 3:12, and 3:17 marks. Oh, and I do have to confess that I turned on the wee tv I have there on. Gasp! Normally I ride sans music and tv (I don't have cable anyways) as I like to try to do the Buddha mind thing. This normally works and I find it peaceful and meditative. Yesterdays ride was not peaceful though so it required a distraction and the wee tv was going to be it! It would have been nice if there were some good shows on the two channels I can see through the 'snow'....oh well.

I must have been working hard enough, even though I was struggling, because I was making my cadence target and my heart rate target. Also, there was a small pool of sweat under my bike. My 'I wanna be Faris' headband was full up with sweat and started dripping like chinese water torture on my front tire at about the 2 hour mark. This meant that every five minutes I had to wipe my forefinger over the bandana like a windscreen wiper and squeegee the sweat out, else go insane from the drip drip drip that went along with the ache ache ache of my buttock. Even for me I found that amount of sweat a bit gross. Serioulsy, who sweats that much?!

Needless to say, I finished my ride, did my arse exercises and hopped upstairs like the Easter Bunny himself. One thing was on my mind - CHOCOLATE! I went to where mom said she hid it...but there was nothing. Mumble, grumble. I called mom. I think I let her say hullo before I said, 'Okay, so I'm on the bike for 3.5 hours and the biggest thing getting me through is the fact that if I do this ride I can reward myself with chocolate. BUT THERE IS NO CHOCOLATE!!!' I hear her say 'Hmmm....did you look up? Cause I know you and your Granny never look up cause your short and so I likely hid it up on the shelf...'

I looked up. And down. Left. Then Right. I moved things off the shelf. On the shelf. Alas, no chocolate. Words can not describe my disappointment. That's ok though. Later on I went to Canmore to visit my buddy Trudy. We went for a wonderful walk around the river and afterwards I had some yummy hot chocolate. My chocolate craving had been fulfilled.

I still haven't found the other chocolate though so another call into the Parental Unit will be forthcoming...

My name is Susi, and I'm a chocoholic...

Peace out my wonderful friends!