race success!

Boy, it was an eventful weekend!  Chris had a really good time on his ride and he was really psyched.  Thank you so much for all your well wishes!  He felt really good for most of the ride which totaled 6 hours 35 minutes riding time with an average speed of 18 mph.  It wasn’t really a race or anything, but he’ll find out about his exact time and rankings towards the end of the week.  He’s hoping to be in the top 100 for the century. 

Chris woke at 4 am and I slept till 4:30, then quickly threw on some clothes to take him to the ride.  I don’t really know how he was planning to function that early, but I think the adrenaline was kicking in.  I on the other hand just wanted to go back to bed :)

 

We got there in just enough time to get Chris geared up and make it to the start/finish line.  It was more like a start/finish mob because there were so many cyclists!  I think this is what would scare me the most.  Trying to start with all those cyclists so close would make me nervous!

I felt like a proud mama as he started and then hoped that he would be okay on the ride.  He made sure to stop at every fuel station and not take any chances with his first century.  Even though this slowed his overall time down, it was a good idea to make sure he didn’t fatigue. 

So while he was gone riding like a maniac, I decided to get in the kitchen and do some intense baking of my own!  I tried another muffin recipe from Pinch My Salt and I think this one is THE best so far.  It’s an applesauce spice muffin that uses ww flour, oat bran, wheat germ and flax with 3g of fiber per muffin.  Instead of raisins I added chopped dates and I think these really added to the wonderful flavor.  Yum!

I also baked another recipe from VeggieGirl called peanut butter banana bread.  I added 1/2 cup chocolate chips.  The only thing is, my worst fears came to fruition and I over-baked it!!  I had to leave it in the pan too long when I went to pick Chris up, and when I was trying to get it out it fell apart!  It sure tasted yummy though and super peanut buttery.  Anyone know of good vegan binding tricks for breads?  It just needed a bit more binding capacity I think.

 

After my baking, cleaning and washing fest, I made it in time to get some good shots at the finish, so happy!! 

After the ride, the participants got a free lunch from Outback.  mmm lots of high quality protein and carbs to fuel the muscles and replenish all those expended calories. 

As far as glycogen replenishment, general guidelines are to have 1-1.5g/kg CHO as soon as possible after the event and every 2 hours after that until 7-10 g/kg is reached.  This is especially important for those athletes who will be doing an event pretty soon again.  It can take about 20 hours to fully replenish glycogen stores. 

I had to buy lunch and was able to grab a couple tacos from Qdoba just as they were closing down shop.  Instead of eating the second taco, there was a little kid running around giving away free ice cream.  Heck yes!! 

I decided to go for the creamsicle which I haven’t had for ages, and it was just as good and creamy as I remember.

   

After the race Chris was flying on the clouds and felt really good, but as we made our way home I could tell he was getting much more tired.  I made him eat a large peanut butter, jelly, banana and honey sandwich with more fluids and then he rested on the couch for most of the night watching football.  I also gave him a good leg massage and ice packed his legs.  I was kind of worried about him, but the next morning he was chipper as could be and actually wanted to go on another ride!  He’s actually been saying how he’s never felt stronger. 

Overall it was a great experience and hopefully I can work up to that someday, or at least the 62 miler :)

Sunday we finally got to painting the guest room.  I really like the color and hope we can get it ready soon.  The color is called Restful by Behr and I want to do a shabby chic theme with some antique feel.  I plan to organize it more this weekend hopefully because my mom will be here next Tuesday!

I majorly need to tackle my Google Reader and visit all your bloggies.  I’m leaving for the SCAN workshop at the Olympic Training Center on Wednesday!  I hope to come back with some cool pictures and useful information :) 

I hope you all have a great week!