Slipping Up

I have a standard routine in the morning: shower, put on deodorant, dress, brush my teeth. On days that I'm doing a ride or run first thing in the morning, it seems silly to shower so I skip that step. But I still put on deodorant - I think of it as a quick "shower-in-a-can". Some people use the smell of coffee to get them going, I guess I rely on aerosol Right Guard.

We had a ride yesterday, so I skipped the shower. I took some Chamois Butt'r cream to grease up my nether-regions (have to avoid chafing, you know) and then went to to deodorize. Here's the problem: in order to use an aerosol spray, you have to hold the can somewhat firmly while pressing down on the nozzle. But with my hands completely greased up with skin lubricant I couldn't hold the can. Every time I'd try to spray, my thumb would simply push the can down through my slippery fingers. My workaround was to place the can on the counter, squat down in front of it, raise my right armpit to it and press the nozzle with my left forefinger. Reverse and repeat. Very awkward to say the least. Next time, I will try to remember to put the deodorant on first.

We did a 56-mile ride, a course which we describe as "flat" although technically that's not true: we were on the river trail, which means it's a slow shallow descent all the way out and then a slow shallow climb all the way back. I went out fairly strong on the way out (taking advantage of the slight downhill) but the moderate heat and headwinds took their toll on me. On several occasions, when I stopped pedaling I could see my leg twitching as it was starting to cramp up. But in general I was having a good ride.

Gerald gave me a salt tablet at the turn-around which helped with the cramping, but the return trip wasn't great. I was just beat and it was a long 28 miles. I followed that with a 25-minute run, which I think hurt more mentally than it did physically. I started crunching all of the numbers: I rode 56 miles and ran 2.5 miles at 80 degrees. In October I'll have to ride twice as far, run 10 times as far, with an extra 10 degrees and another 10% humidity. It just wasn't feeling very fun.

The good news is that I only had 2 cans of Mountain Dew after the ride. Well, that and a bunch of vodka lemonade later on but that's another story.