Feb 20-22 - pre, during and post Tavares=>Gainesville=>Tavares 400k

What the heck did I do on Saturday before the 400k ? 

The following article is interesting.  It appears that endurance exercise helps grow new brain cells; intense exercise does not.  That may be true, but those brain cells that I grew on Sunday wiped out my short-term memory of Saturday :).

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwell.blogs.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F02%2F17%2Fwhich-type-of-exercise-is-best-for-the-brain%2F%3Fhp%26action%3Dclick%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26clickSource%3Dstory-heading%26module%3Dmini-moth%26region%3Dtop-stories-below%26WT.nav%3Dtop-stories-below&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHKyRCMiN4YIuteZ0ha7Tvr2YYVrg

It will come to me ... or not ... obviously whatever transpired wasn't all that memorable.

As for Sunday, I left here at 3am to get to Tavares at 4:30 and ride off into the sunrise at 5:00.  Sounds wonderful, right ?  Well, sunrise is later.  That said, it was a great day for a ride.  It started off a bit chilly and I was worried that finishing up would be cold and that I should have had my leg warmers, just in case.  We had a very, very slight tailwind or cross tail heading north to Gainesville and lo and behold, it was mostly behind us again heading south. 

We found this lovely little restaurant in Gainesville at the turnaround and sat down for a cappuccino ... this is my kind of cycling ... had I thought about it, I'd have taken a picture.  Duh.  After the second cappuccino we headed south. We had eaten lunch about an hour earlier, a subway salad, so we did not partake of the Sunday brunch at the restaurant. 

Judith was done.  Her stomach was upset and she was throwing in the towel.  I wouldn't have any part of that, however, and we convinced her to ride at least to the next Control south and get out of Gainesville.  By that time it had cooled down and she was ok.  I expected that would be the case.  Heavy exercise and heat, throw in crappy food ... that will make for an upset stomach.  I've been there, I know !

About 15 miles from the end of the ride, Paul suffered from the same thing.  A really, really upset stomach forced him down to almost a crawl so we dawdled along.  He'd had two of those pre-canned Starbucks cold espressos a bit earlier ... no wonder !

The temperature hit the upper 70's in Gainesville but as long as we were moving, it was comfortable, not too hot.  It cools down quickly, however, and early into the evening I had all my clothes back on.  It was 57 in Tavares when we finished at 1:44 a.m., at least 10 degrees colder before we got back into the city, wet and sticky jerseys making it cold.  

About 60 miles from the end we were leaving one Control with the next one being 24 miles further, then 36 miles to the end.  We'd rolled into that Control at slow speed and it was time to make some headway.  I pulled for that 24 miles, pressing hard.  We made good time.  We split the next 36 into two parts, stopping 18 miles into it at a closed convenience store (Buck and Doe) -- this was planned -- for a bio break and short rest. 

Judith drafted much of the day behind Paul.  I drifted behind, 60-100 feet, sometimes further.  There really wasn't any wind to make drafting key to survival. 

Leaving the Gainesville turnaround, my Garmin shut down.  Ugh.  I turned it back on and plugged in the Gomadic.  It shut down again.  Double ugh.  This isn't fun.  I turned it back on and rode to the next Control on the internal battery, knowing that it wouldn't last until the end. After some fiddling it worked on the charging circuit until that 36-from-the-end Control at which point I disconnected, knowing that I'd be ok.  I did get a "batteries low" message before we finished the ride.

I've got to figure this Garmin thing out.  Replace the unit(s), cables, whatever.  I don't want to be dealing with this during a 1200k.

Home at 3:15 a.m., I showered and had a snooze and went to my dentist appointment -- cleaning.  I ran a few errands later in the day, taking Cassie to pick out a couple of new toys to replace ones that she's destroying ... Publix and the Post Office. 

Not much else happened post ride, other than nailing down some more details with Shane, who is now working up the street.

Sandy and Sheryl went shopping in Orlando, which sounds like it was a successful venture.  On the way back here from Sheryl's, she picked up tuna, so we ate well indeed !

Onward !