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June 3, 2006
Tour of Mercer Country
There is a PST (patient service technician?) that works at the hospital that I work at that has the best attitude of any person I've ever met. And trust me when I say, it would be pretty darn difficult to have a good attitude as a PST. In case you don't already know, PSTs get the worst of worst jobs. They act as nurses' aids in a way but do all the dirty work that a nurse (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't want to do. I'll leave it up to your imagination to figure that one out. :) And they don't get paid a whole heck of a lot to do it either. Anyway, this certain PST is always in a good mood and making the most of situations. She's funny and happy and one of her famous sayings is "simply marvelous" which she often bellows out when everyone is thinking just the opposite! She's a hoot!
Regardless, I kept thinking of her this morning when I was riding because my ride really was "simply marvelous". I'm going to have to tell her about it when I get back to work Monday... :) It was great to ride through some really beautiful farm country and enjoy almost 4 hours of new scenary! I felt pretty good too, although was very glad to be done. My legs were feeling it around 45 miles!
Some numbers:
67.32 = total number of miles riden. Someone didn't calculate correctly because it was only supposed to be 62 miles! :)
3:53:11 = total amount of time taken for the ride including 4 stops (2 quick ones, 2 longer ones) for snacks and fluid.
17.32 = average MPH for ride.
0 = number of raindrops felt. Thank you for that one God!
3 = number of times I heard thunder and worried rain was on it's way.
3 = number of Amish horse and buggies I saw! The little girls and boys riding along waved to me each time.
about 6 = number of cars I saw during the whole ride, not including about a 3 mile stretch on the main road into town.
3 = number of big hills, only one of which was a killer. The rest of the ride was either flat or rolling, which is pretty impressive considering how long of a ride it was and that it was in Western Pennsylvania.
1 = number of times I regretted not doing the full century
about 10 = number of times I thanked God that I was only doing the metric century (after the 50 mile mark)!
100 = approximate number of bikers today, over half of which were doing the 100 mile ride.
2 = number of aid stations that provided water, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bananas, cookies, juice, etc...
850 = approximate number of kcals I was able to take in during my ride including 34 oz Gatorade Endurance, 12 Clif Shot Bloks, ~1 serving Cheez-its, and 1 banana. I would have taken my Gu too but I forgot I had it. I also had 2 bottles of water.
65 = average temperature. I couldn't have asked for better!
0 = number of times I got lost even though I have never been to Greenville in my life. The course was marked better than I could have imagined. They did an excellent job, especially considering it was a first time event!
And that about sums it up! Very fun. Very fun indeed.
Week's summary:
Sunday - off
Monday - 21 mile bike, 30 minute run, core/feet exercises
Tuesday - 3500 meter swim including 2x(300,2x150,3x100, 6x50), core/feet exercises
Wednesday - lift
Thursday - 3200 yd swim including 4x(2x25,2x50,2x75,2x100), 11.5 mile bike, 2x25 pushups/2x100 crunchers
Friday - 45 minute run including 8x2 minutes hard, core/feet exercises
Saturday - 67 mile bike, body weight circuitx2
Posted by beth at June 3, 2006 4:10 PM
Comments
9 = Number of combined times Beth and I went up to the all-you-can-eat Salad/Bread/Fruit/Soup/Dessert Bar at Hoss's after our long morning. Yummy!
Posted by: O at June 3, 2006 8:59 PM
14 = Total number of oz of beef O and I ate combined in addition to the all-you-can-eat salad/bread/fruit/dessert bar at Hoss's
I forgot to mention that O went for his long run (1:40) while I was biking so he was pretty hungry too... :)
Posted by: Beth at June 3, 2006 9:02 PM
:)simply mah-velous account (an alternative inflection-rich spelling.) Speaking of words: bikers are the guys with the leather jackets and the Harleys :)
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at June 4, 2006 8:19 AM
Sounds like you had a great ride! Will they have something like this again?
Posted by: Caitlin at June 4, 2006 11:20 AM
i love it!!! sounds so fun!!
Posted by: Audrey at June 4, 2006 10:11 PM