The advantage of bike cleaning...

is that you might find surprises! Like before we did our 65 mile ride yesterday I, for the first time ever, cleaned my own chain and gears on my bike. Surprise, surprise! They were full of TAR!! That would be from the newly surfaced road in Elephant Butte..No wonder I was so slow! (I told myself). I am no longer a bike cleaning virgin-it really wasn't so hard after all! I used gasoline on parts that would NOT come clean from the tar. Of course i was paranoid I would blow my garage, home and whole neighborhood up as i was getting into this process but alas we are all still alive. The ride yesterday was MUCH easier. We did 65 miles in about 4 hours and I felt really good about that. Then today we ran 10+ miles in 2 hours and that is a record for me in training this year! i partially attribute my success to Josh's weight workout, which once and for all helped me lose that "stubborn 7 pounds". I think running with less weight (or "lugging" as Hartley says), really does make a difference..Also bought some ice to do the Ice bath thing both days. It is R_E_A_L_L_Y hard to get into a bath of cold water, then dump ice into it. I managed to stay sitting for about 15 minutes, shivering in the frigid water then jump into a HOT shower.The legs seem pleased with that routine today. I am immensely hungry all the time with all this training. Then eating healthy really sucks cause you can only eat so many yogurts, veges, fruits, before you want the real thing-ICE CREAM!! But I have been pretty good besides the big honkin' bagel I had for breakfast. The GPS said I burned 1600 calories this morning so what the heck? Well, this week will be a mini taper for the Elephant on Sunday. My "race strategy" is yet to be determined..