The seeds are sown

Well, finished the last long ride before Ironman, and the farthest I've ever ridden.

110 miles, 6.5 hours, a nice size group, warm-ish weather I could wear shorts in, and good nutrition - yep, sounds good to me!

If you want a little more detail, 6 of us started from the Harmons in Sandy, rode into Downtown SLC, into the Avenues, behind the Capital, then north to about Lagoon. Then we hopped on the Legacy Parkway trail and rode it south to the airport where we did a out and back there, I tried to hang with the boys who pushed me hard (mmmm, a good hard working feeling though), then we eventually made it back to the starting point.
I continued on from there for my last 30 miles alone, south to point of the mountain into a decent headwind I was hoping would return the favor on the way back. And guess what? IT DID! I got to ride a tail wind 15 miles home. Oh it was so great! What a sweet reward after that many miles. It felt so great to be pushing 24mph but not feel like it was really hard. I'm so happy with yesterday's ride. I tried out some new nutrition, First Endurance, and have to say I think I may be in love. My energy levels stayed so steady! I wasn't struggling at the end physically, mentally I wasn't grumpy. I'll write up a better review when I've had a little more experience with it, but lets just say I'm intrigued for sure.

Rob, Bret, Josh, Me

I so could not have done with without the excellent company that came along. We had Sandy and Bret for the first half of the ride - thanks guys! Rob was just full of wise Ironman coaching, Josh was a great pace partner and easy to talk to, Cindi, well, she's just Cindi. What a happy, positive, determined woman she is. I can't wait to see her get her reward at Ironman in 19 short days. You deserve it Cin!

Did I mention I even had a pace car? Yeah, ok, so it was only for 30 seconds, but it was super fun to have my swimming friend Troy pull up along side me. I even rode by my mom who was in the car and waved and smiled big. It's having all the friendly support from everyone that is making this journey SO great! Thank You All!!!