What do I have to do to get 100 miles in.

Yesterday's long ride was productive but I'm not sure if it was productive enough. I got in 8 loops of the lake (65 miles), before having to "use the facilities" numb feet, imending darkness, and a rip roaring headache forced me to stop. I got in a good 4 hours in the saddle..so if I can maintain a 16-17 mph pace i'm looking at a 6:30 bike split. On my 5th loop I managed to meet up with Greg, a local cyclists/cycling coach logging 50 miles on his cross bike. Shot the shit told him I was doing an Ironman..asked who I was working with...Told him I was self coached at the moment but I'll probably work with John Hirsch once I have the dinero and get a little more serious...when I don't have this whole school thing going on. Definately talked up John and told me to invest in a power tap when I have the greenbacks. I found out that having a single large back pocket is not as good as having the standard three. Now with the three pockets you can seperate one pocket for powerbars, one pocket for gels, one pocket for EPO syringes, last will and testament, 9mm if riding through the North End of Hartford. Also winter gloves make picking up gel packs near impossible. Also cold weather tends to freeze already rock hard powerbars but irregardless I managed to get adaquate fuel, although this cold weather riding screws with hydration, you need it but you don't feel like you need to drink...it's just a mess. I figure when I get to NZ I'll plan on going through at least 1 gatorade every hour and a bottle of water every 10 miles....pretty much I'll set a base hydration plan and adjust according to the weather. Fuel wise I plan on going through at least 4 gels and 2 powerbars on the bike, which seems about average figure a gel at the 13 and 25 mile mark a bar at the 45 mile and 60 mile mark then gels at the 75 and 90 mile marks. Once again these are base estimates and will be adjusted with hunger and the amount of fluid taken in. I want to be well fueled but I don't want a 15-20 min. T2 time from "quality reading time". Anyhow the loops were uneventful. I spent a good deal of time in the aerobars, but only managed to average 16 mph, which is what I'll probably average in Taupo maybe I might be a little faster due to some "net"downhills but all in all I plan for a comfortable ride and a Macca-esque suffer fest on the run. This weekend looks to be clear and above freezing so I'll probably be back at the lake looking for more punishment....I hope to get all these long rides out of my system before Classes resume late this month. Afterall I won't beable to justfy spending 6 hours on a bike when I've got a 20 page paper on Yasir Arfat's hemroids looming over me. So that's how I spent my weekend on tap for today is a quick trip to the waterbury Y for 3000 yards in the pool before they close for the holiday, maybe a run it's still above freezing otherwise I'll ring in the New year with a trainer ride and year in review blog post before champange and finger foods.

The Lord of the Lake
R.D.