Training - Day 97 - 22 Days to Go

As I wasn't running today I took advantage by having an enormous lie in, until 7:30. Usual breakfast and get up preparations done, we went to the gym for a 2 hour bike ride. Joss "needs" to be on the left of me and so I ended up on the far bike. As I settled in, sorting out seat height, location of drinks etc etc I realised that I must be on the popular bike. How else could you explain the 'tunes' sweet, jelly bean and 2 lots of chewing gum that were stuck in various places all over the handle bars. How do people live like that - don't they know how to behave in public??? Still, that took my mind off the pedalling for a while working out which bit was safe enough to touch. The first half hour was good until the pain started. Was it my dodgy right thigh - no. Was it my shin splints - no. Was it my hamstring - no - It was my backside. Whoever invented solid plastic saddles for bikes needs to have a large blunt object inserted into the point of pain mentioned while small animals are let loose on him to gather nuts for the winter. By the end of the first hour, (and 31km) it was pretty much all I could think about. But luckily Jos was on hand to completely take my mind off the pain with 4 simple words "I need the loo". Now prior to that, I'd not even considered going. But now it was mentioned, I realised that I had  drunk over 2 litres of water and maybe, just maybe, I could do with going too. Just a passing query at first, but that soon ballooned, as did my bladder, in the next 30 minutes. The last 30 (making 2 hours and 63km) were spent mostly in prayer - I had no idea what the effect of excessive water on the electric bike would be but I guessed it wouldn't be good. The 2 hour alarm finally came and I went to run to the loo, only to find my legs had been replaced by someone elses, and I veered off to the left, into a startled man working on his calfs. Still it's nice to make a new friend isn't it? The book advises a huge pasta meal after long training so I followed the advice to the letter and had a curry and wine - again, they call it 'reading between the lines' ;-)