What not to do on your first century ride

I rode El Tour de Tucson yesterday and generally enjoyed it and had a good time. It could have been even better though if some things had been diferent. Here's my list of obstacles:

1. Don't get a new job a few months before, leaving you with no vacation and little training time due to needing to work longer hours in the beginning.
2. Don't get sick starting the week before the ride.
3. Don't take ibuprofen to help with the headache at night from the cold, at least for me I become dependent and can't sleep without it. And I wake up once it wears off at 3:30 in the morning and can't go back to sleep. Like happened to me on Thursday night.
4. Don't eat something that makes you sick the day before the ride. Nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and a splitting headache. Combined with the Motrin problem, which I couldn't take because of the nausea, that lead me to the next problem:
5. Don't get 3 hours of sleep the night before the ride.
6. The other problem with being sick the day before was that I barely ate anything. We went out to eat and all I could stomach was a little Minestrone soup and a few stuffed ravioli's.
7. Don't stay at a hotel RIGHT by the train tracks. Not just by the train tracks though, because it was near dowtown the trains were coming all night and the horns would blare for about a full minute. No joke.
8. Don't make the first time you ride 100 miles (a century) also be the first time you ride 111 miles. I'm tempted to say the extra 11 miles made a big difference, and I think they did. Honestly miles 90 to 100 were the hardest (headwind and slight incline). The last 11 miles were after a rest stop, had less wind, and the adrenaline of being near the finish kicked in.
   

Even after all those problems though it was a good ride. I did it in about 7.5 hours total. I took my time at a few of the stops and felt like I still had some left in the tank at the end. Hopefully next year now that I know what I can do I can prepare better and improve my time substantially.

Catching Up (again)

It has been a busy past couple of weeks but don't ask me exactly what we did besides what I have pictures for.

First off, as per Carlsen tradition, Evelyn found the scissors and cut a big chunk out of her hair so I had to chop it to make it look decent. Eric was out of town and was just about devastated that his little girl lost her long hair. It grows back, right?
After all our pre-Halloween celebration, we actually did go out trick-or-treating at a friends house where the school a block away had a trunk-or-treat and then we went around the neighborhood. The girls hit the jackpot with candy and I'm still reaping the consequences! Next year I will take the dentist office or school up on giving them leftover candy.
The haunted house at my friends house, the boys really went crazy on this thing and loved scaring the teenagers that dared enter.
Two days later we had our first snow day off of school. It was a very pretty powdery snow and I let the girls stay in their pajamas all day, watch movies, and drink hot chocolate by the fire. Rachel was my helper shoveling snow as Eric was still out of town. I still enjoy the task and it's a good chance to talk with the neighbors who are also out shoveling.
The girls had crazy hair day at school so I did the funky ponytail thing and got some color spray.
Last Saturday one of Elizabeth's friends was baptized and here are the three girls with birthdays within two months of each other and in the same class at school and church.

We also went to the Lion King. We had pretty good seats for the cheap ones as the elephant and hyenas and other animals walk into the theatre right behind our seats.

Rachel lost another tooth and the big ones are already growing in.

Guess who got her cast off? It's amazing how quickly children's bones heal, if only our adult muscles and bones healed as quickly.

Before going into the doctor

After
Elizabeth also became an official Brownie Girl Scout. Anyone want to buy cookies from us in February?

Whew, I'm tired just thinking about the last two weeks. Good thing we leave on Thursday for our extended Thanksgiving vacation in Arizona for Eric's century bike ride and eating turkey with my sisters and parents. It better be in the 70s the whole time we're there :)