When I thought about coming with Chris to Florida I looked for a century to do. Riding alone for 100 miles is daunting, especially when you don’t know the area so I was happy to find the Orange Blossom Festival Bike Ride (http://www.frostproofevents.com/frostproof_events_005.htm) in Frostproof, Florida with a 100 mile option. Getting a map and marked course with designated SAG stops helped out a ton, even though I still basically rode this alone (if there were many other people that chose the 100 mile route I didn’t see them out there!). I got a little late start after a slow drive through some thick Florida fog but hit the road around 815AM. Frostproof is in the middle of nowhere but the course was actually really nice for the most part. Lots of orange groves, decent shoulders or at least very minimal traffic and overall pretty smooth roads. Not so nice – getting lost less than 1 hour into the ride. Yes, three arrows pointed right…I went left. I SWEAR the orange arrow (for 100 mile route) pointed left. I even checked the map and totally thought I was right. Then I hit a dead end at a freeway. And that is why my century was 105 miles. The ride went through some small towns where I got to chat with the locals at the gas station (Local: How far are you riding? Me: 100 miles. Local: Oh, god bless you child. Wow, we are in the south. Local: You want to take me with you? Me: Huh? Local: Where you riding to? Me: Around (mildly creeped out). Local: You alone? Me: (MAJOR creeped out) Nope, HUGE group coming through, gotta go! And that is why small towns kinda creep me out). The ride went pretty well until around mile 85. That is when the arrows started fading on the ground and I had to second guess every intersection, get out the map, realize I was getting a little delirious and map reading was difficult, get cranky and just want to be done. I got back to Frostproof as one of the last riders (awesome) and still had to run 40 minutes. Joy. Suffice to say, I was toast.
After the Orange Blossom Festival ride, we drove up to Orlando (with a stop along the way for a turkey sub which was hoovered, then I ate half of chris’s Italian sub). After a much needed shower we went to Pat O’Briens (http://www.patobriens.com/patobriens/orlando/) at Universal CityWalk (link) for dinner and “recovery” drinks.
The next day was a more low key day. After sleeping in (until 9:00!) we headed out to Clermont and the National Training Center (http://www.usantc.com/) so I could get in a long swim. It was a super windy day with some spotty rain showers, but swimming outside in February was awesome (and I have the awesome tan lines to prove it – my pale MN skin burned even on a cloudy day for 1.5 hours).
The rest of the day was spent on a marathon outlet mall shopping trip. There are two HUGE outlets malls in Orlando (http://www.premiumoutlets.com/centers/index.asp) and we spent about 5 hours shopping. Dangerous – Lululemon (http://shop.lululemon.com/home.jsp) outlet stores. I wanted to buy one of everything in my size, Chris talked some sense into me (guilt tripped me) so didn’t bankrupt us. Afterwards, we went out to Planet Hollywood (http://www.planethollywoodintl.com/locations_orlando.php) in downtown Disney that night.
On Monday, Chris had to work (darn working on business trips) so I was off to Clermont for a big brick (longest run off bike ever besides IM Coz). After searching online, it seemed the best biking around Orlando was Clermont, about 20 minutes NW. I parked at the National Training Center and headed out for 2 hours on the Horrible Hundred (http://horrible-hundred.com/ ) route. There was still spray painted markings from the ride which was great so I was not constantly checking my iphone map. Let me tell you – Florida is NOT all flat. When you start at the bottom of a hill and “Really?” is spray-painted there, you know you are getting some serious climbing in.
Then I was off on a 2:10 run. Luckily, I found a great trail that wound through Clermont to Lake Minneola and even saw the brush fires that were west of Clermont pretty close up.
After this I was trashed. My legs were screaming, I was getting very cranky and needed food badly. Of course, I took the wrong exit on the way back to the hotel but the iphone saved me yet again and I navigated myself to Whole Foods for a kombucha and turkey sandwich, then back to the hotel where Chris was finishing up for the day. Approximately 1 hour after eating my lunch, we went to dinner at Brickhouse (http://brickhousetavernandtap.com/) on International Drive. Great atmosphere, huge beer menu and good food. I wanted to get out and take advantage of the nightlife a little more since I had a rest day Tuesday and was heading home Tuesday morning, so we hit the Orlando Ale House for drinks. I was very ambitious and ordered the craft beer sampler. Found a new favorite beer but ended up only able to drink 1.5 sample glasses before I couldn’t drink anymore and wanted to go back to the hotel to sleep. Not in college anymore.
I am still in a “training” hang-over. I had an early flight Tuesday and went straight into work. After a bad night’s sleep I feel like death walking right now. Time to get back on track – clean up the diet after 3 days straight of eating out, get back on a sleep schedule and recover these legs. I have another training weekend in Carlsbad then it’s the final push to Oceanside (and then Texas!!). Wow, it is getting real!
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