Headwind Blows and OMG it's an IRONMAN

Training Log:

Yesterday Trina and I rode 90 miles. This is the furthest distance we have ridden to date. T was so ready....prepared, hydrated, fueled, and excited. I, on the other hand, was exhausted, had too much wine the night before, and was quite grumpy. So, I made a pact with myself to ride until I couldn't ride any more....and to keep my mouth shut (when I'm grumpy I can be, well, mean). I knew that I wasn't in a bad space for training.... I was just poorly prepared. In these circumstances I usually work out the grumps during the first 10 miles or so and then I'm golden.

After the first 30 miles of riding into the headwind my grumps were far from gone. I was happy with my music choice (only in my R ear I promise!!!), Melissa can take me far far away from the pain of headwind. But my body was exhausted from riding into the wind for so long. So, as all good triathletes do, we kept going. Another 20 into the headwinds. We had expected to ride for about 2.5-3 hours before turning around, but 4 hours in we realized that headwinds blow. We hate them. It was like riding up hill for 4 hours....something like riding Mt St Helens (refer to earlier posts from this season), which should only be done when training for Ironman.

Anyway, we completed our 90 mile ride with flying colors....well, except that my good intentions to 'practice fueling' like I plan to at Ironman made me confused and I ended up eating less than 50% of what I normally eat on a long ride. Ugh. I'm sure that this didn't contribute to my grumps AT ALL! We will do 100 with a short brick on Sunday next. My goals are to avoid headwinds (is that possible?), add hills back in (just finished the second long ride on the flats for confidence building), and EAT like I will at Ironman. Nutrition is soooo important it seems. And fueling for Ironman is SO much different than fueling for a marathon. Now I understand what the triathletes meant when they would say, 'oh, you ONLY run marathons?'. Yikes.

TRAINING VIDEO
I just got an awesome video for 'beginner' triathletes doing Ironman WI (that's me!). It's so amazing and full of relevant information about the course. The unexpected gift that it provided was this nauseating sensation of terror combined with excitement. I have never before today experienced both emotions with equal intensity. I feel like I want to run around whooping and crying at the same time. The description of the ride was not unexpected, but it confirmed my fears that I have not done enough hill training, or speed training, or whatever training to be prepared for a successful race. Yes, I have done all my rides (but one), all the long rides have involved hills and rollers (except 2), and I have been doing bricks and shorter races. NEVERTHELESS, I am back to being scared out of my granny-panties. I need to re-read last week's post from the brilliant Jen and Meg. I also need to take the very sound advice of my wise friend Becky: start filtering baby, start filtering. I think I need to stop reading and watching media about the difficulty of the course. Man, it's no joke: this is a head game!!!!

Advice Welcome.