78 Miles and Here I Come

This is one of the many hills we climbed. Look at the beautiful scenery though. It helps distract you from the hill up ahead. Tricky
By about 65 miles, I felt like my legs were going to fall off. If I had not been with Sharon, I don't know if I'd made it. It was 90-something degrees and very humid. It took us 8, yes, 8 hours to finish this ride. The last 15 miles we kept telling each other, "15 miles is only like riding the Capital Cresent Trail....no big deal." That last 15 miles seemed harder than the first 60. At every stop sign I'd look at the ground and fantasize about falling off my bike into a soft patch of grass.....fall asleep for a quick nap and then get up again and ride. Hmmmm.....maybe I was starting to become delirious.
Did you know there are Lamas in Maryland? I don't know what kind of farm this is, but yes, more interesting scenery to keep you going and distract you from the pain. Pretty much all there was to eat on this ride was bars, candy, doughnuts, and pretzels. I don't do well eating that much refined carbs. One of the treatments that really helped my body heal was after I saw a holistic M.D. (Dr. Remmington) who overhauled my diet. His philosophy is that that the body can sometimes heal itself, but you have to take away all extra stressors and then add in the vitamins and minerals, etc. that you need. Long story short, he took me off of caffeine, sugar, refined foods, wheat, milk, yeast, moldy foods, and I already didn't drink or smoke. It made a huge difference. I was so tired from the CFS that I drank about 5-8 cans of diet coke a day. Changing my diet was very hard, but it made a huge difference. It took several months to stop craving sugar, but feeling better was motivation enough for me. Thank goodness for Whole Foods that is in my neighborhood. I could find many substitutes there to satisfy my bread, snack cravings. I have fallen in love with Luna Bars for refueling on the ride. They taste the best and are low-sugar or low-glycemic. Most of the bars I've tried are too sweet and make me feel sick. This is the best flavor. I felt light-headed on one of the hills and stopped at the top, pulled out a Luna Bar and a few minutes later felt better after eating it. It's amazing how hungry I get and how much food I can eat on these rides. I love these bars, but at the end of the ride I felt sick and couldn't eat one more bar type food. I thought I was going to throw up the whole drive home. That was seriously one of the most difficult physical things I've ever done. Having my first child is still in 1st place for that title though. I'm almost there! Thank you to everyone who has donated to support my ride by helping the Morrow Family! You keep me pedaling!