I dropped in when you had about 148K done, hoping you might be tired so I could keep up a little…and you were going up Box Hill. I should have warmed up first although I am not sure it would have helped much - - I could not keep up with you! Total beast mode. Well done!
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Brilliant @Stefanie well done!
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Always an inspiration @Stefanie! Loving the look of those ride snacks
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@Stefanie woot woot. You did amazing. Hope to hop on with you this week sometime or I’ll watch you on Zwift and send messages. 
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Great job Stefanie!!! We are all cheering for you 
. Hope I’ll be able to join you for a few miles in the next couple of days.
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Wow!! That is amazing!!! Congrats on day 1!! Keep up the good hard work!! Looking forward to report from day 2!
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@Stefanie you were way more set with snacks than me. I just had gels, which i didnt use, Skratch hydration and i made the potato and sausage portables from the Feed Zone - i cannot get the hang of sticky rice nor can i find any right no so picked that recipe and used a sweet potato they were pretty tasty! Next time i need to ramp up the snacks a bit
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Will have to check in tomorrow on the rides. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow and I wanted to get some mileage on the trails in my new shoes (mixed review, going to change the inserts).
Congrats to you both on those efforts, It’s a lot of dedication and hard work to just finish. I remember training for my attempt at the iron distance and had to break up my 4-5 hour rides between Zwift and outdoors. Its an amazing level of commitment by you both.
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I enjoyed the route when I did PRL Full. The descent was a great time to refuel, and there were lots of punchy little areas that were good to stand up regularly and stretch the legs/relieve the rear, nice mix of flats and climbing. I so enjoyed our time together today. Hoping I will catch up to you on other days on your adventure as well!
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@Stefanie What an amazing day 1! So happy you felt good, thanks to being incredibly prepared as always. Your fueling looks perfect, and so glad you had some great company for parts of your maiden voyage. Seem to have strained my quad slightly so taking it easy tomorrow and the next couple of days, but will check in with you remotely! Cheering section set and ready to resume tomorrow!!! 
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Thanks @vivian.a.workman!! I love how everyone is jumping in to keep @Stefanie going through her personal VRAW!! I don’t know how she’s doing it. I did 23.5 this morning because i really enjoy Catrina’s Sun social rides and my legs were not happy with me 
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Thank you everybody!
Day 2 is in the books! Today began with buckwheat-multigrain pancakes that had cranberries and dates in them. Then it was a bit of core and onto the bike. Felt surprisingly good. My route today was the Four Horsemen followed by multiple Watopia flat laps for a total of 92 miles. @PaleGail messaged me hello, @meganherzog climbed the alpe with me even though she was tired from a hard group ride, and @Gossimrr dropped in briefly on the alpe too. And there were lots of ride ons! 
At the top of the alpe I took a nature break and when I returned my soigneur was there with an special snack: sourdough toast (homemade) with a bit of peanut butter, banana, and drizzled with blackstrap molasses. OMG it was sooo good! The rest of the ride was pretty unremarkable. I mingled in with a Pack group ride and got sucked along for awhile so that was nice. Also, limeade electrolytes when I feel tired taste like dirt. 
My recovery meal today was steel cut oat porridge with all the things. And apparently I am more interested in telling you about my food than I am about the actual riding 
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Way to go @Stefanie!! And your food looks and sounds fantastic! I hope you are able to rest well today.
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Congratulations and continued best wishes!
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Way to go @Stefanie! Hope tomorrow is great!
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Amazing Stephanie. I am enjoying reading about life in the bike.
My advise if you are going to join @Stefanie for a ride, warm up first and look at her plan for the day. Otherwise you may end up riding up the Alpe with her. I logged in and saw she was going 12 mph and thought “ok, maybe she’s resting a bit” nope! She was on turn 5 of the alpe. There was no way I could continue without a warm up . . I logged off lol. I will do my homework next time!
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Well done @Stefanie!! I love hearing about your food!! I think you and your soigneur need to make us a cookbook!!! After personal VRAW of course. You are doing amazing!! So proud of you!!
I am still figuring out when i might drop in to ride and will take @gosimrr’s advice to hear - no way my legs would deal with a lot of climbing. - they’re still annoyed that i did anything more than walked around the house today i had put laminate floor boards under the trainer mat, thinking that would offset any lack of stable from the carpet but the interlocking doesnt really work and the front tire is right at the seam between two boards so i went and got some exercise mat tiles to try - had to go to 2 menards since i thought the one didnt have propane tank exchange and i realized on the way to the first store that I needed 2 boxes not 1 
and then when I got home and changed the propane tank i reliazed there is still gas in the other one (i had 2) and there must’ve been a user error last weekend when I tried to grill
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Superb day 2 @Stefanie! I can’t think of much more important to focus on during efforts like this than FOOD! And the food in your house is the stuff of dreams even to non-vegans 
Keep up the amazing work!!
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Thanks for all the support and encouragement everybody!
Day 3 today was flat and fast so now I get longer to recline with my feet up 
I had fluffy yeast pancakes for breakfast this morning. Yum. Ride snacks today were baked oatmeal and a mid-way bowl of cereal that had fresh strawberries and honey berries from my garden. Recovery meal was spicy peanut noodles with broccoli and tempeh, a nice counter to all the sweet while riding. My electrolytes today were green tea flavored which tasted remarkably like Lipton. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing but at least it didn’t last like dirt
My sit bones are getting tender so I had on 2 pairs of shorts today, the second pair turned wrong side out. Oh that helped so much! My hands are also getting tired from holding me up so I added a folded up towel for extra cushion. That helped too.
One of the really interesting things that has been happening while I am riding is that random people I don’t even know collect around me from time to time and will pace with me so I can draft them. They never say anything, just hang out for a few miles, or like today, a lap or so. Tomorrow I am doing the uber pretzel so don’t expect anyone to be hanging out for that!
And something I have neglected to mention because of all the food, each day I end up having a kind of power song. I don’t pick it but it usually turns up early in my playlist and sets the tone for the day. Saturday it was “let’s get this party started” by Pink, Sunday was “the bitch is back” by Elton John (I started laughing so hard when it came up!), and today was “a life less ordinary” by Carbon Leaf. Who knows what tomorrow’s will be?
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Day 4! It was really hard today, mentally more than anything. It even took me a little extra time to get on the bike this morning. It’s turned hot and humid and I didn’t sleep all that well last night, had a hard time turning off my brain.
My legs feel pretty good all things considered. The thing I have learned doing long events and that I knew was going to happen eventually in this one, was the mental fatigue. The legs will keep going even if it’s slow, it’s the mind that will mess things up. While climbing the alpe it was getting bad and I was feeling a little sorry for myself. Then @Peter showed up! I found some energy and chugged along to the top chatting. So thank you Peter! And thanks to @meganherzog too for doing her workout along with my ride! Cheering her on through the hard intervals was a great distraction.
Today’s breakfast was pearled barley porridge. Bike snacks were homemade tater tots. My soigneur had to go to work today but he managed to quick nip up to the top of the alpe before he left to leave a treat for me: medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter and dipped in chocolate. It is the homemade vegan version of a Snickers bar. Today’s song was Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars.
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