last weekend's BRUTAL BRICK

So this was our last big brick before the TAPER, and it's as close as we're going to get to doing the actual race until race day. Started out with 'ride the entire course', so we did! The course is a total of 56 miles, starting at Hapuna, heading south to the Mauna Lani, and then all the way north to Hawi and back to the Mauna Lani. We simulated this last 4.5 miles by going south past the Mauna Lani at the beginning (since we were returning to Hapuna.) The ride went pretty well for me -- I just bought a water bottle with eye-pokey straw (not really, just looks that way) which sits in my aerobars, and having water so easily in reach was really nice. Felt pretty strong and right on track all the way up to Hawi and back down, but at some point I started to feel pretty worked, maybe 10-12 miles from the end. It was disturbing to me to feel so drained, nothing was hurting, I had enough "food" and water on me, and it was hot but not TOO bad. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I just couldn't get it going.
Sure enough, when I returned, I'd broken ANOTHER spoke! This time I didn't even hear anything. It made me feel tougher (if frustrated) to have done the whole ride with god knows how many miles of my rear brake rubbing against the wheel. I finished the total ride in 3 hours 33 minutes, and I KNOW I'll do it faster in the race, especially without broken spokes!
By this point it was about 11:45, and brutally hot. The idea for the run was to do 1:45, which I suppose I did, but I only got to the end of Puako road and back since I had to stop and walk for about 12 minutes, all told. I also took a detour to a small beach to try to put some water on my head (managed to dunk my shoes by accident, as well), and another to the Puako boat ramp to drink some water out of a hose faucet. No pain in my leg, or if there was, I didn't notice, because of the misery I was feeling being so hot. FINALLY got back and was SO relieved to be done. Thank god for visions of aid stations with ice and buckets of cold water for me to dump on my head at the race, EVERY MILE if I want!