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It’s over. Done. Finished. And it pushed me farther than I’ve ever gone.

FRIDAY, APRIL20th
I arrived at the Embassy Suites around 3pm. On the road, I saw Participant Kevin and we caravanned for a while. I guess the official directions to the hotel were different than the route I know, but he trusted me enough to follow me on Hwy 156 to Castroville to Hwy 1 to Seaside. We got there with only one wrong turn…right by the hotel.

When I checked into my room on the top floor, I was initially excited. The ocean view was great! But there was a catch: it was so noisy, I thought the hotel HVAC unit was on top of my room! The whole reason I got a single room was to ensure that I got some sleep, so I wanted to see if I could change rooms.

Before I could look into it, there was supposed to be a short group ride at 3:45 to welcome everyone to the event. I kind of didn’t want to go because I just wanted to chill, but after seeing everyone and meeting some of my flex participants in person, I decided to dash up to my room to change. It was a fun ride, the weather was great and I’m glad I went.

When I got back, I went up to my noisy room, called the front desk, and was able to switch to another room. Great! But I had a flex participant who wasn’t staying at the hotel who wanted to come up and grab a shower before the evening’s inspiration dinner, so I was kind of in a bind. After waiting a few minutes, I called him to see where he was. He said he was hanging out with other TnTers, so I moved my stuff into my new room as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I left my prescription sunglasses in the old, noisy room. 🙁

Anyway, after the ride, we had our inspiration dinner at the hotel. We carbo-loaded (ate), hydrated (drank) and had a good time. Dennis gave us instructions for what would happen Saturday…beginning with meeting in the lobby at 5:15am! Then George gave us a little pep talk about the ride itself. And then, off we went to bed.

It was at this time that I learned that there was no way to get my sunglasses until Sunday. Apparently, housekeeping leaves and locks up the “lost and found” and NO ONE ELSE has a key. They would arrive at 7am, but since I was leaving by 5:30, that was no good. And by the time I got back the the hotel around 7:30pm, they had left for the night. Long story short, I never got my sunglasses back. I hope whoever has them has the same prescription as I do, otherwise, they won’t be much good to them.

SATURDAY, APRIL 21st
I got up and got ready on time for a change. We carpooled to the race track and I thought I was totally prepared. I wasn’t, but it was okay. The only thing I really forgot was to pump up my tires and they had a mechanics truck set up at the start/finish line. So, I was good to go.

The one thing that was really messed up was the weather. We had trained all winter in the cold and rain and it was going to be sunny and hot! So, I slathered on some sunscreen, but I didn’t wear enough. I thought I’d wear arm warmers so I could remove them when it warmed up, but by the time we got to the staging area, it was already too warm for them. So, I had my vest tucked into itself and strapped around my waist as a fanny pack and my arm warmers tucked into my jersey pocket. Fortunately, I gave my base layer to Dennis. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be needing it and as it turned out, I didn’t need the vest, either.

The start was pushed back from 7am (as posted on the website) to 7:30, so we had a lot of time to kill. Then, we got underway.

We started slowly to get a feel for the group. There was a pace car for some reason and it wasn’t an issue until we descended a steep hill that ended with a steeper uphill. The pace car kept everyone from going fast enough to carry any momentum up the other side, plus, it created a potentially dangerous bottleneck situation at the bottom of the hill. But no one in our group had any problems, so all’s well, I guess.

The first section of the ride is flat and fast, so we tried to keep up a fast pace and covered the first 40 miles in 3 hours. Shortly after that, we started the first big climb of the day: a slow, grinding, 10-mile climb that culminates with a steep pitch at the top. We also discovered that the temperatures had hit triple digits! I passed a guy who was resting under a tree and he said his thermometer registered 106 degrees. Ouch. I knew it was hot and was concerned about cramping and bonking and all of the other, potential heat-related issues, so I slowed down and decided to rest when I saw my heart rate go too high or when I felt like I was getting too hot. It slowed me down a lot, but I figured that was better than burning out, getting heat stroke or whatever else could’ve happened.

Just before the steepest part of the climb, there was a SAG truck handing out water. I still had 3/4 of a water bottle, but the guy REALLY suggested that it would be a good idea to take more, so I did. It was a good thing because I probably would have run out of water without it.

I don’t think I’ve ever ridden in the kind of heat we were experiencing, and by the looks of the other riders at the rest stop atop that climb, I wasn’t alone. Unfortunately, when I got to the top, I learned that Michelle’s knee blew out and she couldn’t continue. She has had chronic knee problems and always managed to keep them under control, but this time, there was just too much climbing and she couldn’t keep her cadence high enough to prevent re-injuring it.

The next part of the ride was mostly downhill and since we were on the ocean side of the mountain, there were more trees providing shade and the temperature was a little cooler. All this combined to help restore my energy a little.

Then we got to the rest stop before Laureles Grade. It was at the Laureles Lodge, by the pool. Seeing that pool after being so hot for so long, I had visions of jumping in. But I knew that if I took my shoes off, they weren’t going back on, so I just refilled my water bottles, grabbed some food and rested. We caught Megan, Evan and Samy here (they were first to reach the top of the first climb, so George sent them ahead while Carmen and I rode with him). They split shortly after we arrived.

When we left, Carmen was pretty excited because she knew the area really well. She lived nearby for a long time and pointed out local landmarks. Then we hit the grade.

The first climb of the day was a long “Cat 2” climb (1 is highest, 5 is lowest and if it’s harder than a 1, it’s rated HC which roughly translates to “beyond classification”). Laureles grade is also a Cat 2, but it starts around the 85th mile! I had to stop several times to rest and drink. It was grueling, but when I got to the top, I took some pictures while waiting for George and Carmen. When George appeared, he said Carmen jumped on the SAG vehicle. I don’t know where she got dropped off, but we continued without her, hoping to find her along the way.

The descent down Laureles Grade would’ve been fun if I had my wits about me. But I was so tired, I decided to take it very easy down the steep pitches. Still, one time, I looked down at my speedo and saw 46 MPH. So I was going pretty fast at times.

The rest of the route takes you from the front entrance to Laguna Seca around to the side entrance. Seeing the sign “Laguna Seca Raceway 1/4 mi” got me really excited and we rode as fast as we could. But we still had to go around to the other side and climb back into the raceway. It was awful! Imagine a never-ending staircase. We’d climb one steep hill and hope that it was the last, but there was always another one behind it! I was miserable!

There were times on Laureles Grade that I started “talking to myself.” “Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to SAG out?” “No, you have to keep going. You can’t quit.” “Well, it’s freakin’ hot and a lot of other people have sagged out?” “NO, KEEP GOING!”

And so it went, off and on, until I hit the top.

The conversation got more one-sided when I got to Laguna Seca. “JUST! KEEP! GOING! YOU! CAN! DO! THIS!!!” I thought of all the people who have blood cancers and all the pain and suffering they have to endure just to have a chance to get healthy again. I thought of our honorees, who put their handprints on the backs out our jerseys, so when we felt like we couldn’t go on, we would know that they are behind us giving us a spiritual shove. I thought about “Shrimp” Louie Bonpua, whose accomplishments after being diagnosed continue to inspire thousands, including me.

I hit my breaking point. And then I pushed through it.

At some point on the raceway grounds, George told me “this is the last hill.” He was, of course, wrong. At that point, I decided that I wasn’t going to think about where the last hill was until I crossed the finish line. But when we were going up the umpteenth hill, we passed a runner going the other way. He was cheering us on and told me, “Just a little farther, this is the last hill.” For some reason, I believed him. And he was right. I mean, we had entered the parking area. The end was in sight, but heck, Laguna Seca is a bumpy place, so even though that was the last hill, it wasn’t downhill all the way. But we were there!

As I followed the signs, I saw the fast team walking the other way, cheering me on. They also told me I was going the wrong way, but I could see the finish line and decided to just cross it.

I looked at the course at the start of the season and I figured it would take me 10 hours to finish. I finished in 9 hours and 52 minutes.

After finishing, I was completely, physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. I was already on the verge of tears when my teammate Samy, who finished several minutes ahead of me, told me about his son’s friend. This teenager was two weeks from the end of his chemo and thought he couldn’t continue. But he found the strength to complete his treatment. Earlier this week, Samy had just gotten word that his Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was gone and he was in remission. That did it. I cried behind my non-prescription backup pair of sunglasses and poured water over my head to mask the tears.

I posted a profanity-laden message about the ride experience on Facebook right after I got to my hotel room. It had gone viral among my fellow participants before we’d even gotten to the celebration dinner:

This f***ing ride was literally the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We trained in the cold and rain all winter and it was over 100 degrees today. WTF? We also had stiff headwinds for at least 40 of the 96 miles. And it finished with a big f***ing climb. Sorry for all the f-bombs, but this f***ing ride deserved every single f***ing one of them! 

A deep, sincere, non-profanity-laced thank you to all who supported me in this endeavor. Your well wishes kept me going long past the breaking point.

 The celebration dinner was really subdued, probably because everyone was too tired. I brought a bottle of nice scotch, but really didn’t feel like drinking. I was THAT tired. But we had a nice celebration dinner and many friendships were sealed that night. I know that not everyone will come back, but I hope they all do.

SUNDAY, APRIL 22nd
We wrapped up Sunday with a little breakfast for those who stayed at the team hotel (it was free for us!) and said our goodbyes. We will have an after-season party at some point, but poor Dennis has earned some time away from running TWO teams. For a few days, he can concentrate on his normal LLS duties and managing the Iron Team.

I am looking forward to joining the run team and doing the San Jose Rock and Roll Half-Marathon in the fall. I think the change of pace will do me some good and keep me exercising through the summer. Then, in the winter, I will join the “spring” cycle team. This is my second event, but the first one where I was well and truly challenged. It felt horrible during the event, but feels great to know that I am capable of doing more than I thought I could. Last, but not least, here is my GPS route. I got a low-battery warning near the start of Laureles Grade, but thankfully, the thing lasted long enough to get me through to the end. And thankfully, *I* lasted long enough, too 🙂

I have just completed the Sea Otter Gran Fondo, but wanted to dedicate a post just to that event (believe me, it deserves it), so this post is dedicated to the two training rides that preceded it. First, our Natural Bridges substitute buddy ride. Our scheduled 80-mile Natural Bridges ride was switched to a shorter, local due to rain, but a lot of people still wanted to do it because, let’s face it, the ride up and down the coast from Santa Cruz to San Gregorio, CA and back is awesome. So we did it as a buddy ride on 4/7/12. But since we were doing it without SAG support, we had to be completely self-sufficient.
 

We gathered at Natural Bridges Park at 7am and hit the road a little after 7:30. We had a good ride with no serious problems. It was cool at the start, but we had sunny skies and a nice tailwind on the way back. Samy and I were riding that tailwind so much, and really throwing the hammer down, that we missed a turn–and the last climb of the day. Oh well, we knew where we were going and the mileage was about the same either way. About the only issue I had was a lack of electrolytes. I forgot to bring anything salty (I prefer Trader Joe’s salted peanut butter pretzel nuggets) and was relying on Nuun sports tablets (they’re like fizzy Alka Seltzer tablets but with electrolytes instead of aspirin). Well, with about 20 miles left, I started to get a cramp in my left thigh. It was on a short hill, so I backed off the pace and worked through it. At the next rest stop, Samy gave me some salt capsules and they worked pretty quickly. I think I am going to add these to my riding kit! Everyone was tired at the end, but Carmen, Megan, Samy and I (and Coach George, of course) finished together.
 

On April 14th, we had our send-off ride and party. We met at Shoup Park in Los Altos and took a quick little ride. Our goal was to get everyone together, distribute event registration materials and get more inspiration from our honorees. It went off without a hitch, but my pre-ride jitters were starting. I hadn’t been able to train as hard for this ride as I had for last year’s Solvang Century because I wasn’t able to make it to spin classes. So, I had my own concerns about being able to complete this ride, which was going to be harder than Solvang. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from our honorees, it’s that you are capable of doing more than you think you can. All you have to do is have the will to do it. So I had started to prepare myself mentally to “just do it.”

To be continued in the next post…

Today’s weather report called for a “100% chance of rain,” and for once, the weather forecast was right.

Because of that forecast, we decided to switch our Natural Bridges ride, which follows the coast from Santa Cruz to Pescadero, to next week. I hope the weather cooperates because that is a spectacular ride if the weather is good.

But, we had to get out and ride today, especially me because I took last week off due to general fatigue. So, George planned a different route that had multiple loops in case it started raining and people wanted to bail out early.

So, we started out going south for about 17 miles. It probably started raining at Mile 4, so we got pretty wet. Almost everyone decided they’d had enough, but the fast group, plus Samy and myself, decided to give the second loop a shot. It was warmer than two weeks ago (the last time I rode in wet weather), so I felt more comfortable.

We were already soaked when we headed north for about a 22-mile loop. At a few points, the rain felt like hail, but I’m sure it was just large raindrops stinging my face. Trying to keep up with the fast group helped keep me warm, but whenever we stopped, I got cold real fast. It was not a great day, but it felt great when we got to the parking lot. The third, 25-mile loop was not even an option; no one even had to bring it up. We all just loaded up our bikes, shucked our wet clothes, and went home.

Since I didn’t have any dry clothes with me besides my pants and TnT sweatshirt, it was kind of interesting. Like everything else I had on, my bike shorts were completely soaked. So, I didn’t want to put on dry pants over them; it would’ve just kept me sitting in wet shorts the whole ride home. I looked around the parking lot and we were the only ones there. And there was a decent amount of trees between the lot and the road. So I just stripped off my shorts and tried to get into my pants as quickly and nonchalantly as possible. I hope no one saw me, but at that point, I didn’t care! Next week, rain or shine, I have to plan a little more carefully.

The ride home was a little cold even with the heater on full blast, and there were times when I was shivering, which means I was pretty close to hypothermia. Maybe it’s time to invest in some real rain pants and a new rain jacket. My old rain jacket is probably 15 years old.

A lot of miles have gone under my wheels since the last post, so I’ll try to summarize them.

I rode Mark’s buddy ride with the fast team and didn’t hold them up too much. Good mix of climbing and pace lining.

I coordinated SAG for our Tour de las Montañas, so I was pretty busy leading up to this ride. I got some great volunteers; we had some great weather; and we had an awesome ride.

Craig’s buddy ride was really hard, sending us almost 2,000′ up King’s Mountain Road. Most of the team also did the bonus climb up West Old La Honda, which is not as steep or as long as the East side. My GPS had a dead battery, so I just mapped the route on RidewithGPS.

That leaves us with today’s ride: the Old La Honda Odyssey. It was cold at the Foothill College parking lot when we met at 7am. This was the first ride during Daylight Savings Time (sunrise was officially 7:15 according to Weather Underground), so it was also darker than usual.

We were supposed to climb the East side of Old La Honda Road, which is slightly shorter and has a little less climbing than King’s Mountain. But when we got to Portola Valley, it had started to rain. At the bottom of Old La Honda, it was cold and full-on rainy. There were only three people in my group due to various reasons, so Coach George asked my opinion of whether or not it was okay to proceed. I know I could’ve done it, and I’m sure my teammate Samy could have, but George was making the call for the whole team, not just me and Samy. So I gave my honest opinion of whether or not I thought the road would be safe for the whole team: no.

The climb would’ve been fine. When you’re on OLH, you’re just in a mindset that life is going to suck for about 35 minutes and then the hard part is over. But we would’ve had to descend Hwy 84 into Woodside and in the rain, that means going very slow through some very tight turns and probably would’ve taken about 15-20 minutes. For me, the risk of hypothermia would’ve been the bad part. We’d be spending a lot of time coasting, getting colder and colder. For others, it would’ve been that, plus negotiating the road under wet conditions. That can be hard and scary if you don’t know how to ride on wet roads. So, we cut out the climb and the boring “additional miles” part of Cañada Road and went to where the third rest stop volunteer was waiting. Bill had volunteered for me two weeks prior and had built a little shelter for us. We helped him take it down and headed for home on Foothill.

It was a tiring day, not because of the route, but because I did half of it with wet legs. I wore my tights, which have an extra “wind stopper” material on the front. But they still get wet and with the temperature in the 40-50 degree range all day, I probably used a lot of energy just trying to keep warm. So I treated myself to a Señor Taco wet super burrito and a nap when I got home. All in all, it was a good day on the road despite the rain.

Yesterday’s ride was very physically challenging and, for one teammate, very emotionally challenging, too.

We met at the Milpitas Town Center for a very popular ride around the Calaveras Reservoir. It was cloudy and cool, but the weather report said it would clear up and warm up.

We had a new honoree speak who was currently undergoing treatment for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He held up very well talking about himself and how he was very grateful for what we were doing, but when he talked about how his wife was “his rock,” he couldn’t hold back his emotions. It was very moving and provided yet another look into why we do this.

We also had an old honoree speak: Mike Wu. Mike’s story goes back to his diagnosis with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia in 2003. He had to take a drug called Gleevec®, which was developed by LLS-funded research by Dr. Brian Druker. It helped him get healthy enough to receive other treatments for the disease. I’m not sure if he is “cured” or still in remission, but I’ve ridden with Mike a few times last year and he sure seems healthy to me! Mike was also staffing the first rest stop and driving a support (aka, “SAG”) vehicle, which would come into play shortly.

After the speeches were over, and the first “pit stop” of the day was done at the Safeway restrooms across the parking lot from our meeting spot, we hit the road. The first part of the ride took us through Fremont’s suburban streets. Samy H. got a flat about six miles into the ride—and that’s when tragedy reared its ugly head. While we were stopped to fix Samy’s flat, Megan H. checked her phone and got a message from “someone who never calls her.” So she called him back and immediately broke down crying. The caller told her that her good friend died suddenly overnight of a heart attack. Carmen M. tried to comfort her, but it’s tough to respond to a situation like that. She was overwhelmed by shock and grief didn’t know if she wanted to continue—or if she SHOULD continue. I was thinking about volunteering to ride back with her so she could do what she needed to do, but then Mike showed up in the SAG car. We decided to give her a ride to the first rest stop, which would give her time to collect her thoughts and decide if she wanted to continue the ride or go home. It was also pretty critical for the rest of the team that he be at the first rest stop, so it was a good plan.

With the situation under control, we pedaled on. The climb up Palomeras Road is steep and long. Mapmyfitness.com says it’s a Cat 3 climb, so it’s the hardest thing we’ve done to this point of the season. Since I can only push myself on climbs and descents (flat ground is dedicated to pacelining practice), I really attacked it and got to the top just behind Evan, who is a fit, skinny marathon guy. So, I felt pretty good about my progress.

When we got to the top, Mike had the rest stop all set up. We ate, drank and talked to Megan about what she wanted to do. She felt like her friend would’ve wanted her to continue, so she did. I thought it was an incredibly brave thing to do.

The descent is a good one for speed junkies: fast and fairly straight. Last year, I hit my fastest recorded speed on this run: 46 MPH. This year, the road was a little damp after overnight sprinkles, so I was mellower on the steep parts and pushed hard on the flatter sections where gravity wasn’t helping me as much. I covered about 5 miles in under 10 minutes 🙂

After a short, steady climb and descent, we encountered about 15 miles of mostly flat terrain, which gave us lots of pacelining practice. Rest stop #2 was at teammate Michelle’s grandmother’s house. It was really nice of her and afforded us a real bathroom.

Then came the climb up to Calaveras Reservoir. It’s not as steep as Palomeras Road, but there’s a rest stop in the middle. I had forgotten this part of the ride, other than the spectacular views and the alternating up/down rhythm of the road. I also didn’t see the SAG vehicle in the dirt parking lot at the top of the first, steep part of the climb. The route sheet said “rest stop #2 at the top of the climb,” so when I was descending rapidly, I knew I missed it and turned around. Oh well, another 100′ or so of climbing for me.

At the rest stop, Evan asked me if we were done with the climbing. Remembering what the route sheet said, I said “yes.” Well, I was wrong 🙂 It kind of messed him up because he wasn’t mentally prepared for more climbing, but I honestly didn’t think there was any more! But I kept attacking and enjoyed the vistas by myself.

The descent from the reservoir to Milpitas Town Center has only one thing to watch for: the Wall. For people who do the Calaveras loop counter-clockwise, the Wall is a short, steep climb. For us, who are doing the loop clockwise, it’s a really steep descent with a stop sign at the bottom—and cross-traffic that doesn’t have to stop. Last year, I didn’t make the stop sign and was lucky there wasn’t any cross-traffic. This year, I was prepared and controlled my speed all the way down. The rest of the ride was downhill and thoroughly uneventful.

We rolled into the parking lot about six hours after we started. Because staff have to wait for everyone to finish, we had a few hours to chat in the parking lot. With a solid, 5-10 MPH breeze coming off the bay, it was hella cold! I had my TnT sweatshirt, but didn’t have any pants to change into, so I stood around in my shorts and leg warmers until the last riders came in around 5:30. Now, I think I’m coming down with a cold. I’m hoping the extra day off from work and Vitamin C and Zinc tablets will keep it at bay.

Did a great ride yesterday, but at one point, I leaned over my handlebars and accidentally stopped my GPS. I heard the beep and instantly started it again, but ridewithGPS.com interpreted the data as two separate rides. So I uploaded data from the Garmin app in .gpx format. It got the whole ride as one ride, but no elevation data. So here’s the whole ride.

Here is the first 12 miles with elevation data.

And here is the final 34.5 miles with elevation data.

It was a tough ride with a lot of climbing, but I feel pretty good afterward. I decided to skip hill repeats today to try to get other things done (plus, it’s been about two months since I slept in on a weekend). I heard from one of the participants than I wasn’t the only one. Only two people showed up and both of them rode yesterday, too. Of course, a lot of people are sick with or recovering from a cold that’s going around. I hope I don’t get whatever it is!

We were all tired at this morning’s hill repeats so the coach gave us a break and we only did the hill four times.

We had a new face today: participant Lisa M. She was riding a beater mountain bike, so I hope she’s saving up for a road bike before too long. Our next buddy ride should be around 40 miles and then comes the Calaveras Reservoir ride: 57 miles with a bunch of climbing. She did her best, though, so I’m pulling for you, Lisa! Go Team!

Today we did a great training ride: the Tour of the Reservoirs. It’s not too steep and not too long.

We got a new member of Team Mighty Makos today: Samy H. He rode well — in fact, I think we all did — and we rode hard for our coach Roy, who had to go to Florida to be with his father in the hospital. We all wish them the best.

The weather was really good and everything went very smoothly, so this is going to be a short, boring post. But that’s a good thing, because I am dog-tired after a tough week at work! Gonna go to bed soon and try to get rested for hill repeats tomorrow.

We had a good group of committed riders at hill repeats today, so George unleashed a little pain. Not only did we go up and down the hill six times, but we did a few drills while we were at it.

The first time up, we just rode normally; just get up the hill however you want to do it. It was a good warm-up.

The second time, we did one-legged drills. We pedaled with only one leg at a time for four revolutions, then switched legs. We didn’t click out like previous one-legged drills I’d done, so you could’ve cheated if you wanted to, but how’s that going to help you when it was time to ride Sea Otter? What I discovered was that it was much easier to do clipped in because you are balanced. And when I say “easier” I don’t mean it was easy. I mean you were more stable on the bike, so you could really concentrate on pedaling with one leg. I eventually switched to eight-and-eight because I could really work my kick, scrape and pull muscles (pushing forward, pulling backward, and pulling upward, respectively; basically every part of the stroke except pushing down).

The third time up, we did standing all the way. I did a few yards seated, but otherwise, I did the whole thing out of the saddle.

The fourth time up, we used one gear higher than we normally would. Since I normally do this in my lowest gear, I should’ve done this in my second-lowest gear. But I thought I’d see how far I could get in my third-lowest. I did most of the hill that way, dropping into my second-lowest gear where I needed to. I learned how to play this little psychological game with myself on my mountain bike. I’d climb in my second-lowest gear and use the fact that I had one extra gear to comfort and motivate me to climb farther.

The fifth and sixth times, we climbed as normal, but didn’t have a break in between. We just turned around at the bottom of the hill and climbed back to the top. Then, when we got to the top, we sprinted the last few yards.

Then came the fast descent back to the cars. I was still feeling good, so I caught most of the other riders. The last guy in front of me was the head coach. So I rode his wheel for a little way, then said “on your left, George.” Well, he was having none of that! He dropped the hammer and closed the door on me. It was awesome! I’m not gonna mess with the big dog anymore!

Woke up on time, got going on time and ended up having a great time today. Of course, it helped to be a little more prepared than I normally am.

I spent about an hour last night giving my bike some TLC. I hadn’t touched it after riding in the rain, so it was nice and crusty. So, out came the bike polish and Triflow. First I wiped down the rims, which were nice and black with brake pad grime. Then I sprayed the bike with bike polish and cleaned the road grime off of it. Then I cleaned and lubed the chain and sprockets. Lastly, I put it in my car so I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning.

This morning, I got off to a good start and got to the high school on time. The skies were clear, but it was really cold. It didn’t help that we set up on the shady side of the Los Gatos High School parking lot! But we got a nice lesson in cyclist nutrition and an inspiring talk from one of our honorees, Ruth Perkins. She has a form of leukemia that isn’t curable–YET–and is alive today because of the advances in treatments. Her doctor told her that had she developed leukemia in 1996 instead of 2006, he would’ve given her three years to live. But she’s doing relatively well having undergone two stem cell treatments and a few rounds of chemo. I say relatively because her numbers are up again, so she’s looking at more treatments in the near future. But we ride for people like her, so I hope that our efforts pay off and she can reap the benefits soon.

The ride was essentially what David M. and I did last week, just a little longer with a little less climbing. Once we got moving, I warmed up right away and was feeling pretty good. Then I got a little test. Our group had some fast people and some not-so-fast people and the difference was pretty dramatic. Since I didn’t know if I should’ve been keeping everyone together or let the faster people go out on their own, I waited for our coach, who was working with one of the newer riders on how to pick the right gear for the conditions, and asked him what he wanted us to do. He basically told me to work with the faster group until there was a good place to wait. Soooo, I had to sprint back to the faster group to tell them what was going on. I was really moving, but that got my blood pumping. I was a little concerned that I might have gone too fast, too soon, but I felt really good the rest of the way, so maybe I need something like that every ride? I don’t know. We’ll see how I feel during hill repeats tomorrow.