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The Saturday training ride was canceled earlier in the week due to a nasty storm that was supposed to roll through the Bay Area, but on Friday, it didn’t seem so bad. There was also a rumor going around that some of the participants either were determined to ride (yay!) or just didn’t get the message that the ride was canceled, so I decided to show up ready to ride in case anyone else did.

Well, I almost showed up ready to ride. About 5 minutes from my house, I realized I’d forgotten my helmet, gloves and skull cap. DOH! Flipped a U-turn and after sorting things out, I got to the Los Gatos HS parking lot about 15 minutes late. Saw someone I thought looked like David M. pedaling around looking for people, but he was the only one there on a bike. So I cruised around the parking lot and saw his car, so I parked and unloaded.

Rushing never works for me, so naturally, the faster I tried to do stuff, the longer it took. But we got rolling a little after 8 am. And yes, I still forgot my shoe covers. Yay for wet, cold feet!

We followed the pre-planned route as much as possible, but David is in better shape than I am, so I thought I’d add another climb and took him up Pierce Road to the Mountain Winery. From there, we kind of got lost, but we’d had a nice ride and decided to just head back to our cars. So we got some miles in and a little climbing on a day when I thought I’d been sleeping in. I don’t know if anyone is going to show up for the cancelled hill repeats tomorrow, but I think I’m going to skip it. If the weather is nicer than today, maybe I’ll do some riding on my own before the 49ers game.

Who am I kidding? I feel the effects of this ride NOW.

We started out at McKenzie Park for a buddy ride. The plan was to hook up with the Portola Valley loop, detour out to Hwy 84 and then head back via the loop. But I left to door open for a detour up Old La Honda Road. And somehow, I got peer-pressured into taking it. Ultimately, it was a good thing, so thanks, Augustin, Kevin and Steve 🙂

It was a little cold, but after a mile or so, I was getting pretty warm. Just like yesterday’s hill repeats (where I forgot my GPS, so I had to make do with my iPhone GPS, which leaves something to be desired), I wasn’t really feeling strong at the start. Unlike yesterday, when I started to feel better the second time up Mt. Eden, I NEVER felt strong this whole ride. But, sometimes you just have to press on. It’s not like leukemia patients get to wuss out on their chemo and other unpleasant stuff like that when they don’t feel like doing it, so why should I?

The only real demon I had to conquer was accepting the fact that I was in for 40 minutes of climbing if I did Old La Honda. My best time up there from bridge to stop sign was about 33 minutes and I figured as out-of-shape as I am, I’d give myself an extra seven minutes. Well, surprise, surprise, I was able to do it in 38.5 minutes. Not bad for staying away from hills since the Mt. Hamilton ride we did for Mark J’s birthday in October.

The rest of the ride was cake. We flew down Hwy 84, hit the flats and got some paceline work in on Foothill. For people who’ve never done this sort of thing before, Augustin, Kevin and Steve did really well at pacelining. They are going to crush Sea Otter!

So having just devoured some junk food (I should get sponsored by Jack in the Box), I am ready for a nap. Great ride, but damn, I’m beat!

Woke up stupid early for this ride and the weather report at 6 am was kind of intimidating: 38 degrees F. But it warmed up really fast, so when I arrived at the parking lot at 9 am, it was downright balmy! I ditched my leg warmers and skull cap and was pretty comfy except for the valleys, which were still damn cold.

Doing the hill 4X was kind of intimidating, but I guess my conditioning is coming back nicely. I might try to get an extra climbing session in sometime in the near future. Maybe I’ll peel off a buddy ride and attempt Old La Honda or something like that. Gotta start preparing for the hills on the Sea Otter route!

We had great conditions for learning how to ride in a paceline today. It started out cold—maybe in the mid-forties—but ended up in the low-sixties. The skies were clear and there was no wind. Dennis made some announcements and the first fundraising incentives were handed out: Team in Training water bottles. Everyone who had raised $500 got one, including me! We also got our group assignments. I’ll be supporting Coach Roy and riding with Carmen, Gina, Megan and Michelle.

Coach George gave a little talk about pacelining: why and how we do it. Then we heard from Evanne Graté—today’s honoree.

Evanne had been fighting several serious health issues but remained very active. Then, she got hit on the head with a softball during a game, was knocked unconscious, and ended up getting a CT scan that revealed brain lesions caused by leukemia of the central nervous system. In a way, it was a lucky thing she got hit by that ball. Who knows how much farther the leukemia might have progressed if she hadn’t had that CT scan? After several very serious medical procedures and lengthy hospital stays, Evanne is finally in remission. We’re glad she’s here to tell us her story and hope the worst is behind her.

Then we took off in our ride groups. Unfortunately, Gina was not feeling well, so she stayed at the start/finish area. I thought we did really well considering that Carmen and Megan didn’t have any pacelining experience or working speedometers. Without a speedometer, it’s pretty hard to maintain a constant speed when you’re at the front of the paceline—which is why, when my GPS ran out of juice during the Solvang Century, I earned the award for the “person most likely to speed up when the group says ‘slow the F*(# DOWN!'”

We also had our first mechanical of the season. Coach Roy had a nasty tire problem after hitting a rut or something. Try as he might, he just couldn’t get his rear tire to hold air. I think he said he went through four tubes before he could limp back to the start/finish area. Fortunately, Michelle and I had enough experience to work with Carmen and Megan, so we got a full morning’s worth of practice.

After the ride, a bunch of us went to Buck’s in Woodside for lunch. It was a great way to end a great day!

The last buddy ride I led was a lonely one, but this one was great! Carmen, David, Steven, Mark D, Mark J, Dianne and Evan showed up at Edgewood and Cañada in good spirits and ready to ride. Well, mostly ready. Mark D forgot his shoes. Thanks to some inspiration from Evan, who said he once broke a pedal and finished a century with only one, Mark rode in his sandals. I gave him my booties so his feet wouldn’t freeze and his road pedals gave him enough surface area to ride pretty well. It was a tad bit funky-looking, but only if you looked at his feet. From the ankles up, he was properly decked out in riding gear.

Thankfully, the forgotten shoes were the only mishap of the whole ride. We finished with everyone we started with and everyone was smiling at the end. Not a bad way to ring in the new year!

The great thing about riding with a GPS unit is the ability to share your rides. Here’s our Sorting Ride from 12/17/11 with a slight detour at the end where I turned into the wrong driveway and had to take an overland route to get back to the Christ Church parking lot.

Today, I was supposed to lead a buddy ride but all of my buddies backed out at the last minute. Fortunately, I didn’t get the last bail-out message until I’d arrived at the meeting point, so I went anyway.

I hope to chronicle more of these rides this way.

We had our TnT kick-off meeting today and it was really something. Last year, I was kind of overwhelmed by it all and didn’t really appreciate the magnitude of it. This year, I had a different perspective and really got a feel for how big it is. We’ll probably be training 18 participants or so on the cycle team, but the marathon, triathlon and iron teams are huge! (And the Tri and Iron teams are recruiting me hard for next year…little do they know that water and I do not get along.)

Anyway, we got another inspiring talk from an honoree, who is actually a TnT alum and the widow of an honoree/participant who passed away this summer after several bouts with blood cancer. It was sad, but that guy’s dedication to raising money for LLS — and completing an incredible number of endurance events in between treatments — just makes me feel like a poser. People like that also make me want to make the most of each day, so that’s good. That’s the motivation I need to get back on my bike!

I also got to meet most of my participants. I still don’t have my final roster, so I don’t know if I met all of them. But the ones I did meet seemed to have the right attitude to finish this thing. That’s what’s so great about these endurance events; all you need is the commitment to show up and do the work and you’ll succeed.

So, I’m looking forward to another great season…and experiencing this one from the mentor’s side!

Confession time: I have not been on my bike in more than a month! I need some motivation!

I got an email from Dennis, our cycle/iron team manager, on Friday letting me know that I got into the mentor program. So, this morning, I went to the mentor/captains meeting in Palo Alto. It was cool seeing other TnT alumni. I also learned that George, an assistant coach from my winter season, had agreed to be our head coach this season. He’s a great coach for newbies, and i expect that he’ll have a great training plan for the whole team so we’ll be ready for the Sea Otter rides (this season, TnT is adding a metric century option—100km or 100 miles—so there will be two rides available). I like George and we already have a rapport, so it’ll be easier to communicate and understand each other when he’s barking out orders on rides.

The responsibilities as a mentor are pretty tough.So I’ll have to hit the fundraising trail early and often so I can dedicate more time to helping my “mentees” when they’ll really need me. But I’m looking forward to the challenge. Should be a fun season if all goes as expected.

A few weeks ago, I started itching to get back into training. So I checked out the TnT website and was really stoked to see that the next cycling event is the Sea Otter Classic Century! I’ve always wanted to check out the Sea Otter Classic. It’s held at Laguna Seca Raceway and has something for mountain bikers and road cyclists, including a nice vendor display where you can check out the new bikes. There’s one problem, though. It’s held in April, so training (and therefore, fundraising) doesn’t start for another month. This cuts down on the time I have ahead of the holidays and the end of the year to really generate funds.

To give my campaign a little more juice, I am going to make some acrylic holiday ornaments and give them to anyone who donates $100 or more. I joined TechShop a while ago and will make them on the laser cutter/etcher (which is highly addictive in its own right!).

Also, I am going to try to be a mentor, not just a regular participant. I attended the mentor/captain info meeting last week and of the 100 or so people there, I was the ONLY one applying for the cycle team. So, the odds look good that I’ll make it 🙂 I’ll have to do a lot to support the team, but I’m hoping that the reward of seeing people cross the finish line and get more into the sport of cycling will be worth it. (For the record, mentors have a lower fundraising goal due to all of the extra work they need to do to support participants, but my goal will remain the same as last year: $2,500.) I’ll know if I’m accepted this Wednesday. Then I hope to be able to start raising funds ASAP.