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…