Wednesday was our last spin class. It was kind of hard to hear those words, but I’ve made enough friends through Team in Training that I don’t think we’ll lose touch over the summer. I want more flexibility in my schedule, and want to do more off-road riding, so I won’t be doing any more official TnT events until next winter. But I will do the occasional buddy and alumni rides. I might also volunteer for spot SAG duty if they need me.
About the class… since it was the last one, I pretty much pushed myself to the edge of cramping up. We started slow and did lots of intervals. It was a good way to cap that part of the season. Big thanks to Equinox fitness in Palo Alto for allowing us to use their awesome facilities. It’s going to be hard to go back to Gold’s Gym after receiving the rockstar treatment from them.
Today, we had our send-off ride/party. It was surprisingly hard for such a short ride (20-ish miles). Team Short Break opted for a longer warm-up route which added a few miles, but was helpful when we hit the first hill. It was short and steep. The next one was longer and steeper. The last one was much longer than the second one, just as steep through the first 90 percent, and finished with a wicked-steep section at the last 100 yards. Then we cruised through some neat scenery. There’s a bunch of swanky McMansions built around an old quarry. It reminded me of the movie, “Breaking Away.”
Having done all of the climbing we were prepared to do, we cut the route short (as had everyone else) and high-tailed it back to Peet’s in Los Altos. We earned a free coffee from Coach Kristy for turning around and riding the second hard section again with the group behind us. She said, “I’ll buy if you turn around and get the girls,” I thought they had some trouble, so I said “sure,” and flipped a u-turn. Not sure if she thought I’d actually go, but then again, she didn’t know I misunderstood her. She was basically baiting Team Short Break into getting some extra miles in. 🙂 When I turned around, she had to get Mark and Scott, too. Then we all rode to the next hill with LeighAnn’s group. Anyway, the only thing better than Peet’s coffee is free Peet’s coffee!
Then we rode back to the clubhouse at the park. We’d all brought stuff for a post-ride breakfast and after we chowed down, we got our ride jerseys, official Solvang Century info packets, and final instructions for this week. Basically, this is the “taper” week; we’re not supposed to do anything strenuous so we can save our legs for the Century. Our team coordinator, Nicole, gave us our final fundraising stats: $70,000! We fell a little short of our $74,000 goal, but got closer than the other teams in the area and we lost a few riders due to time conflicts and fundraising issues. So we were pretty stoked to hear that we out-raised the other groups. We also got a final pep talk from Coach Patrick about what we’ve done and what lies ahead. He described the Century route in terms of stuff we’ve already done, and explained why today’s ride had such steep stuff. Apparently, there’s a steep section close to the end of the route that kicks most people’s asses. So we know what to expect when Saturday comes.
Damn, I am so ready for this. I can hardly wait!