I rode 72 miles on my bicycle and all I got was, well, not much actually

I can't believe I rode 72 miles on a bicycle on Saturday. It seems outrageous and stupid, but I am very proud of myself! We started at Zott's in Portola Valley - we rode three different loops all starting and stopping at our cars. Mentally, loop courses are tough, which means they are great for training! We got to dump stuff off at our cars after each loop, refuel, and because I planned ahead of time, I had ice cold water waiting for me after each segment! The courses were familiar, both a good thing and a bad thing - the first 18 miles, the second 30 miles, and the last 24 miles.

All in all it was a great ride, but I was VERY happy to be finished! I couldn't have ridden much longer, which I suppose is the way our trainings are designed. I was so proud of myself and my pacegroup when we finished and I can't imagine how we will feel in Tahoe!

Next weeend is an 80 mile buddy ride and I'm already nervous about it!

Back to the road

After my break the weekend before, I was feeling nervous about last weekend's ride. This reminds me of when I was training for the Rock 'N Roll Marathon in 2005 and would go to sleep at 7pm the night before a long run. Ridiculous!

I didn't go to sleep at 7pm on Friday, but I did get plenty of sleep and ate a good meal of pasta with veggies the night before. I drank plenty of water last week, tried to eat well, and tried to get some good sleep - which was hard with my work week last week.

Saturday morning I met up with my team for a buddy ride starting in Cupertino. I rode with my coach (Hamid), three of my pacegroup members (Connie, Johnny, and Craig), and Connie's son. The ride was tough - longer than I've ridden before (close to 60 miles!) with a few challenging hills near the end of the ride. Good news is I made it, bad news is I almost got taken out by a Chevy Silverado going 70 mph on Foothill and a Mercedes Benz going 5 mph on the backside of Mt. Eden.

This weekend's team ride starts in Portola Valley. Who knows where will we go since we're scheduled for 72 miles! I hope the wind calms down, the promised sunshine isn't too sunny, and my legs don't feel like Jello after my week of yoga, pilates, and riding!

A weekend break (with Giraffes, of course)

I missed our April 4th team ride because of a mini-vacation I had planned for Ken's birthday. I planned and booked the vacation before I joined the team, so no comments about how I'm not committed!

Instead of riding, we drove up to Santa Rosa and stayed at Safari West, a wild animal reserve that offers all sorts of tours, as well as realistic Safari tent accommodations. On Saturday we went on a behind the scenes tour where we got to pet the world's smallest antelope (a blue diker named Lily), feed live meal worms to a acrobatic blue-throated roller, pet a porcupine, hang out with a vulture, and feed a 20 foot tall giraffe. It was a fun-filled, but crazy day!



After our tour we went to JoLe in Calistoga for dinner, an organic "Farm to Table" restaurant which proved to be one of the best restaurants I've ever been to, and I've been to many! After dinner we drove to Santa Rosa where our friends surprised Ken for drinks, which was quite a feat in many senses. Our plans changed at the last minute, I'm a terrible liar, my phone was ringing off the hook but couldn't answer it or Ken would know something was up, and three of the friends who met us there had just run a 50 mile race. Insane!

The next day we went to brunch at the Calistoga Inn, where Ken's mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law met up with us. Another surprise! After brunch we went on a private wine and cheese safari at Safari West. We saw all sorts of animals and the weather was perfect. I think everyone had a fabulous time!



Sometimes it's okay to take a break from training - especially for special occassions! Although I didn't train that weekend, I made up for the the following weekend with a buddy ride - post to follow shortly!