spring weather in January!!!

Saturday was our 75 mile ride. It starts at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz, goes up Highway 1, through Pescadero towards Half Moon Bay, and back up Highway 1 back to Santa Cruz. It's my favorite training ride because it's absolutely gorgeous throughout the entire ride and moderately challenging. I was expecting to freeze to death seeing that it was along the coast in January and I've frozen every ride I've been on this winter. Much to my delight, it ended up being clear sunny skies near 70 for the day! Picture perfect!!!

The ride itself was pretty awesome. We had a small ride group this week. Coach George, myself, and Janice and Diana. It was good company, good cycling and a lot of breath taking scenery. All in all pretty awesome!

Swanton road off Highway 1 just north of Davenport is what I remember being the challenge of the ride. It was a decent climb, but not bad. It was a lot of fun actually.

In Pescadero, Mike and Hilton were doing SAG at the rest stop. It was cool to see some old teammates. They were both in my ride group my first season.

Stage Hill Road in Pescadero I have climbed several times on several different rides. It's a good climb but I forgot about the second half of it. That's an even better climb. It was a good work out.

Coming back up Highway 1, my knee really started giving me grief around mile 60. Think I just overdid it. My body hasn't been reacclaimated towards these long rides at all. Also I went snowboarding the day before. I think by that point it was just tired. It's feeling a lot better though and I wasn't even sore the next day, so guess it's all good.

Time to actually be more viligent about the gym again I think. I really need to strengthen it and get it used to long rides again. I'm sure it will come with time though.

I'll see if I can gather of some pics of this ride, because it really is the most beautiful ride in the bay area!!

chamois butter!!!!

I coulda used some yesterday!

So, I went on my first long ride since my surgery. It was successful though my butt is quite sore. This was actually one of my team rides I had never been on. The route is called "tour of de montanas" which should of clued me in. It was 65 miles and included just about every major climb I can think of in this area. I do feel good that I finished it and that I finally did some of the benchmark climbs around here I have avoided.

First, let me say, winter cycling was not made for someone who is as cold as I am as often as I am. I don't know how cold it was yesterday morning, but it was dang cold. I started the ride wearing:

A skull cap under my helmet
winter gloves
a base layer
a cycling jersey
a heavy hooded sweatshirt
a windbreaker
cycling tights
cyling shorts
winter socks
and booties over my cycling shoes

That being said, I was still cold most of the ride!!!!

The route actually was really pretty. I'll have to do it again sometime in the spring. Though it is no where near the longest route I've ever ridden, I do think it was the most challenging ride I've done to date.

We started in the parking lot at Foothill College. After looping through campus, we headed toward Saratoga and through Steven's Canyon to Mount Eden. Mount Eden used to be a real challenge to me, but I can do it in my sleep after all the days of hill repeats up it. Another team was starting to climb the same time we were, so I sprinted up to see if I could keep up with them. I did, and made it to the top right in the middle of their team. WOOHOO! One hill down. And climbed in fashion passing much of the tough guy's team on the way up! Next came the awesome descent down the back side of Mount Eden over to Pierce Rd.

I've never climbed Pierce before. I've driven it, and it looks brutal, but just haven't made the effort to do it on a bike before. Given that I had just finished climbing Eden, I really wasn't sure how much I had left in me. I had to granny gear it to get started just because it starts on a really steep incline. Got past that, and it only got steeper... However, the whole climb, though incredibly steep was less than 2 miles, so I made it without too much of a problem. (Though my lungs did remind me at the top that they just barely fought off pneumonia). At that point, I did exactly what you're NOT supposed to do, and got off my bike, and layed down on the cement at the top of the hill in the sun while I waited for the rest of my team to make it up.

From there, we got to some easy fun roads. Down highway 9, through Los Gatos and down Foothill Expressway towards Stanford. Oh, and a nice rest stop right before Foothill. AWESOME! I love SAG!!! Hot apple cider never tasted so good! Anyhow, once we got up towards Stanford, we cut over towards Woodside and geared up for climb #3. The dreaded Edgewood Rd. I've heard stories... Now I know why. That was not only a fairly seriously steep grade, but it is long. In the middle, it starts to level out, and and makes you think you're done climbing. Don't be fooled! It gets steeper very quickly after that. I wanted to stop and get off my bike so bad, only I knew I'd never get going again if I did!!!

At the top of Edgewood (mile 40 in our 65) was another rest stop! Yeah for PB&J and cytomax!!! And SAG's comfy camp chairs I collapsed in!!! After a few hits of Janice's inhaler that I was in desparate need of after that Edgewood climb, it was down to Canada Rd. (BTW, my lungs still thank you Janice. Mental note to self- pack your inhaler before the next ride!!!)

Canada road is a great place to paceline, so that is exactly what we did. I talked to Coach George a bit in the back of the paceline about the rest of the ride for a few minutes. I was told we had one more climb at the end, but that it wasn't bad after Edgewood. (Then again, what is?)

We made our way down Mountain Home road, which is one of my favorite places to ride! Absolutely beautiful! From there is was the Portola Loop and up to the Arastradero Preserve. Then back towards Elena which was our last climb. I again, being tired and not used to being on my bike for this long asked what this climb was like. I was told I was strong enough and had experience enough to handle it... Hmmmm....

Elena was evil!!! It may not have been quite as long as Edgewood, but just about as steep and it was still long. Especially after already haven rode 60 + miles. After I made it back to the college parking lot, some support staff were there almost smirking asking how Elena was. All I could do to respond was say "LIES!"

All in all is was absolutely awesome though!!!! It was good to be able to ride that far after being off my bike so long and not having any real mileage on my legs since August. Also, to be able to do like 5 really tough climbs all back to back in one ride makes me feel really good like I actually accomplished something. Grrrr... What out LOTOJA here I come!

Now, to take care of my bum. My butt's not used to being in the saddle that long, even if my legs can handle it! :P