Greetings!
What I am finding is that it is hard to make the time to “blog”
regularly, so I have given myself permission to not be so regular about it and
that is OK! My work continues to be so
busy that I really only have time to focus on Pacific Symphony, my
little doggie, Mia, and my bicycle, Sadie.
Training for the San Diego Century is going pretty well. We are on week 7 of our training and up to 52 miles with 3500 feet of
climbing on our long rides. We have conquered some big hills so far,
including Kodiak Mountain and Modjeska Grade (see below). It has taken some time for me to get back in
the groove of such serious training, but I think I am now there. I had to remember how to eat in the days
before the long rides, how to eat during the long rides, and how to eat after
each ride to maximize energy and recovery.
Lucky for me I like eating so much!
The folks on the TWOP team are really nice people. It almost doesn’t matter who you ride with,
there is some nice banter and support along the way. This is always helpful, especially during the
last 10 miles of each ride when you really just want to get off the bike and
eat a hamburger. I also like that this
group is more experienced and we have very little stupid riding in the
group. It is a much safer environment
(overall) and I really appreciate that.
Rather than give you a blow-by-blow of the last several
weeks, I will do some brief highlights (and one lowlight) for you instead:
Turtle Rock Tuesdays:
This is Kristen’s hill training clinic that we do on Tuesday evenings
that started out “easy” but is getting progressively more difficult with each passing
week. It is really hard to find the love
to ride a bike at 5:45pm after racing from the office (or a board meeting), but
once you get going it is awesome. We leave from Turtle Rock Park in Irvine and the
rides are about 20 miles and include all kinds of hills. I have loved these past 4 weeks with many
more to come. Kristen leads this group
for 5 more weeks and then Tony will lead a similar hill training clinic in
South County after that. I have a terrific colleague who has been covering for me at the start of our Tuesday night rehearsals. I come screaming in right before they start, all sweaty and gross and try to act like I haven't been doing anything as strenuous. It's awesome!
Bike Fit: Kristen was
kind enough to do a Sadie fitting for me a few weeks ago after I was
complaining of some pain in my knees and generally not feeling comfortable on
the longer rides. It was interesting to
see all the adjustments she made to the bike (higher seat, seat pushed back, lower handlebars). She also gave me several really good things
to think about with my form while riding.
It was like having a private lesson and I am so grateful for her time
and the information. I think it has made
a real difference. I am getting stronger
and maybe even a tiny bit faster.
Kodiak Mountain: A
few weeks ago when I arrived at the park for the Saturday ride, several teammates
were abuzz about the day’s route. We are
going up Kodiak Mountain!!! OMG, not
Kodiak Mountain! I am scared!!! Holy Sh*t, Kodiak Mountain!! I have to admit that I was a little nervous
since I hadn’t done this road before and when there is a “mountain” on the
route slip, it causes you to pause, plus everyone’s reactions were so over the
top, I was sure I was in for the hill of my life. We were heading into north Orange County
where I am not so familiar with the terrain and much of the route was new to
me. Lots of conversation was had along
the way about who was going to do the challenge and how hard it was going to
be. Even I got into the spirit of things
and threw around some empty threats, all the while wondering what I was in for. We re-grouped right before the challenge and
I was glad to see my beloved coaches, Kristen and Tony, waiting for me. Okay, just so you all know, Kodiak Mountain
is just a name for a very hilly street in a fancy subdivision in Yorba
Linda. No Mountain, no forest, no nature’s
beauty. Just steep hills going through a
really nice neighborhood filled with pretty homes. Once I figured that out I was laughing at
myself for the image I had conjured up in my head. It
was very steep and worth an 8 on my swear-o-meter, but not at all such the big deal
that everyone had made it out to be earlier that morning. It felt good to get to the top!
Modjeska Grade:
Yesterday’s challenge was to climb Modjeska Grade off of Santiago
Canyon. This hill is quite tough in my
opinion and comes after you have been slogging along on an uphill for many miles
before it in the Canyon. It is so pretty in this area—beautiful
scenery and once at the top the views are amazing! I was breathing very hard on my way up and
trying to get in my Zen place. I got to
the top near Tim, Tony, and Kim, all three very strong riders. I felt kind of proud for a moment—I had
reached the top of a hard hill with three men.
Cool! My pride didn’t last long,
though. They totally ditched me going
down the steep hill back to Santiago Canyon.
I just can’t go as fast downhill, even if I wanted to (and I don’t
really). I did eventually catch up to
them again and mostly stayed “with the boys” for several miles until I got my flat
tire (see below).
Flat Tire: Yesterday
I got a flat tire on the road while peddling up a hill (Glenwood). I heard a little “poof” and knew exactly what
had happened. I was near the top so stopped
where it was safe, on the corner. Fay
stopped with me and cheered me through the process (thank you, Fay!). I am not so experienced with this, having
only changed a handful of other tires before, BUT I do carry all the right
equipment and even a sheet of directions in case my brain goes dead in those moments. It was the dreaded rear tire that went flat
and I was impressed that we were able to get everything changed successfully,
up until the point of having to put the tire back onto Sadie. I hadn’t put the bike in the best gears (small
in back, big in front) before I took the tire off so as to make this as easy as
possible to put it back on. Luckily
Derek and Chip came along and took only a moment of time off their bikes
to pop the tire on for me. Cookies will
be baked. I cleaned everything up and
away we went for the last 15 miles of our ride.
The only real drag about this flat was that our legs felt like lead when
we started peddling. I think this is
lactic acid that gets built up if you stop moving so suddenly like that. I need to do more research about that and how
to avoid it (if possible).
Senorita Century:
This one isn’t actually a highlight—this is the lowest of lows. My friend Fay and I decided to ride the
Senorita Century back in mid-March to get some not-too-hard miles in. It seemed like a good idea at the time… Unfortunately Fay wasn’t feeling too well with
a bad cold, but she was determined to do the ride anyway (we paid quite a bit of
$ for this one) so we drove down super early on a Sunday morning to Del Mar, CA. We had to wait too long until they did the
official start to get going and this didn’t help our mood. It was a really dangerous start as they had
us all going through a skinny “tunnel” with astroturf on the ground under us,
but we got through that okay and were on our way. The route was a bit hilly to start and there
were a lot of inexperienced riders who didn’t know how to follow the traffic
laws so it seemed very scary for much of the way. Then they had this guy riding a bike while towing
a sound system on a little wagon behind him.
The music was loud (it was meant to inspire, but it simply annoyed) and
unfortunately our pace was similar to this guy’s and we couldn’t shake him for
the life of us! After about 20 miles we
were finally able to get ahead of him and things were going much better. Fay was feeling better and was, therefore, less
cranky, riders had spread out more so we weren’t in with the inexperienced
riders so much anymore, and the scenery was incredible. Unfortunately it was at this point that Fay crashed
into the guard rail as we were riding along the Pacific Coast Highway and thus
ended our ride. A runner was coming
toward us in the bike lane but unfortunately we were in with a crowd of riders
where there wasn’t much room to move and somehow Fay hit my rear tire and went
down. Amazingly no one else went down
with her. The whole thing is still a
blur to both of us and we have both re-run the play-by-play many times to see
if we could figure out exactly what went wrong (and how to prevent it again in
the future). It was the scariest thing I
have ever been a part of on a bicycle. Fay
was in a lot of pain but a helpful gentleman called the rescue vehicle to come
and we both rode in the van back to the start of the ride. She was bloody and in pain and a bit dazed
(we kept checking her eyes to see if she might have a concussion). I drove her van back to the OC and she has
been in some bit of pain ever since, wearing a wrist brace and spending copious
amounts of money to get everything fixed and replaced in terms of equipment and
clothing. Fay is a total trooper and was
back on her bike the next week and hasn’t really slowed down. I have a lot of admiration for her!
I think that gets us current. I am the luckiest girl on the planet to have so much fun riding! I hope you have something equally fun in your life!
Cheers!
