The rain has gone...

thank goodness. I know we needed it, but I can't seem to handle more than one to two days in a row of it. It's still cold out there, but that I can handle. Except for yesterday when I asked the seven year old to run to the car to get something for me because I couldn't stand the thought of going outside again. I'm such a wimp.

After a few days off of the bike during the rain last week, I was thrilled to have gorgeous weather on Saturday during my century. The air was clear and crisp, the mountains in the distance were covered with snow and the views of the ocean from the top of the hills were amazing. I started at 4:20 a.m. and headed south on the coast, turning inland in Laguna Niguel and experiencing Pacific Island Drive, a fairly steep climb, for the first time. After a very close call with an inattentive, red light ignoring driver who then yelled at me, I made my way to Rock n Road Cyclery to meet up with the women on the Diva ride. I had been wanting to try this ride for some time, but didn't want to drive 30 miles to the start. I routed the Diva ride into my century plans and figured that I would meet up with them dependent on how I was doing with time. The ride was going through Santiago Canyon as an out and back and I let them know that I would just join them on the "out" and then be on my way toward home. The ladies were all very nice, I can see this as a group that has potential for growth, or I'm hoping it does. I would love to see more women's programs in this region, we could learn a lot from all of the offerings that they have up in the Bay area.

Santiago Canyon is always so nice in the mornings. Everytime I ride there I ask myself why I'm not out there more often. I am going to make a point of adding this into my routes more often. Afer the Diva ride regrouped at Dump Hill, they turned around and went back through the canyon and I continued on, heading toward the coast. I went up and over Newport Coast then headed north so I could get my mileage in before noon. I ended up with 99.6 miles and was home before noon.

Sunday morning it was raining when I woke up and instead of exposing myself to that, I decided to take my recovery in the form of more sleep instead of a recovery ride. Monday was another rainy day and Tuesday I was finally back out there again.

I was so excited, as seen in my previous posts, to have found different options on Newport Coast Drive to keep me from the boredom of actual hill repeats. Then came "the talk" from the coach. He explained to me the true value of hill repeats and how the short steep climbs I was having fun with were not putting me on a path to being ready for my events. So Tuesday, I went out with my power meter and had some purposeful training. It's hard to get bored when your eyes are glued to a computer and you're trying to maintain your power setting. I was able to get six repeats in for a total of 3100 feet of climbing in 22.4 miles. Today my legs are feeling it!



Tonight I have a team meeting for Velosport and then it's back to commuting to work on Thursday and Friday. The blue skies I'm staring at right now are a very welcomed sight!