On the Road Again

New Blog!!!

2008-08-11T08:57:00.001-07:00

http://wheelsrolling.blogspot.com/

Come visit me over there. :)

Monday blues...

2008-04-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm still sick. After we watched George race at the Anthill crit, I crawled into bed with the worst sinus headache I have ever experienced and it hurt so badly, that I couldn't even sleep. I've had sinus infections in the past, but nothing trumps the way that I felt yesterday. Pain enough to make a grown woman cry. :( Today I broke down and started some antibiotics. I'm hoping I'm well enough to make my way through the Mulholland Challenge on Saturday.

Sushi

2008-04-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting at my desk thinking about how awesome it would be if I had some sushi right now. I went out to lunch yesterday with my co-worker Chris and our former co-worker Becky. We ate at Sushi Imari and I just can't get enough of that place. Becky and I discovered it a few months back and I was thrilled to walk in the door yesterday, greeted by shouts of "Happy Thursday!" As Chris and I were sitting there with our ginormous mugs of water, we noticed that as other people walked in, they were greeted by name. We're determined to visit often enough to not only be greeted by name, but get our polaroid picture on the wall.

Anyway, back to what I'm wishing for...sushi. Now. I have dinner plans with two friends and I'm not thrilled about the location, so I just text messaged them to see if I could sway them into sushi instead. Keep your fingers crossed.

Okay Sean, here you go...

2008-04-03T18:47:00.001-07:00

this blog entry is dedicated to Sean, who so kindly called me out in public in regard to my lackadaisical approach to blogging. Thanks mister. ;)

So...where do I begin? I'm sick and it sucks. The cold started just in time for San Dimas Stage Race and settled in nicely, making itself at home and in turn, making me sound like I was dying on the way up Glendora Mountain Road during the time trial last Friday. Saturday was worse and two laps into the road race I called it quits. I would have been more upset and bummed about it if I just couldn't hang because I wasn't fast or strong enough, but it was crappy timing and breathing is essential for racing. It was out of my hands so I decided to not sulk about it. I will admit that there were a couple of tears as I got to the car, but it was quickly followed by falling asleep curled up under a Teletubbies blanket until George called to tell me his race was starting and that it would be nice for me to be at the start.

Let's see...I'm still sick. Blah. I wanted to race the UCI Anthill crit this weekend because it's so close to home, but I still feel like poop. I may see how my ride goes on Saturday and just pay the late fee to register on site on Sunday. We'll see.

My crit bike is being built right now, but I'm being picky and refusing to ride it until I get the handlebars that I like. Hopefully in the next week or so. It was funny, I fell in love with the color scheme of the white Cannondale CAAD9 and told George "I always wanted a white bike!" In looking back in my old blog entries, I stumbled across a picture of my first road bike...which was...you guessed it. White. A white Trek 1000. I'm such a dumb ass sometimes! So I guess what I really meant was that I want a white bike that isn't an entry level aluminum...oh wait, that doesn't fit either since the CAAD9 is exactly that. Oh well...I tried to redeem myself for the dumb moment but it's not working. The new bike "Cady" has fatter tubes and I can't wait to ride her. ;) I'll leave you with that. :)

Today my panties were inside out...

2008-03-19T18:55:00.001-07:00

which is better than them being in a wad, I suppose. I figured it out when I got to work, but decided to embrace it rather than strip down out of my dress pants and flip the suckers around. Funny how I don't typically give much thought to my undergarments, but that today, all I could think of was how they were on the wrong way. I came thisclose to divulging the little secret to my co-worker Chris, but when I got to his cube he was on the phone and then I was distracted by his candy dish, so the secret remained safe. I should have told him, he would have appreciated it.

I've been struggling with which direction I should go with my cycling this year and I keep coming back to not feeling ready for, and truthfully, not having the desire to suffer through Mulholland and Heartbreak Double Centuries. I was hesitant to back out of them because I set these goals and really wanted to stick to it. I had no idea that I would jump into racing, that I would be so excited about it, and that the different training required for racing would throw a wrench in my well laid plans to climb, climb, climb this month. I needed to take a step back and look at it as revising my goals instead of looking at it as quitting. I emailed Planet Ultra this morning to see if I could switch my registration to the century versions that I did last year and I I immediately felt like a weight had been lifted. The Triple Crown will be there next year and many other years if I choose to chase after it again.

Since my first criterium earlier this month, I've been out at Eldo every week. El Dorado Twilight Series is a Tuesday night race that runs from March through August. When I started talking to people about racing, hands down this was the recommendation for gaining pack riding skills. I'm racing with the 40+ men and honestly didn't expect to be able to hang for the whole hour the first week out there. I surprised myself and finished strong with the pack. The following week had a bigger field with some faster laps and there were times I thought I was going to pop. We either slowed, or I recovered...perhaps both...but I managed to stay in again! Last night there was a crash in our field and caught behind it, I sat out a lap on the suggestion of a Major Motion racer, since the field took off. I felt good out there though and am learning a lot about pack riding.

This week I have a 60 miler planned on Friday since I get off work at noon, then I'll climb out at GMR on Saturday. The following weekend is San Dimas Stage Race!

Dash for Cash Criterium

2008-03-13T13:40:00.001-07:00

It looks as though I'm up to my old tricks again, and not blogging regularly. You would think that having raced my first criterium, that I would be eager to talk about it! Here's the scoop...

I did the Dash for Cash crit on Sunday March 2, 2008.

I'll preface it by saying I was SO nervous and anxious. We were there at 7:00 a.m. to watch the Cat V race and my race didn't start until 11:31.

Seeing this (Keith is a BF member) from the Cat IV race didn't help the nerves.

I was able to get a good 45 minute warmup in, along with a pep talk from my 7 year old daughter.

I was feeling pretty good and stayed mid or front pack most of the race. With less than 1.5 laps to go I'm feeling great and our race gets neutralized on the slight incline for the elite women to pass. The race promoter who was riding with us tells everyone to stop pedaling, but only half of the field listens so I go from 4th or 5th wheel to mid-back of the pack coming up on the turn. Totally confusing and I had no idea when he was going to tell us to go again, but by that time there were women ready to take off when he called it at the line with one lap to go. Pretty strung out after the first corner but I managed to latch on to the back of the lead group, definitely lost steam on the incline before the last turn though. There were some STRONG women out there!

Official results...18th out of 30.

Anyway...I didn't get dropped! I never felt like I was going to get dropped! Two good things.

I definitely learned a lot today...mainly...
I need more intensity work!
I need to get some better group riding skills so I'm more confident staying on a wheel...spent way too much time in the wind on the outside.

Avg speed w/o cool down lap: 22.29 mph
Max speed: 30.42

After initially being disappointed, I got over myself and remembered that I didn't plan to start racing until June when all of my ultra-distance events for the season were done and I could train specifically for intensity. I made a last minute decision last week to register for this race because I wanted to get at least one crit under my belt before San Dimas at the end of March. So...not too bad and I think that with some work, I could do better.

Ride-Strong's Colnago Giveaway!

2008-02-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

COWABUNGA! Win a brand new Colnago Carbon Bike!
The chance to win a brand new
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Visit the Ride-Strong site for entry details!

http://www.ride-strong.com/cowabunga-win-a-brand-new-colnago-carbon-bike/

Lukas from Switzerland visits...

2008-02-22T14:26:00.000-08:00

and I have to say, if you ever get a chance to host someone from Switzerland, do it. They bring chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Not your run of the mill chocolate...good chocolate. In fact, I think that the quality of chocolate that Lukas brought as a gift to me will help me lose weight. How so? For once, I'm not scouring the office for dark chocolate Hershey's because frankly...I'm too good for that now. I'm hooked on the good stuff and I'm going to hoard it and make it last.

Enough about the chocolate...Lukas is in California visiting from Switzerland and stayed with us for just one night before leaving this morning to see the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. I wish that he could have stayed longer, I really enjoyed his company. Lukas races mountain bikes back home and uses the road bike for training. While in Northern California, he raced in his first two criteriums and placed well. Maybe he'll come over to the dark (lycra) side. ;)

Lukas told us that we could come visit him...and bring the kids along too. Ha. Poor thing wouldn't know what hit him if we made our way over there with all of the wee ones. Who knows...maybe someday.

In the meantime...if anyone needs a place to stay, hit me up. I rent rooms for the price of good chocolate. ;)

Getting anxious...

2008-02-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

so I'm getting anxious and really want to get out there and race. I know that there are things that I need to work on before I have any business getting started, but I have to say that being at crits watching George race the last two weekends has me itching to throw myself into it like he has.

Sunday morning we were up early for the Anger Management Crit in Long Beach. George had just raced the Butterfield Double the day before, as I did...but he's crazy enough to get out there and race a crit as a recovery ride. I love watching these races and this course was great because you could see the entire course from the start/finish line. I was honestly shocked every lap as George stayed in the front of the pack. I had told him not be disappointed if he didn't do as well this week because hey...he had 460 miles on his legs this week between commuting and the double century! There he was though...up front the whole time! He managed a 12th place finish, which is awesome! I only hope I can do half as well as he's started out with his racing. :)

Check out his blog for his race reports...

Anger Management

Butterfield Double

Tour of California

2008-02-20T11:23:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Amgen for the Live Coverage! If I can't see it live and in person, this is definitely the next best thing.

I have just one comment...the field slowed for a "natural break" 55 minutes into the stage. I no longer feel bad about my tiny bladder and having to stop for my own "natural breaks"...I usually last longer than 55 minutes though. ;)

Butterfield Double 2008

2008-02-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I finally felt some excitement about Butterfield Double less than 24 hours before I was set to start. Friday night after work, we grabbed some dinner at Knolwood while we waited for the check in to open at 7:30. After saying hello to some friends while we waited in line, we signed our waivers, picked up our route sheets and numbers and headed home. It's nice to be 15 miles from the start of a double century and be able to sleep in your own bed the night before! We had to do some last minute bike prep and then we were off to bed, but not before George hands me some Nathan Reflex wrist/ankle bands and tells me he wants to be visible when I'm signaling. :)

4:00 a.m. and the alarm is going off. I think I stretched it to 4:30, but then it was out of bed and a quick shower to wake up, and on with the Sho-Air kit that I had laid out the night before. In the truck on the way to the start, I drank a bottle of Sportquest Carbo Pro mixed with Interphase since I didn't feel like eating anything solid at that time. We arrived at the start and I didn't want to get out of the truck. I was being a wimp about the cold. Funny since I spent most of January training in the dark and cold, but at those times I was wearing wool. No luxury of that today. On a double I try to minimize my clothing since I'll be out on the road for so long and the temps will change so much throughout the day. I'd rather suffer a little bit with cold in the beginning and end in exchange for not being overheated during the majority of the day. I wore a sleeveless wool base layer, my Sho-Air jersey, Assos shorts (though I love and typically train in bibs, I won't wear them on long distance events because the time wasted fully undressing to pee is ridiculous) wool arm and knee warmers and my Velom jacket.

We didn't have much time at the start to get situated, but made our way over to the front of the hotel to hear the safety speech before we were launched out. I stuck with George who was feeding me tips about riding in a pack and we had set off at a pretty good clip, staying near the front of the pack. I thought that the pace would break the group up rather quickly, but it seemed that the abundance of stoplights would keep most of the group together for the time being. Knowing what was coming up, I was sure that the rollers on Jamboree and the climb up San Joaquin Hills would start some separation...including me! I said goodbye to George at this time, knowing that I wouldn't see him until I finished. We dropped down Newport Coast Drive and turned south on Pacific Coast Highway before turning inland, then climbing and dropping down to PCH once again. Headed south toward Dana Point I enjoyed talking to several people, including a tandem that had done Furnace Creek 508. The descent into the mini-stop was steep, and I was happy to be greeted by Jon, a friend from Bike Forums. :) I topped off my bottle, which I'm not proud to say, was only 1/3 gone. Very poor hydrating and fueling on my part and definitely not enough for 39 miles into the ride. I find that when it's not warm I don't pay attention to my hydration.

I left the mini-stop quickly and rode behind a man in a Surf City Cyclery kit. He was pulling at a great pace until we hit the bike lane inside the concrete barrier on PCH in Dana Point and a group in front of us slowed us down significantly. After exiting that area we were in a pretty tight pack and I hit a large rock that wasn't called out, luckily with no consequences. I was glad when we reached Avenida Pico and the group continued on the coast through San Clemente instead of turning (as the route slip indicated) and following the bike route signs through the residential area. Deb had announced that was fine to do and since the route sheet didn't have any street names and simply "Follow Bike Route Signs" I didn't want to chance a wrong turn. While on this section I recognized the rider next to me, it was one of George's friends Chris. We talked for awhile and as we turned from Cristianitos onto the bike trail, the group thinned out to make the turn safely onto the path, I found myself in the back. I arrived at the San Onofre checkpoint (mile 54.7) alone, said hello to Rick from Bike Forums, loaded up with some Sustained Energy provided by Planet Ultra and hit the bathroom before it was back on the bike.

I rode alone for the next section, though I could at times, see riders ahead of me. As I turned onto the I-5 freeway I could see another woman, who I eventually passed and then she ended up passing me. I caught up to her as we exited the freeway and made our way toward the bike path in Oceanside. After riding on the bike path with another man for a little bit, the woman (who I later learned was named Joni) came around and took the lead. She led our train, which picked up a couple of riders along the way, all the way to the lunch stop. I heard her say at one point that she didn't...or couldn't ride behind people, and I didn't feel like I had the energy at that point to go around her and take off, so I was content to sit back and get some recovery. Thank you Joni!

At the lunch stop (mile 87.7) I said hello to Phil and Jon, posed for a photo, grabbed a Subway sandwich and stuffed it under my jersey, topped off with some more Sustained Energy and was gone in probably five minutes. I had a strategy for this section since I knew that there was an immediate climb after lunch. It's no fun to climb on a full stomach, so I planned to grab the sandwich and roll, eating it later if I felt hungry for solid food. I was in fact hungry when I got to the lunch stop...thanks I'm sure, in part to my poor fueling and hydration, but I knew that I would benefit from sticking to the plan of climbing on an empty stomach. The Circle R climb was much less painful this year and after climbing that and Reche, I took the opportunity to eat on the Green Canyon Road descent. George's early words of advice rang in my head. "Take the food and go. Eating on the bike at 13 mph is better than stopping for 30 minutes and then hammering on a full stomach trying to make up for lost time." Even better...I found myself eating my Subway sandwich while coasting at 21 mph down Green Canyon Road!

I hadn't seen anyone else since Green Canyon when Ron on his recumbent made the left turn before me. As I was approaching the turn onto North River Road, a guy in a Sho-Air kit blew past me. At that point I had been alone for so long that I was actually wishing that someone...or better yet, a pack, would catch me. I knew that I was approaching the bike path and the winds can be strong, a hard haul if you're alone and I wasn't looking forward to the next section. My wish would be granted at the next turn. When I looked back to make sure it was clear for me to get over into the left turn lane, up comes a pack. With a tandem! Wooo! It was the tandem from earlier in the day, along with Isabelle Drake, Chris and another guy. I told them I was just wishing for this situation and thank goodness they arrived. :) The tandem pulled us on the bike path until I heard a sound you never want to hear...Chris, who had been at the end of the line, had gone down. I stopped, turned around and went back to make sure that he was okay. He told me that I didn't need to stop, but I would hope that someone would stop for me in a similar situation, so I just did what felt right. Despite being bloodied, he was back on his bike and riding in no time. Actually, they temporarily dropped me and then slowed so I could reattach. There was another mini-stop (mile 121.1) up ahead, and I was happy to see Jon yet again! I topped off my bottle and added some Sportquest CarboPro 1200 that I had in a flask. I prefer this over the Sustained Energy that Planet Ultra provides, but I supplemented with the SE because it was free (or rather, part of my registration fee) and I only had enough room to carry two flasks of CarboPro. A group took off out of the stop and while I waited until it was clear to cross the road, I realized that once again, I'd be alone. I figured the tandem, who were sticking around to eat a sandwich, would catch me quickly, but alas...I was destined to ride the section through Oceanside, the I-5 and San Onofre until the checkpoint (mile 135.8), alone.

The tandem pulled into the San O checkpoint shortly after I did, so I stuck around the stop until they left. We had a small group as we went through San Clemente and turned inland from the coast. We stayed together until the Antonio parkway climb and I had great legs, so I went ahead of the group a bit, but wasn't putting a ton of effort into the climb because I didn't want to lose the tandem. At some point we got separated and I ended up riding with Ken, who was out there on a fixed gear. We chatted about some of George's fixed gear rides and we came upon Ron on his recumbent again. The three of us came into the last checkpoint (mile 167.5) in Trabuco Canyon together, followed shortly by the tandem and a few others. At this stop I saw one of my favorite people...Lee from Bike Forums, who was volunteering. I stayed at this stop for a few minutes, long enough to fill my bottle (which I then left behind...ugh), eat two mini Butterfingers and 1/4 of a poppyseed muffin and throw on my Velom jacket.

Chris, Ron and I left the last checkpoint together, but we spread out on the rolling terrain through Trabuco Canyon. My goal was to get through this area in the daylight. I don't like this narrow, twisty road with no shoulder and blind corners. It's known for people speeding and numerous accidents. Needless to say, I didn't want to get caught in the dark. Thankfully, I was able to accomplish my goal and turned onto Santiago Canyon Road while it was still light. On one of the descents Chris blew past me as I was soft pedaling and I could only see his tail light up ahead for the rest of the Santiago Canyon section. I reached Dump Hill and knew I was so close the the finish. I felt amazing! As I approached the turn onto Jamboree, I noticed another rider in the left turn lane. It was Isabelle Drake, who by the way...beat my time by 11 minutes on Butterfield last year! She told me that I would be faster to the end than she would, but I said that we should go in together. It was nice chatting with her and we stuck together. Like another rider said in his report...seeing the Sand Canyon street sign was so sweet and beautiful. Just 2.5 miles to the finish...I could taste it!

Isabelle and I reached the hotel, parked our bikes outside and ran in to find out that we had a time of 12:18! Deb told us that only one woman came in ahead of us, a Cat 2 racer for Webcor. I felt so great about my finish! I felt very strong most of the day and really felt like I rode smart. When the results were posted, I realized that Isabelle and I can claim an 8th place finish overall. Can't complain about that!!! :)

I have to say thanks to George for believing in me, even when I have doubts. Following his advice and coaching really helped me ride hard and ride smart. He also took great care of me post-ride, handing me a bottle of Endurox and my Recovery pills, then finding solid food for me to scarf down. He did a great job out there at Butterfield...10:46 for a third place finish!

Thanks to the tandem, Roger and Deanna for pulling and for good conversation. I really enjoyed riding with the two of you. :)

Thanks to the volunteers...without you, this wouldn't have been possible. :)

Next up: ???? Oh, who knows. I'm giving this racing thing a shot, so stay tuned!

Butterfield Double Eve

2008-02-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to announce that at 11:15 a.m. on Butterfield Double Eve, I finally got excited about this event. I don't know why, but I've been lacking motivation to get this ultra-distance season started. Maybe it's because there is a big gap between my events and the next one isn't until April 5th. Maybe it's because it's 200 miles and it's a long day in the saddle. Who knows exactly why, but the excitement has arrived and I'm eager to test out my fitness, since my last double was back in June.

In other news, I've spent the last day arguing...okay, discussing...cars vs. cyclists here in Orange County. Yesterday's article What Word in 'Bike Lane' Don't Drivers Understand by David Whiting, prompted many comments from those who think we shouldn't be out there on the road. From saying that we should be mowed down, to poking fun at our silly spandex, to calling us Lance Wanna-be's, the attitude of the commenters was mostly disheartening. I admit that there are road cyclists who do not obey traffic laws, ride dangerously and probably even encourage some of the hostility from motorists. Unfortunately, those who don't act responsibly and courteously are painting a picture that leaves many motorists angry and impatient with all of us...even those who acknowledge patient drivers and ride safely and responsibly. We have a long way to go in getting the "Share the Road" message to sink in here in Orange County.

On the racing front, I'm now officially holding a USCF license and I've registered for my first race! I thought I'd jump right in and go for the sampler platter. San Dimas Stage Race offers a time trial, road race and a criterium. Three days of racing fun. In an effort to prepare, I am going to start riding the El Dorado Twilight Series in March.

That's all for now. After work we're headed to the check-in for Butterfield, then it's home to prep bikes and gear for an early morning tomorrow. We roll at 6:15 a.m. and I'll post an update sometime this weekend!

Ride safely and do me a favor this weekend. Please take the time to acknowledge those motorists that are making an effort to keep you safe while you're riding. The one that slows down and waits instead of turning in front of you, the one that slows down until they can pass you safely, etc. We all encounter the ones that keep us safe, but often tend to remember only the ones that don't. Yes, they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do, but so many motorists do not make that effort and your acknowledgement may be exactly what they need to reinforce that they're doing the right thing.

I suck...

2008-02-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

How did I let two weeks go by without blogging? Oh wait, I'm boring and have no life. Or I've been riding my bike a lot. Maybe that's it. :)

I ended January with 680 miles for the month. Not bad for early in the season, especially with how freaking cold it has been and the fact that we had rain, rain, rain in January.

I've felt very consistent and dedicated in my training so far this year. I did miss my ride on Saturday. I wanted to get one final century in before Butterfield this weekend, but I came home from a co-worker's going away happy hour puking, so that ride was bagged. Unfortunately it wasn't even the fun alcohol induced kind of puking. I was being good and not drinking since I was riding in the morning, but I must have eaten something funky. Oh well.

As I mentioned, Butterfield Double is this weekend. I'm keeping my rides this week on the easy side to save my legs for Saturday. Right now I'm enjoying my training more than the thought of the actual events. Hopefully that will change as the season progresses. I've also been exploring the possibility of racing this season. Yes. Racing. We'll see how it goes. I'm committed to the ultra events on my schedule, but fortunately there are plenty of mid-late season crits, time trials and road races that I can get my feet wet with. It will be a big change with my training, I need to add intensity/speed/sprinting work and more importantly, I need to start riding with a group. I watched the women's 3/4 race at Roger Millikan Crit on Saturday (George was there racing in Cat 5...I know...what the heck, we're changing things up this year) and really felt a strong desire to be out there. Right now I just need to sign up for a race and make the commitment. Yikes.

Speaking of the crit in Brea on Sunday, this was George's first crit this year. He had done one a couple of years ago and wanted to see how he could do out there. 11th place in the Cat 5 race out of a field of 50. Very cool considering like me, his training is geared toward long distance and climbing events. :) You can check out his race report on his blog. Here's a post race pic with Jesse from Team Bearclaw who took 2nd in the Cat 5 race.

The rain has gone...

2008-01-30T08:22:00.000-08:00

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!

Blah.

2008-01-23T19:57:00.000-08:00

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. I've bagged training for the week. I had a good day of hill repeats (38 miles and 3400 ft of climbing) on Tuesday and I'm committing to a century (in my head, at least) on Saturday morning, rain or shine. I don't want to drain my motivation by riding in this rain before then.

George FINALLY posted his 300K Brevet report on his blog. It's about time. Just kidding...he hasn't taken a day off the bike since Saturday, so I should stop giving him crap. ;) Both of our bodies could do from a day or two off the bike and we treated ourselves to some comfort food tonight. If you're not training, you might as well eat meatloaf, mashed potatoes, french onion soup and enough bread feed a small army. Right?

It Never Rains in Southern California...

2008-01-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Yeah, well Albert Hammond, Barry Manilow and Tony! Toni! Tone! lie. Lies. All lies.

When I checked last week I saw that rain would be hitting us on Monday and Tuesday. Monday I wouldn't ride because it's Martin Luther King Day and the kids are off of school. Tuesday there would be rain, but that's fine, I would ride in it anyway. No big deal.

This morning I see that the forecast has shifted and we'll have rain tonight and tomorrow, clouds on Wednesday and then rain Thursday through Sunday. SUNDAY! I really don't mind riding in the rain, in fact, I enjoy it. The thing that this messes up is my commuting because showing up looking like a drowned rat just doesn't fit in well with our company look. I suppose I could drive in and then ride at night those two nights. I guess I'll just wait and see how many times the forecast changes in the next few days.

101 Miles, 3 Bottles, 1 Pop Tart

2008-01-19T12:34:00.001-08:00

I had a pretty mellow week. After my great ride on Tuesday I was a little sore and wanted to rest for the weekend, because I planned on doing a 90 mile ride. My commute on Thursday in to work was only 9 miles and the same 9 miles after work.

Friday night we spent the night down in San Diego because George was doing the San Diego Brevet Series 300k the next morning. Like I had two weekends before, I stranded myself far from home and vowed to start in the wee hours of the frigid morning and make it home before noon, when the kids were coming home.

The alarm went off around 4:08 and I slowly got myself out of bed and started getting ready. Food didn't sound appetizing at that point, so I made myself a bottle of Interphase mixed with CarboPro and called it breakfast. George helped me get ready to roll, ushered me out the door at 4:42 a.m. and I was off. I realized within the first mile that I had left my flask of CarboPro 1200 behind in the room and there went my plans for not having to stop and buy anything. Rather than turn around, I decided I'd just stop off buy something when my bottles were empty, which is easy when you're riding on the coast.

I was a little nervous in the beginning section since I had never been on this stretch, it was dark and I was alone. I had 11.3 miles to get to Doyle Park, an area I was familiar with and from there it would be a route I knew. The first two hours that I was on the bike, my feet and legs were so cold that I felt like I could hardly turn the pedals. I was remembering back to doing this route two weeks before in the rain, and thinking to myself, that I'd take rain over the cold anyday. At least on that day I was rolling at a faster pace!

By the time I made it to San Onofre it was beginning to warm up a bit and I started to see some other cyclists on the road. I was also through both of my bottles and kicking myself for leaving that flask behind. I was really enjoying the CarboPro that was in my bottles and knew that my only alternative when I hit 7-11 in San Clemente would be something like Gatorade. On the stretch before 7-11 I was getting really warm in my wool baselayer and jersey so when I pulled in, I ditched the base layer and shoved it in a pocket. I went into the store, bought some dreaded Gatorade and a Pop-Tart for some quick energy, since I had been running on very few calories since leaving San Diego. I only managed to eat one of the two in the package, filled my bottles and I was off again.

After going through the State Park in Dana Point I was waiting for the left turn light to change and two cyclists came up behind me. We ended up talking and keeping a good pace on the rollers through Laguna when one had to break off. The other was trying to get some mileage in, so he continued north to Huntington Beach with me. I said goodbye when I turned off at Brookhurst, fully intending to head home and call it a day at my planned 91 miles. I looked at my watch and noticed that I had at least a full hour before the kids were supposed to be home, so I took it easy for another 10 miles so I could get a century in.

All said and done, 6 hours 58 minutes, 101 miles, 3 bottles and 1 Pop Tart.

List of the Day

2008-01-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

It would be more than a crime to keep this treasure trove of a blog to myself, so I give to you...

List of the Day

I was first lured to this blog last week by the Olan Mills photo post, which I promptly sent to select co-workers so they could enjoy as well. After that I couldn't stop clicking on the archives...post after post of list after list that reaffirm that the internet is the best thing ever.

Enjoy!

Monday and Tuesday training...

2008-01-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

Breathing a sigh of relief after getting into Breathless Agony on Monday morning, I set out for a short ride to test the angry achilles. It's mood had improved over the weekend with some TLC (ice, rest and elevation) but I didn't want to push it too much, so I opted for a flat route. It was absolutely gorgeous outside yesterday. I wore a short sleeved jersey and shorts and enjoyed the warmth as I rode north on the coast. To my delight, the achilles behaved and I had trouble maintaining my easy pace. The day was just calling for a strong ride!

24.5 miles
98 ft of elevation gain (told you it was flat)

Since the flat route was successful and the achilles doth not protest, I decided to head for the hills today. I rode south on the coast and instead of going all the way to the base of Newport Coast, I turned early and got the San Joaquin Hills climb in first, descended Newport Coast, dropped my chain at the base while in the left turn lane. Woo! I'm a big dork! I made the u-turn, stopped to put Kanye West's Stronger on repeat and off I went...to make my personal best time on Newport Coast Drive!

I'd like to thank the academy, my family, my friends, my three legged cat, my four legged cat, my old dog, the random chain dropping which allowed my heart rate to fully recover and most importantly, Kanye West for making me harder, better, faster, STRONGER!

After making it up Newport Coast and leaving an excited message for George about my time, I turned up Vista Ridge, descended, climbed Ridge Park, descended to the Bonita side of Newport Coast and climbed that too. I felt phenomenal the entire day and again, had difficulty maintaining a base miles pace. Oops. On the descent down San Joaquin I turned up spyglass and added a little extra bit of climbing for good measure since I was making good time.

38.2 miles
2,660 ft of elevation gain
one scolding from the coach for not doing base building miles today. oops.

Waiting...waiting...waiting...

2008-01-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

I'm a wee bit anxious this morning. It's January 14th and in 29 minutes, registration for Breathless Agony opens up. Breathless Agony is the second event in the King of the Mountains series and the only event of the series which is not hosted by Planet Ultra. This event sold out in less than a week last year and rumor has it that it will sell out even sooner this year. I'm actually curious to see how quickly the 450 highly sought after spots will go, but AFTER I get our registrations in, of course. ;)

8:17 a.m. UPDATE:

George and I both got in. I'm sure I was fretting for nothing, but this series has become so popular that we didn't want to take any chances. Can't wait for May 3rd!

Angry Achilles

2008-01-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's official. I've gone and pissed off my left achilles tendon. :( Sloppy, lazy changing of saddles (too high) is to blame and it's all my fault. I grabbed a ride home from a co-worker last night (THANK YOU BECKY!!!) instead of chancing it and bagged my ride today. I'm icing and hoping it's better by Monday so I can train.

On the upside, I got to sleep in today and my body and mind are thanking me. I'm feeling somewhat human today and managed to do the dishes, the laundry and wash my car with the help of George, his son and my youngest, M. :)

Yaaaaaaawn...

2008-01-11T15:12:00.000-08:00

I'm so sleepy. The last few days have been a big blur of work, ride, eat, sleep, ride, work, eat, ride, sleep, eat, ride, work...you get the picture.

Wednesday night after work I rode south on the coast to meet George and got 27 miles in. Thursday morning I commuted into work, though I shortened my 20 mile route down to 13 because I hit snooze four too many times. I was exhausted yesterday, but decided to ride south on PCH before heading north again, so ended up with 34+ miles last night. Woke up this morning and thought about shortening the route to work...really it's only 8 miles but I add Newport Coast in and that makes it 20. Somewhere in my exhausted mind, I found the determination...or stupidity, your choice, to commit to the 20 miles. Yawn. I'm still at work and in 1:43 I'll be changing over for the commute home. I think I'll take the short route. I swapped saddles on the fixed gear for my commute yesterday and something was off. As a result my left achilles is screaming at me. :( Ice and rest for a few days.

I've been told that I'll be proud of my determination and that it will pay off. Right now I'm just sleepy.

Hill Play...

2008-01-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

I love hill repeats. Stick me on a hill and I'll climb and descend it twenty times. There's nothing I'd rather do! Kidding. Hill repeats bore me to tears and I dread them. It's not the climbing I don't care for...it's the monotony. That said, I think I've found a way to play on the local hills without being bored out of my gourd.

I headed south on the coast again and climbed Newport Coast Drive. After a short recovery I went up Vista Ridge, descended it and then up Ridge Park...the almost 9% average climb. I was good on time so I descended the other side of Newport Coast and climbed that. There are several options for climbing off of Newport Coast and I think I can get some decent climbing in close to home without going crazy with repeats. I didn't realize it at the time, but I could have added another 400+ ft of gain by descending another road and then climbing it...just wasn't sure how I was on time. I ended up overshooting my turn off of the coast (purposely) to add some miles and had time to do a couple more, but my stomach was growling and I wanted to scarf something down before picking up M.

Good ride today, I felt great. It's a constant battle to remind myself that I'm doing base miles and not push myself. So hard!

I think I'll get in at least 20 miles after work tomorrow. George is commuting from Encinitas up to HB, so I'll come home and change and then head down the coast to meet him. I'm commuting Thursday and Friday too...so more miles there. I think I'll be on the fixed gear the rest of the week since it's the bike with the Nite Rider Moab lights all set up.

Oh...and I know that some people don't like that some of us listen to iPods on our rides, but I can get into riding so much more if I have some tunes. Well that and I don't have to listen to my brain which never seems to shut up and drives me crazy on rides...lol. ;) Anyway...I would like to thank Paul Oakenfold for the Perfecto Presents album , Dr. Dre for the 2001 album and Jill Scott for her latest release Real Thing Sounds and Words Vol. 3 for keeping me company on my ride today.

I almost always climb with Dr. Dre. It makes me smile and laugh. :p I mean, how can you not be entertained with lyrics like...

When I had you last night, baby
Before - I blew yo' mind, (blew-blew-blew your mind)
I thought we had a chance, lady
No more - now that I'm sober you ain't that fine
Hmmm-hmmmhmmmm...

Monday Training...

2008-01-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

Despite the rain in the forecast, I planned to get my Monday training ride in. I have about three hours on Mondays and Tuesdays to ride while my youngest is in school and despite the temptation to sit in a quiet and warm house, I planned to ride. Thankfully when I woke up this morning the rain seemed to have cleared and the sun was peeking through. It still seemed cold outside and I had to make my "please tell me to get my ass on the bike because it's cold out there" call to George. Being the great coach that he is, he didn't disappoint and told me to get my ass on the bike. I threw on the Descente Cold Out bib knickers, a Woolistic base layer and a wool jersey and I took off.

I rode down Pacific Coast Highway to Newport Coast where I made a left turn and headed slowly up the hill. I wasn't in any hurry, just getting my base miles in. I am still feeling the effects of being sick for a month and was coughing and spitting a bit more than I'd care to normally. I made it to the top in a time not worth bragging about, though speed isn't my objective at this point in the season so no worries. After recovering for a minute on the short downhill I decided to make a right turn on Ridge Park. The 8.9% grade for just over a mile was made worth it by the amazing view from the top. The skies were clear and you could see the snow covered mountains, it was just gorgeous. I stopped at the top for a minute to take in the view and put on my Descente Velom jacket for the descent and I was off.

I descended Ridge Park, then San Joaquin Hills and headed for Back Bay. Shortly after a short, steep descent into Back Bay I heard hissing. No...is that really what I think it is? Damn. A flat. :( I pulled off to the side of the path and found a nice shard of glass imbedded in my tire. I removed it, checked the tire again, changed the tube and inflated...Hiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssssss! Damn! One tube and one CO2 left and I tried once again and it worked. I don't know what happened the first time around because on my second pass I found nothing in the tire. Oh well...it happens. At this point I was going to be running short on time to get back to pick M up from school so I called George while still in Back Bay to ask him what the mileage was from Jamboree to home. He said he thought it was around 7 miles so I figured I had at least 8-10 to get home from where I was.

I had a killer crosswind on PCH and then a headwind on the home stretch. Figures! I made it home with time to spare though and managed to get 32 miles and about 1500 ft of climbing in. Not bad and much better than the Spinning class I endured yesterday when I decided it was too dark and cold to ride before the kids woke up!

Stormwatch 2008

2008-01-06T11:41:00.000-08:00

As is typical here in Southern California when we get a little rain, we're on "Stormwatch"...which basically means...it's raining. ;) Ahhh...we're so fortunate here to have nice weather 90% of the time!

So, I was supposed to do the San Diego Brevet series 200K Brevet on Saturday but decided to opt out so that I didn't have to use precious childcare time. George was going to do the brevet anyway, and my plan was to drive down to La Jolla with him and ride back up to Huntington Beach. It would still give me some good mileage for the day and would get me back before the kids would be home.

Being one who doesn't check the weather often, I was caught off guard when the "Stormwatch" talk started at work. I checked it myself and sure enough...looked like rain all weekend. I confirmed that George was still planning to do the brevet...in retrospect I shouldn't even have questioned it! I decided that if left to my own devices at home, I would probably skip training on Saturday if it was raining, so I went ahead with my plan to drive down to La Jolla and ride home. Training by force!

It was raining the entire drive down from Orange County. We arrived at Doyle Community Park in La Jolla around 6:40 a.m. and started getting ready. Actually, I had to go to the bathroom so I ran across the park and when I came back my bike was out of the trunk and ready to go. Thank you honey! Some last minute prep and a quick goodbye to George and he was off on the 200K. I rolled out a couple of minutes later with Claire, a Bike Forums member who was visiting from France. We rode together for just a bit until I had to go off in the other direction.

The first part of my ride was great. Once you're wet that's it...you can't get much wetter. I was actually enjoying the rain, even when the hard drops were pelting my face. I made it to Encinitas and stopped by Nytro to say hello to Walt, then was quickly on my way again. I debated whether or not to take the 5 freeway, or to go through Camp Pendelton, and ultimately went with the 5. People are always surprised that I choose to ride this, particularly when I'm alone, but they don't realize what a wide shoulder there is. I honestly feel less nervous on that stretch of the 5 than I do on many sections of Pacific Coast Highway. At the rest stop on the 5 (where bicycles are required to exit and then re-enter the freeway) I stopped to use the restroom and realized that though sections of my wool jersey and base layer were wet, I was really warm. My Descente gloves were soaked (had to wring them out) but my hands were warm. Go figure. Back on the road!

The next section was San Onofre, which takes you through the campground. After a short downpour it stopped raining and all of a sudden, I was freezing. This was also the point where I saw the first cyclists of the day...very unusual for the coast! By the time that I reached San Clemente my legs were aching and cold and I could barely muster 11 mph at one point. I managed to pick up some speed but was still slightly sluggish until I reached Laguna. I realized at that time that I had done almost the whole ride on just two bottles of Accelerade and that's it. I wasn't fueling properly, when it's that cold, I just forget to drink. I downed a gel and felt better within minutes and was able to finish the ride. I arrived home in decent time, ready to get out of my wet clothes and into a hot shower. Good training day!

80 miles
5 hours 20 minutes total time

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

I am going to start off by making a new year's resolution to blog more. Kidding. That would only get ugly and never happen, so I'm making no promises.

I started off the year with donuts and coffee with my boys while we watched the famed Orange County New Year's Day ride pass through Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. I was able to snap a few pictures as the peloton moved down PCH.

At 10:00 a.m. I dropped the boys off at Grandma's (thank you, thank you!) and backtracked on the course from the coast to see if I could meet up with George. I got a text from him saying that they were leaving the 7-Eleven on Trabuco and Lake Forest and at that point I was on Irvine Blvd. so I knew that I would see them soon. Just as I had crossed an intersection I saw them in the distance coming my way. I quickly turned around and crossed the street pedaling in the direction that the pack was going. There was no need to look back at all...I knew that they would catch me! :P Thankfully just as they were catching me we had to stop at a red light. I talked to a guy for a minute before hearing George call my name from the middle of the pack. First thought. Holy S***! Second thought. Hmmm...this could be fun. Third thought. I can see now why people race! There's no way I could hang with these guys for the whole ride, but it was fun for the short section I was able to hang on. Maybe next year. ;)

You can read George's recap of the ride here...much more interesting than mine, since I only did a small portion!

Oh...and I have to show off the new Velosport (now Team Sho-Air) team kits for this year. I was thrilled when we picked them up last week. Love the colors!

Wikipedia

2007-10-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

How can you not love Wikipedia? It seems that no matter what I'm Googling, there's always a Wikipedia result on the first page of results. That in itself means the information is accurate. Right?

I don't know, it's just funny to me that I will actually scroll halfway down the Google results and choose Wikipedia over the other, probably more valid sources. I'm hooked, which means you should never rely on what I say.

It's Thursday...

2007-10-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

and we're only one episode from being caught up on The Office. I think it's impossible to watch this show and then not be compelled to quote random lines from it all day long. Just ask my co-workers.

more quotes from the office

Fixed Gear Goodness and Base Building...

2007-10-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting comfortable riding fixed gear. George made some adjustments on his Pinarello Pista and I've been riding her lately. The plan is to train on her most of the winter, breaking out the multispeed bike only for climbing rides.

Speaking of fall/winter, George also suggested that I start base building. What does that mean? Well, today it meant that I had to divert my normal route on Pacific Coast Highway inland to resist the temptation to chase the rabbits, err...I mean, other cyclists, out there. This is going to be really, really difficult for me but it's a chance to prove my dedication to improving, or at least that's the line that George fed me this morning when I called mid-ride to confirm I was following his plan correctly...minus one minor and totally illegal u-turn on PCH to chase a group down and couple of repeats up a hill to see how the gearing on the fixie felt. Oops.

I shouldn't complain, it really wasn't that bad. It might help if I just visualize the fat melting off of my thighs from all of the long, steady, low intensity effort. Yeah, that's it.

...and six months later

2007-10-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

okay...technically, it's a day shy of six months later, but who's really counting? A quick catch up:

~I finished the Planet Ultra King of the Mountains Series and was happy with my results...4th place for women under 50. After this series I definitely felt that if I put more training in next year that I could cut my time somewhat. I really needed more hill training!

~I finished my third double century, Eastern Sierra on June 2nd. It was tough because George crashed 70 miles into and my head wasn't really into it for the rest of the ride. Well that and the last 30 miles of headwinds were a bitch, but I'll stop complaining about something that happened four months ago. This completed my California Triple Crown and I am currently awaiting my snazzy finishers jersey.

~Crewed RAAM, it was long, hard and rewarding all wrapped into one.

~Got a job...had some fun, decided I wasn't happy there.

~Slacked off on training for most of the summer. I suck.

~Totally bonked on GMR one Sunday and went through two bottles and still overheated 2.5 miles from the top. Please see the above comment about sucking. ;) Thankfully George came down after summitting and gave me one of his bottles.

~Redeemed myself with a personal best time up GMR (sub-1hr) a couple of weeks later. YAY me. Now I need a new goal for that road. Note...riding with a PowerTap helps, but only if you're looking at it and pacing yourself accordingly. :)

~Got a new job, much better. Fit into my schedule perfectly...W/Th/F...the days that the kids are with their dad.

~Have been sick for about a bajillion weeks. Okay, maybe not a bajillion, but at least six. The snot has floweth long enough and needs to stop. Pronto.

~Crewed Furnace Creek 508 for George. WOW. Fixed gear, he's a total nut. It was painful to watch at times, particularly on the major climbs, but he's an animal and he made it. I'm so proud of him. See his blog here... www.epictrain.blogspot.com and check out all of the pictures. Particularly the ones where I turn the handoffs into diva-esque posing activities. ;) I'm working on a report on my experience, hopefully to be posted soon.

~I've made out my event schedule for next year and now it's time to start training again. I'm finally starting to feel a little better, so I made it out on the fixed gear today. Someone thinks I should be training on this bike for the winter (unless I'm climbing) and who am I to argue? It was fun. I'm still a little nervous about getting going again after stopping, but I did about 16 miles this morning and I survived. I only forgot that I was riding fixed once, for a nano-second when I thought I might coast. OOPS. It sure tells you otherwise, and quickly!

~We got a tandem...finally! We've been waiting for this thing for what seems like forever. I freaked out a little bit the first time we went out and I'll admit that it feels strange to not have control back there in the stoker position. I've taken to closing my eyes when he's turning, it stops me from trying to steer the bike. We're hoping to do a couple of the early season double centuries on it and I decided that I have the goal of doing a sub-5 hour century on the tandem...even if we only do it in 4:59. ;)

Okay...off to Target for the little guy to spend his birthday money. More later!

Mulholland Challenge

2007-04-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin? I suppose I should start with the drive up to Calabasas, which took two and a half hours thanks to my decision to leave at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday. It was okay though, I got to make a few phone calls, talking to my friend James who committed to crewing Race Across America with us (sorry about the unemployment thing though!!!) and then to Phil who was about twenty minutes behind me dealing with the same horrible LA traffic that I was dealing with but sounding much less irritated about it than I did. I arrived, checked into the room and then went to the registration area to check in and get my number and route slip. I ran into some Bike Forums friends...Lee, Frank, Gary, Jim...then Phil arrived. We all talked for awhile and Phil and I eventually decided that we were hungry and that dinner was beginning to sound like a good plan. I was trying to wait for George to arrive before eating, but with no word from him my hunger won out and we headed out in search of food. We ran into Mike along the way and he joined us at the Italian restaurant across the street. George eventually joined us, starving and a bit wacky from the long drive. ;) We enjoyed our dinner, then made our way back to our rooms to prep for the early morning start.

The alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. Ten more minutes? Please????? No? Damn. I guess I should get up and start getting ready. In contrast to the wonderful pre-ride breakfast that I was spoiled with at the Solvang Double, our breakfast this time was Bonk Breaker energy bars. It was quick, easy and required nothing more than opening the package, so I was happy with that. We filled our bottles with Sustained Energy and set out for the start. George was starting at 6:15 a.m., as he was doing the double century, and I was taking the 6:30 a.m. start, which was the earliest start for the century riders. I ran into more Bike Forums members at the start line...caligurl, sirlance, Tony, Karen, Lee. I ended up rolling with Karen, Tony and Lee, but took off, trying to gain some time in the beginning of the course. I went into this ride with the expectation of riding by myself all day. I've found that I climb better if I'm alone and can ride at my pace, ensuring that I'm not blowing myself up trying to keep up with others.

So the morning air was cold...okay...I'll take that back. The morning air was FREEZING! I immediately regretted my decision to leave my full fingered wool gloves in my suitcase and though I recall starting the ride with fingers, by the time I reached Pacific Coast Highway, I was beginning to wonder if they were still with me since I couldn't feel them. At all. Oh well, minor details, who needs fingers anyway? Once on the coast, I joined up with a group that formed a paceline to make our way south to Topanga. We weren't moving as quickly as I would have thought we would, but when I considered that I'd be putting out more effort on my own, I decided to stay put and conserve my energy for the climbing that was yet to come. The next turn on the route sheet took us onto Topanga Canyon, where the climbing would begin and the group would break up. I was alternately passing and being passed by people on the climb and jumped on with a couple of guys as they were passing people. I kept pace with them for a bit, but as they gained speed I decided to let them go and do my own thing. Not paying attention to the route slip, I thought that the first stop was a full rest stop, so I was making an effort to finish both of my bottles of SE before I arrived at the 27 mile point. Of course, I roll in and it's just a sticker stop! I filled up with water, got my sticker and took off for the real rest stop, which was 12 miles away.

On the way to the rest stop at Peter Strauss Ranch, I realized that the velcro on my saddle bag was rubbing on my new shorts, so I knew that would be something I would have to take care of when I rolled in. When I got to there I saw Bill from Bike Forums volunteering and I asked him for tape, a band aid...anything to cover that exposed velcro. He tightened my bag as much as he could and told me that the ladies out front had the tape. After filling my bottles with SE, loading up on Endurolytes and Advil, I went in search of the ladies with the tape. They kindly fixed me up, so that I wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of the day, and let me know that the next sticker stop would be at the bottom of Deer Creek. I might have whimpered a little bit at that point, the memory of descending that road the weekend before, still fresh in my mind. They told me that it would be fine, and off I rolled. I still had quite a bit of climbing to do, so I tried to concentrate on that instead of the Deer Creek descent that I was going to have to deal with. I was in and out of the next rest stop quickly, just long enough to fill my bottles with more SE and be on my way. I had done this portion of the course before, and it was helpful to know what was coming next. After a steep climb on Cotharin I was approaching Deer Creek. I knew that I had to descend this section in the drops, trying to do it on the hoods last week was unsuccessful and resulted in me having to stop at least five times on the way down. Taking a deep breath, I was off. My speeds were higher and I felt more confident descending this time, but I still had to stop once to shake my arms out...it's better than five though! I couldn't believe how many people were flying down this descent...I'm not sure that I'll ever have that level of confidence. I made it to the sticker stop at the bottom, declared "THAT SUCKED!!!" as one of the volunteers kindly topped off my bottles, and I was off, turning south on PCH and heading toward Decker.

I was behind a group approaching the turn onto PCH, but I had to stop to wait for some cars to go by before I could make the turn safely. This was one of the only "flat" sections of the ride, so I was trying to catch up to their little paceline, but was having a hard time. At that point another paceline rolls by me and one of the guys created a gap and told me to jump in, but I had just been on the verge of blowing up trying to catch the other guys, so I opted to latch onto the back so I could drop off easily if I needed to. I was with them for a short while before deciding to let them go so I could take it easy and conserve for Decker. Ahhh Decker...the climb about which I declared "it's not that bad" after our little preview ride last week was kicking my ass. Of course, I made that declaration having taken it on 26 miles into the ride and here I was, facing it at mile 68 and eating my words. I saw a guy get off and start walking his bike and decided that I would take a minute to recover before I kept going, and pulled off to the side of the road to rest. Surprisingly I didn't feel discouraged by the need to do this. I had really been on top of not wasting anytime at the rest stops, felt that I was riding smart thus far and that I should take the rest when I really needed it. Getting clipped back in and going again was a challenge, but I resumed my climb feeling better from the small amount of rest I had just taken. I made it to the sticker stop located a few miles up the climb where I talked to one of the volunteers about how Decker was hurting a lot more today than it did last weekend and he said "you weigh nothing, you should be flying up these hills"...ummm...thanks, but it's far from the truth and I told him that maybe if I dropped ten pounds, that might be true, but at this point I wasn't flying...I was eeking my way up! Back to climbing Decker again, I was off...the last part isn't as steep as the first section, but the climbing was starting to add up and my legs were beginning to feel it.

The Decker climb out of the way, there were some rollers before the descent down Mulholland. Thanks to some coaching from George, I've abandoned my death grip on the brakes style of descending and have learned to enjoy this part of riding. I'm still more cautious than some, but have come a long way from where I was at a few months ago. The descent down Mulholland was great, and well deserved after all of the climbing we had done up to this point. I made my way to the sticker stop at Peter Strauss, asked Bill to "sticker me" before I filled my bottles up with SE one last time and ran to the bathroom so I could roll out quickly. Before I left Bill told me that I only had 30 more miles...some rollers and then two more good climbs before the finish. I love when people tell me what to expect. Yes, I could look at my route sheet, but I wouldn't have known to expect the rollers on the way to the Stunt Road climb, so it was easier to pace myself with that knowledge. Thank you Bill!! The ladies at the front cheered me on as I left, which always feels good. The volunteers at these events really make the experience great and Planet Ultra seems to attract the best ones, everyone was great!

The next ten miles seemed to drag on forever, but along the way a group of guys passed me and told me that I was doing great, and that made me feel so much better. It's the little things that keep me going on these rides. Usually I have George there motivating me, but this ride was different because I was riding alone. It seemed though, that every time I needed that extra little bit of motivation, either a volunteer or a rider would say something encouraging...their timing was impeccable. :) I turned on to Stunt Road and began what would be one of the harder climbs of the day. Four miles long, it was not nearly as steep as Decker, but at mile 90, it felt like it dragged on forever. Shortly after the climb began, another rider began riding alongside me silently. We seemed to be pacing each other up the climb, but the funny thing was that we probably rode side by side for over a mile before we finally looked at one another. It was when another rider passed us and shouted out "we're almost to the top...only 1.5 miles and another 500 feet of climbing" that we both went "HUH????" He said "I don't know about you but..." and I replied "yeah, my idea of almost to the top is half a mile...tops!!" and we had a good laugh about perception. As I continued to climb, wondering if I would ever reach the summit, a car drove by and one of the Bike Forums members yelled "go Brandy!!" <~~~See...more motivation just when I needed it!!!

As I approached the final sticker stop at the top of Stunt Road, I noticed that Bobbi Fisher was working the stop. I yelled "STICKER ME BOBBI" and she told me that I was doing great, that there was just one more good climb, then a short but steep climb on Cold Canyon. It was so nice to see her smiling face there, but I didn't stay long, probably under a minute because I knew that I could recover on the descent down Schueren before I would have the last significant climb of the day which was Piuma. Feeling good, I climbed Piuma and got a little shout out from the ladies who had been working the Peter Strauss stop, and enjoyed a wonderful descent. I was about to take a corner and a guy behind me says "I'm behind you" I thanked him for the heads up and he says "the only time I can pass you is on the descents, you drop me on the climbs!" and I realized that he had in fact been passing me on descents since at least Little Sycamore earlier that morning. I caught up to him again on the Cold Canyon climb and after the little ego boost he gave me, I had to step it up and get that last climb done! From the turn onto Mulholland, I felt amazing! Nothing like knowing that you're a short six miles from the finish. I hammered the whole way back and rolled in at 9 hours and 4 minutes according to my Garmin. Of course, dismounting, parking the bike and making my way to the timekeeper, they recorded me at 9 hours and 7 minutes.

Overall, it was an amazing day on the bike. I accomplished my goal of taking only short, but necessary stops and ended up with only 31 minutes of off the bike time for the whole day. I didn't have a time goal in mind, as I've never done a course like this before, but I have to say that I am very happy with my effort!

Solvang Spring Double Century

2007-04-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Solvang just in time to check in for the ride on Friday night, after a long drive in heavy traffic. Much of the time in the car was spent trying to decide what time I would start in the morning, in relation to George's 7:30 a.m. start time. Recalling that I had a 45 minute head start at Butterfield Double and that he caught me by the first rest stop at mile 38, we decided that a 6:30 a.m. start would be good. It would be the earliest that I could safely leave without carrying lights, which we would drop with the ride organizers in the morning and pick up at a later rest stop.

After checking in, we were off in search of some food and Firestone Vineyard where we would be staying in a guest house on the grounds. We got settled in, and then it was off to bed for me. I was exhausted and facing another early morning start. When the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. I didn't want to get up, thinking that I could easily enjoy a day relaxing around the winery and exploring the town (just kidding...though I was asked at registration if I would just be hanging around town while George was riding...lol. Ummm...HELL NO! I'm riding too!) but I dragged myself out of bed and started getting ready. George made a breakfast of bacon, eggs, bagels and yogurt while I rushed around trying to make sure that I had everything that I needed. We left Firestone and headed toward the ride start, slightly behind schedule. As we drove down Foxen Canyon, we saw some of the first riders who must have left at 5:00 a.m. The farther we drove, the more cyclists lights we saw, what a great sight!

Having left a few minutes behind schedule, we of course...arrived at the host hotel a few minutes later than we would have liked. I ended up rolling out alone at 6:40 a.m. Brrrrrrrr...that pretty much sums up the first hour of my ride, at least! I was freezing, having opted to suffer for a short time so that I wouldn't have to ride with knee warmers in my very tiny jersey pockets for the rest of the day. I rode alone until the first climb on Foxen Canyon, where I joined up with a group that had left shortly before I had. Following George's advice, I secured myself a spot in a paceline with a great group of three brothers, one of their wives and a friend of theirs. I stayed with them through the first rest stop and we all left together. We rotated several times and after I dropped back after a strong pull up front, we were suddenly being passed by a train of tandems and a split second decision was made to jump on the back. The tandems kept a fast pace and we were with them for awhile, until a few of us decided that we were pushing too hard to keep up with them through some of the rolling terrain and opted to take it easy and let them go.

At this point, though I was trying to get as far along as I could before George caught up to me, I was also thinking about conserving some energy, knowing that I would be pushing a higher pace once he did join me. As we made a sudden turn, we lost one of the guys from the group, so we pulled off of the road as someone went back to find him. We weren't rolling for long before one of the riders needed to stop for some water, so we pulled off again. I had a feeling at this point that George couldn't be too far now and that he would show up any minute, as I'm standing on the side of the road, motionless, waiting for this rider to buy some water at the store across the street. Sure enough, just a couple of minutes after we stopped, there he is and he shouts "I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO CATCH YOU YET!" I think that was code for...you're going too damn slow. ;) I said goodbye to my new friends and we were off. Shortly after meeting up he turns to me and says "I'm going to push you today, but you'll thank me later." Huh? What? Ahhhhh crap, I'm in for it now. With that, he picked up the pace as we made our way toward the second rest stop. At some point (NOTE: this ride report may or may not be accurate, it's all a blur now...hell, it was all a blur DURING the ride!) he threw me into a paceline with some very strong 7:30 a.m. starters. I tried hard to hang on and was able to for a while, but eventually I couldn't keep the pace that they were going, so I let go. Shortly after that we reached the second rest stop.

It was a mad rush to refill bottles, grab electrolytes and Advil, and use the restroom before hitting the road again. As we rolled out, the same tandems that we had joined up with earlier rolled out as well. George didn't even have to say it because I knew what was coming next. The words were familiar as I've heard them before ~tandems punch a big hole in the air and provide a great draft ~never pass a tandem on rolling terrain ~if you have the wheel of a tandem, don't let it go! So grab the wheel of a tandem, I did! George was right, the tandems do provide a great draft, but they were not easy to keep pace with unless we were climbing. That seemed to be the only time that I felt like I could handle the pace comfortably.

As we pulled out of the "not so secret control point" in Morro Bay, we saw M.E., Joel, John and Bill who appeared to be on a restroom stop. We waved hello and were on our way. This is where my competitive beast reared it's ugly little head, I'm woman enough to admit this much. I was thrilled to have passed them, knowing that they had started before me, in the dark. As hard as I was pushing and struggling, seeing them gave me a boost, assurance that my hard work was paying off and that I was on my way to finishing my second double century with a decent time. Feeling like I was fueling well with the Sustained Energy provided at the rest stops, I asked George whether we were stopping for lunch. One of the tandem guys answered that they were planning to eat and we made the decision to stop as well so that we could continue on with them.

At the lunch stop I grabbed sandwiches and V8 as George took care of refilling our bottles and grabbing more electrolytes for us. We sat to eat, keeping an eye on the tandem riders so we could leave together. As we were standing in line to use the restroom, M.E., Joel, John and Bill pulled in. I shouted "Happy Birthday Joel!" across the parking lot and M.E. came over and snapped a picture of us and then we were ready to roll again after a 28 minute stop. It as during this next section of the ride that I hit my low point for the day. Unbeknownst to those I was riding with, I was seriously suffering. Not that I hadn't been suffering trying to keep pace with the tandems all day, but this was different, I was really suffering. It was apparent within several miles of leaving the lunch stop that I made the wrong decision and that I should have stuck with liquid fuel. I spent at least 20 miles nauseous with my lunch in my throat and the V8 would have been the first thing to come up...I could taste it right there. I rode in silence, not mentioning how horrible I felt because I knew that if I did, I would totally lose it. George realized that there was something wrong when I was refusing to drink when he prompted me to. I tried to sip, but I couldn't and finally I told George how awful I felt. Not wanting to lose the tandems, George took over, literally pushing me in order to give me a couple of minutes to recover. It wasn't the first push that I would accept from him, nor would it be the last. Those little reprieves from the hard pace were just what I needed at the time.

With much effort, we made it into the next rest stop having not touched my bottles at all since the lunch stop. I believe that this was the point that I started telling George that I hated him. He was pushing me to my limits, limits that I never would have pushed myself to and I was feeling beat and didn't hold back in telling him, or anyone else who would listen for that matter! I remember one man asking me how I was doing and I answered back "HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!" As we looked around the rest stop, he pointed out that I wasn't the only one who was hurting. The exhausted looks on the faces of most of the riders said it all...he was right. As we were getting ready to get back on the road George told me that there were only 50-ish miles to go...a club ride, that's it! One of the tandem riders said..."even better, only 30 miles to the next rest stop!" Okay, 30 miles was do-able, even if it was going to hurt. I started fueling right away and was beginning to feel a little bit better. I don't recall much of this section, though I was feeling better than I had on the last section, and that's all that matters! I'm sure that I told George that I hated him a couple more times, but he can take it.

The first thing that I saw when I pulled into the last rest stop was...lots of people resting! As tired as I was, we were less than 20 miles from the finish and I just wanted to be done. We went to our routine of bottle filling, restroom breaks and quick "hello's" to other riders and volunteers. The Cup'O Noodle was calling my name, but fear of more solid food and desire to just get it done, had me skipping it. George and I left the tandem riders who were resting and headed out to climb Drum Canyon. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. What sadistic freak puts that at mile 175 of a double century? Oh, who am I kidding? If I organized the ride I would have done the same torturous thing. ;) If I recall correctly, I stopped telling George that I hated him on Drum Canyon, but only because he was hurting more than I was, riding on a 49x15 fixed gear. Finally reaching the top, I was ready for a fun descent...but OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! The road was horrible and as I passed George on the descent he warned me to be careful, so I slowed it down considerably.

After descending Drum Canyon I felt great! My spirits were high, I turned on my iPod, grabbed George's wheel and we took off. The closer that we got to the finish, the more riders we passed. I had gotten a second wind and George was now counting down the miles for me. 7 miles! 4 miles! <~~~that was the best, four miles. Anyone can ride four miles...and I was going to do it...and do it fast! The road was familiar again, I knew exactly where I was and how far I had to go. As we came up the final hill into Solvang, I asked George what time it was...6:38 p.m. I told him that I was so close to finishing sub 12:00. It wasn't a goal of mine, as a matter of fact, I would have never dreamed of having a time anywhere close to that considering I did Butterfield in 14:25 and was very happy with that time. Suddenly at that moment, it became the goal and I was so close, but even the sprint to the finish couldn't seal the deal. I came in at 6:41 p.m. which gave me a total time of 12:01.

The second that I got off of the bike, all of the pain, all of the suffering I had endured...it all went away and was replaced by smiles, hugs, sheer joy and pride. George was right, he pushed me and though I wouldn't have said it until that very moment, I was thankful for that. I tested my limits like they had never been tested before and I never would have known that I had that in me, had he not pushed me to achieve it.

Breathless Agony Preview

2007-03-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

Breathless Agony...the name alone implies a painful ride. 112 miles and 12,000 ft of climbing in the mountains of southern California, it promises a long, hard day in the saddle, challenging one both physically and mentally. The organized ride is taking place on May 5th, but that's not enough for some of the members of the so Cal Bike Forums. They need to preview the route. Ride a portion of it in the name of training, you're thinking? Nope. Their idea of previewing is riding the route. The whole route. Every. Single. Mile. Of. It. I didn't register for the BA ride prior to it selling out, so this was my chance to do the route. George posted the idea of the BA Preview ride on Bike Forums back in January and the response was great, with many of the members willing to come out and ride with us. One last detail...finding someone to drive SAG for us, and Mandy came through. I had heard of her superior SAGging abilities and was assured that if she did this, we would only need one support person despite the fact that we would be all over the mountain with our varying abilities.

Fast forward to late Saturday night and the tickle in my throat, stuffiness and general feeling that *CRAP! I'm getting sick!* Bad timing, but this event was on my calendar for way too long to bail on it now. I woke up on Sunday morning feeling worse, but trying to tell myself that I felt just fine. My pride (sometimes I wonder if this thing I often call pride is really just stupidity masking as pride...maybe I'll figure it out someday) wasn't going to let me back out now. No way.

I had planned to start the ride at civil twilight, which was 6:20 a.m. but didn't arrive at Sylvan Park in Redlands, until shortly after that. I didn't feel like rushing to roll out quickly, perhaps it was the feeling of hesitation, not knowing how the ride was going to go in my current state of stuffiness and snottiness. After greeting some of the other riders and meeting some of the new ones, I gave Mandy my bag with some clothing and decided to roll out with Bob at 6:49 a.m. He stayed with me for a while, but I was having a hard time warming up so I wasn't making any effort to keep up with him. I knew at this point, having rolled between the anticipated slower group and the fast guys, that I would be riding this alone.

The first pass of the ride was Jack Rabbit Trail, which is an unmaintained road. It was so quiet and peaceful and I really enjoyed this section. It was somewhat of an obstacle course, as I found myself swerving and turning to avoid potholes and patches of gravel. Mandy came by to check on me and give me a report of where the other groups of riders were. She assured me that the fast guys were a couple of miles behind me, so I took the opportunity to find a bush before they caught me. <~~~yes...it's been a long time, but I'm back to posting about my public urination. Such a lady, I am. ;) Back on the bike quickly, I enjoyed the rest of the traffic free first pass and was on my way to Beaumont.

The second pass on the route is Oak Glen. I think I had found my rhythm by this point and it didn't hurt as much as I had anticipated. I was finally warmed up and feeling good and even managed to grab the camera out of my jersey pocket to snap a few pictures of this gorgeous area. Every so often, I would look back, expecting the fast group to catch me. Finally, there was one. I couldn't tell for sure, but it didn't look like Phil or George, so I assumed that it was Pat closing in on me. When he reached me, we were almost to the top of the Oak Glen climb, where we rode together for a few minutes before he took off and said "see you at the bottom!"

The descent from the top of Oak Glen was a blast. As I was riding, I was looking at our route sheet, which was the original one from the Breathless Agony organized century. Calculating the cut-off times that they had listed, I felt like I was doing pretty well at this point coming into the second rest stop at Mill Creek Ranger Station. As I arrived all of the guys cheered for me which on one hand was great...it's nice to feel supported. On the other hand it's slightly embarrassing and you wonder if they would do that for the guys, or if you're getting special treatment for being a girl out there. Perhaps I should just stop analyzing it, shut up and be happy that I had a bunch of smiling men there to greet me. There could be worse scenarios. I ate some Fig Newtons here, used the restroom and accepted the Dayquil that Pat offered to me. George pulled in shortly after I did and asked me if I had found my special bottles in the SAG vehicle, which I hadn't. He had bought me my favorite Gatorade that morning and stashed them in Mandy's car with my name on them. :)I filled my bottles and George said he was rolling, so I took off with him. I was only able to hang on until the next group that left the rest stop caught and passed us. Once again, I knew that I couldn't hang and realized that I would be climbing alone.

Ahead of us was climbing, climbing and oh...get this...some more climbing! The section after Mill Creek Ranger Station was really hard on me. It appears to go on forever and ever and having driven it in the car before, I kept thinking to myself that I didn't remember this portion of the drive before the hairpin turn being this long! Later I found out that this is referred to as "damnation alley" and rightfully so! As you are riding, it doesn't look like you're doing much climbing and I actually had to turn my head around several times in an effort to assure myself that there was a reason for my snail's pace. I actually contemplated turning back at this point, thinking that I couldn't ride this slowly and still make it to Onyx Summit. Of course, my pride and the thought that George would kick my ass if I bailed just 45 miles into a ride snapped me out of it. Once past the hairpin turn, I felt like I was actually climbing the mountain, actually getting somewhere, and mentally I was in a much better place and on my way to completing the third pass of the route. I enjoyed the views along the way, including a waterfall on the side of the road that I had noticed the last time that I drove up to Angelus Oaks. A few miles from Angelus Oaks I started cramping in my left leg. I've never experienced this before, but knew that I needed salt...just then Mandy pulls up in the SAG vehicle. Perfect timing! I asked if she had anything salty in the car and she pulled off to the side to check. The only thing we saw was trail mix and that didn't sound good, so I settled for a banana, hoping that the potassium would do me good. I was still cramping, though not as badly as I pulled into Angelus Oaks and the third rest stop. I arrived once again to cheers from the group and promptly started searching for salt! There were potato chips in the car but they didn't sound good and licking the salt off of them was taking too long so I went off in search of some V8 after Ian loaned me some cash. I chugged two cans right away and talked to Jason and Phil for a few minutes before heading out alone for the final pass.

Leaving the store at Angelus Oaks I was trying to calculate how long this last section to Onyx Summit would take me at various speeds. It was something to do to pass the time and though I knew that there was some descending and rollers to come in this section, I wasn't counting on them when I was doing my doomsday *I'm never going to get there* calculations in my head. Before I knew it I was descending and it lifted my spirits...just what I needed. Of course, with the descending came the thought of "CRAP! I'm going to have to climb this shit again on the way back!" I quieted those thoughts and told myself that the only thing that counts is my time to Onyx Summit. The clock stops there and I'll worry about those climbs later.

I'm not sure where I was when people started passing me on their way down. Some had turned around early, though seeing them descending while I still had so far to go was mentally crushing for me. They had left the store not long before me and I just kept thinking...how could they have made it to the top that quickly?!?!?!?!?! It wasn't until later that I found out that they had turned back early and I was fretting for nothing. Mandy drove by to check on me and I asked her to tell George to come back for me after he reached the summit. He had promised that he would and at that point I was lonely and craving some company. The next time I saw her she said that George was at the top, so I expected to see him coming down around a curve at any time. Time kept passing and no sight of George so I figured that one of two things had happened. He was suffering and needed to rest (the best assumption since he had done a Palomar Century the day before) or that he had decided I needed to do this climb alone because it would be more rewarding. I didn't really think that he'd go back on a promise, but I would have been okay with either scenario. Finally...there he was, slowly descending in his search for me. From across the road I see the smile of someone who has conquered the climb and had a chance to recover, which was a stark contrast from me on the other side of the road. I was happy to see him, but barely able to smile in return. I've ridden with George enough to know that he can sense my mood and react accordingly, first with the encouragement and praise, telling me that I'm kicking ass and that he's proud of me. Next comes the nurturing aspect where he tells me to hand him my bottle of water, which he exchanges for one of his that was full of Gatorade, or something...I never asked, just knew that it was more than water! He told me that we were 1.8 miles from the top and then came more praise, this time when he noticed that I was climbing with my heels down. It's one of the things that I get sloppy about at times, but was able to stay on top of throughout this ride. Riding beside me he asked me if I wanted him to pace me up and I said yes, so he got in front of me and and rode nice and easy. He counted down for me...0.7 miles, 0.3 miles, you're almost there. Look! There's the Onyx Summit sign!

Finally off of the bike at mile 74.3, I was so thrilled to have done it! 7 hours and 33 minutes to the top and I was happy with my time. I found a place to rest my bike, was ordered to start eating and immediately downed two Gu packets. After resting for a few minutes Mandy arrived, George gave the remaining riders a quick lesson on changing tubulars and then we were off for our obligatory Onyx Summit elevation sign picture. We bundled up for the descent we were off. The rollers that I had worried about weren't bad at all, and I felt fine climbing, knowing that I was getting ready for a long downhill once we hit Angelus Oaks. We stopped once to strip our jackets off and then at the store for a quick restroom break and were off again, enjoying the warm temperatures that rose as we descended. We rolled into Sylvan Park, I changed clothes and split quickly in an effort to find food.

This route was amazing, I can't wait to do it again. In five weeks. Say what? Yes...I'll do it again in five weeks with the other Breathless Agony workers and then I'll be up there the day of the official ride, cheering all of the riders on. Of course, that won't be enough, this unofficial version gets planned again as a Bike Forums ride for the fall, after temps cool off. I'm hooked on the agony.

Butterfield Double

2007-02-26T18:40:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been nearly ten days since I completed my first double century ride and high time that I finally sit down and write my ride report. I don't know what has been keeping me from doing it, not in the writing mood I suppose, but I know that if I don't get all of this down, I'll start forgetting details and since it is my first 200 mile ride, I guess I should have some sort of record of it. <~~~enthusiasm about writing this is just oozing...can you tell? ;)

The morning started at 4:00 a.m. with me trying to figure out what to do first. Get dressed? Eat? What am I going to wear? Eeeeeeeeeeek! I settled on eating so I would have time to digest before the ride started. Two packets of instant (yuck) oatmeal would have to do at that time of morning, plus a fresh mango that hit the spot. On to clothing. Short sleeve? Long sleeve? Arm warmers and leg warmers? I decided to go with my Velo Sport kit, which is long sleeve, and some leg warmers. A quick weather check outside and I realized that it was already warm enough to make the decision to leave the leg warmers behind. Some last minute prep and I was out the door and at the 5:30 a.m. early start in front of the hotel. There was a large group gathered and after some pictures with M.E. and saying goodbye to George who was there to see us off, and was starting at 6:15 a.m., we were on our way.

I enjoyed a nice warm up pace riding along with M.E. and another rider, Doug. It was nice to chat with them and pace myself through the first twenty miles, knowing that I had a long day ahead of me. Once we hit Santiago Canyon I got a burst of energy and took off, feeling comfortable and at ease being in a familiar area. The wind had been with us from the start of the ride, but really picked up through the canyon. I remember hitting a spot where the air was finally calm and still and immediately, I heard the sighs of relief from the four other riders I had been following. We turned onto Live Oak Canyon Road and began our journey toward the first aid station, located at Trabuco Oaks General Store, 37.4 miles into the ride.

I had to wait a few minutes to use the restroom and then moved on to pondering the food offerings...plentiful, but nothing sounded appetizing at that point, so I took one of everything and stuffed my jersey pockets, figuring that I would need to eat at some point. I also took a risk here by filling my bottles with Hammer Nutrition's Sustained Energy, something that I have never tried before. Thankfully, I was able to use this fuel all day with no issues, though in retrospect and after tales from a friend, it definitely wasn't smart to use a new and unknown product on a long ride. As I was getting ready to leave, M.E. pulled into the aid station and I asked her if she was going to be in and out quickly, and if so, I'd wait for her and we could leave together. After her very quick stop, we made our way to our bikes and in pulls George. How the man caught us when he had left 45 minutes later, and on a fixed gear, no less...I don't know. When we left that morning he said that he was hoping to pass me by the second aid station, so I was very surprised to see him this early in the ride. He handed off a route sheet since I had forgotten mine, and I took off just after M.E. left.

Leaving the first aid station, there was an immediate steep climb out of the canyon and then we were on Plano Trabuco. I had told M.E. that I needed to stop and turn off my tail light and I noticed at that point that there were some encouraging messages written on my route sheet, that brought a smile to my face. :) One turn later George catches us again, not a huge surprise this time, since he is in and out of rest stops before I can get off of my bike. ;) He rode with us for a block or so and started speeding up, so I made the split second decision to take off with him. I figured that I'd hang on for as long as I could and that he would drop me when he needed to. The next section was "generally downhill" and took us toward the coast and the next aid station, located at San Onofre State Beach. We stopped about a mile ahead to use the restroom, hoping that we could avoid the lines at the rest stop. We made this a very quick stop, in and out after refilling our bottles with Sustained Energy and water.

Just after leaving the aid station, George noticed that I was very flushed and looking overheated. He mentioned that we should find a place to splash my face with some water when we could. The next section took us onto the 5 freeway, and this was my first time riding it. When going from Orange County to San Diego, I normally go through Camp Pendelton, as I've always been slightly intimidated by the idea of riding on the freeway. I have to say that it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated, but I was definitely glad that I wasn't alone! After exiting the freeway in Oceanside, we were on the bike path and I was hitting what would be the first of several lulls that I would experience through the day. Thankfully I had the reassurance from George that I would snap out of it and feel better soon and that I just had to ride it out. I managed to eat half of a peanut butter sandwich that I had picked up at the first aid station and stuffed in my pocket, but I was still feeling pretty bad. The heat was getting to me and 85+ miles into the ride, I was just hoping and hoping that it wouldn't heat up anymore than it already had. The bike path ended and we were able to make our way to Popeye's where I drenched my head under the faucet in an attempt to cool down. Ten minutes later with ice on my cheeks and in my helmet, we were on our way again. We rode alone for a long stretch until about three miles out from the lunch stop, when some riders caught up to us. Two passed us and the rest formed a paceline until the right turn and the climb to the lunch stop, where George and I took off. I think that the thought of sitting down, eating and shade got me up that hill with a little more speed than normal!

Pulling in to the third aid station I was happy to see a familiar face...my friend Lee from Bike Forums, who was volunteering for the ride! Again, I wasn't particularly hungry...but knew that I should have something to eat. I enjoyed the sandwich and a couple of V8's before heading to the bathroom to once again drench myself in an attempt to cool down. I sat in the shade for a few minutes and we were off again, where we immediately turned onto Circle R and started climbing. With full bellies. Hmmmmmmm...I thought to myself...how is this going to play out????? George advised me to just take it easy and ride at a digestive (SLOW) pace because really...we had no other choice! After a nice downhill we turned onto Reche where we were greeted by Bobbi and Kermit, two of the volunteers. Kermit noticed my empty bottle and offered to fill it with some water and I was THRILLED when he came back and it was full of ice water. What a guy, he certainly made me happy! After making our way through Live Oak Park we took on the very steep Gum Tree Lane, to which I am attributing all of the soreness in my glutes! I was starting to fall into another lull at this point and we decided to stop at Rainbow Valley Market for more fluids and more head drenching to cool me down. Back on the bike we made our way to the fourth aid station at mile 139.6 where we picked up our lights. I unzipped the light bag and there was another encouraging note for me. Obviously I wasn't planning on riding with George at all, let alone this far...still...the note was a huge pick me up!

We left the aid station and didn't make it far before I hit yet another lull. Now it's one thing when someone gives you a little push on a hill to help you, but at this point George was physically pushing me...on a flat road! Pride gone, I accepted the help and had a chance to recover and find my way out again. I rode the whole day expecting (and telling) George to leave me at some point, but I realized somewhere around this time that he wasn't going anywhere and I can't express how thankful I was. Part of my nervousness about doing this double century was knowing that I was going to have to do this alone and here I was, lucky enough to have an experienced ultra rider at my side...okay...in front of me ;) for the better part of the day. We made our way onto Temescal Canyon and I recall saying that it felt just like a summer night. The weather was unseasonably warm and it was just gorgeous out as the sun set and darkness fell.

The last aid station at mile 172.3 was at Tom's Farm. I grabbed another V8 at this point and then decided that I should hit the restroom before we headed out. Unfortunately it was in a crowded restaurant and the women's line just wasn't moving. I finally opted for the men's room, but still wasted a good ten minutes here. Next time I shall be one with nature. ;) Leaving this aid station, it was so nice to know that we were getting close to being done. George was pushing me and asking me to pick up the pace, but I was so exhausted. I remember him telling me about falling asleep on the bike during one of his brevets and thinking to myself...how does someone fall asleep on the bike?!?!?! Well...now I know! I was very close to doing just that. I was entering a stage of serious grumpiness and had nothing nice to say to poor George anymore, so I put my headphones on and turned my iPod up all the way, which also served as a nice wake-up. We made our way through Corona and finally a turn onto Green River Road...ahhhhhhhhhhh...familiar territory again! I regained my energy, knowing that we were very close, particularly when we hit the bike path and then La Palma. Before I knew it, we were there...I was done!

My official time for the ride was 14 hours and 25 minutes. Honestly, in the months leading up to this double century, I was worried about actually finishing under the time limit, so I was very happy with this time. A big thanks to George, who didn't have to stick with me all day. I definitely slowed him down, but I was so glad to have him there coaching me through my first double!

2007 Cycling Goals

2007-01-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

~Butterfield Double Century
~Solvang Double Century
~TBD Double Century to complete Ca. Triple Crown
~One of the Planet Ultra King of the Mountain rides
~Century a Month Challenge
~6000 miles
~be able to call myself a "climber" by the end of the year, and mean it
~eat an entire Mr. Serious burrito in one sitting, post ride

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T08:22:00.000-08:00

Could it be 2007 already? I ended the year with a killer group ride on Saturday with the so Cal Bike Forums group. We had an amazing turnout given all of the climbing that this ride offered and it was a challenging day for me. My goal for the day was to make it to Baldy Village and enjoy some lunch at the lodge. This was only my second shot at sustained climbing, so I figured that if I did that much, I was good.

Once I reached the village, I had the chance to take off to do a bonus climb from the village up to the ski lifts, a 4.63 mile, 2110' ascent at an average grade of 8.6%. To say that this was out of my league was an understatement, but after some encouragement I took off...fully expecting to have to turn around within a few minutes and head back to the lodge. In fact...I told one of the other riders that I would see her in five minutes...that's how sure I was that I could not tackle this climb.

I honestly don't remember most of the details of the climb up to the lifts. All that I can say is that there was the awful smell of brakes from all of the cars, lots of stopping, lots of "I'M FUCKING DONE's!!!!", lots of me hanging my head down and wanting to turn around, lots of pouting, a moment when I was on the verge of tears and an occasional verbally abusive comment for anyone unlucky enough to be anywhere near me at the time.

There was a point when I was absolutely sure that I was done...I was ready to wait right there...telling myself I was happy that I had come that far and that I should be satisfied with that. Then something happened. I looked down and saw a Bike Forums jersey...it was another rider who had taken off behind us, and up he rode. In that instant my ego jumped into high gear and I turned from "I can't do this", to "bring it on!" I wasn't going to let him make it up there while I sat and waited! Later I found out that he was ready to thrown in the towel too, but decided to push on because his male ego didn't want a girl to make it if he didn't! Dueling egos, another friend later called it...whatever it takes to make it to the top!

I quickly realized that the area that I was ready to call it quits for good at, was a mere 500 feet from the top. I must have stopped at least three times in that 500 feet...never ready to give in, just utterly spent and unable to move forward. After catching my breath, I made a final push and was there...I had done it...on my first attempt no less! I won't lie and try to make the whole experience sound pretty, it wasn't...it fucking sucked, but the sense of accomplishment that I felt could not be matched! Next time I'm aiming for less stopping, less almost crying and less pouting. I can't wait to give this climb another shot!

I'm looking forward to a cycling filled 2007...full of climbing mountains, riding double centuries, and challenging myself to do things that I never thought possible.

I almost made it...

2006-12-24T18:49:00.000-08:00

to the end of the year without a crash! I met up with a few guys this morning for what was supposed to be a quick ride down to Laguna Beach and back before I had to take care of some last minute Christmas duties. I was excited to get out. Marcellus had been sick all week and I had not been on the bike since Monday, so it was a treat to slip this last minute ride in.

Right before our turnaround point I told the rider in front of me to "turn up there" and not realizing that there was an "up there" before the "up there" that I was referring to, he started braking to make a quick turn and I couldn't slow fast enough and caught his rear wheel. I saw it coming and hit the road pretty hard, my left elbow and thigh taking the brunt of the fall. My first reaction of course was..."is my bike okay?" Ahhh...I'm so proud of myself...I'm becoming a true roadie. ;) The bike was fine, save for the saddle being askew and slightly scuffed and one of the brifters being jarred. Once I was sure that my bike was okay, we moved off of the road and assessed the damage. Jacket ripped and removed, same with the arm warmers...peeled them off and there it was...my first true road rash! My elbow was already swelling so we headed across the road to Diedrich's so I could clean up.

As I walked into Diedrich's I realized for the first time, that the large picture windows provided the patrons with quite a show. Heads turned and it clicked that all of these people had seen me go down. I felt like slinking out of there as quickly as possible, I thought I might die of embarrassment at the thought of having such a large audience. While I waited to use the restroom, the guy making coffee drinks told me that he "heard" me go down and offered me some ice and a bandage. We sat around outside drinking coffee for a bit before one of the homeless men outside offered to give me mouth to mouth to help me out. Such a kind gesture...thanks, but no thanks buddy. ;)

We set off north on PCH again and I was able to make it back without any trouble, so I'm pretty sure that all I'm dealing with is some serious bruising...both the body and the ego. I'm glad that I was able to laugh it off right away...as badly as it hurt, I wasn't about to cry in front of the boys!

Such a blog slacker...

2006-12-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

I know that I said that I wouldn't be and really, there isn't any excuse for my lack of bloggage, other than...well, yeah...like I said...no excuse! I could get all New Years Resolution-esque and promise to blog daily, but we all know that's not going to happen, so I won't bother. I will say that with an increase in training, I do hope to blog about my progress more often, especially once I get my new toy into my hot little hands...

...because we all know that GPS, speed, cadence, elevation, graphs and charts will make me a better cyclist! ;) So ummm...Merry Christmas to me! :)

Speaking of Christmas, this is the year for me. The year that I fought off the urge to buy heaps of useless toys for the kids that will be carelessly tossed aside in the days following Christmas, or even worse...not used at all. This year the gifts were purposeful...for the older two at least.

Gavin is getting his road bike, which when I paid for it, was a '05 Trek 1000 KDR. I went to pick it up yesterday morning and found out that it had been sold to another customer. I had worried about this happening when I paid for the bike back in September, considering that they store them on the floor with just a tag indicating that they have been sold, and then again on my way there yesterday, the thought crossed my mind again. Sure enough, the bike had another name on it and they went scrambling to try to find out what happened and how they could fix it. I sat and waited while they tracked down another bike for me and promised to have it delivered to the closer location that afternoon. Much to my delight, they hooked me up with a '06 version of the bike, and I'm much happier with the color scheme...

When I picked the bike up this morning, I couldn't stop smiling. Little does Gavin know that I have visions of molding him into a future pro cyclist. Poor kid just thinks he's getting a road bike for Christmas. ;)

Avery is getting a nice digital camera for Christmas as the girl can't keep her hands off of my camera and I just don't like to share. After some research I settled on the Canon A530 and some scrapbooking supplies.

Marcellus is harder to shop for...he has so much and wants so little. I ended up getting him a video game that he'd asked for and some cars from the Cars movie.

All three of the kids are also getting iPod Shuffles...which reminds me that I wanted to fill them with some music before I wrap them up. They enjoy music so much, and I think that these will be a big hit with them.

Overall, quality won out over quantity of presents this year and I am ecstatic about that. Happy Holidays to all of you!

Change in plans...

2006-12-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

I'm back in for Butterfield Double Century on February 17th. This means that I need to get serious about training...NOW! I should have a couple of weeks when the kids are home from school and I'm free from drop-off duty where I am able to get in some extra rides to jump start the increase in mileage.

Holiday party...

2006-12-10T05:14:00.000-08:00

the night before a century ride...I'm such a dumb ass. Someone really should have cut me off last night...lol. ;) Here I am, at 5:17 a.m. leaving my house in less than thirty minutes to go ride a hundred miles and I'd bet money that there's still Malibu Rum flowing through my system. Nice.

Reflecting and looking ahead...

2006-12-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

As the year comes quickly to a close, I've been spending some time thinking about my first year of road cycling...what I've accomplished and where I will go with my riding in 2007. When I started in May, my goals were small...a 50 mile organized ride in September, a metric century (65 miles) in March of 2007 and then finally...I would train all year for a century in September 2007. All of that flew out the window when I met a new friend (lovingly referred to as "the instigator") who encouraged me to aim higher and had me signed up for a century ride within a week of having my bike. I was able to complete the 102 mile Cool Breeze in August 2006, before having to take a two month break from the bike. Upon my return, I did the challenging OCW Fall Metric, which was my most difficult ride to date. Shorter than Cool Breeze, it was the climbing that had me pushing my limits and nearly giving up. Pride and a stubborn streak kept me climbing and I was able to complete the ride.

My original goals reached a full year early, I needed to decide what my goals would be for 2007. Riding centuries didn't seem like much of a goal for me, since I was able to do that within my first three months on the bike. So, what's the next logical step if you've completed a century? A double century, of course. Or to be more precise...three double centuries in a year, which will earn me the honor of wearing a California Triple Crown jersey, or as I like to refer to it...the essence of badassness. Logical might not be the right word to describe my desire to do double centuries, in fact, I am safe in saying that you need to be slightly insane to want to ride 200 miles in one day, but what the hell...I'm going for it.

I have decided to choose some of the easier rides...easier being relative because really...200 miles is 200 miles and there's not going to be anything easy about that...but in regards to climbing, I am choosing to ride some of the double centuries that have the least gain in elevation. My original plan was to start with Butterfield, which is in mid-February, but after contemplating my training schedule over the last couple of days, I have decided to give myself some extra training time and I will be riding my first one on March 31st, The Solvang Double. This will give me a full four and a half months to build up my base mileage slowly and I'm confident that I will have time to train properly for this event. I'm excited and nervous all at once, but having challenging goals this year is going to motivate me into improving as a cyclist.

Sunday night musings...

2006-12-03T22:33:00.000-08:00

Glitter sucks. There's really not much to say about it, I mean...it can yield some fancy art projects, but I'm now dealing with a shitload of it in my kitchen and smaller, yet still significant amounts of it trailing into the living room and up the stairs. It's on my face, on my clothes, in the cat food, it's even in the fish bowl. Ehhh...at least it's red and green, so when I can't clean all of it up, I can pass it off as Christmas cheer...or something like that.

I think I've secured myself a spot in the crappy mom corner. I stole Marcel's Christmas present. Really...does a four year old need an iPod Shuffle anyway? I couldn't help myself...after riding alone for 72 miles yesterday, I decided that if I'm off of the road and on the river trail, that I can ride with music and that Shuffle is the perfect size. Guess I need to buy another one...or not. ;)

So...what am I going to put on the pilfered iPod? All of the music I just downloaded on my downloading spree, of course. Regina Spektor, Beth Orton, Rachael Yamagata, KT Tunstall, Joshua Radin and the one Schuyler Fisk song I could find...Paperweight. It's really too bad that she doesn't have an album out yet. For now I'll have to get my fill of her songs from her website and her myspace page.

It's good to be...

2006-10-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

RIDING AGAIN!!!

After an early morning Spinning class, I got the kids ready for school, dropped them off and then headed for Tiff's. I had to drop Marcellus off so Tiff could take him to preschool while I went in for my post-op appointment with the plastic surgeon. After feeling me up, he said that they're coming along nicely and that's when I asked him the question...can I ride my bike??? Please? Pretty please? Please say yes because I'm going fucking mental sitting here on my ass and I can't take one more day of this...pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Thankfully he said that he didn't see and problem with it and let me tell you, I couldn't have raced out of that office and home more quickly. Okay...I lied. I could have been home more quickly if I didn't see a stray dog in the road. I wrestled with the dilemma in my head...save the dog, ride my bike, save the dog, ride my bike, save the...ugh...the animal lover in me wouldn't let me pass on by, so I attempted for several minutes to coax the rottweiller into my truck, but he was scared, skittish and wanted nothing to do with me. :( I didn't have my cell phone with me so the best I could do after my failed attempt to save him was drive the short block home and call animal control. I'm hoping that they found him.

After calling animal control, I called Tiff and left her a message to tell her that I wanted to join in on the ride she had planned with Paul. I gathered my gear, slipped the sugar shorts on (they missed me too) and ran out the door. I pulled up at Tiff's honked the horn and out she runs...wearing the same thing that I was! Typical for us, we do this more often than not and today it was just what I needed. A matchy matchy riding partner! I don't know who was more excited, me or her, but we had Paul snap a couple of pictures and off we went.

The ride was short but sweet since we had to get back to pick up the littles and I can tell that I have some work to do to get back to where I was before. Little bumps in the road felt like mountains and I'm afraid I've lost my climbing legs...for now. I'm sure they'll be back soon.

18.5 miles
1:10
16.8 mph average

Merry Christmas...

2006-09-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

to my oldest son, Gavin. I know that I'm a few months early, but I kicked off my holiday shopping in a big way this week. I was talking to a dad on Bike Forums who rides with his young son and found out that he had received a killer deal on a Trek 1000 KDR at a local bike shop. I called around and was able find that a shop nearby had last year's model and it was just my luck that it was on closeout! After baiting Gavin with pictures and some creative questions, I determined that yes, he did indeed still want a road bike.

The new bike is going to live at the local bike shop until the holidays, when it will come home and find it's place in our house under the care of my eight year old. It makes me so happy that he's taking interest in something that I love and I can't wait to begin riding with him.

My first century was a Cool Breeze!

2006-08-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

The alarm went off at 2:30 a.m. Do you know how early that is? It's early and clearly a time that is more suited for going to bed, than for getting out of bed. James was just getting home from work, so I talked with him as I got ready and double, triple and quadruple checked that I actually had two cycling shoes packed in my bag. I'm not sure why I focused on that one thing, but it certainly would have sucked to arrive at the start and realize that I had only one shoe, so I went with it. I ate my typical pre-ride meal of oatmeal, strawberry-banana whey protein powder and frozen strawberries and had a quick cup of coffee before packing the car and pulling out of here around 3:20 a.m. I made my way to the house of one of my riding friends (also named James, but not to be confused with my husband...lol) and shortly after I arrived, another riding friend Voltaire arrived. James loaded our bikes up and we were on our way by 4:00 a.m.

This was a first century for both Voltaire and myself, so I'd be lying if I said that we weren't nervous at all. The ride to Ventura went by quickly and we arrived before the registration tables were ready for us. As I wandered around the room nervous and excited, I saw a guy that looked familiar. Not like the *I know you personally* familiar, more like the *HEY...you're famous but I have no clue who you are* familiar. I finally asked Voltaire and he immediately told me that it was David James Elliot, the star of JAG. After the celebrity sighting the registration tables opened up and I was given my number. I think that this is the first time that I've ever had a number. My very own number...how exciting and official! <~~~~see...it doesn't take much to amuse me!

After saying hello to several friends in the parking lot, we made our way to the start line and we were on our way. The course started out on a bike path and we were soon riding along with the Pacific Ocean on our left and the trains on our right. We made our way to the other side of the highway and before we knew it we were on Highway 101, riding just feet away from semi-trucks and speeding traffic. Heavy, fast traffic tends to get my adrenaline pumping and my one goal quickly becomes...ride fast and get the fuck off of the highway! After the stretch of highway riding, we found ourselves at rest stop one. We hit the porta-potties then we made our way to the snack tables. I was starving by this point, my last meal was just before 3:00 a.m. and I had been too nervous to eat just before the start of the ride, so I enjoyed bagels, bananas and a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie at this rest stop. We took a few pictures, including one of the guys stripping their clothes off despite the sign...

After the first rest stop the climbing began and I found myself falling to the back of our group. I was having some gearing/shifting issues and my chain was rubbing in all but two gears. This is incredibly annoying when you're climbing and all you can hear is the sound of your heavy breathing with a side of chain rub. James came back down to pace my up the final stretch of the hill and I mentioned to him that I was having issues back there. He offered to check it out but oddly enough...they didn't happen when I stuck with him. See...my bike only cooperates when my ride partners stay with me!

We arrived at a very busy rest stop two and stood in line for a few minutes to use the bathroom. I was thrilled to find lemonade at this rest stop and I filled one of my bottles up with it before we left. I grabbed another bagel...this one was a delicious cheese bagel and this time a chocolate chip cookie found it's way into my mouth...oops! At this point we were unsure of what was ahead of us because it seemed like we did a good deal of climbing between rest stops one and two. I vaguely remembered someone telling me that most of the climbing was between rest stops two and three and it just didn't seem to be adding up that this ride would only be 3500 feet of climbing if that was the case. We took off and soon found ourselves climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing. Everytime we would come up onto another turn, I would have bet my life that we would start descending but I was wrong...just more climbing! At one point during this leg, we heard sirens off in the distance that seemed to be growing closer and closer and eventually an ambulanced passed us and the sirens stopped shortly thereafter. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it looked as if one of the riders went down on one of the turns...he was on my mind for the rest of the day and I'm hoping that he is okay. When we finally started descending, I realized that I need to work on my skills. I love the fast, straight downhills, but descending curvy mountain roads requires more skill than I posess at this point, so I rejoined the WKDC...that's the White Knuckle Descending Club. I made it down in one piece and then it was on to the next rest stop which would put us at the halfway point!

We found spots among the trees for our bikes to rest and off to the lunch spread we went. Sandwich fixins were on the menu and everything looked so tasty. I debated putting the yummy looking red onions on my sandwich and then for the sake of my group, decided to pass on them...another chocolate chip cookie did hop onto my plate though! We sat down at the picnic tables and it was really neat to look around and see all of the cyclists there. I spent some time lusting over pretty bikes, mainly impressed with their color schemes more than their components. I'm such a girl! I made one more potty stop...this time in a REAL bathroom, and then filled my bottles up with lemonade again and we were on our way.

For some reason, when I looked at the elevation profile for this ride, my eyes saw the big bumps before the lunch stop and neglected to register all of the little bumps after that stop. Caught off guard, I may or may not have started whining just a little. Okay...you all know my better than that. I think it went something like "FUCK THIS SHIT!" The only comfort was that we were now riding along the coast and the weather and views were both unbelievable. As we approached Shoreline Park in Santa Barbara I asked the group to pull off for a minute. As we were approaching the very cypress tree that James and I were married under almost nine years ago, Matt rides up and says "Hey...that's where Melissa and I had our first kiss!" Kind of cool and I had to take a picture there, of course.

Riding on, we made it to rest stop number four and gobbled down some more food. At this point I just wanted to be done and I knew that we still had 25+ miles ahead, so the best thing to do was to get out of there as soon as possible. My toughest leg of the ride was between rest stops four and five, I think that being so close, but just not there yet was draining on me. I passed the time by talking to every cyclist that looked as though they were hurting as much or more than I was and it motivated me to keep going. As we got closer to rest stop five I looked at Voltaire and said "I'm going to be pissed if they serve us Otter Pops...I want something yummy...like a Big Stick!" Sure enough, we arrived at the final rest stop and the century known for it's popsicles delivered...BIG STICKS! We sat and enjoyed them in the shade and got ready for the home stretch.

Popsicle powered and ready to roll, James looked at his cycle computer and told me that we could make it back in under 6:55 ride time. I asked how fast we'd have to ride and Matt replied somewhere around 18 mph. I told him I didn't think that would happen, but that I'd give it a shot so let's go! The last leg of the ride starts off on Highway 101 and somehow riding on busy fast freeways gives me an adrenaline rush and makes me want to go FAST so I can just get off ASAP. I looked down and we were holding steady at 18-20 mph...he kept looking back and I was right there on his wheel the whole time. I took a turn pulling and my burst of energy took us up to 22 mph and I thought at that point that we might actually make it. After getting off of the freeway we hit a bike path, so obviously our speeds slowed, but we were able to maintain 16-17 mph the rest of the way back. I was so happy to see our time!!!!

After changing clothes we headed in for the post ride meal. Several of our Bike Forums friends were arriving, so it was nice to sit together for dinner and swap ride stories. I went up to get my Cool Breeze patch and they rang a bell for me since it was my first century, which was really cool! It was nice to do this century with a group of fun and supportive riders...I can't wait for the next one!

The boy looks like his mama...

2006-08-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today someone requested a mama picture thread at a forum that I frequent, so I posted the most recent picture of myself. It happened to be a sweaty self-portrait shot in my bathroom after a particularly grueling Spinning class. My signature at this site has a picture of Gavin taken a few weeks ago at Wild Rivers and when looking at our pictures side by side, or rather...on top of one another, it becomes apparent. The boy looks like his mama. He even does the funky *not sure where to put my tongue when I'm smiling for a picture, so I'll press it against my teeth* thing like his mama does. That's my boy.

Well crap...

2006-08-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

Blogger ate my post about Sunday's ride on the Santa Ana River Trail! Okay, maybe it was cold medicine induced stupidity that poofed it into cyberspace, I'll admit it could be my fault. It was another great ride with the Bike Forums group but since I'm not coherent enough to rewrite it, I'll leave you with the following...

~early start
~two flats
~way too many three's company references
~longing for burritos
~someone not to be named but featured in a crown jersey in the picture below eating a burrito the size of a small child

As always...check out the rest of the pics on flickr.

Four days later...

2006-08-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

she finally gets around to blogging about the Tour de Sugar Shorts. It's true...I'm a lazy blogger and if I don't do it right away, well...chances are that it will never get done.

What started as a hilly training ride at Team Estrogen, ended up as a group twenty six riders strong, with a mix of people from Bike Forums and TE. Having ridden with the Bike Forums folks the week before and now feeling fairly confident that none of them were super freaky axe murderers or stalkers, (well...one of them might be a stalker, but I can't talk about that here) I invited them to join us for our ride on Sunday. I had no idea that the turnout would be so impressive and I was thrilled that so many came, especially those who traveled quite a distance to ride with us!

We met at Bonita Creek Park in Newport Beach and our route traveled up the San Diego Creek Trail to Harvard, where we left the trail and took on the surface streets. We had some great photographers on board and I continue to be amazed by their on the bike skills. Me, I'm good at still shots while people are stuffing their faces at the rest stops. People don't tend to appreciate that, though I can't figure out exactly why?!?!?! Our first stop to regroup came at the top of Jamboree at the Chevron station and it was there that we realized that Extort came through on his promise of bringing a tow rope to help some of the ladies up the hills. We all got quite a laugh out of it, but in the end, no one needed any towing.

From Chevron we set of for our ride on Santiago Canyon Road, with a goal of regrouping at our food stop. Some flats off the bat kept some riders behind, but thinking that I might need the extra time, I took off with another group of riders. Prior to the ride, I had every intention of taking Santiago Canyon Road in my granny gear, as I had when I rode it before. I dropped my chain trying to shift into it when we were coming up Jamboree and not wanting to deal with that through the rolling hills, I decided to just stay in my middle ring throughout that stretch. The weather through the canyon was absolutely amazing. Having come off of a hellish heat wave that seemed like it would never end, we were all overjoyed to find wet pavement and the misty, cool air of the canyon. The twelve mile stretch went by too quickly this time and sooner than expected, I was hitting the final descent and we were on our way to the next regrouping point.

Not terribly hungry, I decided to grab a snack instead of lunch. I headed to Starbucks for the reduced-fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake and a venti coffee light frappucino/no whip. Yum. I love the food stops on rides because it's a great chance for you to talk to people, particularly those who are faster than you and often appear as no more than a blue speck up in the distance while you're riding.

Refueled and finished with our rest stop we took off for the second half of the ride, which took us through virtually traffic free streets of Irvine and to the Shady Ridge bike path. One last climb was ahead of us and as we turned onto Newport Coast Drive and I was ready to get going, I shifted into my granny gear and wouldn't you know it...my chain dropped, yet again. After some help (yes, I know how to get my chain back on, but I didn't want to get my pretty little hands all dirty...lol) from the guys, I was on my way and climbing, climbing, climbing. Reaching the top, we turned onto San Joaquin Hills Drive and the view was absolutely amazing! This was my favorite stretch of the ride, between the fun descent and the views of the ocean, it was perfect! After a short stop at Gelson's to use the ladies room (did you all see that? I do use restrooms when they're available and I don't always pee in public parking lots...only sometimes) and grab some water, we were on our way to the final loop of the ride, Back Bay.

We met up with some of the other riders at the entrance to the Back Bay bike path and set off for the home stretch. I felt amazingly energized at this point, maybe it was the promise of In-N-Out at the end of the ride that was motivating me. I could practically taste the Double Double as I pedaled along. The last loop went by quickly and before we knew it, we were back in the parking lot at Bonita Creek Park, where some of the faster riders were waiting for us. We said our goodbye's to those who were not joining us for the post-ride pig out and then made our way to In-N-Out. Food never tasted so good. I think that is one of my favorite parts of longer rides, the chance to indulge in the post-ride meal. Yum! It was nice to sit and chat with the other riders and it looks like we're all looking forward to the next time. I'll leave you with a little ditty written by one of our riders CJBruin...

There was a ride
On a summer's day
With a start
Around the Newport Bay
Lots of riders
Pedalled the miles away
And ate at In-N-Out

There's a girl
Known as Sugar Shorts
Though sometimes
She wears those goofy skorts
The riders
Say she's a real good sport
She planned a real fun ride

The riders say "Bran-day...
You're a fine girl
We all owe you a beer
Aren't you proud you didn't need your
Granny Gear?" (Dodododododododo)

As always, I've borrowed, stolen, eh...whatever...I helped myself to pictures posted at Bike Forums and they can be found here.

Oh...I know Mom!!!

2006-07-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

So we're at the grand opening celebration for the new local bike shop in town, Surf City Cyclery and while we were waiting for the raffle to begin, we started browsing their selection of bikes. The tiny bikes caught Marcel's eye, but in an effort to keep him from hopping on and plowing into the titanium Litespeed bike, I encouraged the kids to keep walking and looking at all of the pretty new bikes.

That's when it happened. Two junior sized road bikes caught the eye of my eight year old, Gavin. Now the boy has been asking for a road bike since the day that I brought mine home and up until today, has been satisfied with my reply that they just didn't come in his size and that he would have to wait until he was oh...ten...yeah ten...that's how old he'll be when he'll fit onto a road bike. We round the corner and his eyes fix immediately on two bikes sandwiched between cruisers and mountain bikes.

There was no denying it at that point. He's tall enough for a junior road bike and he knew it. His eyes lit up as we checked out the Bianchi and the Specialized Allez Junior and he turned to me and said, "if I had one of these road bikes, I could ride with you mom." My heart melted and then I turned over the price tag...yikes. $570 for the Specialized Allez Junior and that was on sale. Luckily, Gavin had the perfect solution.

"Oh...I know Mom!!!! I can ask Santa for this bike for Christmas and then no one will have to pay for it!" Ahhh...if he only knew. Looks like it's time to start saving for Christmas presents from Santa.

I might have melted...

2006-07-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

just a little bit. Yesterday I met up with a group of posters from Bike Forums for a ride from Irvine to Oceanside. When I saw the weather forecast a few days prior to the ride, I started my whining right then and there. They were calling for 94 degrees in Irvine and needless to say, that's entirely out of my comfort zone for sedentary activities...I couldn't fathom what it would be like cycling in it. Not wanting to be a wuss and back out, I decided to give the ride a shot and I'm glad that I did.

We met at 9:45 a.m. at the Irvine Amtrak Station and quickly started introductions. I knew that I would never be able to keep all of the usernames and real names straight, but I tried my best. I was thrilled to see that one of the forum members had brought his wife along and that another poster had brought another female friend. Nothing against the guys, but it somehow made me more comfortable to know I wasn't the only girl out there on the ride.

At 10:00 a.m. we were off and I soon realized that this ride was not going to be like any other ride I've done. It was fucking hot and only getting hotter. You have to understand that I'm a total wimp and that I normally avoid the heat entirely by riding at 5:15 a.m. More than once, the thought that I bit off more than I could chew crossed my mind. Of course, my ego was able to quiet those thoughts and I kept on pedaling, downing more water than I thought was humanly possible. At the time, had I known that it was hovering somewhere around 104 degrees while we were riding through Camp Pendelton, it probably would have killed the ride for me. I'm glad that I didn't have that confirmation until the ride was long over!

The promise of ocean breezes and cooler temperatures carried me through to Oceanside where we stopped for lunch and contemplated our next move. Some of the guys were planning to turn around after lunch and ride back to Irvine and two of the guys who rode up from Oceanside to meet us in Irvine were calling it a day. My original plan was to take the Amtrak or Metrolink back from Oceanside, but it seemed as though most of the group was going to continue on to Solana Beach. It was so much cooler in Oceanside and the rest of the ride promised oceanfront views and breezes, so I decided to keep on going after lunch. Our food choices in Oceanside were pretty limited, as not many places had outdoor seating that could accomodate all of our bikes. We finally settled on Dairy Queen, but not being able to stomach the thought of consuming actual food (if you can call it that) from there, I snuck off to the Mexican restaurant next door to grab some good food. One other rider had the same idea and we were thrilled to grab some yummy carne asada burritos, which we brought back to eat at DQ with the rest of the group.

After refilling our waterbottles for the second time, we were on our way to Solana Beach. The ride was gorgeous, though sketchy and unnerving at times with all of the cars parked alongside the road. I was feeling good up until the very last stretch when I thought to myself "I'm DONE!!!" Fortunately, the Amtrak station was a mere block ahead, so we really were done...with riding that is. We arrived at the station and had logged just over 62 miles for the day. It was my second longest ride so far, but with the rolling hills and the heat, it was by far my most challenging. By the end of the ride, I was a human salt lick.

Amtrak was having "issues" with a train and they were running behind schedule by several hours. When they finally got the train up and running they told us that no bikes would be allowed because the cars were full and that another train would be along shortly...of course, that didn't happen and we were finally allowed to board the third train. It was after 10:00 p.m. when I finally arrived home, exhausted and glad to see my kids who thought I had abandoned them.

Thanks to The Fixer who was our official photographer on wheels. I swiped some of his shots to add to my flickr site.

A big thanks to all of the riders yesterday who kept me going with their encouraging comments. It was more than a little intimidating to know that I would be riding with all of these experienced riders, but they made me feel very welcome.

It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes...

2006-07-17T09:17:00.000-07:00

Why hello Mr. Armstrong. This my friends, is proof that women do indeed ogle men. This picture was mentioned on a thread entitled "Lance eye candy" on a women's cycling forum and damn...did I mention that it's getting hot in here? One of the posters said that she had a framed Annie Leibowitz print of Lance Armstrong naked on a bike in the rain and I had to see this myself. Feeling confident that Google Images would not fail me in my quest, I set off on my search...

Annie Leibowitz Lance Armstrong-nope
Annie Leibowitz bike-nope
Annie Leibowitz Lance-nope
Lance Armstrong nude- little tiny picture...but getting closer
Lance Armstrong naked- nope
Lance Armstrong Vanity Fair- ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.

Damn! Can I say damn anymore in this blog? I probably could and will, but look at him. Damn! Now that's some nice eye candy.

The Unexpected Metric

2006-07-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

4:05 a.m. That's the time that my alarm went off this morning. I got out of bed, threw on my shorts and jersey and started making breakfast and coffee. Oatmeal with protein powder and frozen strawberries...YUM! After eating and gathering my gear, I set out to meet Tiff and Clark at a park near the Santa Ana River Trail in Huntington Beach. Clark is a Spinning instructor at our gym and has had to endure our neverending road cycling questions for the last couple of months, so we thought it was only fair to invite him along on a ride with us.

In case it looks like Clark is bordering on giant status, he is. The man is ginormously tall...six foot eight to be exact. We figured that we'd be safe riding through the darkness with him in tow. We set off across the wooden bridge where I'm never sure if I'll actually make it to the other side, or if today might be the day that I plunge to my death into the Santa Ana River bed below. It seems like every fourth plank is loose and riding across it makes an awful racket. I'm still trying to decide whether the *ride it as fast as you can and get the fuck off* or *take it slow and steady so if the bridge collapses you have a chance to grab on* approach is best. I pretty much alternate between the two and I've survived. So far.

Since the Santa Ana River Trail is flat with the exception of the underpasses, the ride was less challenging mentally than the hilly ride that we did last week. The biggest challenge was sitting in the saddle for an extended period of time. It was nice to do a steady ride to gauge our endurance for the upcoming century. I was able to get the hang of eating on the bike and not having to stop to refuel and I felt much better over the course of this ride than I did last week. It's amazing what a difference eating just a few hundred more calories over the ride make. Well...that and no hills ;)

If you look closely in the upper right corner of my picture above, you can see the sign that says "Orange County Line." I say it on almost every ride that I take, but it still amazes me how cycling makes the county seem so much smaller to me. Maybe it's because I don't really enjoy driving and sitting in traffic, but I'm finding that I totally enjoy riding to someplace that is 30 miles away.

Our timing on the ride back was great, the headwinds hadn't picked up too much yet and we were able to keep a good pace. Clark had a lunch meeting to be at, so after we crossed the bridge we said goodbye and he headed back down to LeBard Park, while Tiff and I continued down to the beach, determined to finish the entire Santa Ana River Trail. As we approached PCH I asked Tiffanie where we were mileage wise and she said that we were at 58 miles. I looked at her and said...you know...if we ride up the beach trail for just a little bit before turning around, we'll bag a metric century. She started talking about having to go get her TB test read at the doctor and I turned the pleading up a notch and she quickly changed her mind. Honestly, it didn't take much to sway her. As soon as we hit the beach path the headwinds hit us and it felt like someone turned the air conditioning on. Relief from the soaring temperatures...it felt so nice! We turned around before we got to Newland and started the ride back. Damn. There went our nice air conditioning and now it felt like the oven was on. No worries though, we were almost done. The ride back was quick and when we pulled into the parking lot we realized that we had gone over 63 miles! It was a great ride and we exceeded our mileage goal for the day by six miles. Can't wait for the next one. :)

Stats:
Riding Time: 4:28
Total Time: 4:49
Distance: 64 miles
Avg Speed: 14.2

On the road to Los Angeles

2006-07-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Okay...it's not far, but I did have to drive on two different freeways to get there. Our trip today is brought to you by the manufacturers of NoAd sunscreen. Thanks to their crappy product, my kids are one burn closer to skin cancer (insert mommy guilt here) and our weekend plans to lounge around the pool and be lazy were thwarted. Being stuck in the house with three children arguing and whining didn't sound like a ton of fun, so I needed an alternative that didn't involve large amounts of sunshine. When James announced that he was carpooling to work today, I jumped at the opportunity to snag his little 38 mpg car and drive the kids up to use our museum passes in LA. I've been promising them a trip, but I'm boycotting longer trips thanks to my gas guzzling truck and my propensity for being a cheap ass.

Normally we head up to Exposition Park and visit the Natural History Museum and California Science Center, but today our destination was a new one. They've resumed their summer excavation of Pit 91 so we headed up to the George C. Page Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. The minute that we got out of the car the kids found a fenced off tar pit in the parking lot and they immediately bombarded me with non-stop questions. Why is it bubbling? Where is it coming from? Is it hot? Are there dinosaurs in there? Why is there trash in there? Why would an animal go in there? Why couldn't they get out? Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Stop shouting at me and wait until we get into the museum young ones, and all of your questions will be answered.

We wandered around inside of the museum for a few minutes before deciding to heading outside to Pit 91 to check out the excavation before it closed for the day. We carefully studied the chart that listed the Ice Age fossils that have been found this season...sabertooth cat, ground sloth and coyote among others and we matched up the colored flags to the bones down in the excavation pit. Moving on, we took some time to look at some of the other pits around the park and enjoyed watching some big bubbles form in one of the larger pits.

Starting to melt from the heat and realizing that we were supposed to be inside and out of the sun today, we walked back toward the museum. Perfect timing, we walked in right as the educational movie was starting so all of the questions that the kids had were answered, and then some. After the movie we wandered over to the paleontology lab and then onto a great display of over 400 Dire Wolf skulls, which represent just a small portion of the number that they have discovered at Rancho La Brea.

Brandy on Santiago Canyon Road

2006-07-06T12:47:00.001-07:00

Brandy on Santiago Canyon Road
Originally uploaded by cyclemama.

Tiffanie on Santiago Canyon Road

2006-07-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Tiffanie on Santiago Canyon Road
Originally uploaded by cyclemama.

View from Santiago Canyon Road

2006-07-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

View from Santiago Canyon Road
Originally uploaded by cyclemama.

Tiffanie choking down a Clif Shot gel...she almost puked after I took this picture!

2006-07-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

Originally uploaded by cyclemama.

We did it!!!

2006-07-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

The clock is ticking and the Cool Breeze Century is just six weeks away. Tiffanie and I decided that we needed to step up our mileage this week, so we've been rising before the sun and getting out for some early morning riding before it gets too hot. Monday and Wednesday we did just over 25 miles each day and the plan for Thursday was to do a long and hilly ride.

I mapped our route and came up with a plan to leave the Back Bay area in Newport Beach and ride through Irvine and up to Santiago Canyon Road looping back around through south county and back to our starting point. As I planned the route, I noticed that it had a little more climbing than we were accustomed to. Okay really. It had a shitload of climbing in comparison to the very flat routes that we normally take along the coast here in west Orange County. Feeling great about our rides earlier in the week, we felt ready to take this one on.

3:45 a.m. and my alarm is going off. As I walk down the stairs I hear little voices...no...it couldn't be...yes. 2/3 of my kids are awake and sitting at the kitchen table drawing. What the hell?!?!? James tells me that they woke up when he got in from work a little after 1:00 a.m. and they were just so cute that he couldn't send them back to bed. Ummm...okay. They're your problem now buddy, I'm going riding! I ate breakfast gathered my things and drove off into the darkness.

I arrived at our starting point and noticed that today was street sweeping day where I had planned to park. Okay...plan B. Off to the Ralph's parking lot up the road. Some employees were arriving and I asked one of them if they had a bathroom inside that I could use and the guy tells me that the store is closed. Fine. I'll just pee in a bush in your parking lot then. Thanks.

After the illegal public urination, we set off into the early morning and quickly hit the San Diego Creek Trail. It was a beautiful ride with baby bunnies hopping on and off of the trail every so often. Once we hit Harvard we hopped off of the trail and onto the road. We worked our way through Irvine and up to Portola, finally hitting Jamboree and facing our first climb of the day. Ho-leeeeeeeeeeeeee shit. As a climbing novice, I actually thought I could take this in my middle ring and gave it a damn :::huff::: good :::puff::: try :::huff::: before :::puff::: figuring out that NOW would be a good time to drop into my granny gear. Whew! That's better! Spin, spin, spinning up the hill, we reached Chapman and our turn onto Santiago Canyon Road.

One small hill out of the way and we decide it's a good time to stop and try out some gel for the first time. I had the PowerBar gel in Strawberry Banana and Tiff had the Clif Shot Razz flavor. It was our first experience with gels, and with great reluctance and uncertainty, we ripped open our tiny packages. First taste...not too bad, ewwww...it's sweet and thick...too sweet...ewwww...need water pronto! I look over at Tiff as she's sucking hers down and snap a picture. Right after I took it she was seriously on the verge of hurling...wish I would have captured that moment!

Setting off from our gel experience, we enjoyed the rolling hills of Santiago Canyon and come up on our first downhill. I keep hearing cyclists talk about how the fun descents make the climbing worth it, but as a new cyclist I was terrified of the thought of going downhill...until today. What a rush! I didn't even think once about braking and once I was down that first hill I was thirsty for more and couldn't wait for the next one. I turned around and could tell right away that Tiff was feeling the exact same way. The cool cloud cover, the smells, the beautiful scenery, it was all perfect!

The rest of the ride on Santiago Canyon went by too quickly and before we knew it, we were passing Cook's Corner and the Aliso Creek Trail entrance. Oops! Luckily Tiffanie noticed right away, so we turned our bikes around and hit the trail. We had planned to take the trail down to Muirlands but we were stopped by a detour sign and another cyclist turning around mentioned something about a large tractor on the trail and he told us to cut over to Los Alisos and then hop back on the trail down the road. After a detour through Mission Viejo we finally hopped back on our planned route in Irvine and made our way back to the San Diego Creek Trail. I was feeling a little bit hungry at this point, but we decided to keep pushing and eat after the ride. As we came up on Back Bay and the turn onto Eastbluff I hit a wall. I don't know if it was the smells of fresh asphalt and smoke as the workers re-paved that section of Jamboree or the fact that mentally I knew that I was a mere 1/4 mile away from the car, but my body just didn't feel like going any more. I slowed way down up the last little section of Eastbluff, but I made it to the truck and by that time I was starving! Tiff mentioned that stretching would probably be a good idea and I agreed. It's a little hard to hold stretches when you're greasy and grimey from sweat and sunscreen, but I did my best and then we were outta there.

We drove over to Starbucks on PCH and Bayside and made a beeline for the bathroom where I splashed my face off with water. Feeling slightly more presentable, I went to join Tiff in line and placed my order. Venti Coffee Light Frappucino, chicken caesar salad sandwich and reduced fat banana chocolate chip cake. Food never tasted so good! As we scarfed our food we both felt our mental alertness coming back to us...we had both been feeling a little fuzzyheaded after the ride. We realized that we should have stopped after we got off of the Aliso Creek Trail and grabbed some food to refuel at that point. 50 miles on one energy gel and one Luna Bar just wasn't enough. It was a good lesson learned though and we'll know better for next time.

Stats:
Riding Time: 3:58
Total Time: 4:38
Distance: 51.9 miles
Avg Speed: 13
Max Speed: 30.7

Photographic evidence...

2006-07-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

that bringing a flat iron camping with you is a good thing. Look at that hair. Does that look like the hair of someone who had already been camping for five days? Good hair...one of the important things in life, even when you're camping.

The trip

2006-06-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Well we've been back for oh...11 days now and I'm just getting around to blogging. To spare you all of the details, I'll try to sum it up quickly.

July 8th. Left HB. Arrived in Goleta. Saw the Aids Life Cycle riders. Hiked (walked really) to Nojoqui Falls. Played at Refugio State Beach. Watched the aftermath of a tree falling on a tent. Packed up. Stopped in San Simeon to see the Elephant Seals. Arrived in Big Sur. Ranger led hike around on the Big Sur River. Met some cool people from OC. Enjoyed a day at Pfeiffer Beach. Hiked to Pfeiffer Falls. Drove to Point Lobos State Reserve. Hike the Sea Lion Point Trail. Packed up and said goodbye to Ticia and family. Drove to San Jose. Invaded Maribel's showers with three funky children. Lots of wine. Met some MD friends at the park. Build a Bear, Mexican food and cake for Avery's birthday. More wine. Made homemade tortillas. Packed up. Drove the 5 fwy home. Almost died from boredom. Met James at IHOP near LAX for dinner. Arrived home safely. Spent a whole day uploading and labeling pictures on flickr.

There you have it...the 10 day trip in a nutshell. After 11 days home, I've got nothing else. Moral of the story. Blog when it's fresh in your mind. I need a laptop!

For your viewing pleasure, I present...

El Capitan State Beach

Elephant Seals in San Simeon

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

and last but not least...

The invasion on Maribel's house

On the Road...Really

2006-06-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Tent...check
Mummy bags...check
Food...check
Flat Iron...check

Yes...I'm bringing my flat iron camping with me. We're not really roughing it, I have three kids with me and half of the belongings that we own are packed in the truck, so I figure, why not? The bathroom at the campground has an outlet and my hair might as well look nice while I'm sitting around the campfire, right? I'll be back in a little over a week, ready to bore you to tears with the 487 pictures that I have taken.

Let the procrastination begin...

2006-06-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I'm a procrastinator. I'll try to play it off by telling you that I work better under pressure, but that's bullshit. I'm a procrastinator plain and simple and at no time does the procrastinator in me rear it's ugly head more fiercly than when I have a camping trip coming up. You would think that packing for camping trips would be a fairly simple task for someone who took six trips last season, but it's the same feeling of panic over what clothes to pack, what food to bring, shopping, cooking the food, etc. that sends me into a mode of bitchiness, irritability and ultimately procrastination in the days leading up to a trip. We leave Thursday and if I was smart, I would spend the day today getting some stuff done. This blog however, serves as evidence that I'll find anything...and I mean anything to do besides pack when I'm supposed to. Off to brush my dog's teeth.

Overheard...

2006-06-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

Marcellus: gimme summa that candy Aveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Avery: no
Marcellus: gimme some!
Avery: No!
Marcellus: she won't gimme any of that candy
Me: maybe you could ask in a nicer voice
Marcellus: GIMME SUMMA THAT CANDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Avery: no
Marcellus: YOU ARE GREEDY AND YOU ARE A FOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

Can you feel it? Sibling love at it's finest.

The 2.9 Mile Ride

2006-06-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the day. I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. to get in my very first early morning ride. After one push of the snooze button, I dragged myself out of bed, put on my long sleeve jersey and knickers and wandered downstairs to eat half of a bagel. By the time I was ready to roll the sun was up, so I took off from home instead of driving down to the beach path. My goal was to ride the same route that I did yesterday...Magnolia to the end of the Newport beach path, turn around and ride north to the end of Bolsa Chica State Beach, then back to Magnolia. With six extra miles added in going to and from the beach from home, I was looking at getting a 32 mile ride before the crowds hit the paths.

Of course, the best laid plans...blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. Shit happens and my shit just happened to go down right in front of Huntington Beach Fire Station Number Four. I'm riding down Magnolia feeling great and enjoying the cool morning air when my smooth ride starts to feel not so smooth anymore. Damn...I've flatted in the front. So I hop off of my bike, fairly confident...okay, truth be told, I wasn't confident at all because I'd only changed one flat and it was in my living room and it took me an hour. I figure that I don't have any choice but to change the thing, so I flip the bike over and get to work. Just as I'm getting started, the fire engine pulls into the station. One of the guys pops his head out and asks if I'm okay. I tell him that I think that I can handle it and he says "Okay, well if you need anything we're all awake and there are four of us that can come over, stand around and watch you." After struggling for several minutes I finally get the tire off of the rim and start checking for a leak. I found the hole in the tube pretty easily, but can't find anything in the tire that might have caused it, despite checking for a good five minutes. I put in the one spare tube that I had and put the tire back on the bike, wave goodbye to the fireman and I'm on my way. For a minute. Something isn't feeling or sounding right and let's face it...I'm a total newbie and I was just pretending that I knew what I was doing back there. I turn into the park behind the fire station and after riding there for a couple of minutes, the little voice inside of me tells me to call it a day and bag the ride. I decide to swallow my pride and go make friends with the firemen.

I explain the situation to the fireman who had been checking up on me while I was changing my tire and he asks me if I'd like a ride home. I accept and ask if one of them has a truck. He tells me that they can't break the crew up and that I'd have to ride home on the fire truck. Now who would turn down a ride like that? They load my bike into the hose bed on top of the truck, open the door and ask me to take a seat. We chatted about kids, their schedules, my husband's job and the fact that if this had happened yesterday instead of today, that one of their firemen is a roadie and would have been able to fix it in five minutes flat. Before I knew it we were pulling up in front of my house. As they're unloading my bike I hear them shouting across the road to the firemen at Fire Station Number Three which is about 300 feet from my front door. Good natured ribbing at 6:40 a.m. which I'm sure that my neighbors appreciated. What do I care though? I got to ride home in a firetruck. Yeehaw!

Sprummer...

2006-06-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

doesn't feel like spring, but technically it's not summer...yet. The weather has been amazing this week and the countdown is on. This morning while riding, it dawned on me that in approximately three weeks, every public school in the Huntington Beach area will be on summer break. You do know what that means, don't you? It means that the number of days that I can ride on the beach bike path are limited. Gone will be the days that I ignore the sign telling me that the speed limit is 10 m.p.h., speeding down the path encountering pedestrians every half mile or so. In their place will be the masses. The masses that flock to our local beaches to enjoy the sand, surf and sun. The masses that walk out onto the bike path without looking first. The masses that send their tiny tots walking out into the bike path alone. The masses that decide that they forgot something in the car and leave their coolers and beach chair sitting in the middle of the path while they go and retrieve it. The masses that let their dogs wrestle with one another on a long leash smack dab in the middle of the path. The masses that are just that...massive numbers of people in one spot. Sprummer is leading the way to summer and the masses are slowly starting to make their appearance. So here you go masses...I'm gifting the beach path to you. I'll probably be safer riding on the streets this summer.

Tiff's maiden voyage

2006-06-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

So my good friend Tiff IM's me first thing this morning and tells me that she'll be kid-free for a couple of hours and that she is going to take her new road bike out for a spin in the park. Not wanting to miss her first ride, I immediately called Grandma and begged her to watch the boys for a couple of hours so I could join her. As I pulled up to her house she was standing outside eating breakfast and she actually jumped up and down with excitement, it was so adorable. Ready to go, we headed for the park by her house and she soon realized that she was not going to be satisfied riding in circles for an hour. We left the park and headed down to the beach where we rode down to the end of Bolsa Chica. Periodically during the ride she would get an ear to ear grin on her face and shout out "this is so much fun!" It's exciting to see my good friend with the same enthusiasm that I have for cycling. Today our total mileage was 17.3 miles and that was only because I was pressed for time and needed to get back to pick up the boys and fetch Avery from school. I know that she could have kept going and going. We're going to have many, many wonderful rides ahead of us. Now I just have to convince her that she should take the plunge and sign up for the Cool Breeze Century. I know that she's stronger and more ready than she thinks she is.

Tour de Orange County Bike Paths

2006-05-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

You know that the cycling bug has hit when it starts affecting your life in the subtle ways. You're more worried about finding the perfect jersey than the perfect street clothes, the guys at the local bike shop start remembering your name and you stop at one drink while you're out a bar the night before a group ride.

I set the alarm for 6:10 a.m. and I was up, eager to start my day and get ready for my first group ride. I was meeting some members of the Team Estrogen forum and our fearless leader Pam had put together a great ride for us. Our meeting point was in Tustin Ranch at Cedar Grove Park. As I pulled into the parking lot, I was greeted by the smiling faces and waves of Pam, Tracy and Cathy. I knew right away that I was going to like this group of enthusiastic women. As we were getting ready to ride we snapped a few pictures and talked our heads off.

More riders trickled in as time went on and Pam's friend Wayne kindly changed my rear tube which had a slow leak that we noticed as Pam was inflating my tire with her floor pump. As we were all getting ready, the guys from Paramount Racing were getting ready for their ride as well. I thought about joining them on their ride, but I didn't want to embarass any of them with my lightning fast speed, so I opted to stay with the Team Estrogen group ;)

Before long we were off on our journey which Pam had dubbed "Tour de Orange County Bike Paths." We jumped from path to path, starting off on the Mountains to the Sea Trail and then hitting Hick's Haul, Walnut Creek, Quail Hill, Shady Ridge and San Diego Creek Trails before reaching the Dover side of Back Bay.

After a white knuckle descent on the trail running parallel to Dover, we pushed on to Balboa Island with the intention of taking the ferry across to Balboa Peninsula. Plans changed as we got a glimpse of the holiday traffic and the line of cars, pedestrians and people on bikes waiting to cross on this Memorial Day. We backtracked off of the island and headed for the shopping center across the road for some lunch at Java City. I don't frequent Java City very often, but when I do I have to order the Vegetarian Sandwich with three cheeses on wheat. This is quite possibly the yummiest sandwich ever. Yum.

Our bellies full from lunch and feeling much more energetic, we headed across Pacific Coast Highway and through Newport Dunes RV park where we crossed a bridge that was so bumpy that I'm pretty sure that I'm now a victim of something similar to shaken baby syndrome. Leaving the "Ritz of RV parks" we found ourselves in Back Bay. It was absolutely gorgeous out and the views were amazing. One short but tough climb at the very end and we were back on the San Diego Creek Trail heading back to Tustin. The ride back was almost entirely bike path and went by really quickly. About two miles before the end of our ride our fearless leader Pam flatted, but was quickly back on the road with Wayne playing the part of mechanic and changing out her tube.

As we rode back in to Cedar Grove Park I was informed that our ride was 42.5 miles...my longest ride yet! My first group ride was a success. Saying goodbye to new friends, we were already plotting our next ride. I am so thankful that I landed with such a nice and friendly group of cyclists. Walking away, I felt like I was a better cyclist after this group ride and I learned so much today. Can't wait for next time!

Just me and the bicyclette...

2006-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

the kind in the bottle, not to be confused with the one that I ride. The visiting best friend dropped off a bottle of syrah along with her daughter this evening. I believe her words were "you might need to drink this if my daughter is spending the night." I'd like to say that the children are driving me to drink, but alas...all is calm and they are upstairs watching a movie. I really have no excuse for sitting here drinking red wine by myself. I guess I could go out on a limb and say that I'm being proactive...just in case they get all wild and crazy later. I have a head start.

Reunited...

2006-05-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

The first camping trip of the year has come and gone. Sadly, it is one of only three destinations for us this season. It's a far cry from the monthly trips that we've grown accustomed to, but what we lack in quantity this year will hopefully be made up for in quality. We get to share these trips with our very special friends from the northwest.

It's been ten months since we said farewell to our best friends as they moved forward on a new journey in their lives and left Huntington Beach to live in Washington. I've missed them more than you can imagine and it's been a very long ten months without them. Despite that, as we pulled into Leo Carrillo State Park on Tuesday and saw their familiar SUV and smiling faces, it was as if we stepped into a time warp and no time had passed at all. The kids picked up right where they left off and the only thing that appeared to be different was that Ticia's baby bump had been replaced with the most yummy, buttery nine month old I had ever seen.

In keeping with tradition, we spent the first day talking about maybe getting up and going to the beach or on a hike. Discussion was as far as we usually get as our good intentions become nothing more than that...good intentions. The camping chairs and conversations usually get the better of us and we vow to actually get up and do something tomorrow. The kids enjoyed the campfire for a short while before we scurry them off to dreamland, eager for my favorite part of the night...sitting with the girls around the campfire. It's like mom's night out without the hassle of finding a babysitter and though the kids are just feet away from us sleeping soundly in their mummy bags, we're able to recharge and relax with adult conversations.

The weather was gorgeous when we woke up and we decided that an early hike would be great. Our destination was Charmlee Wilderness Park. Remembering from last year when we had hiked this park that there was a $3 parking fee, I was forced to indulge in a Starbucks VentiCoffeeLightFrappucinoNoWhip in order to break my $10 bill before we headed up the winding Encinal Canyon Road to the park. Armed with Luna bars, raisins, apples and lemon cookies to bribe the reluctant three year old with, we set off. The trail was much more overgrown than it had been last June when we visited and a warning from the the man in the nature center had us cautiously watching for rattlesnakes with every step that we took. We arrived at our destination quickly and were rewarded with an amazing view. We stopped to regroup, eat some snacks and snap some pictures with that gorgeous backdrop. It was getting rather hot at this point and there was no shade in sight, so our break was short and we set off to finish the loop.
This happened to be a milestone hike for my little man. It was the first time ever that he did it all on his own, without me picking him up and having him freeloading for part of the hike. It took much encouragement, praise and bribery (did I mention the lemon cookies?) but he did it and he was so proud of himself. As we neared the end of the hike he looked at me and shouted "I'm a tough boy!!" I agreed, and my arms were thankful that at three and a half, he's finally decided to carry his own weight.

Worn out and hungry from our hike we all headed back to camp to refuel and rest a little before we headed to the beach. We decided on El Matador State Beach which is a few miles south of Leo Carrillo. The excited almost six year old in the family decided that skipping down the very steep dirt path with a huge dropoff was a good idea and I had to break out the "mean mommy" voice in order to reign her back in. Near heart attack behind me, we made it down to the beach and walked south a little bit to find refuge from the wind. I would normally post pictures right about now but my camera stayed safely in the case as we were being pelted by sand being fiercly blown in our direction. The kids didn't seem to mind and played happily in the water and up on the sand. It dawned on me while we were standing there being assaulted by this sand storm that it might have been a better idea to visit the beach in the morning when it was warm and calm, and then hike in the afternoon when it was windy, but you live and learn. We'll remember that next time.

As we were leaving the beach Ticia was headed to the store and I asked her to grab some french bread and red wine. The bread was my attempt to liven up the Campbells Chunky Soup I was planning to feed the kids when we got back to camp. When they arrived back, we were all pleasantly surprised to find that they went all out and bought steaks! The chunky soup went straight back into the food box. We dined on salad, cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, couscous, steak and red wine. It was perfect!

Once the kids were snug in their bags, we met up at the campfire to talk the night away. I'm not sure of the time that we went to bed, but it was late, or early...depending on how you look at it. The morning came too soon and I had the realization that we always choose the night before we leave to stay up really late and indulge in alcoholic beverages, which makes breaking camp so much more painful in the morning. It's always worth it though, and I'm looking forward to the next trip. El Capitan and Big Sur are on the agenda...I can't wait!

Crazy? Maybe...

2006-05-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

I think I might be, but that's okay. I've been enjoying my Mother's Day/30th birthday present, a Trek 1000 WSD road bike.

There is so much to learn about road cycling and I landed at a website that has been a tremendous help. Team Estrogen has a great women's cycling/tri forum and everyone there has been so helpful. I've acquired most of the gear that I need for now...I was practically living at the local bike shops for about a week.

Back to Team Estrogen...not only are the women there helpful in answering questions about getting started, they're extremely motivating as well. How motivating, you ask? So motivating that I've signed up to do the an organized ride in August...a mere 12 weeks from today. On Saturday August 19th, I will be riding the Cool Breeze Century up in Ventura. I have some time do decide which route to do, and right now it is between the metric century, which is just over 60 miles and the century, which is 102 miles. My decision will lie in the hills and just how comfortable I get with climbing...actually to be honest...it's the descending that I'm more concerned with at the present moment. I know that my comfort level will increase the more that I ride, so I plan to get in some hill training locally, train with the full 102 miles in mind and see where I'm at a couple of weeks before the ride.

So far my longest ride has been 32 miles, which I did on Thursday afternoon. I easily could have kept going, but it was James' only day off and I didn't want to be gone for too long. I was also able to get a 31 mile ride in on Friday morning. My plan had been to do 30 miles on my 30th birthday, but I threw an extra mile in for good measure. Looking at my mileage so far, I'm almost 1/3 of the way to riding a century...looking at it that way makes it seem less daunting. We have some camping plans and my best friend will be visiting for a month, so I won't get a ton of riding in during the next four weeks, but I'll sneak some rides in here and there when I can. Mid-June is when I plan to really step up my mileage and hill training for the Cool Breeze.