Ride of a Thousand Turns

Ok, so maybe there weren't a thousand turns, but there were a lot of them, especially for a 64 mile ride. Our route sheet for Saturday's ride was a page and a half long. There was a good chance someone was going to get lost. Thankfully I only missed one turn and didn't go too far out of the way before realizing it.

I realized about a mile down the road, after turning onto Homestead, that I had forgotten to start my Garmin. I was glad that I only lost a mile, but i really need to get in the hang of starting it as soon as I get on my bike to start riding. I was riding with Scott, Jamie and Ken until we all caught up with the last rider. Jamie was on sweep duty for the first leg of the route and we had given the team a head start. Scott, Ken and I continued on ahead.

We thought that we might have gotten lost in this neighborhood we were riding in, where all the streets were named 'Something' Springs. It has to be hard to give people directions to your house if you live in that neighborhood. Anyway, it turns out we were going the right way after all. Just when we stopped to check the map to see where we were I saw our SAG car pull up across the street. He had gone to find someone who had actually gotten lost. We continued on, with the climb on Prospect up next. After climbing Prospect we rode past some beautiful homes in Saratoga.

I didn't eat all of my breakfast that morning and it was starting to catch up with me. Luckily we only had a little bit to go before getting to the rest stop and it was mostly flat miles. We made it to Starbucks and I grabbed a yogurt to eat. The Greek yogurt from Starbucks comes in a little plastic cup that has a smaller nested cup that has granola in it. My hand was so shaky that I couldn't get the little granola cup out. Thankfully, my teammate Merrill helped me out. Bad Melissa for not eating breakfast! I need to really be careful on ALC so that I don't let my blood sugar drop too low. I'm usually pretty good about it though.

After rest stop one, we headed out on Highway 9 towards Los Gatos. Instead of heading straight towards town, we turned onto Montalvo Rd and headed up to the Arts Center (http://montalvoarts.org/). I had no idea that the Villa was there. I have seen so much more of the bay area since I started doing these training rides for ALC. I will have to go back there sometime, and check the place out.

We headed over to San Jose for lunch. When we pulled into the plaza we were strongly encouraged by Jamie to eat at Taco al Pastor. It was a good choice so we weren't arguing with his call. We enjoyed our lunch inside to escape the chilly air outside. It was nice to warm up for a little while.

After lunch we rode through New Almaden towards the Almaden Reservoir. The area was beautiful with all of the flags lining the streets and the old-timey buildings. However, not long after we passed the reservoir, the area got a little shady (and i'm not talking a lack of sun). We were warned that morning, that you do not want to continue on past the stop sign, because you would soon start to see signs about trespassers being shot at. As we rested a bit to catch out breath and regroup, we admired the little shacks on the other side of the road. Just kidding, they looked like a little meth lab city over there. We didn't want to hang around too long, so we were quickly on our way. As we retraced our steps (so to say) we blew past the rest stop that was at Quicksilver park because we had a good pace going and didn't feel the need to stop.

We made our way up to San Jose and ended up making our own rest stop at Greystone park. This was a rest stop on one of our rides a few weeks ago, but we had missed it last time. That is the one nice thing about riding on the same roads, you start to know where you can make your own rest stops if need be.

From there we made our way towards our last rest stop in Campbell (at Starbucks, of course). There was one turn we missed along the way, but as I mentioned earlier, it didn't take me long to figure out we missed it. There was only supposed to be a 1/10 of a mile in between turns, and since we had gone a little bit further than that, I knew we must have missed it. We decided to make a U-turn and we were back on route soon enough.

While we were at the last rest stop I overheard someone asking a fellow rider why she was only wearing one shoe. Apparently she had lost a screw in one of her cleats and it was causing her to not be able to clip out. So there was her other shoe, just hanging off her pedal.

(photo taken by a fellow teammate)

Thankfully this hasn't happened to me, but it reminded me that I need to buy a spare set of cleats for ALC just in case something like this happens. Better to be prepared and not need it, than out of luck.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. There were only 10 fairly flat miles left. We headed through Cupertino and over to the pedestrian bridge that crosses over 280. After arriving back at the car and signing out, Scott went and bought the gang our usual chocolate milks. Always good to finish a ride with a nice cold Soy chocolate milk. :) Yum!

I managed to get a 14 mph average for this ride. I'm very happy with the progress I have made over the training season and the past two years in general. When I first started riding with the South Bay Blaze, I was averaging around 10 mph. Now I am up to 14-15 mph. That is a great improvement that I am very proud of. Last year, I wanted so bad to be able to ride with a certain group of people that I had come to know. unfortunately they were too fast for me. Now, I can keep up with them and have been able to ride several training rides with them this year. I'm so happy with all that I have accomplished so far, and look forward to continual improvements.

This was a great way to end our official training ride series!

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos. I think I was just trying to keep moving to keep warm and stay with the pack.

Happy Earth Day!

Today I enjoyed Earth Day with a chilly, windy, bicycle ride around China Camp after work. Despite the strong winds, I managed to have my best ride ever around China Camp.

That's right, I hit an average of 16 mph!!! Wooohooo!! I was so happy to see that on my Garmin as I said 'screw you' wind! Do you see that wind speed around 7pm... 13 mph. Yeah, and unfortunately that wasn't a tail wind. There was one point where I could actually feel the wind push me sideways. CRAZY!

The Queen Stage

Saturday's final training season ride was a great one. The ride was 87 miles long, which was my longest ride ever! I managed to get a pretty good average speed as well, 14.4 mph. I'm not too sure why the ride was called The Queen Stage, but that isn't really important. 

Last week I had forgotten my front wheel. So this time, since I was able to park my car in the garage, I packed up the night before. I made sure that I had everything and was all ready to go in the morning.

Since this was our last official training ride of the season we were encouraged to wear our South Bay Blaze kits for the team photo. This is the amazing team of individuals that I have been training with. They are my second family and the reason why I drive 80 miles for training rides.

The Queen Stage route had us doing two climbs, Alpine and Calaveras. I had never done either of these climbs before. I had missed the Calaveras ride last year because my friend was doing his first triathlon and he had asked me to go take photos for him. As for Alpine, when I did the guinea pig ride where were supposed to go up Alpine I wasn't doing so well with the heat so I decided to skip the climb. I'm glad that I finally got to do both of them this time.

First up was Alpine. The incline wasn't too steep so I managed to cruise along at about 9 to 10 mph which for me is a good pace. I'm not a fast climber so it is nice when I'm not going below 6 mph. Plus, it was a gorgeous place to be. Just look at the nicely paved road through the trees.

After our out and back on Alpine we headed over towards Palo Alto and stopped off at a Starbucks, of course. I think that Starbucks is like our unofficial sponsor. We seem to almost always have one rest stop at a Starbucks.

In order to get over to our next climb, we needed to cross the Dumbarton Bridge. I enjoy crossing the bridge because I always remember the first time I crossed it. I think that it was only a year and a half ago, but I did it on my mountain bike. A friend of mine had organized a ride for a small group of us. My husband and I struggled up and over the bridge. I can remember my friend standing at the top cheering us on as he took a video of us riding past. Now, as I easily ride over the bridge I always have that fun memory.

It was a clear day and you could actually see from end to end of the bay. I could actually see the skyline of San Francisco, but didn't take a photo because I know that it wouldn't show in the photo. This is looking south towards Milpitas.

Once we made our way across the bridge we only had about 10 miles to go before Lunch. This was earlier than usual for lunch, but because we were heading toward Sunol where there aren't really any places for lunch, we had to eat a little bit earlier when we were in Newark.

After eating some tasty Chipotle, a small group of us headed out toward Sunol. To get through Niles/Fremont we hopped on the Alameda Creek Trail. I used to ride this trail when I lived in Fremont. It was nice to get back on it and be rolling along at 19 mph. At the end of the trail we got onto Niles Canyon Road and headed up to Sunol. Our next water stop was near the train station in Sunol. I dropped behind the group on the climb up. I wish that I could ride a bit faster on hills, but I don't really know what to do to help with that. I know that all around I am getting stronger as a cyclist, but I still have a lot of room to grow in the area of climbing.

At the rest stop I took a little extra time to rest. I knew that the Calavares climb was coming up and I wanted to make sure I was ready for it. I told the group that I was riding with it was ok to go on ahead without me, I knew that I would get dropped anyway. I can easily keep up with them on flats, but there is no way I can keep their speed uphill. Before I was ready to head out I hit up the oh so lovely porta potty by the train station. I noticed that there was a 40 in there and though, 'you must be in a pretty crappy place in life if you are drinking a 40 in a porta potty'.

There were about four miles to go before the real climbing started on Calavares. I ended up riding the whole Calavares climb by myself. I don't really enjoy riding by myself especially when there is climbing involved after already having ridden several miles. When I find myself getting tired when i'm riding solo, I can easily slip into the mindset of wanting to give up. I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I get cranky, sometimes find it hard to breath, and almost on the verge of tears. I hate when I get that way, but luckily I have started to be aware of the onset and can channel my yoga practice to help calm myself down. I had to do this once on the Calavares climb as I was alone, tired and my back was starting to ache.

Eventually I came across another Blaze rider and it was nice to see a familiar face. I also came along our SAG car and it was almost like seeing a mirage. I pulled over and gladly accepted the red vines that were being handed to me. After filling my water bottle up with some cold water, I went on my way knowing that the majority of the climb was over and there was just a bit of rollers left before the downhill into Milpitas.

These are some of the photos I took on my 'catching my breath' breaks.

This was after the steep and way too short downhill on Calavares. From the hill you could see the bay and it was a beautiful view! I wish I could have gotten a better photo to show the view but I didn't want to walk back up the hill just to get the photo.

After Calaveras, there was one last rest stop in Milpitas, at a Starbucks of course. I met back up with the group there and road the rest of the route with them. Thankfully the last 17 or so miles were pretty flat, which helped me get my average speed back up.

I made it back to my car before 6:20 pm which was nice. I ended up with an average speed of 14.4 mph which isn't as good as last week, but still good. I'm happy to see that my overall average speed is getting better and better. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that only a year and a half ago I was at a 10 mph average. Also, I couldn't have even imagined going 20 mph let along hitting 43 mph. Amazing how much can change in a year.

Evening Trail Ride

Today when I got home after work I decided to take my mountain bike out for a spin around the park. It is nice to live so close to a park that has decent trails. I only did 7 miles, but it was nice to just get out there and cruise along the river.

At least I got some cool photos...

Sunday's Solo Recovery Ride

On Sunday I did a short 20 mile recovery ride on my own up here in Petaluma. Nothing exciting happened during the ride, which is a good thing. Also, I didn't stop to take any photos because I was a bit chilly and just wanted to keep moving. I did realize that I could use some more base layers in my cycling wardrobe. I didn't really put much effort into thinking about the weather that morning, so I should have put on a little more than a jersey with arm warmers. Oh well, it was just motivation to keep moving and get back home.

Tour de Reservoirs

Saturday's ride consisted of 81 glorious miles with a tour of three beautiful reservoirs. This is my longest ride to date, and to top it off, I hit an AWESOME average speed, 15 mph!

The day started out fine, I woke up, got all my gear together and hit the road. I got to the meet up point and started to get my things in order. I looked into my trunk and realized that I didn't have my front wheel. Of all the things to forget, this may be the worst. I can ride without gloves, shoes, or various other things; it is a little hard to ride without a front wheel. I thought that I was going to be dead in the water and end up driving all the way back home without having done a ride. Thankfully, one of our amazing TRLs came to my rescue. He was able to find a wheel for me to borrow for the day.

So my bike was patriotic, red, white and blue. It was weird to look down and see a blue wheel, but I was thankful to have it.

We also got our new SBB t-shirts that are for our group photo in camp on Day 5 of ALC. The shirts look pretty good and I can't wait to wear it. I'm going to keep it all nice and new until the photo.

As soon as the announcements, stretching, route review and safety speech were done, everyone hit the road. I really need to get my butt in gear because I swear that as soon as the safety speech is over the majority of people are on their bike and heading out of the parking lot. Last year there would be a couple minutes before everyone started rolling. I don't want to keep heading out towards the back of the pack.

Anyways, I made my way down to Saratoga. It was nice not to be climbing up Mt Eden and Piece on the way. As I got to Saratoga where our first rest stop was, a group of us decided that we were going to skip the first rest stop. We were only at mile 8 and we felt that there was no need to stop yet and the next rest stop was at mile 18, so we only had 10 more miles to go. We made our way down to Los Gatos and over to Almaden Expressway where our second rest stop was.

At the rest stop I found out that my friend was going to be hanging back to ride with the sweep riders. I didn't think that I was going to wait, but in the end I decided to wait. While we waited at Starbucks for all the riders to come in, I joined out team captain in a conversation about AIDS LifeCycle and the South Bay Blaze with a nice older couple. It was fun to talk to someone about what we are doing and I even learned a few things myself. Thankfully I had one of my ALC cards handy, so I gave it to them so that they would have the ALC website and our team name. Then a few minutes later, a woman came up to me and my friend and asked if we were with the group that just rode down Camden about an hour ago. I told her we were and gave her one of my cards because she was asking who our group was.

Once the last rider came through the rest stop we gave them a half hour to forty five minute head start. We all knew that we ride at a faster pace than the last rider, so we didn't want to make them feel like we were rushing them and we also figured that we would be able to ride our own pace. Starting out again after such a ling wait makes it feel like you are starting all over again. I needed to get my body warmed back up and muscles loosened up. Not long down the road I needed to stop and stretch out because one of my muscles in my leg was starting to ache. After a quick stretch break at Celero Reservoir, I was good to go. Not a bad place to stop.

We made our way along Uvas Road towards our next reservoir, Chesbro. As we were riding along on Uvas I noticed some cones and started to see some roadies flagging down riders. I didn't realize at the time which ride they were apart of, but now I believe it was for the Terra Bella ride. My ALC tent-mate was doing that ride on Saturday. As we made out turn onto Oak Glen, my friend lost his route sheet. We happened to be passing another rider at the time and he pointed it the dropped route sheet. I told him thanks, but no worries as we were riding together and I still had my route sheet. When I caught up with my friend, I gave him my spare route sheet that I had grabbed that morning. I grabbed it because I figured it would be a good idea with the way my morning started. I also found out that my friend's front derailleur cable had snapped meaning that we was stuck in her smaller chain ring in the front. Luckily it wasn't a big hindrance; it would just mean that he wouldn't be able to go as fast downhill. We kept on going and finally made our way to rest stop 3 in Morgan Hill. We actually missed the turn for the rest stop but were able to back track a little and find out SAG car. We soon found out that the two sweep riders ended up missing a turn and were already at the Lunch stop.

We had one more reservoir to hit before Lunch, so we quickly moved on. We made our way across Morgan Hill, over the highway and towards Anderson Lake. It is quite a climb to get up to the Dam but it is so worth it! The view is gorgeous at the top.

 Looking out over Morgan Hill. 

 Anderson Lake.

Our bikes at the top of Anderson Dam. 

After a few photos, we headed down and back into Morgan Hill. We pulled into the large shopping plaza on the east side of 101 looking for Erick's Deli. This plaza is where we had lunch the last time we did the Anderson Dam climb. However, we started to realize that this wasn't the plaza we were going to be having lunch at this time. The plaza we needed to be at was on the other side of the highway. We crossed over 101 and joined the group at the correct lunch stop.

After refueling we took a look at my friend's bike before we headed back on the road. We determined that his derailleur cable didn't actually snap, it had pulled out of the derailleur. One of the TRLs was able to secure it in place so that the cable wouldn't scratch up the paint.

We got back out on the road and headed north. Despite the headwinds that we were facing, we still managed to keep a great pace of around 20 mph. I love cruising along a nice open flat road at 20+ mph. I still smile thinking about it. It gives me such a sense of freedom and relaxation.

We had one more big climb of the day and at the top of that large climb was our 4th rest stop. Knowing that I was going to slow down on the climb I told my friend that I would meet him at the top. I had to stop a few times on the hill and at one of my stops I saw a flock of turkeys. I noticed that one of the large turkey's had an arrow stuck in its back. I ended up having to walk a portion of the hill because I was just too hot and tired to keep slowly chugging up the hill. I finally made it to Santa Teresa County Park, but realized that my friend wasn't there. We also realized that some of the other riders that we not too far behind our little group hadn't arrived yet either. We sent the SAG car to find them and discovered that they had missed the park and had kept climbing. I refilled my water bottles, applied more sunscreen and headed down the hill.

There was only one more rest stop to go. After the last rest stop I ended up riding a couple of miles on my own since my friend had gone on ahead after our confusion at the last rest stop. On Santa Teresa Blvd I caught up with some of our TRLs. After stopping at a red light with them, when the light turned green I headed on forward and was almost side swiped by a USPS truck. That mail truck came within inches of me. Thankfully I didn't get startled and was able to hold my line. I hate crappy drivers who don't have the decency to give cyclists space on the road. We are human beings, who have families that we would like to safely get back to. It really doesn't take that much time to wait for a safe opportunity to pass a cyclist.

Another couple miles down the road I caught up with my friend. He was riding with some slower riders, which I thought was strange. Then I found out he had lost his route sheet again, so he needed to stick with someone so that he would know where to go. We picked up the speed and headed to our last rest stop.

There were only 15 more miles to go till the ride was finished. Those last miles were pretty uneventful, and thankfully not difficult. We made it in by 6:10 pm. Another long day out on the road, but a great one!

The Starbucks Soy Chocolate Milk with protein powder tasted amazingly after a our ride!

China Camp, Times Two

I got in two rides this week after work, on Wednesday and Thursday. The China Camp Loop is the easiest ride for me to do after work since I can get through the 13 mile route in just under an hour. So no worrying about not making it in before the sun sets, or having to really think about or plan a new route. I also like this route because there isn't a whole lot of climbing but it also isn't completely flat.

Nothing much of interest happened during my ride. Here are some photos I took during my rides on Wednesday and Thursday.

 (4/9/14) This is the path that I take from downtown San Rafael. It parallels the highway and is all uphill from downtown. 

(4/9/14) Looking North on the bicycle path.

(4/9/14) Mount Tam off in the distance. The sights are beautiful on this ride around China Camp. 

 (4/10/14) I tried to get a photo of the wild turkey that I saw. Of course, just before I took this photo he had his tail feathers all splayed out. Oh well. 

(4/10/14) Here is my bike by the pier at China Camp Beach. 

(4/10/14) My with the pier in the background. 

Party in Flat City

Saturday's ride was (unlucky) number 13 in the South Bay Blaze series; 75 miles with just about 4200 feet of climbing. I thankfully made it through every mile and actually added one.

Before the rides the TRL's have been doing various teach-backs. I have only joined one other teach-back because normally I'm busy getting my stuff together and then trying to sell my fundraising items. This week's teach-back was about mental prep for ALC. I wanted to join this teach-back because I figured that there would be some good information, and I was right. There was an acronym for MENTAL:

Mental preparation
Enjoy the ride
No negative thoughts
Training is key, embrace it.
Attitude
Let go of what you cannot control

I feel like I got a lot of good information from the teach-back. I know that with ALC, the mental aspect of the ride is most likely going to be just as challenging as the physical aspect. I have been starting to practice different things out on the road to help get over the mental blocks and I can tell it is really helping make a difference.

So after our usual stretching, route review and safety speech we headed out on the road. We made our way towards Saratoga where our first rest stop was. Before getting the the rest stop we needed to climb Mt. Eden and Pierce. Mt Eden is no longer a difficult hill for me, it is still a good climb, but I know that I can make it up without much problems. While I was climbing up Mt Eden I saw a little deer hanging out on the side of the road.

Next up, the challenging climb up Pierce. I love that I can tell I am getting so much strong each and every time I do this hill. On Saturday I was able to make it up the steepest part and keep on going after I got to the top. Last time I did Pierce, I had to stop at the top to catch my breath. I did stop a bit further up the road, but it was because I wanted to check on a first time rider that had just walked up the last hill. I wanted to make sure that he was doing OK and knew that there was no shame in having to walk a hill. I had to walk up that steep portion of Pierce my first time as well. After a short break, I continued up the rest of Pierce. Luckily, once I got to Mountain Winery, it was all down hill to the first rest stop.

I made rest stop 1 a quick one and headed back out on the route with my friend Scott. I ended up riding the rest of the route with him on Saturday and I am glad I did. It was great having a friend to ride with, especially on a long ride like this. We headed out of Saratoga and made our way south towards Los Gatos on Hwy 9. We climbed up Kennedy and Scott waited at the top for me. I climb slower than he does, but he always waits at the top for me. We cruised down the back side of Kennedy and thankfully turned right onto Shannon. Turning left takes you uphill back towards Los Gatos. After Shannon came Camden, my favorite part of the day. Getting to the top of Camden isn't too hard, it is a more gradual climb. What I really enjoy is the downhill. Camden has a great downhill for trying to hit speed because it is a fairly straight road with a good slope. As I started to get to the crest of the hill I geared up and tried to get as much momentum as possible. On the down hill I got into my drops and got as low as I could. I felt like I was pretty much laying on the top bar of my bike, but it was all worth it when I looked down at my Garmin and watched as I ticked past 40 mph. I FINALLY broke my 40 mph barrier!!!! I was so excited! I've been trying so hard to break 40 mph. After I uploaded my route I realized that I actually hit 43 mph. So my next barrier to break will be 45 mph. :)

There was an optional rest stop between the first stop at Starbucks and the next one at Spina Farms. However, we couldn't find it. The stop was supposed to be at Parma Park. I was down to only one water bottle so we wanted to stop to fill up my other bottle. We pulled into a park (not the right one) and headed to the water fountain. Unfortunately the water fountain didn't work. Good thing the next rest stop was only 10 miles away.

Not much happened between the park and about a mile before our next rest stop. I took this photo along McKean. The hills were so green.

We cruised down Bailey road heading towards our rest stop at Spina Farms. On the flat stretch before the rest stop I looked back to make sure that Scott was still behind me. I thought that I saw him in the distance so I kept going. I made it to the light where Spina Farms was and waited for him to catch up. However, the rider that was behind me wasn't Scott. I asked if he had passed Scott and he mentioned that he didn't know Scott but there was a rider that was pulling his bike off the side of the road. I decided to go back to see what happened. A half mile back, there was Scott, on the side of the road with a flat tire. :( The not so great thing was that he wasn't able to get his tire off, because there was still too much air in the tube (it was a slow leak) and the little nut that is on the stem wouldn't come loose. We tried to call the SAG car (which we knew was just up the road at the rest stop) but they didn't answer their phone. We were just about to walk our bikes to the rest stop when another rider stopped to make sure we were ok. We explained our situation and luckily he had a wrench and was able to just break off the part of the stem that was causing the issues. So Scott was finally able to take the tire off and get a new tube into the tire. Also, our other SAG car came up and helped us out by providing us with a floor pump. Soon enough we were on our way and got to the rest stop a half mile away.

At Spina Farms we were greeted by the fabulous D'Bree.

About a half mile after the rest stop, I looked down and realized I had a flat. I called out to Scott and we stopped off to change my tube. Since I knew that our SAG vehicle was close by I gave him a call so that I could use the floor pump. Thankfully we were on our way in no time at all.

We were up against more headwinds on Malech, but since the road is pretty flat as it parallels highway 101 I was able to keep a decent speed. Right after we turned onto Metcalf we got onto a paved path that took us over to a neighborhood. Only a mile or two after we got off the path Scott called out, he had another flat.

 

As you can see, Scott wasn't too happy about flat number 2. Thankfully I carry two spare tubes with me so I gave Scott my last spare. A few of our TRLs stopped with us to keep us company while Scott fixed the flat. Mayor Bob told us how he always carries a pair of tweezers in his bike bag to help remove debris from his tires. I hadn't heard of this before and it makes so much sense. Sometimes you get a little piece of glass or a thorn in your tire and it is difficult to get out. Once we were on our way he headed north towards Hellyer Park. We have had a rest stop at the Velodrome there on previous rides, but on Saturday we were just passing through. We eventually turned onto Yerba Buena road and only had about 3 miles till our lunch stop. Those were the longest three miles! I was starving and didn't realize that there was one more hill with almost 300 feet of climbing. That isn't a whole lot, but when you are tired and starving, it was more than enough. I had to stop once on the hill to eat a little something so that I could make it to lunch. We finally made it to lunch and gladly relaxed for a while.

After lunch we had some more climbing. We made our way to Mount Pleasant road. I had a feeling that the word 'mount' was very telling, and I was correct. When we came up to the stop sign we realized that we were heading straight up the large hill to our right. One of the TRL's with us decided to rename the road Mt. Un-Pleasant. Seemed pretty fitting. The climb up wasn't easy, but I was surprised that it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. The views from the top of Mt Pleasant Rd were well worth the climb up there.

The downhill was a nice relief, until I realized that Scott was taking it slower than normal. He felt like his front tire was a little too bouncy. We took it easy but a few miles down the road Scott pulled into the Quick Mart on the corner where our next turn was. He had his third flat of the day. Good thing a teammate had given us her spare tube at lunch, because otherwise were would have been out of luck. I went into the store and bought a pair of tweezers for each of us, so that from now on we would have them with us. While Scott was fixing his flat tire I inspected my own. I found a small piece of glass and was able to get it out using my new tweezers. Good thing I found that, it could have caused another flat and we wouldn't have wanted that. We had enough flats for the day.

The last climb of the day was at Alum Rock Park. It wasn't a steep climb, just a gradual incline. I was rolling along and as I got toward Mount Hamilton Road there was a group of cyclist that were hanging out at their car on the left side of the road. They started to cheer me on as I was approaching. I always find it interesting when strangers cheer me on. I know that I'm slow on hills, so it probably looks like i'm struggling more than I actually am. Still, it is nice to have a little boost mentally.

Our last rest stop was at Alum Rock Park. We made this a quick rest stop since we were so ready for the ride to be over. The last 16 miles were pretty flat. While we were on Berryessa Road, there was a guy on a bicycle with his dog running along side him. It was such a cool thing to see. The dog looked like he was just loving it and had a blast running alongside his owner.

On the final stretch on Homestead I got behind the group because I started to slow down a little bit and ended up stuck at a light. This was a test of my mental toughness, because the last time I rode Hamilton at the end of a long ride, it was very challenging to keep going; we were so exhausted and ready for the ride to be over. I kept my thoughts positive and didn't struggle at all to keep going. I was so happy when I finally pulled into the Starbucks parking lot and saw my teammates waiting for me.

That was one LONG day. I spent about 10 hours out on the road.

As we enjoyed some nice cold chocolate milk we counted out a tally of the day's flat tires. I think for our entire group we counted about 19 flats. That is a LOT of tubes!