PACKING!!!!

I can't believe that ALC is almost here!! There are only 2 days left until I roll out of the Cow palace and head towards Los Angeles. This past year has gone by so fast!

On Monday, since I had the holiday off, I spent the day trying to get all my gear packed up. I really hate packing in general and despite my excitement for ALC, this packing was no different. I have slowly been gathering things for the past month or so, so now I needed to get it all organized and fill in the gaps.

In order to get all my cycling clothes organized I got out 7 gallon-sized bags and labelled them Day 1 through Day 7. Thankfully our team captain had put our a jersey selection guide to help us figure out what we could all wear each day. I got started selecting the days outfits.

Everything I will need (other than arm and leg warmers) is in the bag. That way I can easily grab it and get changed in the morning. No thinking involved, which will be helpful during the grogginess at 4am! Yep you read that right, I will be getting up around 4 am so that I can hit the road at 6:30am when the route opens.

I also packed up little bags for each day that contain what I will be carrying with me in my pockets. The baggies contained items like electrolyte packets, sports beans, sunscreen, wet wipes, gloves, etc. I didn't want to have to think about this stuff either, because I would be very likely to forget something.

I don't know how, but I was able to get all my crap into my bag. My sleeping bag doesn't actually fit, but I've heard that it is ok to have it outside of your bag as long as it is safely strapped down (no bungie cords with the hook ends). Thankfully, my duffle bag has an elastic cord on the top flap that my sleeping bag fit under.

Since I am sure that many people will have similar blue duffle bags, I added some ribbon to help make my bag stand out a little more. I'm hoping that the chances of someone having a blue duffle bag with monkey and orange zebra ribbon as well are very slim. :)

I also got my bike all cleaned up and ready to go. I put some new handle bar tape on since the old tape was getting a little faded. And we CAN'T have that!

Bye bye old tape...

I also added a little sparkle to my bike. I'll give you a sneak peek, but the big reveal of my bike in all its ALC glory will have to wait!

I am so EXCITED for ALC! This week is going to be EPIC! 

Spinning in the Castro

During Memorial Day weekend I went down to the Castro in San Francisco to help out two of my friends with a fundraiser for ALC. They still were trying to raise money to reach their minimums for the ride and I wanted to help out. On Saturday (5/24) I drove down to meet up with the guys. We got ourselves all set up on trainers and started pedaling around 11am. There were three of us on bikes and there were two other teammates helping ask for donations as people walked past.

(Photo taken by Jamie)

We had two donation boxes and it was interesting to watch people feel the need to put money in each box; others didn't care and only put money in one box. It didn't matter either way because the money was going to be combined and then split between Scott and Michael. The guys were informed that they would make more money the less clothes they had on, therefore the topless-ness. At one point, Michael had put his shirt back on and a guy came up, gave put $20 in the box in front of Scott, then turned to Michael and asked why he had his shirt on. After Michael took his shirt off the guy gave him $20. These boys had no shame in trying to hit their minimums for ALC. All for a good cause :)

It was a great day. All in all the we raised $510 total. We had many good laughs throughout the day and will have some inside jokes that are sure to be brought up during ALC. I'm so glad I took part in their fundraiser! Thanks for letting me join you guys!

Windy Lucas Valley Ride

Today after work I decided to try a new route. I love riding around China Camp, but I wanted to switch it up and check out some new roads, so I figured I would head up to Lucas Valley Road.

I got in about 17.5 miles, which is not bad for a mid-week after work ride. I headed out of work and up to the bike path along the highway. When I turned onto San Pedro Rd, instead of going straight and heading towards China Camp, I made the left and turned onto Civic Center Drive. That took me along the highway and up to Lucas Valley Road. I liked riding on Lucas Valley Road. There was a nice bike lane and the road has a very slight incline.

I really wanted to work on my posture during this ride. I have been told that I look like I'm too stretched out on my bike, and I think that it is more of a posture issue than an issue of my bike being too big. I have a tendency to slouch while sitting so that translate over to my bike and I round my back too much. This causes me to stretch out. I feel like I did a lot better today and hopefully this will help make a difference in my riding eventually. I made sure to keep my hips rotated correctly and pull my bike towards me.

It was very windy out there today. I felt like every direction I headed I encountered head winds. This area is usually pretty windy, which I guess is good training, but it really sucks when you are dealing with it. Hopefully it is making be stronger.

I am still trying to figure out my GoPro and get the settings correct. I apparently didn't get it set to the right mode when I started my ride. I thought that I had it on the time lapse photos but I guess not. When I stopped to take a little breather on Lucas Valley Road I realized that I hadn't taken any photos. I quickly figured out that it wasn't in the correct setting. I set the time lapse to take a photo every 30 seconds. I think that still isn't enough photos, because I feel like I missed quite a bit of the ride. Here is the video I put together with the photos I did take:

A Little Heat Won't Stop Me

Yesterday after work I decided to go for a bike ride around China Camp. Even though yesterday was the hottest day this week, I wasn't going to let that stop me. If I can ride in a blizzard last Saturday, I can go to the other extreme and ride in some pretty crazy heat. Just balancing things out, right? :)

Anyways, it was my normal loop, so nothing new and exciting there. Since I had forgotten to bring my regular bicycle water bottles, I ended up using a water bottle that I had at the office. The bad thing is it isn't the most bike friendly water bottle, meaning I had to completely stop to take a drink.

It made for a good reason to take it a little bit slower so that I wouldn't over heat. I also stopped at almost every one of the little parking lots around China Camp so that my bottle was always full.

I also tried out another mode on my GoPro. I changed the settings and selected the time lapse photo option. I set it to take a photo every minute. I think that may be too much time between photos, especially when I am moving along at 15 miles per hour. This is why I am testing it out, so that I can get all the kinks out before ALC. Here is the video I put together with the photos...

Epic Lake Tahoe Adventure

This weekend I went up to Lake Tahoe to participate in a bike ride around the lake on Saturday. Kev and I headed up on Friday, leaving work around 3:00 pm. It was a long drive up there since we hit traffic on 37 between Novato and Vallejo, then again at Vacaville and Davis. We finally made it to the Biltmore hotel in north Lake Tahoe around 8:00 pm.

By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and unloaded the car, everyone was starting to come back from dinner. We were told that there were still a few people down at the restaurant so we headed down to see if we could join them. Unfortunately, when we got there they were just leaving. Oh well, we sat down and got some dinner on our own. When we got back to the hotel we met up with some people down in the casino. I ended up hanging out with Jamie and Scott and watched them roam from slot machine to slot machine. At one point Scott was up a whole $16.80, until we lost it all plus his original $20 he was gambling with. I say we, because both Jamie and I had a hand in his loosing. I gladly walked away with as much money as I had going into the casino (that is what happens when you don't gamble). 

Anyways, on to the actual cycling part of this trip. After all, that is why I keep this blog, to track my training rides, not loosing money in casinos. :) 

On Saturday, we all got up and hit the breakfast buffet at 7 am when it opened. Then we met up outside in the parking lot at 8:30 am. I went down to the lobby a little early to meet up with Gino to get my GoPro, which I had ordered through him earlier in the week. I'm so excited to be able to take shots while I'm riding. Can't wait for all the epic photos I'll be able to get during ALC. I just need to figure out how to use it now... 

 Yep, it's working. :)

We gathered to go over the route which was pretty simple... other than the left out of the hotel parking lot, we only made right turns; always keep the lake on your right. 

We did some stretching and listened to the safety speech. Then it was time for a group photo. Including our SAG support, I believe that there were 65 people there that day, maybe a couple more.

The morning started out a little chilly but once we got going the muscles started to warm up. A couple miles down the road I noticed that my friends had pulled over to get a shot with the lake in the background so I joined them. We knew that there were going to be many beautiful views throughout the day and we wanted to take our time and enjoy as many of them as possible. 

Me, Scott & Michael. These guys have really helped push me to be a stronger and faster rider this year!

We only had a few more miles till we got to the first rest stop. The rest stop was only at mile 7 so we didn't really need to rest too much or fill up the water bottles. So, of course we just took some more photos. How could you not with scenery so beautiful!?

Me and my tent mate Jen. She said that I made her pose like a lady :)

Shortly after the rest stop we started our climb on the east side of the lake (it is the first giant mountain on the elevation chart above). Even though the climb was longer, it didn't seem as hard as the climb later in the day.

I managed to get a couple nice shots with my GoPro. Not bad for not knowing what I was doing. I need to make some adjustments to my mounting bracket position and will mess with the settings before ALC. 

I really like this shot of Jen & I climbing. I think that Sasha, one of our wonderful SAG drivers, took it.

Finally, after all the climbing I was rewarded with an awesome downhill. It didn't feel that steep, but I definitely got up some speed. If I would have known how to use the GoPro better, I would have switched it to take a video. 

Shortly after the descent, we went through a little tunnel. This was pretty cool because the only other tunnel I had even been through was the Cal Park tunnel and that is just for pedestrians. This was a bit bigger. With it being right along the lake it was very windy as well, dare I say it was a Wind Tunnel :)

We made our way towards the border and into South Lake Tahoe. Along the way we passed by Zephyr Cove. I had been there before, but in a car. I kept thinking, I didn't remember this many hills between there and South Lake Tahoe. Everything seems different on a bike than when you are in a car. Soon enough we were crossing the state line and headed into South Lake Tahoe. We were having lunch at Heidi's. Kev and I had breakfast there last year when we were in Tahoe for my birthday. 

After lunch we had our second large climb of the day. The climb up Emerald Bay was shorter, but steeper. This climb was harder for me than I was expecting it to be. I think that the altitude was starting to get to me. I just felt weaker and my muscles were getting tired faster. We stopped several times so that I could stretch and catch my breath. I think that Emerald Bay is my favorite part of Lake Tahoe. The views are just amazing around the bay.

Thanks for the great photo Gino! 

On the descent I managed to hit a max speed of 42 mph. We made our way towards the last rest stop, however, just before we there it had started to snow. I didn't realize it at first, it almost looked like pollen or something falling from the trees. Jen started to yell "SNOW!" and I stopped to see what was going on. The snow/hail wasn't even sticking, it would melt as soon as it landed on you. It was pretty crazy and we were not expecting it. 

We made it to the rest stop and went in to the store to get warmed up. I called my hubby to say that I had 20 miles left and should be done in about an hour and a half. He told me that it was snowing pretty good up north and to be careful because the roads were getting wet. Little did I know just how much it was snowing and how soon I would be hitting that craziness. Despite the cold and snow, I wanted to keep going and was determined not to have to get SAG'ed back to the hotel. 

We headed out of the rest stop and a few miles down the road I stopped because I realized that I had dropped Jen. As I waited for her to catch up I turned my cap around so that the bill would help protect my eyes from the snow and wind. I waited for what felt like forever, but no one was coming. I tried to call Jen but she didn't answer. I was starting to get worried so I decided to head back. I didn't make it too far before I finally saw a couple cyclists heading my way. I crossed the road and asked them if they had seen Jen. One of them informed me that she had stopped a little while back and was getting picked up by the SAG car. Now that I knew she was safe, I decided to keep going. I only made it a couple more miles before the crazy blizzard just got to be too much. I couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of me, which also meant that drivers were having visibility issues and would most likely have a harder time seeing me. I knew I needed to stop but I just had to find somewhere that I would be protected while I waited to be picked up. Thankfully some fellow cyclists saw me and called out. They had found shelter under a deck at a nearby cabin. I gladly stopped and turned back to join them. 

I called Kevin to have him come pick me up. I gave him the address of the house and waited for him to get there. The other guys that were there had already called for a taxi and were working on getting a hold of the SAG vehicles. Our help was on the way.

The taxis, my husband and a SAG vehicle all showed up at the same time. I slowly walked my bike down the driveway so that I wouldn't slip and fall. I got my bike into the car, grabbed the blanket out of the trunk and sat down to take my wet shoes and socks off. Thankfully Kevin had the heat on already so the car was nice and toasty. I was never more thankful for all the times my dad would make sure that we never left the house without having a jacket or blanket in the car. Growing up in Pennsylvania you never knew when you could get stuck in the snow during the winter. 

By the time I got back to the hotel there were already a couple inches of snow on the trees and cars in the parking lot. This storm came out of nowhere!

Many of the riders who had already made it back to the hotel, had got in their cars and headed back out there to help rescue any riders that were still out in the cold. The coordination between the TRLs, SAG and impromptu SAG was amazing. Every rider who started the ride in the morning, made it back safely! 

As much as I really wanted to finish the ride, I am happy with how many miles I did manage to get in and how well I did considering the altitude. This was an AMAZING weekend and will be a ride that the SBB will be talking about for years! 

Zen Mother

On Saturday I was up at 4:30 am and on the road by 5:00 am to head off to Davenport for a training ride along the beautiful California coast. Last year I didn't do the Zen Mother ride (for reasons I can not remember) so I definitely did not want to miss it this year! Earlier in the week I had emailed the organizer to say that I would be joining them and then looked at the meet up time... 7:15 am. Oh man! That meant that I needed to hit the road early since it was a 2 hour drive. It was definitely worth the drive, the ride was amazing.

After making my way through San Francisco, I got on Highway 1 at Pacifica. Before I got to Half Moon Bay I had pulled over to get a photo of the beach and to stretch my legs for a minute.

I made it down to the meet up at the dirt parking lot across the road from the Whale City Bakery in Davenport at around 7:00 am. As I was getting my gear together and preparing for the days ride, I watched as car after car pulled into the lot. I was glad I got there early because we quickly filled up the lot.

We soon gathered for announcements, route review, stretches, safety speech and a blessing from the Zen Mama herself. We hit the route ready to go at 8:00 am. Since Jamie didn't have to do sweep duty at all that day we were able to ride full speed the entire day. That was a nice change of pace being able to stay towards the front of the pack instead of at the back.

The first 14 miles were along the coast on Highway 1. We blazed (no pun intended) past riders and headed towards the front of the group. We made our first turn onto Gazos Creek Road and headed towards Butano State Park. This road was only a lane and a half wide and there were hardly any cars, which made for a nice peaceful ride. We made our way toward our first rest stop at Arcangeli Bakery in Pescadero.

After the rest stop we headed north on Stage Road and encountered our first two hills on the way towards San Gregorio. The hills were not very steep so it was a relatively easy climb. I don't mind the gradual inclines, even though I still climb them at a slower speed. I dropped behind the group a little on the climb, but the guys waited for me at the top of the first hill.

Almost to the top of the first hill. 

There was a nice downhill before we got to the next hill. The road wasn't too windy but it was a tar & chip surface, so I didn't take it too fast. The last thing I want to do is to take a spill with ALC being less than 30 days away. 

The start of our next climb. It is amazingly peaceful riding on roads like theses. 

Really lets you clear your mind.

At the top of the hill you could see the ocean off in the distance. 

The guys weren't waiting for me at the top, but I didn't mind. I didn't realized at the time, but I had climbed these hills almost a year ago when I did the Tour de Cure. I thought that the second hill seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it.

I was pretty much on my own the rest of the way to lunch. A few times I managed to catch up with some other riders. As we made the turn onto La Honda Road, one of  the other cyclists pointed out that we were following the Tsunami Evacuation Route. That isn't a sign you see everyday.

About 2 miles from the rest stop I saw another rider stopped ahead and decided to stop as well. I was glad I did because he was taking photos of these neat metal sculptures. I snapped a couple photos myself.

We had our lunch stop at the Country Market in La Honda. After eating and refilling the water bottles we were on our way. Since we had one last big hill right after lunch, I got dropped again by the guys. No worries, I just took my time and went my own pace up the hill. The guys told me that they tried to wait for me at the top, but when they started to get cold (it was a bit cooler that day) they decided to keep moving. The ride back to our rest stop in Pescadero was nice because it was mostly downhill. The only part that got difficult was when I thought that I only had a mile left, and that obviously wasn't the case. I was ready to get to the rest stop and regroup with my friends. However, my mileage was off and there were actually 2 more miles before I got to the rest stop. Our rest stop was at the same bakery we stopped at earlier in the day.

After a short rest, we were on our way. We headed out towards Highway 1 and headed south towards Davenport. There were a little over 20 miles to go along the coast. Thankfully we had a little bit of a tail wind on this last stretch. I was able to keep speed with my friends pretty well and we were coasting along between 20-25 mph. I just watched as my average speed for the day went from about 13 mph up to 15 mph. Our little group had spread out a bit, but we regrouped and took a little break.

These are the awesome guys that I rode most of the day with. (Michael, me, Scott, Jamie & Marc. Photo taken by Michael...yes, another Michael)

There was one good descent that I wasn't even expecting, but tried to make the most of it. I geared up and pedaled until it didn't make a difference anymore. There were some cars parked in the bike lane ahead, but luckily there weren't cars coming up behind me so I was able to safely get out around the parked cars. After I made it to the bottom of the hill I looked at my Garmin and to my surprise, I saw that I reached a new max speed... 48.5 mph!!! I was so excited! That is 5 mph more than my previous max speed. I know that is a crazy speed to reach, but I only go for speed when I know that the hill is rather straight (no crazy hairpin turns) and the road is in good condition (no potholes or loose gravel).

I made it back to the car at 2:30 pm. I was one of the first 10 people back. There is nothing wrong with coming in at the back of the pack, but man it was good to come in early! I hung out afterwards with the guys as we waited for more riders to get in.

Several of them were going to be camping that night at Camp Zen. I don't remember why I decided not to go camping with everyone, but I wish I had. Oh well, there will be plenty of camping going on during ALC.

It was a great ride and I was very happy with how I did. So happy I did the Zen Mother ride this year!

ALC Day on the Ride

I had an absolute blast at the Aids LifeCycle Day on the Ride on Sunday. First of all, it started in San Rafael, which was awesome because that meant that I only had a 25 minute drive to the start point! I left my house at my normal time, around 6 am. I parked in my normal parking garage for work, got all my gear out and rode over to the meet-up point. I put my bike on the rack by a teammates bike and headed over to check-in. I wanted to get there early so I could hang out as all of my teammates started to pour in. It was amazing to see just how good we all looked in our fancy kits.

Our very own James (the guy in the red & black jacket) was working the Check-In table.

Look at all those volunteers helping with Check-In

Parked my bike on the Aardvark rack. It was nice that they were labelled.

I was #62 for the day. Funny enough, my tent mate Jen got #72. 

Even though the morning was a cold and misty one, we were trying not to let that get our spirits down. We had fun taking some group photos while we waited for the announcements and safety speech.

 LaFawn, Stacy, Jen (my tent mate) & myself 

It was almost time to set out on the route. We were given route sheets as we got there, which was the first time we got to see where we would be riding for the day. I've been wondering where all we would be headed and I found out that we would be eating lunch in Petaluma. The route was going to be 64 miles with just over 4,100 feet of climbing.

I was excited to be riding up in this area because I haven't had too many opportunities to find out which roads around here are good for cycling. I rolled out of the parking lot with Jen. With almost 500 people, we were having a hard time locating Jamie and Scott. I figured that we would just catch up with them at the first rest stop. We headed towards San Anselmo and then on to Fairfax. Our first hill of the day was White's Hill. I had to stop midway up the hill to take off my rain jacket. It had pretty much stopped raining/misting by this time and I was getting too warm. A fellow teammate, Robert, was stopped at the same location. He was singing and helping push people up the hill. It is an interesting site to come across, but like he said, he wanted to give people a true taste of a 'Day on the Ride'. Once we got our rain gear off we continued our climb. As we were getting to the top, we heard someone from behind yell 'get up that hill girls'. Without turning back to look, I knew it was Scott, (our drill Sargent). He had caught up with us and said that Jamie was not far behind. They had waited for us a few miles back because they didn't know if we were ahead of them or behind. He also tried calling and texting me, but I ignored my phone when I heard it go off in my pocket. I just assumed that it was an alarm or wrong number, I hardly ever get calls and the only people who would normally call me knew what I was doing that day. (This reminds me that I need to get my pebble watch fixed.)

Our first rest stop was at the Nicasio Valley Cheese Company. After pulling in to the rest stop we went to park our bikes. I was just placing my bike on the rack when I looked up to see Lorri, the bike coach who taught the Bike Skills 101 class I took last year. I didn't realize that she was going to be there so it was a nice surprise. The other nice thing was that the sun was finally making an appearance and the clouds were starting to part, lending way to nice blue skies.

All of the crew at Rest Stop 1 were wearing cow hats, which was fitting since we were at a cheese company. We headed over to the snack tent and had our first 'taste' of an ALC rest stop. They had these PB&J sandwiches on graham crackers that were so good. They are appropriately nicknamed 'crack' (I can see how they can be addictive). After a short break we were ready to keep moving and hit the road. Jen & I headed to our bikes, but she soon noticed that her bottle cage was loose. She wanted to take care of it so that it wouldn't be rattling all day. We headed back to the maintenance tent and got some lock tight for the cage screws. With that fixed, we were back on the road in no time.

We headed north past Nicasio Reservior. As we approached our next turn, which was being signalled by Moto, Jen & I both realized and yelled out at the same time, "Is that Randy!?!?" It was and we were happy to see him. I didn't get a chance to see him and say hi in the morning, so it was nice to see him out on the road. I overheard one of the other moto guys saying, 'man you are popular' to Randy. I can only assume that many of the South Bay Blaze said hello as they passed him that day. As I turned the corner, I explained that we LOVE Randy! I feel like the SBB may be a bit spoiled having such an awesome SAG driver for our training rides. Randy is the best and he treats us well out on the road.

Since we were heading into farm country we were starting to see a lot of cows. There was one cow that was mostly black, but had a thick white stripe around his midsection. Jen said he looked like an Oreo and I chuckled in agreement. We made our way past the Marin Cheese Factory and turned onto Hicks Valley. I had gotten a little bit ahead of Jen, so I found a nice shoulder to pulled over at to wait for her. While I waited I had a Cliff gel to refuel for the upcoming climb. We were warned that Wilson Hill was up ahead and was a pretty wicked climb. I managed to make it up Wilson Hill without having to stop too much. I can't remember how many times I did stop, but I think it was only once or twice. The whole time I was climbing, I kept saying to myself, i'm going to pull over up there to stop and take a breather, then I would ride on past, saying, nope, just keep going. I am glad that I have learned that a lot of the time, my struggle is purely mental and I can keep pushing. When I finally made it to the top, I was rewarded with an AMAZING view!!

 Look at those rolling green hills and beautiful blue sky! This is part of why I love the north bay.

While I was taking this photo, another cyclist rode past and I overheard him say "let me take a selfie"

(If you don't know the reference, check out this video... http://youtu.be/kdemFfbS5H0)

As we got closer to Petaluma I started to hit some familiar roads. It was interesting to be riding my my territory for a change. We made our way towards town to McNear Park, our lunch stop. When we pulled in we parked our bike along with all the other bikes (I hope I don't forget where I parked my bike, was the thought running through my mind). We headed to the food tent, making sure to sanitize our hands before grabbing our bagged lunch. The day's lunch contained a turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. Even though I don't eat turkey, I made an exception because I was hungry. I've been concerned about the food that will be available during ALC since I'm a very picky eater, but I think that I'm just going to have to deal with what is available. I'll probably be too hungry to care at times. We joined our team at one of the tables in the park. It felt kind of like a high school cafeteria since teams were grouped up together.

After I was done eating I wanted to go over and properly say hi to our Moto Randy. I came up behind him and gave him a hug, which startled him. I said, "you have to hug a moto, right?" Randy informed me that now I had to hug ALL of the Moto. So, around the table I went, giving each moto volunteer a hug and thanking them for being out there today. I figure, this is my first ALC, so I need to do it right :)

After lunch we headed out of Petaluma on 1st street. Man that was one bumpy road. It did lend me an example to my friends as to why I don't do a whole lot of riding outside of Petaluma. These farm country roads are just that, country roads that don't get a whole lot of repaving work done. Thankfully we were only on that road for a few miles. When we got to our next turn the roadie was telling everyone that smoother roads were ahead.

There was one more large hill we had to climb, Red Hill, and it was around the 40 mile mark. My legs were screaming at me already, but I just kept moving. Once I made it to the top I noticed that Jamie and Scott were pulled over fixing a flat. Jamie had gotten a flat tire and was just finishing up putting in the new tube. He had picked up a pesky little goat head thorn somewhere. Some other riders had the same unfortunate luck, because I turned around to see at least one other rider pulling up with a flat. I'm glad I wasn't joining in on the festivities. Once Jamie was good to go, we cruised on down the hill and it was pretty smooth sailing to our last rest stop at Stafford Lake.

At the rest stop I filled up my water bottles and ate some more crack-ers. We didn't want to stay too long because we only had about 18 miles left and we were ready to be finished for the day. We grabbed our bikes and were headed towards the bike path when we were stalled by a Bear pile-up. The New Bear Republic team was all regrouping right at the head of the bike trail. We made our way past them and were on our way towards Novato.

The rest of the route was fairly flat (in comparison to all the climbing we had done earlier). There was one turn that I almost missed, but thankfully I had been stopped by the red light, however Jamie and Scott had made it through the intersection before the light turned red. As the rest of us stopped at the light I heard someone from behind say that they missed the turn. I quickly yelled out to Jamie to let them know so that they could turn around. They were soon back on route and flew past me again. Jen and I made our way through Novato and got onto the bike path that parallels the highway. Not long after getting onto the path we saw that Scott & Jamie were off to the side of the path with another flat. This was not Jamie's day. It brought back memories of our ride a few weeks ago that was riddled with flat tires (I think almost 20 in total for the team that day).

Soon we were on our way; riding through the neighborhood along Las Gallinas Avenue. As we passed a few other riders we heard them say that they had just been 'Blazed'. I had to laugh at that one. We made our way past Terra Linda high school, around the Northgate mall and onto the bike path that leads down to San Rafael.

As we turned onto D Street from 5th we were greeted by the Aids LifeCycle inflatable arch and were cheered in by other riders.

We parked our bikes and headed straight for the food! Before we actually made it to the food line we signed ourselves up for a free massage. Luckily they had 3 spots open for a massage soon. We had enough time to eat and relax just a little before our time slot. Amici's supplied us with a great pasta meal.

The massage was great, albeit a short one. I had him focus on my lower back and my quads. I felt great afterwards. Definitely need to cash in on my one free massage during ALC!

Here are some of my team members with Julie Brown (an ALC staff member) hanging out after the ride.

Aids LifeCycle Day on the Ride was DONE! 64 miles down, a total of 130 for the weekend! It was an amazing way to do my first real back to back. Can't wait for ALC in one month!!!