Gearing Up

Today I went to REI and Costco to pick up a few things that I will need for ALC. First up, REI. I had gotten a coupon for signing up for their gearmail newsletter thing. So I wanted to get a chair that I've been eyeing up for a while. This chair is small and compacts down into a little carrying case. It will be perfect for in camp. One of my friends has this same chair and she had brought it to one of our training rides, which is how I found out about it. Plus, it is orange, so of course I had to have it.

 

While I was there I spotted a few other things that I knew would come in handy. I wanted to make sure that I had a quick dry towel for in camp as well. Since we have to pack up our gear everyday I figured that it would be a good idea to have a quick dry towel instead of a normal one. Don't want to have a wet towel hanging out in my gear bag all day while I'm on the road. The purple towel is 25" x 54" and the blue one is 15.5" x 15.5".

 

I figured that while I was there I might as well take a look at the sleeping bags. I was originally thinking that I would just see if I could borrow my friends sleeping bag since he is an avid hiker/camper, I assumed that he would have a decent one. However, when I told my husband my idea, he said I should just buy my own. So we took a look and what they had to offer. I wasn't thinking of actually buying one today. We looked at the different options, down vs. synthetic, 32 degree v 14 degree rating. We ended up figuring out that the synthetic filled 14 degree rated sleeping bag was my best option. It wasn't too expensive, so no breaking the bank. Plus, I should be as snug as a bug in a rug. :) (I'm a little weird, just leave it at that)

 

After spending a good chunk of change at REI, I headed on over to Costco. A fellow teammate posted that Costco had some self-inflating sleep pads for only $35. I figured that was a good price so I wanted to pick one up for my self.

It rolls up and fits into its own bag. My sleeping bag also compresses down quite nicely and came with its own compression bag. Hopefully I shouldn't have too hard of a time getting all my stuff into my gear bag. Thankfully none of this stuff is very heavy.

I'm not done gearing up for the ride, there are a few other items I will still need to gather. But i'm getting there. I'm so excited, can't wait!

To the Velodrome

Yesterday's training ride was number 11 in the South Bay Blaze series. We did 64 miles with a little over 3,000 feet of climbing. The nice thing was that all the climbing was before lunch, which meant the last half of the ride was pretty smooth sailing. At first, I thought that this was going to be great, but then I kind of forgot that when you ride flat, you pretty much have to pedal the entire time. At least with hills, there is usually a good downhill you can coast on. Either way, this was no easy ride, but it also wasn't the most difficult. I managed to get a good average speed from the day, 13 mph. I also hit a max of 39 mph. I just can't seem to break past 40 (one of these days I will succeed!!)  

When I got to the start point I got all my gear gathered up and ready to go. I managed to sell a couple items for my ALC donations. I'm slowly closing in on $5k. I can't believe I've been able to raise as much as I have so far. Anyway, after the route review, safety speech and some warm-up stretches we were ready to hit the road. I headed back over to my car to but my merchandise away. I barely got my stuff in my car before I heard people start calling out "ROLLING". So, needless to say, I didn't get to roll out with the first group of riders. I hurried up and got my Garmin going so that I could head out. There was no way of catching up, but no worries, its a ride, not a race. At least riding out on my own made for a nice solo shot of my on my bike in the parking lot.

When I was stopped at one of the red lights, another rider came up behind me and made the comment, "man that's a lot of red, even your tired are red."  Yes I know, I like it. Even though I didn't get a say in the color of my bike, I really love how it looks. And yes, I bought those tires specifically because they have red on them. :)

The first hill we hit was Stonebrook. It has been a while since I've gone up Stonebrook. I definitely did better this time than the last. Granted, this was the first hill of the day and my legs were still fresh. After Stonebrook we made a right onto Magdalena. I don't know if I have even gone that way before. It was nice to ride on some new roads that were in the Los Altos Hills area.

We made our way back to Foothill Expressway and cruised on down to Stevens Creek Reservoir. I made it to our first rest stop just fine. When I was hanging out I was telling my friends how I had a Lonely Island song stuck in my head. Some of them didn't know what song I was talking about, and unfortunately I didn't have cell service so I couldn't pull it up on YouTube. It was going to have to wait till we got back to civilization. After a quick trip to the restroom and a refill on my bottles I rolled out with my friends Jamie (our captain) and Scott.

I thought for sure that they were going to drop me on the upcoming hill. However, I keep decent pace with Scott for a while. Either way, they both waited for me at the top. It was nice to have people to ride with because I often loose the group when we get to the climbs. I am a slow climber, but I can usually make up for it on the downhill.

After the climb and decent on Mt. Eden we headed up the dreaded Pierce Rd. I hate making that right turn onto Pierce, because it means a short 11% grade hill. I feel like Pierce often shows me my level of strength. The first time I did Pierce, I had to walk the steep hill and part of the following portion that isn't as steep. Now I am capable of biking up the hill without needing to walk any of it. I still have to stop at the top of the steepest part to catch my breath and allow my legs to stop pushing for a minute. It is great to have these reminders of how far I have come in my training.

After descending down the other side of Pierce, we turned onto Big Basin Way and headed towards Saratoga. It's always fun to ride along this road towards Saratoga because it has a slight downhill slope which makes for an awesome pace (I got a 30 mph average). For the most part this road isn't too windy. There was one section that had a bit of an S curve to it and since I was cruising along at a good speed I ended up taking one of the bends a bit wider than I really wanted to. I ended up heading out to the middle of the road and actual ended up on the double yellow. Not a great thing when there were cars coming towards me. Luckily I didn't panic and leaned my bike into the turn, so with some effective counter steering I was able to get myself out of danger. Never fun to have a close call, but thankfully I kept my cool and corrected my path. Once we rode through Saratoga, we turned onto Saratoga Los Gatos Road and headed down to Los Gatos (as the road name implies). This is yet again another great road for hitting good speeds. There are a couple little up hill sections, but for the most part it is downhill. I hit my max speed of the day on this road, 39 mph.

Once we got into town we turned onto a side street and headed towards our next rest stop. We didn't get very far before my friend realized that he had a flat tire. So, like they says, it takes at least three people to change a flat, and luckily we were a group of three. As you can see below, I supervised. :)

Since we got held up with a flat, we decided to blow through the next rest stop and just keep going. Up next were Kennedy and Shannon. I usually can make it up Kennedy and only need to stop once to catch my breath and give my legs a break. Once again my friends waited for me at the top of the hill. We descended down and started to tackle the next hill. Last week, Shannon was not my friend. I struggled to get up the hill and actually stopped several times and walked a portion of it. Not this time. I made it up Shannon without stopping (except at the very top where my friends had all gathered to wait). With those two hills out of the way, that meant the majority of the days climbs were done and over with. That was an awesome feeling!

It was pretty smooth sailing from there till lunch. When we got to the lunch stop several other riders cheered us in. It was nice and yet felt slightly sarcastic at the same time. We knew we were at the back end of the pack, but we didn't care. We could tell it was a 'it's about time you guys showed up' kind of cheer. Oh well, c'est la vie.

At lunch I finally took the opportunity to play the Lonely Island song that was stuck in my head out loud for my friends to hear. Nothing like a little jam session to take our minds off the remaining 30 miles. After fueling up and reapplying sunscreen we rolled on out. For the most part, the remaining miles were fairly flat. There was one climb that snuck up on me and I wasn't too happy about it. That is what happens when you ride on roads that are unfamiliar, you never know what's coming up.

We made it to the last rest stop and did some stretching and got back out there to finish the rest of the route. Those last six miles along Homestead felt like 20. Its amazing how tired you can feel, but yet your body just keeps on going. We decided that we may be dying, but at least we were dying together. We made it to Mary and knew we were so close to the end. As soon as I hit Mary I picked up the pace a bit. I thought it was just my body pushing to be done, but looking at the elevation chart closely I can see that as small as it may be, there was a slight incline on Homestead so once I turned onto Mary, we hit the slight downhill. When we pulled into the parking lot we made the decision that there was no way we were ending this thing without hitting our 64 miles. So, as they crazy cyclists we are, we did two laps around the parking lot to hit our numbers. Yes, we are NUTS!!!! :)

We had a nice little surprise waiting for us at the end.... Homemade treats!!

Thank you Aaron! You Rock!! 

China Camp Loop times two

Now that the time change occurred, I've been trying to take advantage of it. Thankfully my office is very bike friendly (since about 50% of them are cyclist as well) and I can park my bike in the office all week. On Monday I brought my bike and gear with me so that as soon as I was off the clock I could change and hit the road. Then today I did the same, except this time a coworker joined me for the ride. 

The ride isn't very difficult since it is only 13.3 miles long with only 465 feet of climbing. I don't even need to stop to rest at all. Here are my stats from the rides:

Monday, March 17th

Moving Time: 51:50 minutes

Average Speed: 15.4 mph

Max Speed: 37.6 mph

Tuesday, March 18th

Moving Time: 49:56 minutes

Average Speed: 16 mph

Max Speed: 39.4 mph

I'm happy to see a difference in speed on the second day since I was tired and almost didn't ride because of it. But my coworker was planning on joining me so I wasn't about to back out on him. I think that riding with him helped me push a little harder today as well. It is always nicer to not ride by myself. 

On Monday, the only downer on my ride was when I was about a mile away from completing it, I felt like I almost got hit by a taxi. I swear, he was within a foot of me. Thankfully I didn't get startled when he came up from behind and was so close. So today, when I was on that portion of the road I just took the lane since there isn't a designated bike lane. I figured that if I was in the middle of the lane cars would have to move into the other lane to get around me. Since there were two lanes of traffic on my side of the road I wasn't taking over the whole road. I didn't have any close calls today, so mission accomplished. 

Today, I was on the large downhill I was aiming to hit a new max speed since it is a great hill to push hard. There is only one turn and its not too sharp. At the top of the hill I got into my big gear and started to pedal as fast as I could. I got into my drops and lowered my center of gravity. Turns out I hit 39.4 mph. Not bad, but I just can't seem to break the 40 mph barrier. One of these day's I will get there, I just know it. 

The killer hills

Yesterday's ride was heavy on the climbing, hence the killer hills. The total ride was just about 59 miles with over 4000 ft of climbing. Unfortunately I didn't get my Garmin to start recording the route I was doing until I had already done about 13 miles. Oh well, maybe one of these days I will figure this Garmin out correctly. I think it is user error, not an issue with my Garmin.

Anyway, I was one of the first couple cyclists to head out on the route today. I was enjoying riding at a good pace (don't know my speed though since it didn't get recorded). Once I crossed over Foothill and started to make my way up the first hill I started to see several teammates that I knew left after I did. I was a little confused because I knew that none of them had passed me. I soon realized that they must have gone straight onto Foothill instead of taking the first turn. They didn't cut out many miles, but it was enough for them to get slightly ahead of me.

The first bit of climbing for the day wasn't very steep, but it was still tiring. We had a little bit of climbing on Elena, then some more on Natoma and then it leveled out on Altamont. This is the view from atop Altamont. The views around the bay area are gorgeous.

Shortly after getting on Altamont, we headed down Page Mill. This road is not my favorite because it can lead to a fast downhill, but with several sharp bends. I did OK this time. Last time I went down this road I held onto my brakes too long and they started to squeal. I'm learning how to mix in light braking with counter steering to help my downhill go more smoothly. Also, the more practice I get with these types of downhills the more confident I am getting, which in turn means the less scary they seem.

Not long after the downhill, I made it to the first rest stop. Today's goal was to get in and out of rest stops in less than 10 minutes. I didn't actually time myself, but I just made sure that I wasn't lingering around. My other goal was to focus on my nutrition/hydration. The day was supposed to be a hot one and with all the climbing I didn't want to bonk out or let my blood sugar level drop too much. I made sure to eat something at each rest stop and refill my water bottles as well. It worked out pretty well because I didn't feel like I was about to crash (not as in accident, as in blood sugar level plummeting) at any point throughout the ride.

Shortly after I left the rest stop I shifted down to help with the upcoming hill but unfortunately my chain dropped off the gear. Luckily I was able to clip out even though I basically came to a complete stop. That was a nice accomplishment, as small as it may have been. It is nice not to fall over because you couldn't slip out. I easily got my chain back on and was on my way. I headed down the road and made it to the next turn. Shortly after the turn I checked my Garmin to see how many miles I was at and noticed that it was showing that I had only gone 150 ft. Well, I knew that wasn't right. I realized that it wasn't recording my ride, it was just showing the turn by turn. I wasn't very happy, but there wasn't anything I could do now, but record the rest of the ride.

The next rest stop was only about ten miles away from the last one. I was hoping that I wouldn't need to stop and I could just keep going. But by the time I got there, the sun and the heat were starting to take their toll and I knew that I should stop. I didn't hang out for very long, just long enough to stretch a bit, eat a Cliff shot gel and refill my water bottles.

My old friend Cañada road was right after the rest stop. This was the road where I first got back on a bike (having not ridden since I was a kid). I remember how this road was tough and the hills seemed to really wear me out. Now, it isn't much of anything but nice rolling hills. I could barely keep a pace of 10 mph almost 2 years ago. Now I was cruising along at about 20 mph. Just CRAZY how much has changed. I love revisiting roads that I first struggled on only a year ago.

I've passed this mailbox on Cañada so many times, but yesterday I finally decided to stop and take a photo. This is on a nice gentle downhill, but it is still so tempting to just fly on by.

I stopped a little further up the road to take a photo of the reservoir as well. It was such a beautiful day out. This portion of Cañada is such a gorgeous ride, especially on a clear sunny day. 

There was one more large climb left between Cañada and the lunch stop. It was also the largest climb of the day. First up was Bunker Hill, then down to Polhemus. Polhemus leads up to Ralston. Right where the road changes names, there is a little parking lot. I pulled in to take a little breather and have a glucose tablet. As I mentioned earlier, I was really trying to keep an eye on my nutrition for the day. 

A few minutes later I headed back out and towards Hallmark Rd. I took the following shot of the hills along Hallmark. I wouldn't mind having that view everyday. 

Right before where Hallmark turns into Crestview, you get this view of the upcoming challenge. My friend, who took this photo, said this is the moment when the "oh hell no" thought often enters your mind.

The hill that precedes the name change was the steepest hill of the day. I just didn't have the power in me to pedal up the hill. So, I ended up doing a little cross training and walked my bike up the hill. The rider behind me jokingly shouted "hey, slow down, you're beating me." There was at least one more hill before the top. Even though I was extremely tired, I was all smiles at the top.

Luckily it was all downhill from there till lunch. I rolled into the deli and parked my bike along with the many other cyclists who were already there. I ordered a well deserved sandwich and relaxed for a while. 

There were only 18 more miles left on the route. I was able to roll out with our team captain and a couple other riders. They definitely helped me get through those last miles and not take any shortcuts. There was a little bit of climbing left in the day, but not much compared to what we had already done. Since they were strong riders I did my best to keep up with them. Even though I was very tired and ready for the ride to be over, I managed to get an average speed of 15 mph for those last 18 miles. It is so inspiring for me to ride with riders that I feel are stronger than myself. I can push myself harder than I would have if I completed the ride on my own.

Great ride on a beautiful day! I may be grumbling at all the climbing now, but I'm sure I will be so thankful for it in the long run.

China Camp Loop

Today after work I decided to take a little ride around China Camp. The loop is only 13 miles, but it is a good mid-week ride. It is time in the saddle and that is always a good thing. I plan on trying to get in at least one to two rides during the week.

There really isn't much to report about this ride. It went pretty well and only took me about an hour. I kept an average speed of 15.4 mph and hit a max of about 37 mph. I always like to see my average speed up on these shorts rides. I think that is something I want to work on so that I can add that into my endurance riding and keep my overall average at a good pace since I tend to slow down on hills.

I managed to take a couple of shots during my ride. I didn't want to stop too much because I wanted to make sure that I got back to my car before the sun set since I don't have a headlight on my bike.

The Tricksy Triplets: Kennedy, Shannon, and Pierce

Yesterday's training ride was officially named the SBB Training Ride #8 Almaden Valley Ride. However, a fellow teammate renamed it the Trisksy Triplets and I think that is quite an appropriate name! The ride was 53.6 miles with almost 3,000 feet of climbing. I know that the screenshot of my ride below only shows 52.5 miles, but that's because the first 1.1 miles didn't get recorded on the same route because I was trying to get my pre-loaded route up and running. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful, so I had to go old school and rely on my route sheet for today's ride.

For Saturday's ride we wore our brand spanking new team kits. It was such an awesome feeling to be wearing the kit and everyone looked AMAZING! I felt like the kit made me even more a part of the team than I was before. I know that is kind of silly, but it is how I felt. We had an awesome turnout as well. Just check out the team gathered up for announcements/route review/safety speech:

Beside the fact that I wasn't able to get my Garmin to cooperate, the first 15 miles of the ride went really well. I got to ride with a friend that I haven't seen in quite some time. It was good to catch up and see her out on the road.

We had our first rest stop at the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company. We quickly took over the sidewalks and even the restroom inside the Roasting Company. After a short pit stop, I headed back out to the road and on to the first of the Tricksy Triplets... Kennedy.

Heading up Kennedy went pretty well. I pulled over for a little breather and took some photos of my teammates climbing up the hill. I have been trying to remember to stop and take some photos while I'm on my rides. Sometimes its hard to do this because I just want to keep moving, or finish my ride. Sometimes I just forget because I'm enjoying my ride so much. Either way, I really want to make sure that I take a ton of photos when I'm going ALC, so I'm trying to get in the habit now. After several of my teammates passed me, I got back on my bike and headed to the top of Kennedy. I made sure to stop and get a photo when I got to the Top of the Hill. My friend Gino is the one who pointed out this road and I'm glad he did. It made for a fun photo today.

Gino also took this photo of me right before the descent on Kennedy. I'm very thankful he took this shot. I have very few good shots of my on my bike. And what makes this even better is that I'm in my awesome team kit.

On the descent down Kennedy, I had turned a bend and noticed a rock the size of a fist on the road. I was able to get around it without hitting it, but I didn't want anyone else to come around the bend and not expect it and hit it causing them to go down. I managed to pull over and walk up the hill and kick the rock off to the side. That was my good deed for the day.

The next seven miles were pretty uneventful. I got to our next rest stop and actually passed it up at first. I didn't really feel like I wanted to stop so I just kept going on the path. However, I soon realized that I wasn't supposed to keep going on the path when I passed the park area. I go to a bend, where I could see the intersection that I was supposed to be making a left turn at, however, I was stuck behind the fence on the path. So I turned around and headed back to the park. This wasn't a big detour, just added a fraction of a mile. No worries.

When I got back to the park some of my other teammates had arrived so I took a little breather after all. There was a guy there with his parrot which was rather interesting. He was telling someone that he likes to take the bird out pretty often to get it out of its cage. He was explaining that the parrot was named Max and it loves dogs, little kids and then mothers and grandmothers (in that order). All I can say is that there are some very interesting people out there.

Right after I left the park I came up to a light and there was a family on their bikes. There was a little boy riding one of those adult-kid tandem bikes (not sure what they are really called). Anyway, the little boy had on a cute helmet that was decorated to look like a shark. The helmet even had a little fin on it. I told him that he had an awesome helmet as I passed them safely on the left. I love seeing families get their kids out on bikes. It always reminds me of the time my dad took my sister and I to the local park to ride our bikes.

From the second rest stop we have one large climb before lunch... Shannon. I was starting to feel tired and could tell that my blood sugar level was starting to drop. I knew that lunch was close, but Shannon stood in my way. Let me tell you, man she was a B*TCH!!!! I struggled up the hill and had to stop multiple times. I even walked my bike up the hill a little as well just so that I would keep moving and not stand still. By this point my legs were really exhausted and my blood sugar level was really affecting my stamina. I slowly made my was up and over Shannon and got to our lunch stop.

I pulled into the Togo's parking lot and got off my bike without falling over. I felt so shaky! Not a good feeling, and of course I forgot to grab my glucose tablets from my car that morning. I got a wrap, Gatorade and chocolate chip cookie and fueled up. It was nice to get off my bike and sit on a bench. After the food started to settle I felt a lot better.

There were a little less than 20 miles left after lunch, but there was one more big climb to go. I headed out and up Saratoga Los Gatos road and turned onto Big Basin Way. I dreaded going up Pierce towards Mountain Winery. I had never gone up Pierce this way so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. When I got to Pierce I started to head up but quickly pulled over to rest. I sat down on the curb because I wasn't feeling so great. I could tell my blood sugar levels were not completely back to normal and my legs were running out of juice. The thought of calling for the SAG car to get be ran through my mind. But I was determined not to give up. I knew there was no reason to voluntarily be SAG'ed back to my car. This was a huge accomplishment for me because I have struggled with the feeling of giving up on numerous rides before. So I got up, got back on my bike and slowly continued up the hill. I eventually made it and was so thankful for the downhill. I had to stop once, but only because I wanted to capture the beautiful view.

There were a couple small climbs left before the ride was over. There was an easy out that I could have taken to bypass those climbs, but I was determined to finish the route, the way it was planned. I made it back at 4:15pm. Man that was a LONG day on the bike!!! 4 hours of riding time, but a little over 6 hours for the entire trip.

Team Kit

It finally arrived! I just got to see my South Bay Blaze kit for ALC today. I love it! It actually arrived yesterday, but it was delivered to the front office at my apartment complex so I couldn't get it until the next morning. I had been impatiently watching the FedEx tracking number for updates. It drove me nuts because the package sat at the local FedEx facility for 3 days before they finally delivered it. Oh well, it is now in my possession. And without further ado, here it is....

 We even have matching gloves.

 Front

 Back

 Side View of the Bib's (Bibs are hard to photograph. They don't want to lay flat.)

Back of the Bib's

I think that several teammates are going to be wearing the new kit at tomorrow's ride. Should be fun to see everyone in the new gear. This year's kit is very different than last year's. I love the bright colors. We will definitely stand out on the road!