On the Road Again

Well, for all of you that have been patiently waiting for a real update, I finished my first team ride yesterday. Woohoo! How was it? Honestly? …painful. But we’ll get to that. To start, I packed all my gear into Charles’ truck (who didn’t join me on the morning’s ride – a story for another day), and headed out around 6:30 am to put in some road time – before I pack on an extra few pounds to carry up the hill at Thanksgiving.

This week’s ride was the pacelining clinic. I’m actually pretty glad to have landed on this particular activity for my first time back on the team. The route is an out-and-back loop on a very straight road, with minimal hills (In fact, most coaches wouldn’t even call these “road bumps” hills at all, but what do they know?). The day runs such that the team splits into our assigned ride groups and take anywhere from 2-4 trips down the road, practicing group riding skills, communication, and generally getting comfortable being that close to someone else’s rear wheel.

I was placed in Coach Devan’s group to start, based on my ride group from the summer team, with the option to drop down should it be necessary. Goodness knows that my one prior ride up and down my street probably didn’t bring the legs back into tip-top shape (unfortunately). The first trip out was brutal. Our pace was much faster than what I’m used to, as the group was feeling fresh and tearing up the hills. I burned everything I had keeping up on the last mini-climb out, and ended up having to drop off the tail before we made it back to the rest stop. Apparently those old lessons of “eat before you ride” didn’t take the first time around. Pair food deprivation with a wimpy arm and some general awkwardness on the bike, and I was completely spent rolling into the parking lot.

I chatted with Leigh Ann and Devan, ate a few Shot Bloks and a couple orange slices, and decided to give this group another spin. Overall, I think the speed placement is right – just a combination of being out of shape and a too-fast start kicked my butt that round. It seemed like a good call, as I was able to keep pace with the group much better the second time around without a struggle. Granted, I dropped off the tail again on the last climb, but to me that I just shows I need to hit hill repeats with a vengeance when I get back in town!

My arm was utterly killing me after the second trip out, so I opted to do a solo run with Leigh Ann rather than slow down the rest of the line for me. Many thanks to her for sticking with my slow self! We took a much slowed-down spin out to the “big climb” right before you hit the water, then headed back to the lot. All in all, I probably only did 80-90% of the last round, but that was unfortunately all I had left in me. At least I was able to talk myself up the hill

Overall it was great to be back on the bike. The first descent reminded me of how much I liked to travel at cycle-speed and how much I’d missed just being outside and active. That said, I definitely gained a good number of takeaways from the day:

• Buy and bring my own cold weather gear. I ended up wearing Coach Dave’s jacket, Andy’s headband, and Leigh Ann’s leg warmers before I hit the road – and some pieces were still cold! The long sleeve light jersey and cycle shorts really aren’t going to cut it!
• Take Advil before you ride, at least for now. My arm was aching pretty bad on the bike and for most of last night. I’m still working on the strength training, and I’m sure this will abate in time…but for now do something to make it a bit more bearable.
• Along those same lines, Try matching my good arm to the goofy one rather than forcing the busted one into a position it can’t make. I don’t know how much this will help, as I didn’t get it as a suggestion from Coach Dave until after the ride, but it makes sense, and I’m betting will ease up some of the shoulder tension.
• Eat. I know this, but somehow forgot…so I’ll write it again.
• Get another bike fit. Whether I’m sitting differently because of the arm or the saddle shifted during the crash without me knowing it, something just felt off on the bike. I was constantly shifting up and down the seat trying to find a spot where I was comfortable and not crushing any spots, and didn’t have much luck.

So, I’m off for a week to visit the family for Turkey Day. No ride updates for a few days since I won’t have a bike to ride (and MD is expecting “flurries”, but I might have a PT update for you instead. I promised Coach Don I’d be at hill repeats next Sunday, so look for an overly-detailed rundown of that sometime soon!

Oh, and if you were looking for the ride map, I accidentally left the Garmin plugged into the wall when I left in the morning. Yay for pacelining with no computer (insert sarcastic voice). Yes, I know…I suck

A Rich Man’s Sport

I already know what you’re thinking. It’s been almost two whole weeks since you were cleared to ride, and there have been no freakin RIDE POSTS since then. Annoying, right? Well, that ends today! Let’s do a quick rundown (ridedown? I think not). I finally got the bike set up on the trainer a week ago Thursday. Put on ye ol’ bike shorts, busted out the clippy shoes (which are hell to walk in on hardwoods), and hopped on the bike. And by hopped on, I mean struggled to fling my leg over the top bar and then struggled again to get clipped in. The climbing block that we bought makes the stupid bicycle tall!

I got my legs spinning for few minutes, clicked through a few gears, and quickly realized something was wrong. My right hand shifter thing kept getting stuck inward. On the upshift, this was fine; I could just push it back out. When downshifting though, I seemed to get these weird half-shifts, where the big bar came in and out but the little bar stayed stuck in. (I’m sure there are technical names for these parts, but damned if I know them). Still, I kept at it for a full Friends episode, trying to find that place on the saddle where my hiney is actually comfortable and trying to get used to that spinning motion again. The weight bearing on my shoulder/elbow wasn’t too bad, but the angle at which my left arm sticks out is dang weird. By the time credits were rolling, I had determine my bike needed to see the inside of shop. The shifter issue was driving me batty.

Two days later I took the beast into Palo Alto Bikes for repair. A quick inspection showed that my problem was “likely unfixable”. Apparently the shifter things is part of a whole unit that they can’t really pull apart to repair. The shop guy offered to try to bend the piece back straight, but if it failed I was looking at a $200-250 repair bill to replace the part. Eeeeep! To remind you, I had just replaced the rear derailleur on the bike the week before my accident at a cost of $200. $450 in parts in six months?? I really need to get this under control – the entire bike only cost $1400! (Seriously, who knew cycling was for the rich?) Twenty minutes later I received a call from the shop that everything was fine; the shifter was fixed. Woohoo! Only, after testing, it’s not really fixed. The plastic piece can be bent forward for a short amount of time, eliminating the clicking issue…but after a few shifts it reverts back to it’s normal (aka screwed up) state. Sigh. For now, I’m trying to just deal with it. Maybe Santa will bring me a new shifter (or a new bike?!) for Christmas! Hint hint.

So I brought my oft-abused bike home and planned to hit the road for real this week. I get everything ready to go, only to realize that I don’t own a helmet. At least not one without a giant crack in the middle. Well, crap. Off to Performance we go. I pick out the helmet that I want only to find that the Campbell store only has Mediums in bright-ass red and blue. Now, I try not to be overly matchy-matchy with my bike gear, but come on! I am peach/pink colored with red hair. My bike is silver, purple and black. In what world does electric blue match this?! The sales guy is awesome however, calls the Mountain View location, and secures me a white and silver helmet in my size. Woot! I head over Monday and pick up my new Giro Atmos helmet (which, conincidentally kinda matches my bike) at a 15% discount…plus reward points. Mind you, the thing still ran me well over $150 post-discount. As Charles said, “Well, it’s more incentive for you not to fall anymore.” Like I ever intentionally fell? Thanks hon!

Helmet in hand and bike in psuedo-repair, I was out of excuses (ahem…reasons) not to ride. Wednesday afternoon I suited up and hit the road. For real. And while the ride was ultimately successful, I can’t claim it was too exciting. Being that it was my first time out in months, I confined myself to a few trips up and down my street followed up by an exhilarating spin…around the block.

I did discover a few things on my ever so short trip. For one, I can’t easily switch my “default clip out foot”. I’ve always clipped out on the left, and I thought that with that being my bad arm, it might be easier to start out on the right each time instead. No go. My brain thinks about clipping out on the right, and then executes a left foot de-clip. Oh well, it was worth a shot. My overall comfortability and confidence on the road were pretty low; possibly lower than when I started fresh (after 12+ years of no riding) back in May. I’m sure that will get better the more I get out, but I was dang slow coming off stops and even going around turns. Sigh. Additionally, the vibrations from the road are definitely less than comfortable on the arm, most especially the elbow. Hopefully strength training and some additional rides help this out – and quickly! I’m going to try and hit up the pacelining clinic on Saturday and see how riding goes with actual people around on actual roads. Wish me luck!

Stranded

This post actually changed names in my head four times before I started writing it. Now none of my cute/catchy titles seem to fit, but I wanted to list them out anyway (entertainment value?)

• Now I Know how my Car Feels
• Shannon was Still Worse
• Down for the Count
• Thank god for Coca-Cola

I write this post today from my house, stranded with no mode of transportation other than my own two legs. Well, theoretically I could rig up some sort of dog sled system that utilizes the wheeled cooler…but that sounds like an awful lot of work, and my dogs are kinda lazy. Moving on. As of today, I am out one bike, one car, up 6 bruises, and down (likely) a few hundred dollars. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Calaveras ride Saturday morning started out much the same as any other. We rolled out around 8:30am, feeling good and enjoying the cool morning air. After a quick pit stop around mile 12, Team TBD was back on the road and ready to attack our first climb – Palomares. Just looking at the route sheet, I knew the ascent was going to be tough. Our hill repeats on Mt. Eden are a whopping .7miles up each time; Palomares looked to be almost FIVE MILES long. Holy owie! We all downshifted into granny gears and tried to keep up the chatter as we started to climb.

Surprisingly, our team stayed together pretty well for the first couple miles. Everyone was talking and joking, and the overall mood was pretty upbeat. After the 12th or so “just around the next corner” joke…it ceased to be quite as fun. Still, I’m proud to say, despite the rising temperatures and demoralizing, deceptive turns, our entire team made it to the top in the saddle – and very close together. It was one of those “gah coaches are evil or obviously insane, but we CAN do this” type moments. This euphoria was to live about halfway down the descent.

After a quick rest stop at the Palomares summit (thanks SAG!), our team set off down the backside of the hill. I’d heard that this was a pretty fast descent, and was really looking forward to topping that darn 35mph mark. Rolling down the hill went something like…32
…34
…35
…OW Mother @!#@!#!!! (bug to the forehead at 35 mph. That freakin’ HURTS! No wonder my car always makes that unhappy “bonk” noise when big bugs smack its face.)
…37 – almost there!!
…39 – oh I’m so fast!
…Zero. Stupid shiny new Garmin flew off right at the 40mph marker. Had to stop, reverse (in the highest, most painful gear ever) and spend a full 5 minutes hunting. Thanks much to Gloria for finally locating the thing – before it managed to be squashed by oncoming traffic!

And so, with the best part of the descent behind me, I got back on the bike and tried to get up some speed. Somewhere around 32mph, I had to slam on the brakes again! I narrowly missed hitting a baby spotted bambi, which would have been bad for him and as well as me (not to mention the fact that Mike Squirrel-Bane would ever let me live that down…assuming I survived!). Again came the mental comparisons to a car – I mean who ever heard of a bike hitting a deer?

Compared to the five preceding miles, the next ten were all but boring. The ride from the bottom of Palomares to rest stop two was interrupted only by a potty stop at a hotel, and a dropped chain on the way out. Oh. There were those soul-sucking “flat tire” (aka false flat) miles which, in the full-on sunshine, all but crushed the remainder of my spirit. Hooray for riding a whopping 10mph and wondering the whole time why the hell it feels so hard! Temperatures had risen significantly by the time we hit that second rest stop, and I was definitely feeling a bit…wilted…in the heat. I scarfed down a full four pieces of watermelon, drank an absolute ton, and got ready to head out again.

The paceline started to fall apart by the time we hit Calaveras – even before the hill. I think everyone was tired, and there was absolutely no cover from the sun. Those 6-8 miles were punctuated with a lot of “gap” calls as people’s energy levels wavered in the heat (not to mention distance). We did manage to get it pulled back in line and hit the Calaveras climb together.

Calaveras was tough. I had to stop once to loosen my shoes, as my feet had swollen with the heat and sweat, causing them to go completely numb (not a fun feeling). I got back in the saddle, determined to finish the damn hill on the bike. Everyone had really spread out on this climb, which was probably better for me as I needed to count in my head to keep my breathing steady (weird, but true). The hill has minimal tree cover at best, so the entire 4ish mile ascent was a combination of super slow pedaling in the shade followed by a quicker cadence in the sunny patches – speeding up to the next piece of shade. I thought I was going to pass out on the bike from the heat, just as I saw the blue tent of rest stop three.

I gave myself an mental shove, and all but crawled into the rest stop. Food and drink were helpful. I had no idea how much I adored Coca-Cola until that first swallow at the top of the hill. Seriously, it’s the best thing ever. Soda, oranges and a couple well-placed ice cubes, and I started to think that maybe I could finish this ride afterall. Gloria and Gloria both decided to stop the ride there – I’m sure the heat was a big factor in their decision – but with newly filled (and iced) water bottles I was determined to go on.

My muscle control wasn’t great coming out of the parking lot. I dropped my bike (and half of me) into the dirt trying to get back on the road, but rationalized that it didn’t count as a fall, as my top half hadn’t really gone down. Hey! Only my one leg was even really dirty! My brake hood was seriously jacked up, but everything shifted properly, so I felt OK to continue the ride. Little did I know…

What no one really tells you about the Calaveras climb is that you still have a good ways to go up even after the rest stop. You do this entire hill, take a break, only to have more hills to climb. So mean! I was trucking along slowly in the very very hot sun, when I decided I needed to unclip and grab a drink. I found a shady spot, stopped and sucked down half a bottle of water before deciding that I could and would finish the ride. Heck there were only maybe 3 more miles of these mini climbs! Coach Keith and I took off again, complaining casually about the newly paved road and its inherent mess of gravel which was pelting us from pretty much all angles.

And then I was done. I was riding along, convinced I’d make it the entire way, chatting and whining, when fate intervened. I tried to turn the crank and went down hard on my left side in the middle of the road. I couldn’t unclip, couldn’t explain what happened. I just knew my foot had hit a brick wall, and something was wrong. Further inspection revealed that my rear derailleur was now sticking up in the air and had gone through my rear wheel spokes. Awesome. A few minutes and minor amounts of fiddling later, it was determined that the part was broken and I’d have to SAG out.

I could have cried. I had just talked myself back into this ride in the evil heat, and now my bike was completely out of commission. Our best guess is that an ill-placed rock flew up from the road and somehow lodged itself in the derailleur, which didn’t work out so well when I tried to pedal. Siiiiiigh. No one had cell reception where I fell, so Scott and Devan rode on ahead, promising to send back the SAG truck. I sat my scuzzy, dirty, sweaty self in the shade, debating whether or not to throw my bike off the side of the mountain, and tried to chill out (literally and figuratively speaking).

Mike came with the truck, and within minutes I was back in the starting parking lot. My poor busted bike was loaded into my vehicle quickly, and I just paced blacktop – fuming. Realistically, I know that there was nothing I could have done differently that would have allowed me to finish the ride; but it was so disappointing. The hard part was over! So frustrating. Patty swears that my anger at not being able to finish is a sign that I am now really a cyclist…some rite of passage sort of thing. Personally, I think the fact that I’m already jones-ing to ride again is a more tell-tale (and slightly more positive) signal. I just hope that I’m back on the road in time for Half Moon Bay this weekend! Charles is dropping the bike off tonight, as my car is apparently out of brake fluid and unsafe for driving. Yay fun. Anyway, I should know the extent of the repairs (time and cost wise) soon. Wish me luck!

MotionBased Data – Calaveras Ride 8/4/07
Distance: 50.15 mi

Time: 4:24:28

Avg MPH: 11.4

Max MPH: 40.4

Restart Your Counters

Originally intended for posting on 7/8. Who knew the Four Seasons would only have pay internet? So lame!

Saturday’s ride started much the same as any other. Coach Dave gave a great talk on nutrition (start trying things to find what you like? I’ve got a whole spreadsheet!), and we got our recommittment packets from Kate before roll-out. Ooooh…credit card number time…that’s a little intimidating! Coach Keith corralled the Tiki Tiki’s, gave a quick talk about the ride and safety, and we set out.

Overall – a great first half of the ride. The weather couldn’t have been better and our pacelining was definitely improving. There was a minor incident in which Mike somehow managed to run down a live squirrel that went something along the lines of…

“Did it get back up?”
“What, the dead squirrel? Ummmmmm not so much…”
“Damnit! Are you sure?!”

A team rename as “Team Tiki Tiki and the Squirrel Killer” was debated, but eventually shot down under the “too long” pretext. Plus we couldn’t seem to convince Mike to wear a squirrel tail on his helmet. Killjoy! Other than that (and some minor huffing and puffing – especially when Ed was pulling!), we rolled into the rest stop in good spirits.

With the Mt. Eden climb impending, I decided to go ahead and get my third fall out of the way just to make it extra challenging. (Hey, Ruth says I’m required to do three – and at least it’s out of the way before Honolulu!) Yep, in case you weren’t among the forty-ish people who got to witness my tumble on Saturday, the counter has gained another tickmark. Best part? I managed to do it with both feet unclipped, at a dead standstill in the parking lot. For no apparent reason. Sigh…

I did recover, and get back on the bike (which now makes a really cool double-clicky noise when shifting – yays back to the bike shop), just in time for our big climb of the day. Hooray! For the record, hill repeats definitely do help your strength, but don’t expect the climb to be cake if you ridden a good 20 miles before you get to it. At least not if you’re me. I huffed and puffed – and averaged a whopping 6.2mph on the way up – but I did make it.

I think the group was feeling a bit tired overall on the latter part of the ride, as our pace back was definitely slower than the pace out. Regardless, everyone was encouraging everyone else, and we all made it back to the start alive (albeit slightly bruised) and together. Good ride team!

In honor of Fall Three, I’ve updated the stats list:
Number of rides: 18

Falls: 3

Rides since last fall: 0 (but I made it to 18 before it happened dangit!)

Number of bruises left: At this point, even the bruise to my pride is fading…(melodramatic much?)

Miles traveled: 265.66 – I went with 132 from the last count and added all the cycle-computer records in since then.

Last up – a couple new food reviews, as it’s been awhile since I posted them.

Brand	Flavor	Rated (1-10)	Notes
Food
GU	Espresso Love	7	Taste like really weak, really sugared coffee (espresso flavor? HA! I should really make coffee for these people sometime.) I do like the fact that it contains brain happy-chemicals – aka caffeine.
Clif Shot Bloks	Lemon Lime	7.5	Solidified Seven-Up, without the bubbles. I like 7up, so I’m basically OK with this option.
Drinks
Viso	Strawkey	3	That one drink I forgot to review awhile back. Strawberry Lime flavor. Tastes diet, and really tart. I HATE diet.

I guess that’s about it for now. I have my ride stats at home and will put them up soon! Back to work!

Distance: 30.39mi

Time: 2:25:04

Avg MPH: 12.6

Max MPH: 31.9

Hells Yeah Five!

Alternate Title: Endorphins – My Anti-drug

I showed up for hill repeats tonight expecting to either have to quit early or walk at least once. See, I’ve been slowly cutting back my 3-espresso-shots-per-day-minimum coffee habit as part of my training regimen. It’s likely a worthy endeavor (drink more water! less caffeine!), but has the side effect of giving me some pretty nasty headaches. If you believe random stats that I read somewhere on the web, apparently something like 13% of people suffer extreme migraine-style headaches if they go off caffeine cold turkey. I am so in that minority.

Anyway, I got to repeats still fighting back the remnants of a headache really just hoping for the best. Between stress over the new saddle positioning and the incessant deep-brain throbbing, my “bring on the hill” face was probably suffering a bit. I managed to grab two faux-Advil at work, but they really didn’t seem to be helping. Still, I knew I needed the workout and set out to if not tame, then survive the hill. Besides – if I didn’t go up at least once, I couldn’t really justify my free Chipotle dinner!

Round 1:
As always, we started with a moderate exertion, easy pace for the first time. This round was actually my personal best as far as progress up the hill. I made it passed the weird bear thing, almost to the wooden fence before turning back down. Best part? By the time I got back to the start line, those lil’ endorphins (I think) were flowing, and my headache was pretty well gone!

Round 2:
Spin baby spin! OK – I seriously didn’t have a lower gear in which to drop, but I did make an effort for at least 1/3 of the way to spin more than I had the time before. I didn’t get as far this time, but was feeling really good by the time I got back. What headache?

Round 3:
Coach Don had us jump up a couple gears and focus on a push-pull motion in the clipless pedals. I set out for this one convinced that I wouldn’t be able to make it. I mean seriously, if I can’t hit the top consistently in the lowest gear, how on earth would I do it in a higher one?!
Surprisingly enough, this round went really well! I could feel a HUGE difference in the amount of forward motion I was able to get when I concentrated on what my feet were doing. Granted, I wasn’t able to do it the entire way up (had to do a squish bit of high gear spinning), but wow – what a change.

Round 4:
Stand up to the top. Mwahahaha…right! Actually, this went better than last week. I made it all the way to what I refer to as the “worst part of the damn hill” out of the saddle (curve to the left…sharper bank than the rest…grrrrr). Giant improvement over last time. And then I sat down and couldn’t get back up. I burned a TON of energy and was feeling pretty rough by the time I hit the top. But hit the top I did!

Round 5:
Get the heck to the top, however you can. Basically? I made it! There was some huffing, a lot of puffing, silly amounts of mental reminders to forcibly reeeelaaaax (seems like an oxymoron…no?), a good bit of coughing, and not enough breathing…but I made it up. Woohoo!

Also, big thanks to Ruth (from the winter team, I think) for helping me adjust the new seat a bit. My knees were feeling a LOT better on the ride home…just gotta figure out how to keep the rest of the pieces happy. 😉

I rode back down feeling pretty darn proud of myself. It’s exciting to see myself and my teammates improve week over week – keeps me motivated. There will be bad training days to come (I mean seriously…that’s just how life works), but the good days are definitely worth it!

OK – that’s all for now. The happy-brain-chemicals must be wearing off, ’cause the head is kinda pounding. Time to watch some Green Wing and have a recovery …water, I guess. Drink more water! Check back tomorrow for more food reviews; I’ve found a couple that are promising!

Distance: 14.8mi

Time: gah – forgot to grab this one

Avg MPH: 10.3

Max MPH: 30.9

No falls in over a week!

Originally posted June 18th, 2007 – Jamie’s SV Summer Cycle Journal

Saturday’s ride was great! It was cold – I second whoever noted “invest in armwarmers” – but the sun was out and the scenery was beautiful. As someone who mans a computer at work for 8-ish hours a day and then plays computer games for 3-4 hours per night, I really appreciate the outdoor time that training provides. Sunshine, fog capped mountains (or hills? foothills? I don’t really know my hill-like-structure terminology), tree smells…good stuff.

There was a pretty nasty headwind for a good part of the ride Saturday, and at least twice I thought I was going to be blown right off the road. I accidentally discovered the benefits of drafting, when I pulled out to pass someone that I’d been tailing. WOW, what a difference. It will be interesting to see how this “pacelining” business works in the future.

My left was calf was still complaining some on the hills Saturday. I still felt like I had to baby it on the way up the last hill, but I finished the whole ride without any major incidents – a success I attribute entirely to my pre-ride breakfast banana.

I went shopping *again* on Sunday, and managed to buy not a single thing on-sale at Mike’s Bikes. I did successfully purchase a second pair of bike shorts, which should ease the almost every day washing regimen I’ve been stuck with. The new shorts and I went for a ride on the Los Gatos Creek Trail near my house later Sunday night. All in all, I had a nice trip although there was some minor stress when I almost took out two wheel-chasing chihuahuas (eep!).

Some updates…

Number of rides: 6
Falls: holding at 2
Days since last fall*: 9 (I know – you’re amazed)
Number of bruises left: 4
Color of remaining bruises: mostly purple
Miles traveled: ~55 (guestimated with the help of google maps )
Permanent injuries: 0 – may stop tracking this one until the next “major incident” (Is it bad luck to already assume there will be a next incident?)

*It occured to me while writing this list that “Days since last fall” is a slightly deceptive metric, as it doesn’t take into account how many of those days I was actually on a bike. I mean, realistically, not riding for a week could highly inflate that number. So I’ve been brainstorming a better way to track…but thus far all my ideas are too complex (ratios …ew, math). Let me know if you come up with one.

It’s not easy, but I’m learning!

Originally posted June 14th, 2007 – Jamie’s SV Summer Cycle Journal

Well, here we are in week two already! I’ve been told by several people that keeping a journal of my training experience is a good idea, so I’m going to give it a whirl. At the very least, my friends and family will get a kick out of the training stories thus far!

Status update on training to date:

Number of rides: 4
Falls: 2
Days since last fall: 5 (woot!)
Number of bruises: 6
Color of remaining bruises: weird yellowy-brown
Miles traveled: No clue, as my cyclometer came without half its parts. Sigh.
Permanent injuries: 0 (although my left calf begs to differ)

So our first night of hill repeats was yesterday. In some ways, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. You don’t end up riding the entire hill every time, and the hill actually isn’t as steep as I had feared. I breezed through my first ride up, but think that I might have blown out most of my energy way too early. The second loop was a struggle, and the two bugs I swallowed did NOT help. Protein? Maybe. Tasty? Um no. I didn’t get quite as far on the second ride, but was still doing well (especially on the downhill part!).

I was actually feeling pretty good the third time up…right up to the point where I stopped being able to breathe. I just tensed up, started panting, and ended up having to stop and walk for a bit to catch my breath. Coach Devan gave me some good tips about posture and breathing, which I swear I will put to good use on Saturday. 🙂 It took awhile, but I made to the top of the hill – ON the bike. Sorry for making you all wait, but I did appreciate the cheers and kind words!!

Oddly enough, it was the descent that really kicked my tail. I was coasting along, pretty as you please, when all the sudden – BAM! My left calf contracted, and I couldn’t extend it at all. The whole thing just seized. I managed to get off the road and unclipped without falling (miracles never cease), and proceeded to hop around like a deranged chicken, yelping in pain. Coach Don pulled off and I added even more tips to my mental list** of “How Not to Permanently Injure Yourself when Cycling” while trying to stretch the leg back out.

It took a good bit of time, but I did manage to get back on the bike and get down to the starting spot. I really had to baby the leg for that part of the ride – it felt like it was going to seize back up any time I put much pressure on it. Anyway, after all that, I’m looking forward to repeats next week (oddly enough). I’ve learned a LOT already, and want to get back up there and give it another shot!!

Hopefully this calf will stretch back out before our ride this weekend. Thanks again to everyone with your tips and encouragements. See you all Saturday!

** Aforementioned mental list:
• Drink more water. Drink more water. Drink MORE water.
• Eat more potassium, calcium and other vitamins.
• Find energy drinks I don’t hate and start drinking them. Ditto energy foods.
• Helmet should not choke you
• Shoes should not cut off circulation to your feet
• PACE yourself
• Did I mention drink more water?