we started at the community center and then rode out dinkey creek road. i have ridden my bike on dinkey creek rode many times while training, and during the shaver triathlon, but never this far. i found out about this ride from my spin instructor nancy who RAVED about it, thus making me think i must do it. the ride was out and back, turning around at courtright reservoir, 70ish miles round-trip. when describing the ride to me i remember nancy saying something like beautiful with nice climbs. i'm thinking, perfect! so, first of all....i'm hanging out at the community center with everyone....not knowing anyone by-the-way, looking for nancy, and wondering the plan. i knew this was an organized ride with food stops and everything (nice)....but wasn't sure the plan of attack, or who to ride with. suddenly this huge group of riders just starts heading out... thinking i will eventually find nancy (as we typically ride at a similar pace) i head out alone. i started out super duper slow (also not knowing the extent of what nancy meant by saying "nice climbs"...?). finally, by the second large hill, i realized that the group i was with wasn't just starting out slow in an attempt to not die later in the day, they were just too slow for me. i ended up passing them and trying to find another group to ride with to no avail. a few minutes later some of the "tri guys" from faron's group go flying by me with their disk wheels-a-roaring. i knew i couldn't hang on to them, but it definitely gave me a little burst of energy to imagine myself hanging onto their wheels. by the end of the dinkey creek road, at the turn off to wishon, i was ALL ALONE. luckily there are actually signs out there or i would've felt totally lost.
the climb up to wishon is a slow steady climb, very similar to climbing the 4-lanes for those of you who are familiar with that. my legs felt great, and at this point i'm loving nancy for inviting me. i have a huge smile on my face, i'm singing along to my amazing music, and just enjoying the wonderful day. in the back of my head though i am well aware that there is still a lot of riding to be done. finally i see the turn off to courtright, and with nobody else in sight assumed that this was the correct way to go. immediately in my easiest gear, i started on my journey of understanding what nancy meant by "nice climbs" i was averaging about 6mph, and knew i had about 10 miles of road left to cover..........and started to feel like they were all going to be similarly straight up. hmm? thanks nancy, i'm now thinking sarcastically! sometime naivety is wonderful.....because i really didn't know how hard this was going to be, i actually DID it. at the same time, with no other riders on the road i started to question if i was even going to the right place or not...i started to wonder if i was really headed in the direction of food, and water........i started to panic....because i was now in desperate need of food and water. as i had only one gu and not even a full water bottle left to get me back the 35 miles to the car if there was nothing ahead. lucky for me as i reach the top (EXHAUSTED!) i see a little old man waiving me in. the food on the back of his truck LOOKED AMAZING! it was costco cookies, bananas, water, soda.....i instantly started shoving things in my mouth as he's asking me tons of questions....little did he know i totally wasn't listening....i was so focused on getting some calories in my very depleted body! as many of you know i quit soda a couple months ago. cold turkey. it's no big deal now, but this was the moment of truth and i caved. i drank a mtn. dew and i don't feel bad about it either. this was a life or death mtn. dew. really, my body needed the sugar, the salt, and liquid. moving on......a few more massively strong looking riders approach as i'm recuperating, and they are talking about the sandwichs down at wishon dam. my ears perk up like a puppy, as my calories hadn't kicked in yet and i was still totally bonking! SANDWICHES!? i think most of these riders were comforted by the fact that i actually had NOT stopped at the sandwich stop, because that meant this girl in pink on the tri-bike didn't actually beat them!! :) heading back out to the car, i was continually amazed at how much i had climbed, and thoroughly enjoying myself just cruising home.
in summation i'm glad i didn't quit and ask the old guy with the truck for a ride back, because it was actually super duper fun to ride home DOWN hill. the total bike ride took about 5 1/2 hours with food stops. making me actually ahead of the game for ironman. now just imagine running 26.2ish miles after that. hmmm? we'll save that for later i think. the rest of my day also continued to be amazing after being able to visit with brynn-e and keyanna after my ride. sadly for keyanna, aunty katymoe was too tired for kangaroo jumps, but it made for a wonderful day to combine my training with hanging with wonderful friends!!! thanks for reading.
coming up next:
i'm not complaining (lake shasta trip)
planning for ironman
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