I had been hearing about the Half Moon Bay training ride well before I officially joined Team In Training. I guess you could say training in the Bay Area has some of the best perks—gorgeous scenery, challenging terrain, and pretty great weather most of the year. Or so I thought...
While heading down to Half Moon Bay I was admiring the great
views and couldn’t help but notice the incredibly steep hills and incredibly
choppy ocean. Huh. Choppy water? That must mean...wind! To be honest, until
this point I had welcomed headwinds as they help slow my descents. But this
water was really, really choppy. Like 25-30 mph choppy...oh dear.
We met our ride group and after a bit of Rah Rah Go Team and
last minute clipless pedal pointers (it was Emily’s first ride with the pedals
too), we were off. Our regular coaches, Phill and Scott were unable to ride
with our group, so we cycled with a wonderful substitute coach, Don, and our
chapter’s head coach, Tom.
As we pulled out of the parking lot, our team started
pacelining immediately. Luckily, the stops and starts were few and far
between, so I didn’t have to worry too much about the new pedals. We rode as a
group for eight miles before our first climb of the day. While the climb wasn’t
too bad, most of us hadn’t been on our bikes for two weeks, so we needed to get
our climbing groove back.
After our team reached the top, we hopped back on our bikes
and pedaled our way to the next challenge: a major descent. Luckily, our
substitute coach, Don, stayed behind with me to give me a few more pointers
about descending. We practiced good techniques for carving the sharp turns in
the road (putting the outside foot down; looking ahead instead of straight down
at the ground you don’t want to hit with your face) and different breaking techniques (more
feathering, less death grip). At the end of the descent, we had our first TNT
supported rest stop (a.k.a. delicious snacks provided by our lovely volunteers)
and were off again.
The rest of the ride is somewhat of a blur. We had three
incredibly tough climbs for a total of 3,000+ vertical feet by the end of the ride. And of course equivalent descents. Not only was this ride
incredibly physically demanding, the mental challenge of sticking with it and
not giving up made it that much more of a test.
Our rides had gone from very little climbing to this beast
of a ride that pushed my moxie big time. At one point, I was literally breaking
down these “hills” into 20 foot segments, convincing myself that I could make
it to that next shrub, and then that mile marker, and then that beer can on the
side of the road. To date, this was the second most physically challenging thing
I have ever done (to give a little more perspective, the first was completing the Chicago Marathon in 2004 without
training—thanks Corey!).
Aside from the grueling hills, we were facing 25-30 mph
headwinds—or more like side winds. Not only was I convincing my legs to keep
pedaling, I felt like the wind was literally going to pick-up my bike and toss
it wherever it pleased (I am now a little more empathetic to Dorothy’s story in
the Wizard of Oz). It’s a terrible feeling. At some portions of our ride, we
were literally going 8 mph on flat roads at our best efforts.
I got back to the parking lot, 49 miles and 7.5 hours later,
feeling completely defeated and incredibly exhausted. After high-fiving my teammates, driving back to San
Francisco, spending a few painful hours on the couch, I reached what some call,
“the bottom of the barrel”.
All it took to revive my spirits was a late night call to
Joe, in tears (me, not him), questioning my ability to complete the season and
the 100 miles in Tahoe. He simply said, “You’re doing this for your dad. That
will allow you to persevere!” And he was right. No matter how challenging this
ride was, or the future rides will be, I have to remind myself that the
challenges that cancer patients face are far scarier and far more exhausting than
any of the work I’ll do on my bike this season.
My mom also reminded me that a very challenging 49-mile ride was something to be proud of and at some point I would look back on it and see how far I’ve come as a cyclist. Ohhh Moms! They really are the best!
My mom also reminded me that a very challenging 49-mile ride was something to be proud of and at some point I would look back on it and see how far I’ve come as a cyclist. Ohhh Moms! They really are the best!
Looking back, while this was definitely a ride that pushed
my limits both physically and mentally, I know it made me a stronger rider and
has connected me even further to TNT’s cause. If training for a 100 mile ride in Tahoe were easy, I wouldn't be learning so much about myself and my teammates--nor would I burn 1,900 calories on any given Sunday. Plus, we take a pretty darn good
picture after cycling our little legs off:
GO TEAM!
Please take a moment to visit my fundraising page and consider donating to help CURE Cancer: http://pages.teamintraining.
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