Still Riding

Some training highlights....

April 17
H suggests we do a 40 km ride... I get my first trip up the hill off Jericho Beach up to UBC... it is very challenging for me (it's steep and narrow) but I make it to the top without stopping. It is raining hard and really cold.
Several things stand out for me from this ride. The first is how kind other people can be. Two separate riders going the opposite direction saw me struggling and called out encouragement. I'm sure they had no idea how much I needed it and I was surprised to feel my eyes burn with appreciative tears. The second standout is a lesson learned: I must drink more water and refuel on longer rides. At the end of 47 kms I am completely wiped out - zero energy - feel as though I have not slept for days and have extreme jet lag. My "worry" level goes up about 10 notches and I am filled with self doubts about my ability to complete two days of 130kms/day. The last stand out for this ride are two short sentences quietly uttered by my hubby at the the top of the hill... "Way to go baby... I'm proud of you."

The next day I managed only a short 22km ride - still tired from the day before.

April 24
Off to UBC again only this time we go up the 4th Avenue hill which I am sure is steeper than the one from Jericho... I am wrong though. It is raining again and the spray from cars and trucks going past douses us with more water and dirt. I drink more water this time and eat a few bites on a quick stop. We do the hill at the back of UBC (along Southwest Marine Drive) several times to get added kms in and do more hill work. This is a gradual hill and I have no issues with it. We spotted a large coyote just off the road who ignored us completely as he watched some small prey in the grass. Gotta love cycling in the city.
At the end of 55kms I actually feel ok.... "ok" as in I thought I could probably bike another 15 kms or so. But wisely did not. We finished the ride soaking wet and covered in mud... I also sported a large smear of black grease on my forehead (I guess I put it there after I had to put my chain back on .... hubby keeps telling me to change gears BEFORE the start of a hill).

I felt pretty good the next day and managed at 30 km ride.

May 8
H suggests an 80 km ride. I agree but find myself very, very nervous. I have butterflies in my stomach and feel weak in my legs. At least it wasn't raining. As we traveled up the 4th Avenue hill, I was going so slow that a bug landed on my ear... and stayed there for a while as I was too winded to bother waving it off. I still can't believe that I rode my bike from our place to Iona Beach.. it's far. The highlight for me was biking across the Canada Line bridge... the train above my head and the Fraser River beneath my feet - very cool. Lots of hills on this ride too and the headwind heading out to Iona was crazy. I was really, really cranky by the time we got there - it seemed endless. Although we ate more on this ride and drank more water, we did not have enough of either and both of us were pretty much out of steam about 10 kms from home. It was all I could do to maintain 15 kms/hr at the end. We rode some 90 kms.
Hubby is very good to me on all of our bike rides... he has to ride twice as hard on his mountain bike and he constantly doubles back to check up on me.

Neither of us felt like getting on our bikes the next day though.

May 15
After numerous short hauls, we find ourselves on Galiano Island and ready for a good training ride. It took me about 25 minutes longer to ride 20 kms than it usually does... Galiano is all hills. It was a beautiful day though and we had a wonderful walk/hike in the afternoon with the dogs we were puppy-sitting.

May 19
Just a short ride today but I am expecting another long ride on the May long weekend... hoping for better weather than what we currently have - pouring rain and a wind warning in effect.

In one month, on June 19, we will be on the road to Seattle. Yikes!