SAUSALITO TEAM IN TRAINING RIDE

What a great ride... besides the great cause and the great people associated with Team in Training... the ride locations are great. We have never ridden at any of the places we have gone so far, so it's exciting for us. One of our friends said rule of thumb is that the ride has to be double the amount of time it took you to drive to the location. I get the idea but it doesn't matter to me how far I have to drive because it's worth it to me to see new places and build relationships with the Team in Training participants.
The ride started at Mike's bikes in Sausalito. (great store by the way) it was exciting before we even left the parking lot because today was an extra high tide so we had to be careful where we parked our cars were in the flood zone. The route was a 35 mile ride that took us to the Golden Gate Bridge , down a cool bike path, and a great road that I don't even know the name but it reminded me our Redwood Road in Castro Valley.(I think it was paradise road, it was a big loop) We had a few nice climbs that felt really good.( we had about 1500 feet of climbing total) Me and my old girl Sammy were one today, she did everything right, everything I asked her to do ... she did it no questions asked. I was happy that every time I saw Heather she had a beautiful smile on her face. Heather and Old Blue were also getting along great. Heather told me on the way home that when she was climbing she thought of Lance and a mountain stage he won on the tour. We had watched it on DVD a few days earlier. She loved his cadence up the hills and how he would jump out of the saddle and then sit back down. Heather said if Lance can do it .. I can do it.. and she did .. Heather is turning into a LIL Lance.
The only bad thing about the ride to day was flat tires. Our group alone had like 5 flats and a whole bunch of problems that went along with them. Stems that were too short, broken stems, flats while waiting for others to fix their flats, it was crazy. My Sammy even got a flat on the rack while we ate lunch at the cafe.
Looking forward to our next team ride this weekend with Team in Training. The rides are going to get longer and more climbs each week, since we are getting closer to our century date.