50 MILE PINEHURST SKYLINE 3 BEARS LOOP

I like my new Team in Training cycle cap. I wore it all day like a little kid. One of our team members made these to sell for their fundraiser. Great idea
This was our longest ride with Team In Training so far. We did two loops, Pinehurst loop and 3 Bears loop the opposite way we did it last time. The ride was 50 miles with 4k feet of climbing. We started at Orinda Bart. Nobody could believe how wet it was. We all expected it to be dry, but it rained all the way until we got out of the cars, then it was fine for the whole ride. The ground was still wet, so we were wet and dirty anyhow. The scenery was beautiful. Team In Training has taken us to some great places to ride.
This ride was full of craziness. Just about anything that could go wrong did go wrong.
1st off we had a rider turn back on the first climb because his knee was hurting him. We were like 10 miles into the ride and he knew it wasn't going to happen, so he did the smart thing and turned back instead of hurting it worse.
2nd I had a blow out on my brand new tires... we were descending a hill, going around 30 miles an hour, bang instant flat front tire. Thoughts of crashing were running through my head. All I was thinking was, you crash when this happens, period. Thank God that didn't happen. It was totally controllable, pulled over to the side, did a quick tire change and on the road we went.
3rd another rider got a flat. I went back to help. Had my bike upside down while working on other bike, bang my sidewall blew out. Second flat on my front tire. Now I had a big gash in my sidewall, and our tire boot was not working so onto the sag car my bike went. Off to the the bike store to get a tire we went. Just like Heather, last time we road the 3 bears. I love our sag drivers. They are great. We were able to find a tire and rejoin my group before we climbed the 3 bears. So I didn't miss any climbing just about 10 miles of flat.
It made me feel real good when I rejoined the team because they were all happy to have me back. Clapping and hooting, and it wasn't the same without you is what I heard as I got Sammy off the rack.
4th after I hooked back up with my team I found out another rider dropped because she wasn't feeling good. It's been a long and cold training season for us so far. One of my biggest concerns is staying healthy through this whole training period.
5th Another rider and I were riding side by side talking and he crossed wheels with another rider and down he went. I call this guy the kid, even though he is 30 years old. He went down very gracefully and instantly said I'm ok. So I started laughing. I think that was our teams first crash.
6th and most crazy. Right after our last sag stop we started to climb the 3 bears as I heard a noise behind me. It was one of our riders crashing and laying face down in the gutter. I call this guy powerstroke cuz he is big and powerful and just goes and goes. When I looked back I could laugh because he was moving, just laying there face down. SO as we turned around to help two other riders kinda hit each other and would up on the ground and in the gutter. The cutest guy on our calls this crash a sympathy crash. Well powerstroke rolled over and said his knee hurt. A really nice lady in a pickup truck stopped to make sure all was good as powerstroke jumped up and started hopping around in pain. We talked him into putting the bike in her truck and skipping the 3 bear climb. Thank you nice lady, it's nice to know there still are some nice people out there.
7th I felt pretty good climbing the 3 bears and was sitting on our best climbers wheel until he decided it was time10to let me know he was our king of the mountains. He dropped me like a bad habit. I got my ass handed to me. But at least it was only one person. Even though we are not racing and he has more experience than me and is in better shape, I WAS NOT HAPPY about this. I'm going to take my diet and training a little more serious now. I really don't like getting dropped like that on climbs.
8th I did my first pee in the bushes on a ride.
9th after a quick 3 mile ride back to Bart Me and the cute guy had a lil playful sprint through the parking lot to the cars. I won and had to throw up my arms like an idiot, like I just won a stage in race. It was all a show for Heather and her group because they were cheering us on.
10th the cute guy told me at the car he thinks he has a hairline fracture in his wrist from the sympathy fall.
All this was just in our 10 person group. I don't know what happened in the 4 other groups.
Heather sounded like she had a strong uneventful ride except for her first flat. She was happy that she changed it basically all by herself without much help from any men.
It was great... when we got home from our ride we were greeted with the coolest double rainbow we have ever seen.

TEAM IN TRAINING BUDDY RIDE DANVILLE

We had a great buddy ride with Team in Training sat. starting in Danville. The route was 47.5 miles but I'm going to call it 50 miles because that sounds way better, and it's half of what we are going to ride in Solvang. Since it was a buddy ride we didn't have to ride in our normal ride groups. This was cool because Heather was able to tag along with the Wild Ones. I felt she was a great addition to our group. She had a nice strong ride. I really enjoy riding with Heather because I can see her improve every time we ride. After our rides we always talk about the ride, what went right and what went wrong. Heather always works on what went wrong and becomes a lil better cyclist every group ride.
The ride started out foggy, but that didn't slow us down, we had a nice pace going until I had a flat tire on a narrow road. We waited for a driveway to pull into so we could change the tire safely. As we were changing the tire we were passed by another group. That doesn't make us happy. The route was fun for me because it's the back roads I take to get to Vasco when 580 is backed up. So we passed the other group after we got rolling and made a bathroom stop. Got passed by the group again. Passed them on the road, made another bathroom stop, got passed by the other group, passed the other group, we got another flat tire, got passed by the other group, passed them again on a nice gradual incline. DO YOU SEE A PATTERN HERE. SO OUR NEW NAME IS TEAM STOP AND GO. WE NEED TO WORK ON THIS. I THINK WE WILL HAVE TO PUNISH THE OTHER TEAMS NEXT SATURDAY AND MAKE THEM EAT THEIR WORDS. I was telling the other teams we were doing interval training.

But the other teams were talking about how good we looked pacelining and I was happy how we rode as a team. By the time Solvang comes we will be really strong I'm sure.

I was happy about 3 things that happened today. 1) I was able to ride with Heather
2) Everybody I talked to after the ride said they could have gone farther.
3) We all had a really good time after the ride in the parking lot
Mustang Sally was doing this crazy dance, asking me how I like looking at the back of her the whole ride. If I didn't love Sally so much I would have grabbed her and put her into a choke hold until she tapped out or passed out. Here are some pictures of my favorite Sally in the world.


Oh I forgot, We had a huge group of racers pass us. It was awesome to see. That was the closest I've been to a peloton. I so wanted to jump on their wheel and see how long I could hang with them...I hope to be able to do that soon. Sorry no pictures of that. I wish I had my camera ready.
Ok that's it for this post, but enjoy these random pictures I was taking of the group today.

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.