Sunday, October 21, 2012, was my 58th birthday. What does one who behaves as though she's half that age do?

She rides her age, on the tandem with her BFF/hubby, with a retired professional cyclist. The Fuji Team Pro fit him just right. We have not ridden the tandem since August, as my memory serves.

Bombing down Steiger Hill Rd. I knew Chris would be balls-out, and I started the Lamaze breathing early. Good idea; bombing down Cardiac and setting a new Strava score required me just tucking in and breathing. Holy crap, I had serious fear!  I kept squeezing imaginary brakes, Lamaze breathing, reminding myself that we've done this multiple times and it's been all good.

We rode 128 to Winters and shared a sandwich and a cup of really good soup. The sun played hide-and-seek, and wouldn't just shine. So soup helped to warm me up.  Stokers should be warm.

We had 18 miles to get my age, so off we went along Putah Creek Rd., my usual TT route.  Fun on the tandem + friend, and on we went, with a final result of 64.3 miles, beer at home, and off went our friend. We'd planned dinner around his presence, so when he bailed, we reconnoitered, and went to the Buck Horn for dinner.  We ate ourselves almost stupid and came home with leftovers.

Bottom line: Birthday ride-your-age-in-miles:http://app.strava.com/rides/25728331

Bone miles: Done

Recovery meal: Consumed.

It was a great day! 

PCSD

I had some issues with that carbon clincher wheel so I road it Mercks-style. 27:13,  a new Merckx PR.

Really, I wanted to bail: nothing on the TT bike was working out, and I could have so easily stayed home...and I'm so glad I didn't.  I needed to figure out how to make this happen. And I needed the way to make this work for me and my buyers.

Done. Very happy.

Winters RR and Vacaville GP

Saturday, 8/25, was the Winters Road Race, a fun event on roads I ride all the time. Chris & I reluctantly attended the Earthquake festival the night before, and I was skeptical as to the town's clean up crew.

When we showed up on Saturday morning the streets were spotless. You'd never know that crowds had blocked the streets just 12 hrs. before. Props to Winters for making that happen -- that's huge!

The Juniors started in front of us, and my teammate Kathy and I went to the front, right behind them.  The rest of the group thought they were leading but they came up behind us giving us the edge.

We had a neutral lead-out for about 1/2 mile and then we were set loose. Those Juniors, fueled by testosterone, went off fast. The women all lined up behind me (I was feeling strong and didn't mind leading) and I pulled for 7+ mi. before Kathy came up, apologizing, tried to split the group on the rollers.Nothing doing -- we all stuck together.

We hit Cantelow and the group was all together. I faded towards the back with a couple women behind me; Kathy was up front. As we were descending/ascending an off-camber part of the road a moto ref neutralized us. A sketchy, maybe new rider jerked left, leaned into Kathy who leaned back. The rider let up, then took out 2 girls to her right, and Kathy and another girl to the left. I didn't see her but saw the carnage & heard the squeal of brakes; I stopped, laid down the Diva off the road, and after the huge P/1/2 group passed, ran to aid Kathy. She was hurt and required some sensitive hands-on help. The SAG driver gathered her bottles, I helped her get out of her shoes as her back was hurt, into the truck, and off she went.

I had an easy 2 mi. ride to the neutral feed zone, where I pulled out of the race -- my group was >30 min. ahead of me, so what was the point?  I felt as though my job was done. Chris & I handed bottles to other teammates, then we drove home.

That night we had dinner with our CAT3 teammie...the Vacaville GP was combining 3/4 women, and a CAT4 'mate was already signed up. Kameo threw down the gauntlet so I showed up...a very technical race I've marshaled for several years but have always feared riding, With no expectations and a wee bit of a hangover I showed up and rode my guts out, ignoring the scary turns and just racing. Eventually I was dropped by the main field and picked up 7 women, and we alternated who rode with whom.  I had many opportunities to play with cornering, hill climbing, etc., and had a blast -- esp. picking off women half my age on the hill -- I'd tell them "Once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed" but they weren't getting it. One day they will.

So this group I worked with/dropped/worked with, we were lapped at the bell lap. I pulled out but Leon said if I wasn't pulled by an official I could still race. So my last lap was a time trial -- I passed my group of 5 and a lady said "Good for you" as I passed her on the hill. She and another racer passed me on the downhill, and on the straightaway I found some sprint in my legs and beat the pair of them for a top 20 finish.

And the Friday before we closed an escrow. Sweet! Win win win!

Searching for the No Limits Mindset

I've been a bad blogger. 

Many days the thought "update blog now" in a Siri voice went through my brain.

I ignored it.

My new postition and duties as President-elect of my local Assoc. of REALTORs (R) sometimes sucks the life out of me, as well as my training and riding

For instance, 8/15 was the local time trial practice extended 40 km ride. I was in Chicago; I ran 4-ish miles along the lakefront, which was amazing, took a pic, ran back to the hotel. Later, stuck in an airport, I saw the reminder about the race and silently chafed.

Showed up tonight; reinforced the common knowledge that I'm old and slow.

My signature race on Sunday will be painful and perhaps without payoff.  I'm trying to remain positive.  From now until I cross the finish line, it's all a mind game.

Overdue

Oh, I'm so far behind!

I feel bad about it. On a weekly basis, I beat myself up.

Then I remind myself that this isn't that kind of blog.

It's for sharing major life-changing events, and hoping to inspire y'all to new successes.

Fail. Fail. Fail.

So much learning in the fail. I see that I should make "update blog" a weekly or more frequent reminder.

We have a long weekend ahead. I don't have a full showing schedule. I'll catch up on my rides and take-aways then. 

I predict an unprecedented weekend. 

I have been remiss in updating. In my head I'm updating all the time. I just can't get it out of my head. Sorry.

Google has made some changes as well, and I need to examine them before I make a decision as to how I proceed.

The riding's been great, the training is 3 mos. ahead of schedule, thanks to 30 Days of Biking in April, and my adherence to attending all the PCSD TT practices I can handle.

Sadly, my road races will suffer, since the women on my team are incredibly faster than I am. So I figure I'll be off the back, working with a group who also can't keep up with the leaders. I'll be their erstwhile mentor and they'll pedal their guts out. Much easier to do when someone is cheering you on. (Ask me how I know.)

Had a very satisfactory result in last week's Dunlop Time Trial in Davis; 7th overall and 3rd in my category. New PR -- first time doing in on the Diva; in previous years this was a tandem race.

New PR in the PCSD on Wed. too.  Nice to be 3 mos. ahead of last year's fitness.

Another TT practice on Wed. Not sure of the distance but I'll be there and ready to race.

Happy for the gains this spring...both on and off the bike.

Musings on 30 Days of Biking

I realized tonight that I've ridden 548 miles this month, and there are still 3 days left of 30 Days of Cycling. It's been stressful, fulfilling, fun, enlightening,

This is mid-summer mileage.  I'm blown away by that number, so early in the season...and I'm not finished yet.

You can see by the Strava scores that I did some work this week. (Sidebar: I'm less than 30 sec. slower than my fastest time last summer on the PCSD 40k ride. Extremely stoked; looking for sub-60 min. next month. Back-pat.) Last night, the women's ride, I thought would be more casual than it was; sadly, all 12 of us are serious roadies, so the pace back to the start (uphill and into the wind) wiped me.  Kameo & Mary hung with me, bless them for that, and when they turned left onto Cantelow I cringed, yet joined them; passed some of our group, hit the top feeling really good. Secretly congratulated me for doing hill repeats).

I really craved a recovery ride, a ride with no Strava PMs or QOMs to meet or exceed, so this evening I had one...and found the Zen in Z1.  I reveled in being enveloped  in a cloud of orange blossom heaven for a few seconds, then nothing, then wildflowers, freshly-cut alfalfa, or grass.  Winter wheat has its own earthy smell, not one that I'd prefer, but there it was.  Pedaling in a decent gear at a non-hammerfest speed.

And the sounds...the house finches, the robins, the mockingbirds, the occasional hawk/eagle.  When I pass a red-winged blackbird, perched on a shaft of wheat, and he lets loose his song, and the meadowlark on a fence post waits until I'm even with him to belt out his tune -- ah, those moments, surprisingly frequent, yet still rare, nourish me and make my heart soar. It's as though they were waiting for me to ride by before they sang their hearts out.  I love them for that, and pedal on.

These are just a few of the reasons why I ride...the shifts in perspective I achieve on some of my rides are fodder for my next post.

Thanks for reading...now go ride your bike!