a change of plans...

This weekend's training schedule was a *bit* disrupted by Saturday morning's torrential downpour.

After a nice swim with a 20 minute marker set thrown in (I showed slight improvement over the last one), my group transitioned to bike gear and and headed out of the locker room into a deluge. Cyclists from the first group were straggling in from a short marker set ride gasping, sputtering, swearing, and flinging water off their sunglasses.

Long course riders put it to a quick vote. Nobody wanted to go for a 50+ mile ride in such weather, so a few team captains agreed to come back and lead a ride on Sunday morning.

I briefly entertained the thought of running Saturday. I realized I'd have plenty of time on Monday and opted to go home and do nothing instead. :-)

This morning about 20-25 of us met up at MVHS for the ride.

We headed north on Foothill to Arastradero, went west, followed it out to Alpine, went west again onto the loop, and headed up Old La Honda.

I've only been up OLH once before with Steph, last June. I remember it being very hard and not wanting to talk very much. I think I managed about 34 minutes from the bridge to the stop sign.

Today's ascent was great--I spent at least the first 2 miles chatting with a couple other riders on the way up. I didn't time myself, but I know for sure I took less than 30 minutes!

At the top I scarfed a Fig newton and checked the cyclometer...argh..only 18 miles down--which meant more than 32 to go! We regrouped and headed north on Skyline to Kings Mountain road. Really just another long ascent for most of the way. My quads were toasty and my rear end was killing me by the time we got to King's Mountain Road.

Headed down King's Mountain for the descent. Not my favorite part. I'm so so so so chicken. The first 2/3 are riddled with rough pavement and 10-15mph hairpin turns. SO not fun. Once you pass Huddart Park, though, the pavement is nice and smooth, the road opens up, and you can look through most of the curves...it's actually fun then!

Anyway, once at the bottom, we regrouped again, hung a right on Woodside, followed that to Portola Valley Road where we took a left (though the map said right, and poor Lynn and Trista made it back up to Skyline on 84 before they realized their error!), then left on Alpine for a nice fast spin to Serra/Foothill where we headed back to MVHS.

A great confidence booster, and the farthest I've ridden at once...though I'm not sure I was ready to run a half marathon right away!

I did okay on the nutrition...I think I need to eat more, and much more frequently. I think I'll set my watch to beep every 15-20 minutes on race day, to remind me to take in something. Fig Newtons are awesome on the bike. Actual food!

Anyway, the plan tomorrow is to get a swim in during my morning break, and then a run in the late afternoon. I was supposed to run 12 miles today!