wabisabi
05-07-2005, 04:38 PM
Which stands for Tour of the Unknown Coast, up here on the north coast. It is supposed to be the hardest century, which I believe. I opted for the metric. I'd like to say that was because it has been an very rainy spring and hard for training (which it was), but that would definitely not be true. The century is probably 3x as hard as the metric, with a couple of HUGE hills at the end, a lot of switchbacks, headwinds along the ocean, etc.
I woke up this morning feeling not quite tip top, a little congested, gastrically challenged and low energy, but I figured I had enough of a base to ride 62 miles at least, besides, who can resist a ride along the Avenue of the Giants, which for those unfamiliar, are some of the biggest coastal redwoods. Because of my dithering, I was a little late and told my group to go ahead, I would catch them by lunch, which I did. It was actually not a huge rider group, maybe because the weather was predicted to be iffy. We actually had some sun for a couple of short periods. The hardest part, out and back, are a series of hills called The Three Sisters. Not too long, but surprisingly hard. Otherwise, farmland and rollers through trees. I felt not bad, considering, rode with a bay area guy working out some sort of midlife crisis issue, or so he shared. The food was not bad, lunch was good, and there is a party to share war stories tonight. I ran into my personal trainer, a triathlete, who probably did the century, in, oh sub 6 hours. If I could manage the whole tour, I would feel incredibly gnarly--maybe some day.
I woke up this morning feeling not quite tip top, a little congested, gastrically challenged and low energy, but I figured I had enough of a base to ride 62 miles at least, besides, who can resist a ride along the Avenue of the Giants, which for those unfamiliar, are some of the biggest coastal redwoods. Because of my dithering, I was a little late and told my group to go ahead, I would catch them by lunch, which I did. It was actually not a huge rider group, maybe because the weather was predicted to be iffy. We actually had some sun for a couple of short periods. The hardest part, out and back, are a series of hills called The Three Sisters. Not too long, but surprisingly hard. Otherwise, farmland and rollers through trees. I felt not bad, considering, rode with a bay area guy working out some sort of midlife crisis issue, or so he shared. The food was not bad, lunch was good, and there is a party to share war stories tonight. I ran into my personal trainer, a triathlete, who probably did the century, in, oh sub 6 hours. If I could manage the whole tour, I would feel incredibly gnarly--maybe some day.