Training Begins, Bring on the Doubles

[Starfish]

Hey V, wow, what a great ride description! Gotta admit, sometimes I'm a little envious of how you describe all the great cycling you two do together. It just always sounds like you guys have such a healthy cycling relationship, in addition to your healthy marriage. So glad for you!! That's the way it should be.

Congrats on such speeds. How amazing to have roads closed to cars!

I saw that someone else called the Knoxville Road "creepy." Creepy how? Kind of intriguing.

And, boy do I hear you about training & working. These days, I'm doing 8-12 hours or so in the office, and then doing about 2-3 hours in the evenings at the family business. REALLY having a hard time training. Next week or so, the woman whose house I'm sitting will leave for southern climes, so I'll move the bike in on the trainer. And, this year, I'm going to invest in a couple Spinervals (which you recommended to me last year).

I DO wish you luck! Better you than me for your upcoming rides. But, next year, I am REALLY hoping to do the Shasta SUPER century, not just the SUMMIT century!! So, I really need to go into January with a great base, lower weight, and more strength/speed.

Rock on, Veronica!!

[Veronica]

Yeah, I feel really lucky to have such a great guy. Don't know what I did to deserve that. He's not perfect though. He leaves his dirty socks in odd places, wherever he happens to take his shoes off.

Knoxville Rd is like 30 miles long, about 1.5 lanes wide. There are no houses on it. A stream crosses it several times and in the rainy season, the road becomes impassible - according to the signs. There is barbed wire lining both sides of the road, sometimes right at roadside, sometimes back a bit.

Yesterday we saw lots of people camping on the edge of the road, all driving pick up trucks. Towards the end of the road we saw guys in cammies. I thought maybe it was National Guard, but Thom said the rifle he had was a hunting rifle. Just weird. I hope they are not out there in two weeks. Gun shots creep me out.

How much longer will the long hours go on Starfish?

V.

[maillotpois]

So does the course go up the back side of Cobb? I think that will be the toughest part, and I thought it did that - at least last year. Howell Mountain is a great climb - nothing steep. And it is early enough that you'll be glad to have a bit of a climb. I remember when we did Knoxville at the rest stop there in Yountville being colder than I have ever been on a ride in my LIFE - and I was so glad to hit Howell just to warm up a bit!!

Cobb (Loch Lomond or Seigler Grade or whatever) will be later, hotter, and it is steeper. Unless they're not doing it (she said hopefully)? That's what we had to do at Davis double this year with the course alterations. It blew.

Those are hunters on Knoxville Road. Wear bright colors and hope they don't aim toward the road. (I'm serious.)

[Veronica]

Yep, Seigler and Loch Lomond after lunch. They didn't seem too bad on the drive, but driving can be deceiving. The descent off Cobb looks great! There is a cheese hill sign that says 11% for 2 miles. On the past staff rides, lunch has been at the Foster's Freeze just before Seigler. Jesse warned me last week not to eat the French Fries. I think I'll have Thom bring me a PBJ.

Hunters... great. AV jersey it is. Unless you can think of a red and purple animal.

V.

[Starfish]

How much longer will the long hours go on Starfish?

Kinda hard to tell. I am starting up a new career. It is going quite well, so I'm excited. But, I need to be available when my ultra-busy mentor is in the office, so that I can learn. And, because it is straight commission, for the first 2-3 months or so, I am also still doing a little evening work in our family business, just to keep a little planned-for cash coming in.

The good news is that I really don't have a boss (except me), so I'm working on how to order my life so that I can take the bike to the office and make it easy for myself to get out during a spare hour during midday.

I think that despite the long hours, once I really see what the days are going to go like (and when my house-sit owner leaves), I will be able to squeeze in the shorter, weight loss workouts I need.

The good news is that despite the current long hours, they won't stay that way forever, and I am really enjoying myself so far, and there are some early signs that it is all going to work out just fine!

Also, despite my interest in getting into Triathlons, I have to admit, I went back over my Arnie Baker book last night, and I just feel really excited about continuing to pursue my biking goals. I think I might have one more year of just biking before I start seriously cross training. I'm definitely going to swim more this year, though. It is SUCH great cross training for the bike. That easy, 2-beat-kick for distance swimming is PERFECT recovery for cycling.

Oh, and MP's right. It is hunting season. We all should be careful about using our hi-viz stuff right now. When I had horses and lived out beyond the range of power, I festooned the horses with surveyor's tape, and I quit taking walks in the woods for awhile. Even so, one day, a bullet came whizzing through the yard! I'm not anti-hunting by any means, but I'll tell you, when I went out for my weekly target practice, I would ALWAYS walk all the way behind the barriers we would shoot against, just to make sure no one was back there...even though the barriers seemed to block all shots and were in established target practice areas.

[Veronica]

Hey that's great! I'm glad the new gig seems to be working out.

V.

[Starfish]

Hey that's great! I'm glad the new gig seems to be working out. V.

oops, sorry I kind of took over your thread with my huge reply!

Someday, at least once, I want to do a double like you can. So amazing to me.

[Veronica]

I don't mind thread drift. It's like a conversation.

I bet you could do an "easy" double now. The Shasta ride you did had a lot more climbing than some of them. It's in quotation marks because none of them are really easy. It's a lot of saddle time though. Everybody is different, but I know I always have some moment or 12 moments, when I wonder why am I doing this? And you have to be able to talk yourself through it. I think that's the hardest part of doing a double - just convincing yourself that whatever discomfort you're feeling is not that big of a deal.

I'm still not sure why I keep wanting to do them. When Thom and I were hiking in Glacier, just before we saw the moose, we were talking about doubles and whether or not I was going to do more. At that point, I was like, yeah, I'm done. I don't ever need to do another one. Go figure.

V.

[Pedal Wench]

V,

Thanks for posting. I've got to increase my mileage rides - aiming for something in February, so I've got time, but still need the inspiration!