Ketchup

Once again, I've been remiss.

A quick run down:  The weather has been less than ideal, shall we say. 

The week after the ride with Adron, I rode on the trainer because I was worried about riding in crappy weather.  2 hours on Saturday followed by 1 hour on Sunday, just to try to get my rear ready for back-to-back days.  While I like being able to watch TV and read while riding, it doesn't really simulate the road sufficiently for me to feel like I'm getting in great training, soooo....

The following week I went out despite the crappy weather.  It was around 50 and drizzly.  I had on 4? yes 4 layers including a somewhat waterproof windbreaker and I was MISERABLY cold.  R2R prides itself on safety so they modified the ride to 12 mile loops so that they could more closely monitor us in the crappy conditions and SAG us all quickly if lightning came into the area.  I think they said only 200 brave souls showed up.  Most quit after the first loop.  I went out for a second.  I actually really liked the little loop.  It was a nice rural area, some hills but not crazy, only a few turns, all right handers, and able to stop at my own car for each rest stop = good stuff.  This was also the very first ride where I spent almost all of my time in the big chain ring and really started trying to push on some parts for some speed.   (By no means am I fast, but I did start trying a bit.)  I really actually wanted to go for 3 loops but by the end of the second one it was openly raining and it just would have been stupid.  I must say I was so impressed by R2R's level of support.  I stopped at a stop sign on one of the right hand turns because I can get spazzy when there is traffic.  A few cars pulled up behind me and I was motioning them to go so I could take my time with my remount and feel mentally comfortable and I was asked by no fewer than 3 people if I was ok in the like 2 minutes I was stopped.  Now that's service!    As I said this was my first rainy ride, but other than the slightly slick road and need for more layers than would be expected from the temperature, it was pretty normal.  Oh!  I should also say, dry clothes are needed for after.  I had an hour's drive home and I didn't have anything dry.  I drove the whole way with my seat heater on and my heater on HIGH, as hot as it could get, and I was still shivering with blue lips when I got home.  I couldn't have known any better, but sheesh, that was messed up and probably dangerous and I need that to never happen again.

The week after that we headed to Huntsville for a little hill training.  They were only offering 30 and 50 mile routes and I was totally torn because I was really hoping for a 40-something to bridge the almost-40 I did with Adron and the 60 I wanted to do for the Tour de Houston.  I ended up settling on the 32 mile route, and BOY was I ever glad I did!  It is the first truly hilly route I've done and it SLAUGHTERED me.  It was awful.  I was having a really bad time shifting, and the first rest stop wasn't until 18, so I ended up essentially stuck in the big chain ring and blowing out my quads.  I stopped by the most excellent bike mechanic and he mostly fixed it.  By mostly I mean he got the rear shifting completely fixed, but the front chain ring still was a total bitch when I was trying to shift into the big ring, so after trying it twice, once again I was stuck in the big ring for the rest of the hills.  Oh, the hills.  First, within a mile of that rest stop, there was a beast of a hill.  One chick I spoke with at the rest stop said she thinks it is the hardest hill she rode in all of training last year.  So there's that.  It was sooooo long and steep.  I think I was going like 4mph when I got to the top.  Then I had to grump and plead and cajole my bike back into the big ring, arg!  They called the last part of that ride the "roller coaster" and it was so totally apt.  Endless upping and downing.  I was almost crying by the end.  Then when I had time to reflect on it later in the week it completely freaked me out, that I wanted to ride 60 miles in the TdH and I barely finished 32 the week before.

Next up: TdH recap.