The official ride is tagged as 111 miles but my odemeter only reads 109 so...whatever...it was long.

111 miles on a gorgeous saturday
the ride times are posted at the event site (i am down in the 3200s)
the pasta party the night before had Bob Roll as the guest speaker

all my images are posted over at flickr—some sent directly from the cell phone during the ride (although not as many as I would have liked)

thanks to everyone who helped me raise over $5200 for the Leukemia Society to find a cure.

Today, Sheila and I rode 50 miles. Werode out the front door, down Alma and then down Monterey Highway. Straigh, flat and about 20 miles to Morgan Hill. We went past downtown Morgan Hill to the Starbucks. We sat and had some coffee then took off to come home. Instead of making the left back out to the highway, we decided to cross the street and then cross again. Once across the first part I promptly fell over on the bike. My butt and left knee are bruised. I unclipped the right foot but was doing a really slow turn left and lost my balance. Ouch!
We then went back down Monterey to Cochrane and over to Coyote Creek trail for a couple of miles and then back out to the highway. Rough road and lots of cars. Almost home and we decided to add another five miles to make the full 50, so we continued down Willow to the Los Gatos creek trail where we just did a short mile and a half. Turned around and then home. Yay 50!.

The rest of the week is supposed to be restful - short easy rides to save up the energy for Saturday.

Long, long, long ride.

84.2 miles of longness. Painful numb butt longness.

The day was gorgeous, I was strong and this was our longest ride ever and our last long team ride - since the century is in 2 weeks. Next week we do a taper ride and a potluck gathering to celebrate.

Today we ventured down Santa Teresa through Morgan Hill and into Gilroy then over and around Uvas and Calero Reservoirs—we've done this part of the ride twice before. The we continued back towards Morgan Hill and up the wall - Sycamore Hill. I had to stop halfway up—this is a short but steep hill and if you start too fast you are screwed! Finally to the top where Kristi and Coach Jan were cheering us on to spit on the hill. A brief shot on the inhaler—exercise induced asthma is a bitch! and then on to do another loop into Gilroy and back around Uvas Reservoir—again! After the rest stop at the reservoir - with great support from our honorees and thier families and finally down McKean along Chesbro Reservoir and at last to Almaden.

The headwind was strong along various parts of the ride—so the fact we were pacelining really helped.

The last 4 miles were long, long cause byt then my butt hurt.

Coming into the end rocked—only a couple of minutes behind Sheila's group, I came in with (did half the ride with) the faster half of our ride group.

This was an awesome ride, gorgeous weather, good company and I was feeling strong today. 13.5 average speed overall (with rest stops and hills)

The route was Cañada down to 92 and back, then into Woodside and over whiskey hill to Sand Hill road to Foothill. Down Foothill all the way until it turns into Stevens Canyon and down into the park all the way to Mount Eden. Turn around and go all the way back to Woodside road and up and over to Cañada and back to the car. Whew!

Slightly before we got to the turnaround point, it started raining. It was sprinkling for a little bit and then it turned into full blown cold and windy rain.
Yuk!
But we pressed on and I completed the full 76 miles! Yippee.

yes. 70 miles! (actually 70.68 - but who's counting - me!)

We did the buddy ride today, except we got there late so we picked up directions that the coach left and made our way on our own. Sheila was great and rode a little slower than normal so I wouldn't have to ride by myself. We rode through Newark and over to Niles and to Niles Canyon road. We turned and climbed Palomares (same route as 2 weeks ago from this point). The first part of the climb was as hard as last time. The rest of the climb seemed shorter than last time. Perhaps because we had done it before.

Then down along the road next to 580 - long, slightly graded and evil - and finally to Foothill and along to the park. A brief eating break and on we went. Passed by a lot of fast men on large bicycles.

Then through Sunol and under 680 to Calaveras. Then we headed up the Calaveras climb. Seemed easier than last time. Sheila broke another spoke and tried to fix it at the summit. From the summit to the real section that goes downhill was long and needed to be over faster. This section fools you. You think you are descending and go downhill, and then next thing you know you are climbing hills again. At this point I am thinking, I am tired, I want to be done and out of this place - one road in, one road out.

The descent was awesome and at one point I was going albout 35 miles an hour.

The last 17 miles were hard and boring - basically working our way back from Milpitas to Newark and the Don Edwards preserve. On the way I struck up a conversation with another cyclist and ended up misreading the directions. I put an extra mile on the bike and I had to turn around and go back and get back on track. Finally made it back to the car and off the bike. My fingers went numb and for an hour afterwards i still felt like I was moving - but I rode 70 miles!

Only 39 more and we have the distance of the Tour de Tuscon. Yikes!

we met in milpitas and rode out calaveras/237 and turned towards fremont. We rode through milpitas, up some hills and through a bunch of neighborhoods. we rode by the Mission San Jose in fremont and one of our group got a flat so we all stopped and waited for that to be fixed.

elevation diagram of our ride

we rode on until we hit alvarado-niles rode. We did take a little bit of a detour in order to hit a park parking lot with a porta-pottie. at the point we got back on the rode, we split into two groups. up to this point we were practicing pacelining, but from this point on, the roads were narrow and there would be lots of hills. we rode down niles until we hit palomeros at which point we all dropped down in gears and began climbing. this is a 5 mile (4.7) climb up a twisty, turning road. the first portion was difficult (steep) and I had to stop once to use my inhaler. After that point, it was much better, not as steep. Gorgeous twists, side canyons, tree covered stretches. I was riding with Maria and we left Carol and Peggy behind. All the other groups were way ahead of us.

About halfway up, our awesome SAG - Louise - followed us for awhile in the car with music blaring. What a boost! We finally reached the top and stopped in the shade, only to look up and 25 feet ahead, just over the crest, was the rest stop. The view was awesome (pic coming).

After eating some of my pbj and some of the bananas, Maria and I headed off. The other half of our team left just after we arrived and we left just after Carol and Peggy arrived. The best part of the uphill is the cool downhill after. Long downhill, over 30 miles per hour. Exhilarating!

Once we got down the mountain and through some more neighborhoods - farms into subdivisions, and we were in pleasanton. My lord - pleasanton is far away and we just rode there. the worst part of the ride was next. not hard hills, not tough climbs, just a 14 mile stretch of road fronting 580. slight rise and elevation making it difficult - looks flat but isn't so you have to work and boring ugly. finally we finished that section and turned towards sunol. we rode through some more neighborhoods and then along the park that is near sunol - where we had another rest stop. this time with porta-potties - Yay!

The support crew also had potatos for us and bananas and yellow watermelons. gatorade, water and pretzels rounded out the fare. These folks are awesome! Sheila was there with coach jim - she had had a blowout and broke a spoke but it was fixed enough to ride on. Also the first half of our group was there - only 5 minutes ahead of us.

we ate, bio breaked, rested a bit and then headed out again. Down, around curves and finally into Sunol and through the street fair they were having. Crossing the road, past entrances and exits to 680 and onto Calaveras.

The road was pretty straight for quite awhile, a few rollers. Beautiful between the hill ranges. I wish we had stopped a few times for me to take some pics but by this time my butt was hurting and I really just wanted to keep going. The road eventually starts to rise and then we really started climbing again. For the most part I was able to keep a pace near or over 6mph - which is slow for experienced riders - but faster than I have been previously. We kept a steady pace and I needed to stop once - about 2.5 miles into the climb. I really had to stretch and fix some bunchy shorts. The climb follows a road that turns into a single lane hugging the side of the hill. We saw several motorcyclists, lots of bicyclists and few cars going in the opposite direction and even fewer going ours. We were totally alone and Maria was great at keeping me focused. I kept my breathing in check and didn't need the inhaler. When we finally got to the rest stop it was awesome. We were sort of at the top and surrounded by beautiful golden hills dotted with california oaks.

I was so focused on eating and getting water - and ice - I forgot to take pictures. We hit the rest stop at about mile 50.

After a few minutes we took off and started to get some downhills. But this section was not the easiest - fake out downhills only to be confronted with more climbing. Hard to predict which gear to be in and tiring. Butt hurts. We passed the Calaveras reservoir - awesome - and finally hit the downhill out of the canyon. We were going pretty fast - so feathering the brakes and holding on tight we had to stop at a stop sign at the bottom of what is referred to as the "wall" by folks taking this road the other direction - so it is pretty steep.

After the stop sign it was cake, 34 mph downhill into downtown Milpitas and finally after a couple of lights, back into the parking lot.

7 hours on the bike! - I had no idea of time on this ride - I don't ride with a watch and my cell phone was in the case under my seat. I just pedal and eat and drink and go where they tell me. the bike computer recorded 5:17 of actual riding time.

58 miles.

Pretty awesome!

Before I went out on my ride, I took the bike back to the shop and had the handlebar stem replaced. The one on the bike was too long and I was having to reach and twist to shift or use my dropped brakes. The fit is much better. I practiced riding low while I was out.