Rest Days? We don't need no stinkin' Rest Days!

What a long week. I taught five spinning classes this week due to some subbing. My legs were pretty worked when I got home on Thursday night. This morning, I got up, drove up to the Fish Hatchery (along the bike trail), and set out to do a few miles. It was chilly and overcast, and I was looking forward to getting on my bike and hitting the road.

I am not a small person. I come from good, hearty, Irish stock. I'm sure if I were born in another century, I'd be digging for potatoes and lifting tractors.
It's hard to load a not-small body up a hill. So -- I work with what I have. Last week, I changed the gearing on my bike to make climbing hills in my good strong, healthy body a little better than a torturous experience (thanks for the bike-work Benj!). Today was the first day I was able to try it out. No matter how you choose to climb hills, if you're in a human-powered apparatus (or have no apparatus at all), it's going to be hard. But after a year of climbing up hills with my little tiny gears, I was a little giddy over the prospect of trying out this ride with my new cassette.

I can't seem to get an elevation profile saved, but the ride was 58 miles, 3426 ft of climbing. It took me about 4 hours and 45 minutes including a stop for lunch, several pictures, and several random stops to question what the heck I was doing. It was a doozy. I rather think that if I had been with other riders, it would have been faster. The ego is a great motivator.

Today was a gorgeous day up in the foothills.


I mostly had the roads to myself. I was passed once by a couple cyclists, and some cars here and there on the back roads. The main roads were a little scary at times, but the bikes lanes were ample. I wasn't totally alone though:


There was a stripy cow out there too.

I stopped at a little "deli" in Newcastle for a snack --
I didn't expect this place to be a gourmet market (but it was). I found some chips (needed the salt) and a protein Odwalla juice. Seemed to do the trick -- I was surprised what a difference it made. I felt much stronger as I set off for another couple of hours of climbing, even though I'd been stopped and had rested a bit. Usually stopping mid-ride makes me feel worse.

When I approached the next steep hill, I was feeling a little defeated. I hate to admit it, but this was my longest training ride to date this season. Between the spinning all week and the first 25 miles of hills, I was pretty pooped. I stopped at the crest of one hill and saw the next few miles of what I was in for. I started to ask myself why the heck I'm doing this. I interrupted the thought [almost] immediately. I know exactly why I'm doing this. So I carried on.

The new gearing did me well. There were a few times I was climbing and having a rough go of it, but it felt a lot like many other hills I've been on, and then suddenly remembered I had three or four more gears. It was like a little present. By the end, I think I had the hang of it. My legs were giving out, but my bike wanted to keep going. Tomorrow's ride will be 40 flat miles along the Sacramento River. I guess my gears won't get a workout, but I'll be fantasizing about hills the whole time. I think this is going to be a whole new era of cycling for me.
Next week, we'll ride the benchmark ride again, so I'll get an accurate comparison.

So -- this week, 10 weeks to the ride:
M: spinning
T: spinning
W: spinning (a.m.)
W: spinning (p.m.)
Th: spinning
Fr: 58 miles - lots of climbing.
Sa: 40 (?) miles mostly flat

I kind of wish I were eating dairy, gluten, and a whole host of other things: I want some pizza!