"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp, or are you going to be strong today?'"

-Peter Maher, two-time Olympic marathoner from Canada

Heading south, out by myself

Last Saturday turned out to be a beautiful and sunny day. However I was nowhere near my bike. I was stuck indoors at my computer working overtime. As we only have one month left until Solvang I was anxious to get out and ride some serious miles. Thus I planned for a long solo ride on Sunday.

For most of the week I kept an eye on the weather reports, and was a bit wary of forcasts for a rainy weekend. Luckily for me the rain came on Friday and Monday, leaving me a perfect window for a cloudy, but dry bike ride on Sunday.

I decided to head south from my apartment to the Palos Verdes area, a ride I had done with the team earlier in Janaury. I packed up some snacks, filled my water bottles, and then set out to see how far I could get. I started out at a pretty leisurely pace. I didn't want to push myself too hard and then run out of steam. To be honest, I was a bit nervous. I didn't have the support system that comes with riding in a group. But at the same time I felt that all of my training left me well prepared to be out there on my own.

I know I'm not going to get any sympathy for complaining about 59 degree weather, but when you're traveling at 15-16 mph that can feel pretty chilly. I wore plenty of layers to make sure that I didn't get too cold.


Traveling the same route that we had done a month earlier, I was pleased to note that most of the hard parts seemed remarkably easier the second time around. Some of the practically insurmountable hills turned out to be a piece of cake. My new bike, my shoes and clips, and my commitment to exercising 6 days a week all seem to be paying off in a big way.

As I rode south along the coast, I recalled how conscious I had been of my new shoes the first time we tackled this ride. I still pay attention to what my feet are doing as I roll up to stop lights, but I'm not nearly as nervous about it as I used to be. (Saying that I probably just jinxed myself for my next ride.)


As I got up into the Palos Verdes area I was less inclined to follow my route slip, and just headed out along a very pretty coastal highway. I found myself next to a lighthouse and seaside trail. There were a lot of families out walking and taking pictures of the dramatic views. It was at that point that I started to feel a little out place. Most weekends when I am out for a ride I am surrounded by my analogous teammates. It is easy to forget how dorky I look in all of my biking gear unless I am surrounded by non bikers. Sure biking shorts are comfortable on long rides, but there's nothing quite like spandex to make you feel self conscious.

I took a few pictures and ate a snack, and then hopped back onto my bike. I ended up turning around at that point because the road that I was on seemed to turn into a freeway on-ramp. I made it perhaps two miles before my back tire began making an ominous "wawump wawump' noise familiar to bikers everywhere as the noise of "I hope you came prepared, or you are about to be stranded." Luckily it has been drilled into me that required biking equipment includes spare tubes, tire levers, and c02 cartridges or a pump. As I was riding alone I also brought my cell phone and a list of emergency numbers. Better safe than sorry, right? It just figures that the day I was riding without back up would be the day I got my first flat.

Now, technically I know how to change a tire, and I was definitely prepared to give it a go. But before I even got a chance to take my back tire off two very kind bikers called out from the road to ask if I needed help, and then coasted to a stop. God bless bikers, they sure are a friendly lot! Between the three of us (though with me mostly observing) we had the thing replaced and re-inflated in under ten minutes. I feel like it was a right of passage. Every biker gets flats at some point, the only thing to do is accept it as a part of your hobby, and ride prepared to deal with it.


The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, though I did spend five or six miles acutely aware of my back tire. When I got back to the Redondo Beach area the sun began to peak out from behind the clouds. I again deviated from my route slip, figuring that as long as I kept the beach in sight to my left I couldn't really get lost. I enjoyed a mini tour of the neighborhoods tucked along the coast, and I rolled back home with 39.8 miles logged on my cyclometer. While I didn't tackle the same number of miles that my team did, I still felt very accomplished. That's a lot further than I have ever gone on my own. My legs felt weary, my skin was a little wind chapped, and I enjoyed a blissful hot shower and a very relaxing evening.

email from my coach

Thought this was funny-

"Remember….we have only three long training rides left, and then one shorter “taper off” ride the week before Solvang. Solvang is only about a month away, so unless you plan on buying an Acme rocket booster for your bike, please make it to our training rides, and get those at least 2x 1 hour aerobic sessions in this week. Since Wiley Coyote demonstrated that rocket packs have their risks, I would suggest the training instead. Also think of the money you’ll save."

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward."

— Amelia Earhart

Little over a month to go!

Here's a map of the Solvang route. With a little over a month to go to get into tip top shape, I am eyeing that cheerful spike in elevation with a little trepidation. You will notice that it gets much tougher near the end of the ride. These days I am wavering between what is probably unwarranted confidence and anxiety tinged with panic. However I am comforted by how much I have improved since November. Every week I'm out there doing things I never would have considered doing before, and I am confident that the final planned rides leading up to the main event will leave all of us TNTers feeling well prepared.

Unfortunately last weekend was almost a complete washout. I was able to get a short ride in on Sunday morning before the rain started up again. I biked 12 miles, primarily to buy celery from the farmer's market, as the carrots get lonely in the crisper drawer if I run out of them. My vegetables safely nestled in my bike basket, I raced home into gathering storm clouds, and managed to roll into the parking garage just as the first drops of the afternoon began to fall. It was frustratingly on and off rainy for the rest of the day. Our forecast for this weekend is not much better. The team coaches have declared that practice will go on come rain, hail, sunshine or alien attacks. It does me make anxious to feel that we are behind in our schedule. Hopefully if all goes well, I won't have to work overtime, the rain clouds will abate, and Saturday will dawn clear, calm and sunny. I'll keep you posted on how things are looking as the week goes on.

And if none of that works out, at least its a three day weekend! I'm absolutely determined to get out there and do some serious miles!

Unlucky week 13 in Malibu

This week we are once again rained out. I'm not feeling too bad about it because I have to work overtime today anyway, and there is a possibility that it will be sunny tomorrow. I hate missing a weekend practice this close to our event, so I am hoping for good weather tomorrow so I don't lose any of the momentum that I have built up.

As for last Saturday, we had a rather unlucky week 13. Everything seemed to start off beautifully (as things normally do when you're in Malibu). The weather was warm and sunny, I was hyped up on instant espresso, and our first 15 miles seemed to fly by. Our team usually splits into three or four groups based on how fast we typically ride. There are those who like to pretend they're in the Tour de France, and then there's me and my usual 13-16mph, with pretty slow uphill climbs.

At around mile 15 we experienced our first unlucky moment of the day. I was a little alarmed to see that Julia, John and Greg, who had passed us sometime earlier, were camped out on the shoulder of the highway. Apparently Julia had taken a bit of a tumble off of her bike, though thankfully she was not seriously hurt. She decided to take it easy and head home, so John biked back to Malibu Bluffs to get the car. A few miles later we stopped again as Brad began having trouble with his back tire. We re-inflated it, and then continued up and down hills and around rocky outcroppings until we reached the farmland beyond Point Mugu.

Along the route we saw a lot of other TNT bikers getting ready for upcoming triathlons. I saw several of my work colleagues out for 28 miles of biking followed by some running. It felt great to cheer each other on. Go team!

From there we avoided getting on the freeway (something that I have discovered can be surprisingly easy to do...) and met up with Coach Dave. We then turned back and retraced our ride until mile 36, where Greg rejoined the group and told use that Julia and John were doing fine and on their way home. Dave decided to take it easy on the route planning that week, and told us that we could take an 'optional' trek up Mulholland, effectively reversing our mountainous climb of the previous Malibu ride.

He let us know that if we really wanted to, we could skip the turn into the mountains and just keep going down the PCH. It would be a perfectly respectable thing to do. Maybe I'm really getting into biking, or maybe it was the space aged foil wrapped pack of "Espresso Love 2x caffeine" sports frosting that I has just eaten, so I said why not? Let's take the long route home.

See the little blue car down there? Tiny, right? That's where I had just biked from.

And so, we turned up Mulholland, and I just accepted that it was probably going to be tough and slow for the next hour or so. I think it helped that the hill was entirely optional, somehow making it easier to mentally process the task ahead. (As if there is someone out there forcing me to do any of this.) About half way up the hill Brad began having knee pain, a pretty common repetitive stress problem in a sport like biking. So he and Doug made the decision to turn around and go back to the PCH.

See how happy I am? I think that's the caffeine.

Going uphill for extended periods of time is really not that bad when you're out with a group of friends chugging your way through absolutely stunning scenery and sunshine. The biggest problem seemed to be avoiding crazed speeding motorcyclists who were out there for the same scenery and sunshine. At one point coach Dave asked me and Greg if we thought motorcycling looked like it was "Really fun or really stupid." I replied that the motorcyclists were probably thinking the same thing about us, we were after all biking up a ridiculously long hill when we had perfectly good motorized options for getting to the top.


But making it to the top on your own is pretty glorious and immensely satisfying.

Riding downhill back to the PCH is as always a blast. As we headed effortlessly down I kept catching glimpses of where the ocean meets the sky and blends into the same color blue. Yeah, the exhilaration and endorphins made me want break out into effusive descriptions of the scenery, but I'll spare you all of that and just say that it was darn pretty.

Dave, Greg and I made it back to the PCH at last, and those final ten miles to the park really flew by. However right before we reached the last big hills of the ride, the three of us came upon Doug and Brad, once again on the side of the road. They were working to fix the flat that had been bothering Brad all day. Dave told us that Rogelio had also experienced a flat earlier in the morning, making for a rather problem filled ride for all of us. From that point on however we all made it safely back to the park, and I returned home for a much needed afternoon relaxing on the couch. I also made some guilt free chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the 61.2 mile ride.

Late post

Sorry it has taken me so long to post about last week's Malibu ride, it has been very busy at work as we try to get our next trailer ready. To tide you over, here's a picture of my biking team that we took last Saturday.

Go team!