team training the riding continues

Saturday morning April 14th 8 am: I jump out of bed and I load up my bike and gear up. I rush to the Redmond QFC located just off Novelty hill road to meet with a group of dedicated riders that ride no matter what the weather. We are riding as many of you know because we are training for a century ride around Lake Tahoe on June 3rd to help raise funds for the Leukemia Lymphoma society.

On the drive to the parking lot I ate an orange and once I got to the parking lot I scoffed down a raspberry yogurt and pumped up my tires. Okay, I better give credit where credit is do, James pumped up my tires as I changed shoes and put my shoe covers on so my feet would stay warm and dry. Another wet cold day for a ride. It was suggested we bring snorkel‘s with us. I sometimes wonder why I signed up to do this.

Being so busy at work I had not taken time to read about this weeks ride so I was clueless to where this ride was taking us or how far we would ride.
I am handed a map and I take a peek. It says Trilogy Snohomish / Monroe 46.4 miles 1 hour and 39 minutes. (Driving time) I did 50 miles two weeks before so I am not concerned.

Before leaving the parking lot this week’s ride was dedicated to Allison, Allison is 21 years old and just received a diagnose of having Leukemia as her birthday present this past week. Now, I remember why I signed up to do this!

As I start to peddle away from the parking lot I am secretly praying that I can stay in a vertical upright position throughout the day. My knees and elbows have finally healed from all the falling and I just had to invest in a new helmet (see last email on why I needed a new helmet).

Fresh air, rolling hills, and a nice down hill start 4.11 miles of down hill to start. Whoo hoo! This is really fun!
Then from out of no where a big black barking dog starts chasing after me! I reach for my tire pump to swing at it. Shit! the tire pump is still in the car. I start to raise my right foot to shake at it and Shit! Foot is stuck in clip and I really don’t want to fall. So option three, I scream and scream and dog continues to chase me and bark. I managed to out peddle him and stay on my bike. Major accomplishment!

Mile 5: It’s flat for about 50 feet! Then we get the rolling hills, the wind in our faces, and the smell of the country. Oh how lovely the smell of the country is when your peddling up hill trying to breath in and out and as you inhale the smell of cow dung goes deep into your lungs to the point of actually tasting it. Yum, Yum! This is how I spend my free time. This is usually a good time to remind myself why I am doing this again.

Mile 10: Coach Robin is telling us to eat and drink; she wants us to do this while riding. I am trying to tell her that it’s better to stop to do this because I wasn’t ready to kiss the highway. Robin said,” no stopping! Eat and drink!” Robin would make a great Drill Sgt. She actually had a fun cadence for our hill climbs and she doesn’t put up with much. I finally got to a point where I figured okay I will give it a go I am thirsty and I need to drink. I am on a small downward incline and so I don’t have to peddle I can coast and drink. That’s when I hit a rock ,dropped the water bottle and I quickly decided that if I tried to stop I would most likely fall or cause someone else to fall so I left the bottle for my team mates to ride around. We were doing line riding which means we have about 6 inches between us. So you can see if I stop with out warning everyone could end up kissing the roadside. So I am down to one water bottle.

Around Mile 14: the road changes to Elliot Road. It should be called Elliot hill and it was about 3 miles straight up. I had to stop halfway and get rid of some of the layers I was wearing as I was really warming up. My team mates stopped for a rest as well and we joked about taking a nap on the side of the road and they teased me a bit about my road side strip tease. I didn’t want to ride up Elliot hill and if bike shoes were easier to walk in I would have walked but given that bike shoes are made for peddling and not walking it is actually harder to walk than to ride. So the ride continues.

At the top of Elliot Hill Coach Robin tells us we are less than ten miles form the Snohomish bakery which she goes on to tell us is famous for the wonderful collection of homemade pies. She urges us to peddle faster so we can have some pie! We started peddling really fast as the thought of pie after Elliot hill was mouth watering. We were working on line riding most the day and the closer you ride to the person in front of you the muddier you get. I promise to include a photo of how we all looked when we arrived at the bakery for pie as someone on the team snapped some photos of us.

Mile 26 or so we have reached the bakery and we were all starving! I ordered a big slice of strawberry rhubarb pie and an apple juice and sat with a our foursome after sitting for a couple minutes I started to wonder if I was going to be able to lift myself off the chair.

As we started to head out another group of cyclists pulled up and asked if we saved any pie. The Snohomish bakery seems to be the place to go for pie. I can personally highly recommend it.

As we were leaving I was relieved that we are heading back a different direction as that 4.11 mile down hill start would not make a fun ending to the days so called rolling hill ride. It’s amazing how warm you get riding. After sitting and having pie and juice the first few minutes back on the saddle was a bit chilly. We rode for about 10-12miles or so and we stopped at a park where Bill had stopped to provide energy drinks and snacks. It seemed strange that we would stop for pie and snacks but heck I am not one to complain about being forced to snack on gummy bears and potato chips. Go with the flow is my attitude.

The last 12-15 miles: I started to get really tired. I kept telling myself that I needed to starting getting up earlier before rides and eat a good breakfast. Saturday is for sleeping in and given the option to get up early or wait until the last possible moment sleeping until the last possible moment wins hands down.

We had crossed a bridge and gathered so Coach Robin could give us advice on preparing for the last portion of the ride. This seemed odd as well. She proceeded to tell us we would be taking Snoqualmie Valley road NE up for 2.3 miles and then we would take a left on to 232nd Ave NE which was up 1.4 miles and then we would go left on to Trilogy PKY for a 1.2 miles which was up just a little more.

Did Coach Robin trick us? How did we get back to the bottom of the hill we came down? If I had bothered to turn over my directions I would have noticed by the map that we did a big loop and were going to end up back at the big hills we came down. If I had only looked before I abandoned my car. I would have started the ride at the bottom of the hill to spare myself going back up.

4.11 miles up hill and my ass was dragging. My legs were killing me and if I only had some water left! I started to feel dizzy so I though I better get off and walk. I was wishing I had given my car keys to someone so they could come pick me up.

By this point I am alone the last person on the hill. I have finally reached a nice down hill and I wondering if I missed my turn because I really didn’t remember riding up this one. I noticed a car heading my direction so I stopped and waved them down. The woman stopped and I asked her, “Which way to Trinity hill?” She said,” go left at the bottom of the hill, but you really don’t want to ride up it do you? “. I told her I was worried I passed it and if I had I didn’t want to turn around at the bottom of this hill only to go back up it as I am tired. She offered to give me a ride and I told her I was training for a century with team training in Tahoe and she asked for more info. I took out one of my letters that I keep handy and gave it to her. I thanked her and headed down the hill.

Do you believe in Angels? I met one on my way up Trinity Hill. I am not sure were he came from as he seemed to show up out of thin air. He was probably in his 60’s and appeared to be in excellent shape. He literally seemed to pop up out of thin air on his shiny very expensive looking bike. I was stopped part way up the last hill and I heard a voice behind me ask if I was okay. I laughed and said, “Sure I am just tired, but I am almost finished.” I had been huffing and puffing and maybe cussing a little wondering if I was ever going to make it to my car. I guess I didn’t hear him behind me with all my heavy breathing. He offered me a fresh bottle of water, I told him where my car was parked, and he told me to get back on my bike and ride. He stayed with me talking to me which helped me not think about how much I ached. When we reached the light across from my starting point, he turned left and vanished down the hill and I turned right where I was greeted by Coach Robin and my teammates.

49.4 miles and I didn’t fall, at least not until I got home and decided to take a quick spin up my neighbors drive way (Peter actually got a photo of this fall).

The benefits of this weeks ride, I found a great place to go have pie: which I would probably drive to next time
Having my teammate waiting for me and cheering me on actually made me forget about how hard it was and just made it all worth it.

Thanks again for supporting me and my journey

I have included elevation map of what I will be going up against in June http://www.bikethewest.com/Art/AMBBR-Elev.jpg


This June I am peddling 100 miles to help find a cure for blood cancers
http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/evergirl

Thanks again

Cynthia Freese