Longest Ride of the Season...So Far...

It's early (7:30am), it's cold, and it's foggy! But TNT was out in full force in Almaden Valley in South San Jose. I saw Coach Patrick first thing and he asked me if I wanted to move up into a faster group. Wow, are you serious? ok, I'll give it a try! I was moved up to Coach Kristy's group.

Before starting the ride, we had a special guest (see pic to the right) named Johnny, speak to us about a team he created to ride in a TNT event one year ago. Unfortunately, he created this team, called Team Marie, in honor of his daughter who died a year ago due to Leukemia. Marie was only 28 years old and did not get a chance to fight this terrible disease for very long. Marie lost her battle with it only after a few weeks of being diagnosed. Johnny made us all honoree members of his team. Not only did Johnny come and talk to us about his and his daughter's experience, he spent the morning doing ride support for our team. In other words, he drove our route to ensure that no one needed a ride back. Johnny has done two centuries himself and would be with us today, but recent knee surgery would have to keep him from participating this season. He will be out there again soon!

Ok, let's start riding...uh, what's the rush, I kept thinking. We started going down south on Almaden Expressway and the pace was much faster than what I was used to. We were doing a loop and I was already getting tired just trying to keep up with the rest of the group. The day before, I had gone to a professional fitter to ensure that my bike was set up correctly. He noticed that I pedal using my toes and therefore, put a lot of strain on my calves. The fitter adjusted my cleats on my shoes so that I would use more of my foot when pedaling. He also told me that I needed to practice using my heels more while pedaling. Pedaling one leg at a time on a straight was what I was to do to practice. Well, when you're trying to catch up to a faster group, you kind of forget what you're supposed to be practicing. In the past, my calves would cramp up after maybe 20 - 25 miles. Today, my right calf cramped after mile 10 and my left calf cramped up at mile 15! It was pretty frustrating, but my ego would definitely get in the way as I hated knowing that I was the last one keeping the rest of the group waiting. Of course my new teammates were great and were very encouraging.

After the first rest stop, I refueled and thought about falling back with my original group, but Coach Kristy encouraged me to keep going with my new team and to not push myself. Ok, let's do this, I can keep up! So I did! The second half of the ride was much better for me and although my calves were very sore, I didn't feel like I was completely exhausted and had just pedaled for 43 miles. In fact, our team was able to smile and take a picture after the ride (see below). We'll see what happens tomorrow morning when we have more hill climbs to do! Can't wait!