It was frickin' cold! Excuse my language, but it was very, very cold!! The coaches kept saying not to worry because we wouldn't be cold for very long. Yeah, I guess they were right. We were warned that we had two big hills to get over, Palomares and Calaveras. It was a nice little 15 mile warm up before getting to Palomares. We were all getting psyched to go up our first hill, when we heard, "FLAT!!!" One of our teammates got a flat on his rear wheel right before getting to the hill. As a team, we all waited for him to get his wheel changed. He was having some challenges so we cooled down pretty quick! We saw other teams from our TNT team go by us. After about 30 minutes, we were finally off. Time to attack the hill! One thing that came to me while climbing with one of my riding mates, Henry, was I said, "Hey Henry, you know, I don't think I would ever do a ride or climb like this if I wasn't with this team." The funny thing was that he agreed with me and he has been riding for a long time! I guess my point is that it's thanks to this team that I get to experience this! I love it! Not only am I loving the riding part, but it's all for such a good cause. I never lose site of why I signed up to do this in the first place. If you're wondering why, check out my website at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/tdps10/hdeguzman .
The best part about getting to the top of Palomares was seeing my wife, Laarni, and my oldest daughter Hana. Yup, they volunteered to support our first of 3 rest stops. It was so cool to see them. They, along with the other two volunteers were cheering us on! I've never done anything like this in the past so I have nothing to compare to, but I am absolutely amazed at the people who volunteer their time to support us and provide us with great food so that we could refuel! Now, I can say that my family has volunteered to support us on our ride! Awesome feeling! 
Ok, as much as it was tempting to get in the van with my family, it was time to go. We had a nice little decent to get to the bottom of the hill. There was 8 of us in our little mini group but we ended up breaking up in two smaller groups of 5 and 3. One of our teammates was feeling a bit sick and cramping so he took it easy. The rest of us charged ahead and even though I haven't ridden very long with these folks, we did a pretty good paceline all the way to the next rest stop at mile 38. Same deal, different volunteers, but great food and fuel! Oh, and a bathroom too! :)
Next hurdle...the Calaveras hill. Our coach told us to just go at our own pace climbing and then we would meet at the bottom of the hill. I tried to keep up with my climbing buddy Henry, but after a while he dropped me. He was chasing one of our other teammates Barry. He took the lead up the hill, followed by Henry and then me! Not bad for someone who was on a slower team just two weeks prior. I owe it all to the hill climb repeats! Now I know what everyone was talking about when they said that climbing Calaveras could be frustrating because once you think you're starting a decent, here comes another hill! I had to crack up a few times because it started to get pretty funny! I actually enjoyed it. My new bike was working really well! Whenever I "hammered" it, the bike just responded and seemed to move so easily and fast!
We got to the bottom right before our final decent and we waited for the rest of the team. It was all downhill from there! I followed Coach Rick to the bottom and all I can say is that we were flying! We hit speeds of 42 mph! I'm sure there is a lot faster out there, but man, that felt really fast!! Coach Rick even said that he was impressed with how fast I was going! We made it back to our cars and all I could do was yell! I was sooooo pumped up finishing 58 miles and I still felt like I had more in the tank!
The best part of the ride....no cramps!!!! I'm getting better! Can't wait until next week's Old La Honda ride...68 miles!!
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