This is our last official TNT training ride! Kind of sad to tell you the truth. I can't believe that next week is our actual 100 mile event. How time flies when you're having fun. But, we had one more training day, and to be honest it wasn't that fun!
It was supposed to be an "easy" 30 mile ride around the Los Altos Hills. Well, those hills suck! We left
Shoup Park in Los Altos and headed towards Magdalena. At mile 3, we hit a wall called Mora. Very short, less than a mile, but it was straight up hill. I checked my computer when I was gasping for air and I saw that one part of the hill was at 24 percent! Are these guys crazy? We were
literally crawling up this hill! We were all gasping for air when we got to the top and we were only at mile 3!
Oh, I forgot to mention, it was pouring rain on us. Of course! We had more hills when we hit Alta Mont!
WTF???!!!! Sorry, but that's how I really felt. Only because I was ticked at myself! I took for granted that because it was only 30 miles, I didn't prepare myself mentally or physically. Last night I stayed up late thinking I didn't need much rest! Wrong! I also took kind of a cavalier attitude that it would be a very easy ride! Wrong again!
Oh well, we got through most of the ride. When we headed down Alpine Road (similar to our recovery ride route), our coach told us that it was tradition to bag the rest of the ride and go to a coffee shop to get some coffee! Sounds good to us Coach! We don't want to break tradition! Well, we were the first group to leave the park today, so most of the participants were surprised to see all the other teams at the coffee shop! But the coaches weren't surprised! Come to find out, most of the other teams did even a shorter ride than us and went straight to the coffee shop! WOW! I mean most of them were there with smiles on their faces, dry, and sipping coffee. When we told them how hard that wall was that we had to climb at mile 3, most of them said, "What wall?" Great, thanks Coach Kristy. One more ass kicking for us for good measure huh? :)
We all left the coffee house and got back to
Shoup Park. We all had to dry up and change into some dry clothes. We also had a potluck brunch and had a great time! All last minute announcements were made and they told us what to expect next weekend...the time has come. I got a bunch of photos from our party. It was a fun time. You could check out the pictures here...hope you enjoy them:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=360796452407%3A1252984329
What a fantastic feeling! We did it! You, me, and the rest of my teammates! That's right, you guys did it too since so may of you helped me through this great experience! One of the best experiences of my life! Thanks so much to all of you who supported my efforts! I was recognized on Friday evening as the top fundraiser at $8,000 even between both the Silicon Valley team and the Orange County team, which was the only other TNT team at the event! Again, many thanks to you all!
