103 miles....Garmin say 9000 ft of elevation and mapmyride says 7300...felt the the Garmin was right but hard to day.
We had a big ol group....Jen, Tim, Beth, JB, Marion, Liz, Matiaz and another Jen. We also started with Brian, Rachel, Rikka, Ian and about 20 others..who were doing GWL only. And they zipped past us on the early climbs, in fact some even went past us a few times, doing laps it seemed. In any case, at the BeeKeeper they went right and we kept on booking to Descanso.
1st stop to regroup and Jen #2 is taking a bit longer and JB decides to be chivalrous and go back and stick with her. So the group is down 2 as we roll to Pine Valley and we are having a grand ol time. Tim cannot stop talking about a Frosty Burger Challenge. This guy is all about food....hence the Fat Cyclist jersey, although he really is not fat, just pretends to be. Tim is the guy who eats double pie, cookies and cappuccino when we ride Kitchen Creek and go to Julian. He is throwing down the Frosty Burger challenge and no one bites. Puking up burgers and shakes is not an option. Nor is hauling the extra weight we decide.
Seriously our usual chatter is keeping us going. Even as we start the 12 mile climb to the Top of Mt Laguna we kept it up. Although there were moments of WTF are we doing, how long have we been riding...for the most part it was awesome!
seriously I look 7ft tall...oh wait, they are just short
Top was beautiful and chilly. It was warming up to be a hot day but at 6000 ft still quite comfy. We stopped, snacked and relished in the fact that most of the climbing was done. Although the very disheartening thought was that we had only ridden 45 miles...55 to go- not even 1/2 way and we have been riding for 3:30. Ugh. lets get rolling and checking off miles.
Team Fattie (yeah right) Although there was a huge cyclist in the store with a croissant sandwich, chips, cookies, sodas and another 1000 calories of crap who asks Jen, what is deal with the Fat Cyclist Team? Uh....we giggle and slink away and leave her to answer the question with a straight face.
Cruising down the back side rocks - especially when the usually annoying Garmin beeps every mile. Going up the beeps are so few and far between, but cruising down at 30+mph is was a grand ol beep fest.
Before we know it we are at Lake Cuyamaca and life is good- few more climbs and we get a bit stretched out. We regroup at a critical turn only to learn that poor Beth thought she was on her Mountain Bike and did a bit of offroading on her TT bike and took a dive. Could have been a huge bummer crash but she took it like a champ and manged to take a bee sting as well. The descent out of there is steep and technical. Scary!!
Before we know it we are back at Descanso and yes eating and drinking again... now we just have to roll to the BeeKeeper and finish the loop. Marion is at a very low point...how can you tell- gee she is dead quite and noshing on a pepsi and Mrs Fields Cookie...can you say bonking? Well that any maybe her night of "playing" was not the best long ride prep....I'm just sayin.
Off we go.....and soon we are on Skyline Truck Trail. This is when I lose it- 90 miles into the ride, I'm hot, hot spot flares up and I am wondering why am I suffering so soon after IM. Jen is trying to keep me occupied with stories of when it was harder and I shut her down....don't want to hear that because it was NEVER, did you hear me EVER harder than it is right now. 5 miles later I smile and apologize for my out of body thrashing to her.
And then we were topping Skyline Truck Trail and screaming back to the car.... Showered, well dumped water all over and changed and looked at my watch and it was nearly 4:00. Holy cow....we had a late start and a long ride and wow, it is dinner time. And oh right, I was having a bbq at our house.... luckily it was family and the kids were home to get things going.
It was fun and a great time!!! I want to do it again soon...not this weekend but another one soon. But rolling at 7am and less stopping so it is not dinner time when we finish up.
I came home and was guzzling coffee without realizing well it was now 5:00... so by 9 when I knew I needed to go to bed I was wide awake. Rats...the chardonnay did not do the trick. I did fall asleep but was wide awake at 3:30 - what the heck, it is like post race. So finally at 4 I got up and started the day.
I had purposely planned to run at 8 since I figured I would be tired...now I was dying to run at 6. But met Lori at 8 in the Canyon for a great run....totally reasonable pace and it was great. Felt good and logged the miles (for what I am not sure) but was good to round out the weekend.
Plans were to swim Monday AM - Cove to Pier at 7. Well with my early wake up Sunday, Monday at 6am I had no interest in swimming. There was a 9am swim going on as well but well missed that too. And the 1pm seemed like a great idea until I went for a short run and a pool swim and decided I really did not want to do much that day at all. Let alone fight Memorial Day traffic, find parking etc.
So we cleaned the garage instead....maybe I should have gone swimming.....
Your blog is awesome. I love reading the tales. I am laughing once again at your writing.Tim pretending to be fat, always. Me slinking away, as usual. You seven feet tall, and looking like a bean pole. Sorry about the hotspot. I was just so excited to realize it wasn't me who felt the shittiest at that moment. I'd worry about coming up with better tactics but once you are recovered from the Ironman you kicked butt in I won't be riding in your zip code.
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