Hello Bike

18 days and 40 hours in the saddle....Game On!  Coach and I planned a bike block late December and while it started accidentally, as in "hey wanna ride tomorrow?" , ok and then another day and another day.... after day 3, coach says, bike block ON. So he laid out a lot of riding and laid out the guidelines...if in doubt go easier than harder.  And for all the rides, but 2, I kept the power low and the fun factor high.  With so many friends off work it was great to ride every day with my pals.  We rode locally and we headed East.  No Epic rides...longest was 4:30 and most 3 hours ish.  As the days went on I felt better.... Somewhere early in the block I finally felt great and let it go a bit.... Liz asked Julia, "what the hell is she doing?" Some days you just go with it...

But after that it was controlled. Some days were painfully slow and painful to ride- When NP (normalized power) is well below Ironman Watts and the ride feels hard, that is not good.  But I rallied!



Last week we stepped up the running quite a bit and I was thrilled to take that on and still be able to ride.  Monday was the culmination...GWL + Descanso - no rules.  We had a big group it was awesome....we hit it hard- Beth killed it up the bee keeper and I could not hang on. Yes same Beth who used to ride in another zip code was dropping us all.  GO BETH

Andy lost his virginity on GWL, Cathleen jump started her training and we all kicked of 2012 in one of our favorite spots! Beth commented Amy was way too close to the front for her 2nd time out....  I was unsure of how I would feel come Monday with all the riding and 2 longer runs + a few 1 hour runs...I showed up ready to roll and it was great.  Psychologically my legs knew, one more day and then we recover and they came ready to ride!  Was not my best ride ever out there...but felt darn good.

Beth asked what our fastest time the the Beekeeper was...I cannot recall but am thinking 1:23/24- a solid day is sub 1:30, chatty ride 1:35 and powerderpuff (coined by Jen_) is anything over 1:40.  She then lays down the 2012 goal of sub 1:20 to the Beekeeper.... I take the challenge...but want to know who will pull us up Skyline truck trail once we blow to bits......