Saturday, March 2, 2013

Lions and tigers and HILLS, Oh My!!!

Today our tri group met up at Camanche for a hill ride. (Note: we are now an official club with USA Triathlon!!!!  Check out Lodi Masters Triathletes).  We started out with our standard trip down to the restroom at the waters edge.  Afterwards, James proceeded to freak us out with all of his instructions about how not to fall down on the hills.  The only thing I could think was that I was so glad I didn't bring my scary bike.

Side Note:  I feel terribly, terribly bad referring to Pretty Baby II as my scary bike, but that is what she is right now.  This bike scares the hell out of me...especially the thought about taking her on hills.  I've got 5 months...I'll get over it.

Anyway, back to the ride... We headed east and rode to the stop sign.  It seemed much harder than last time and I also noticed that I was riding my breaks down the big hills (need to work on that).  At the stop sign, we turned left (the easy way) and stopped at the "wishing well".  The next hill was HELL!!! It was tough and I struggled to get my cadence up.  I swear that I needed an extra 1 or 2 lower gears to get my up the hill.  Eventually, I stood up and powered my way up the rest of the hill.  We stopped at the look-out point and got some great pics.


After we took this picture, we headed across Pardee dam and headed through Chile Gulch.  The weather was amazing and I even got a tan line from my Garmin.  I can't wait for out next group ride.  

I am currently reading The Triathletes Bible by Joe Friel (suggested by James) and I am trying to figure out my place in all this.  How fit am I?  Where should my training be?  How am I going to work in my group rides?  It sounds like at the upper levels, groups rides are not appropriate to get you to your goals.  That being said, if I had to give up my group rides and friends to place higher in a race, I would quit.  I love getting together and working out with friends.  The fitness and race results are icing on the cake.  Not sure that I would want to change what I am doing.

Garmin Stats:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/279452816

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