So I hardly ever blog one of those blogs where all I do is ramble on and on about some bike ride, mostly because get bored reading them on other people's blogs. So be forewarned, some stupid bike ride is all today's post is all about.

There's only 3 weeks to go until Buellton camp, and I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The coaches actually train for camp. See, we come across as always being "so fit" like it's no big deal for us, but we actually train for camp just so we can make it look easy. This year, I really need to train for camp, as I found out on the ride today.

So today's ride was all about cramming for the exam since all of have been stuck indoors for the past month. So since it's all about cramming, our threshold for cold weather riding has been drastically reduced. I think it was about 23 degrees when I left my house today.

It was me and the other coaches going to camp. So besides me it was J-lay (Jim Lehman), The Kid aka : CC, the Big Boss Man (Chris Carmichael), Mike D (Mike Durner), and Adam Halfwheel Pulford. Babs (Rick Babbington) wasn't there as the lucky bastard lives in California and does not have to cram for the exam. Get to know these names because I'm going to spend 2 weeks straight, 24-hours a day eating, riding, sleeping with (no, not like that), and playing whiffle ball at 1 am with these guys once camp starts.

So today's ride was like some kind of death march. I really think J-lay just likes to test us a little. You know, see who's the weakest link. And by the way, J-lay is a secret trainer, that guy is always fit. So J-lay gets to the front straight out of the office and I think to myself, "Oh, this pace is a little brisk." Not to mention, the air was a little brisk.... I think I was getting an ice cream headache just from being cold.

So we get a little out of town and I pull up next to Jim and try to set pace. I quickly realize that this is no social ride as I look down at my wattage and see power numbers as high as the VO2 intervals I was doing Tuesday. However, there's no going to the back, because as a the token girl coach for camp and on this ride, my ego won't let me be the weakest link. So I suck it up and tough it out at the front with Jim the whole way through Fountain. After 20 minutes over LT trying to stay next to Jim, CC finally needs to stop to adjust his seat and Jim and I can finally get off the front for a few minutes.

So we ride and we ride and we ride. And I'm not really chatting much, mostly because I can't, but also because I had this Modest Mouse song stuck in my head all day. So much so that I had to play it on repeat about 4x when I got home. (edit: about 10 times now)


So Adam (who half wheeled me the whole time) and I take like a 30-minute pull all the way to Hwy 94. That about cracked me, but 94 is always the last hard stretch with big rollers and I had to will myself to make it through that section. I started to struggle one roller and I let a little gap open. I feel a hand on my back and it's CC giving me a little push. No, that's not acceptable, so from then on I'm just burying myself to get up every hill so CC doesn't have the chance to give me a push.

There are a few rules on the coachs' rides. #1 If you want to keep your job, don't half wheel your boss or drop him on a climb, #2 If you don't want to get ridiculed by your peers, don't get dropped by your boss on a climb. So definitely getting pushed up a hill by him is enough to hang your head in the locker room.

Anyway, we get to the top of the final big roller on 94 and Adam looks back "We lost Mike." Mike D. is like 20-sec off the back. Phew, I'm not the weakest link! Funny though, we wait up for Mike D. then get rolling again. Not even 2 minutes after that we go up this little tiny hill and now I finally fall off the back. Oh well, at least I wasn't the weakest link.

We get back in 2:54. To put this in perspective, this is a ride I do by myself in about 4 hours. Something like 1300 kj, normalized power at 160 watts (yah, that's like my Tempo wattage), and definitely the hardest ride I've done since Thanksgiving which is bad because it was not really that hard of a ride. Oh well, I still got 3 weeks to get fit.



One question: Why does diet coke taste so good after a hard ride?