One Week, 214 miles

We have completed our first full week here in Hot Havasu.  Today it's only 113 degrees.  When we finished up our ride this morning just after 8 am, it was 91.  We're getting used to it.

This past week we rode 6 out of 7 days, which is what we need to be able to do for the cross country ride.  But our total mileage for the week is just 214 miles, which is only 60% of the mileage we need to do (360 per week) in order to do the ride in two months.  But we have 3 months still to get there.

I am feeling better about this now.  Rick has been figuring out the first 5 days of the ride from San Diego to Quartzsite and has planned some good places to stay over so we can enjoy ourselves after riding each day.

If we could just have catered meals, a swimming pool or jacuzzi, hot shower and a massage each day after riding, this COULD be really fun....

Dream on!!

It's so HOT here we wish we were naked!!

Today's training ride commenced circa 5:30 am.  A "cool" 80 degrees starting temp.  We rode north on highway 95 for 15 miles, had breakfast at the truck stop Carl's Jr., then proceeded to ride another 11 miles out east on I-40 before turning around and heading home.  Total mileage was 52 today.  We didn't finish up until 9:30 am when it was "only" 91 degrees.  Later today the temp soared to 115.  It's supposed to get hotter the next few days.  The pool here is a welcome relief.

Can't wait to see how hot it is tomorrow morning at 5:30 am!  Did I mention I don't like extreme temperatures?????

Today we reflected on the gravity of this undertaking.  Are we nuts?  Whose idea was this anyway?  We just did 52 today, and in order to finish this ride up within two months, we need to be able to consistently ride an average of 60 miles per day, 6 days a week.  I can't get my head quite around that yet.

And what will we do for the rest of the day if we get up at the crack of dawn, do our daily ride in 4-5 hours and get back to the RV by noon?  Out in the middle of nowhere?  (I just hope it's not 105 degrees and we aren't someplace where we can't run AC.)

Serious questions to ponder....

Did somebody think this was going to be FUN?????

Back to the Mother Ship, starting to train....

We got back to the Mother Ship on Tuesday (Mother Ship is the Teton 5th wheel, shuttle craft being the Xterra towing sailboat).  Rode 35 miles, 2000' of climbing through the neighbohoods of Lake Havasu.  Felt good, but lots of glycogen left stored in our legs (from two weeks of gorging on fish and chips in Ireland/Scotland).  The next day wasn't as pleasant....25 miles on FLATS, felt like shit.  Thought about not getting up today, but did anyway and put in another 35 miles, 1800' climbing.  Probably need to take a rest day tomorrow, but probably won't.  No rested for the wicked, and that we are!  We need to be riding over 300 miles a week pretty soon (next few weeks) or else we'll be toast.  (Hmmm....toast sounds good, to eat that is).

Talked to Dennis and Lindsay tonight.  They may hang around San Diego to see us off on Sept. 21.  They were tempted to join us....

We really pigged out in I/S.  I gained 12 pounds and am now sporting heaviest weight ever, spent too much time at the "chippie" (take out fish n' chips)

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Should've just drank beer but it wasn't as good as the fish!

  

Hello fellow Amigos!

Good Brew, Last Dance for Donna

May 16, 2012

I think this is the first time we have ridden 4 days in a row.  If we weren’t traveling so much, I think we could do this every day (well, maybe an occasional day off).  Today’s ride was from my brother’s house in Santa Rosa to Lagunitas Brewery in Petaluma, total 40 miles, 2 hours 38 minutes (riding time; we spent about an hour and half at the brewery).  Again, another beautiful ride through the rolling rural hills of Sonoma County.  Lagunitas was fun – they were playing all this disco music from the 70’s.  That really took us back.  Came to find out later that was the day that Donna Summers, Queen of Disco, passed away.  “Last Dance” for Donna, great ride for us.  With a few brews in the belly (can’t feel any pain), we hauled ass back to Santa Rosa, good interval training. 

Time to go to warmer weather!

May 15, 2012

Whoa!  We have actually ridden a third day in a row today.  Today’s ride was just 18 miles from the marina we’re staying at (Woodley Island) out to the “north jetty” of Samoa.  The typical Humboldt County weather has returned….gray, foggy, cold (52 degrees).  We cut the ride short today so we could get back and sail the boat out of Humboldt Bay into the Pacific Ocean!  Humboldt Bay is the first time that the “Bad Girl” has ever been in salt water, and today was her first time in the ocean.   It was fun!!!!  And we lived to ride another day.

A Ride Along the Coast

May 14, 2012

Today’s ride was to Patrick’s Point State Park, total 45.7 miles, 3 hours, 4 minutes.  A beautiful day too.  We have been very fortunate to have such good weather in this location which is usually enshrouded in fog and/or rain.  A great deal of this ride was on US 101 which has a very good shoulder and not as much traffic as highway 10 out of Quartzsite.  But there were some “country”  shake & bake roads also.  We opted to return almost exclusively on US 101 to avoid damage to our personal undercarriages!  A good ride all in all and two days in a row!  We’re on a roll.

Happy Mother's Day

May 13, 2012

We arrived in Arcata, CA on the 9th for my son, Barrett’s college graduation on Saturday.  Spent several days partying with the kids but now it’s time to get back on the bike and ride.  Today was Mother’s Day and it was one of, if not the best Mother’s Day ever.  Started out with….well, can’t really say online exactly how it started, but then we took a 38 mile ride with a group from the local bike shop in Arcata (Life Cycles) to the Loleta Bakery, a locally renowned bakery out in the middle of this nowhere little town.  Beautiful ride, mostly rollers and one hill that got our heart rates up into the high 150’s.  The baked goods were a welcome breakfast – I just love apple pie and coffee for breakfast.  Yummy blueberry scones and mouth watering oatmeal cookies.  Oh, and the lemon bars are to die for.  This is the best thing about training – you can EAT and it doesn’t seem to make you gain weight. 

We rode with some really nice folks – Vince and Lynn who own Life Cycles, Jodie and Lee (Lee is going to ride the Davis Double next weekend), Diana – a  65 year old strong rider who just started a new career in insurance, and Robert – a dentist who is going to Europe in a few weeks and will be riding through the Pyrenees. 

Later that day after the ride, my sons took us out for lunch at a Cajun café and actually picked up the tab!!!!  I feel like I have truly arrived as a mother on Mother’s Day!