To pick up where I left off, we finally went for our ride on Old Spanish Trail. We’ve biked in this area before, but this time we kept going and did a loop instead. It was nice to have some change in scenery for the second half. There were some massive high schools out there that we passed. We also had to keep pulling out the map to navigate our way back to the city. I found for the first half the pace was kind of inconsistent, making it seem a bit hard to hold on. About halfway it felt like we settled in and with a few people taking some longer pulls it was much more comfortable to stay together as a group. Once we got home we went for a short run. By now it was almost dark. When the sun sets here, it goes down pretty fast. Our area seems a bit sketchy, so it was interesting for the three of us girls to be running in “the ghetto” as we affectionately call it. Wearing all black, listening to loud music in our ears... hmm good thing we do most of our runs in daylight. We were quite exhausted at the end of this day. Even before we started our first ride we were all tired. I think we all came into this training camp fatigued. Probably a combination of adding long rides the week before in Winnipeg, not really tapering, such a long travel day, and then not much sleep. We had a nice dinner, although the oven takes crazy amounts of time to cook anything. Then it was off to bed as soon as possible to try to rest up before Mount Lemmon.
Wednesday was Lemmon, as planned. We drove to Gary’s hotel then rode a short way to the base of the mountain to meet Alberta. I was going into this ride feeling pretty confident and I was looking forward to helping some of the girls that had never done this before. In fact, out of the six girls that rode today I was the only one that had made it to the top in previous years. We started out all together for the first couple miles before the guys finally took off on us. One of the other girls joined some of them. I stuck with three of the other girls and my dad. One was behind. Angie joined us at some point and we mostly stayed together until the halfway point. We stopped to grab some food and water at the lookout there, at mile 14. The mountain is a total of 26 miles, and some sections are harder than others. For example, the first 5 are probably some of the worst. Then it gets better for a while, mile 8 I think is also pretty hard. For a while it all blends together in my head, during the transition from cactuses to forest. From 21 to 25 there are some downhills, and then the last mile is a brutal climb. A little while after stopping I was having a hard time hanging on. I asked several times for the group to slow down a bit. They were fine with that but it wasn’t enough. I was struggling a lot and it was kind of embarrassing to make them wait for me. I told them to leave me behind but then Gary pulled up in the van and said no; he told me to get in the van and take a rest. I think maybe those one and half to two miles I sat in the van were the hardest of all. I was so frustrated and upset. I wanted to get back on my bike as soon as possible. The worst part was that this was the first time I hadn’t done the entire mountain and I knew even at the top it would feel like a fail. I had accomplished getting to the top of this mountain three times in the past two years. Once I hoped out and got back on my bike I took it easy to calm down and catch my breath, and keep a steady pace I could hold. My dad and an Alberta athlete, Claire, got out with me. We stayed together to the top. Once we got to the top everyone was waiting for us and once again I felt really disappointed. I know sometimes I am too hard on myself. We hung out at the top for a while and snacked on those giant cookies again. They are as big as the plate and very yummy.
Ashlyn and I got into the van for a few miles of the descent then got out with just over 21 miles to go. I think a few days ago I said something about hating that part. I realized that was such a lie. What was I thinking, I love descending. The adrenaline is awesome and once you get used to it it’s so much fun. My first year I made the mistake of using my brakes too much, and trying to stick to the bike lane. The better strategy is to be not afraid to use the whole road and take the tight curves wide. At the bottom we went for a 20 minute run, which was brutal. Once again I felt like crap and struggled through it near the back of the group. It was a long day and I was kind of disappointed in myself. But everyone was encouraging and Angie told me she had a feeling the next time we do Lemmon on the weekend I will have an amazing ride. I sure hope so. If nothing else, my dad has a new appreciation for the work I put in, he struggled up that mountain as well. We were very happy to see that the van was loaded up after the run and we didn’t have to bike back.
At home we changed into swimsuits and headed to Alberta’s house, as they had invited us to hang out. We knew they had a nice house and pool, but as soon as we pulled into their massive driveway we took back any invitation we’d extended for them to come visit our place. We’re all quite jealous. I’m pretty sure our entire little house could fit into the main kitchen and living room area of theirs. They had rooms they didn’t even use and I wasn’t even kidding when I asked if we could stay and sleep in their freaking huge closet. After a tour of their house they blasted some music from their sounds system and the guys were hard at work preparing dinner. That’s right, their coach wasn’t even there and they make all their meals by themselves. And it’s mostly the guys in the kitchen which is impressive. All of us girls hovered around trying to be helpful, but the guys had it all under control. We put some stuff out on the table to get ready for dinner, but that’s about it. By now we had been invited to stay for the meal, and they prepared tons of food. It was great. After sitting around outside having dinner together we hopped into the pool and had an awesome time just hanging out. Then we headed back to the ghetto for some sleep. Long day. You had to read it, but we had to get through it.
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