Moab Century ride

Last Saturday,  I completed my third century ride with Team in Training and my seventeenth event with TNT since I first started running for Kelly in 1999.

Sue, Laura and I headed out for Moab on Thursday afternoon with my Fuji bike safely packed in the trunk. Adam wasn't able to come as he had to work.

Friday morning, Laura and I went out for a quick run where we saw some rocks, red rocks.

Later that morning we had our last workout before the century ride. We did a 30 mile ride where we saw some rocks, red rocks.

We headed off to the the TNT inspiration dinner. There was a slide show that ran continously of our heroes and angels. There were probably 30-40 different pictures on the slide show. The minute we walked into the room, Kelly's picture was the first one we saw.

As I was standing in line at the buffet I felt my heart breaking again for Kelly, for Laiken.  There were other pictures of young people on the slide show.  It is so sad and infuriating at the same time .

The Rocky Mountain chapter was one of six chapters attending this event.  Combined the six chapters had raised $350,000 to support the mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

Saturday morning we gathered in the darkness outside our hotel waiting for the start.  We rolled off at 7:05 with a police escort for 125 Team in Training cyclists.  It was already warm when we started.   That was not a good sign.

We rolled out of town and immediately started climbing.  The first part of the climb was fairly flat giving us a chance to get our legs underneath us before the road turned uphill too steeply.

I had a weird conversation with my cycling coach.  He told me I was riding my bike like a triathlete.  I asked him what that meant.  He said I was riding like I wanted to get from the swim to the run.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with that piece of advice 45 minutes into a ride I had been in training for five months so I filed it away for the time being.

After the first aid station, I caught up with another group of my teammates and one of our other coaches, so I just tucked in behind the last cyclist and let the coach set the pace for our small group.

We saw a sign that told us the first climb of the day was upon us.  The Little Nasty as it is affectionately called or maybe not so affectionately.

I was riding with Andres Pedraza who was a collegaue of mine on the Board of Trustees for the Rocky Mountain chapter.   I was riding in front of him as we started the climb up the Little Nasty.  He told me he liked having me in front of him as the pictures I had pinned on the back of my jersey were helping him stay motivated.  I told Andres I had lots of reasons to be riding.  Here are four of them.

My heroes and angels.

Brittany-24

Alyson-5

Kelly

Laiken

Parts of this climb have a 14% elevation grade.  Ouch! 

I actually got in a good rhythm during this portion of the climb.  I was in the correct gear on my bike and made it to the top of the first climb fairly easily.

It was a neat moment for me as I was able to lead Andres on this first climb and was able to get a good picture of him during the final moments of his ascent on the Little Nasty.

Smooth pedaling.

No worries!

Great music, pulling you up the hill.

Who the heck are you?

We left the summit of the Little Nasty and encountered the next sign called Tom's Misery named after a friend of the race director who was quite miserable when he found out he wasn't done climbing and there was much more to come.

We encountered a sign called the Launch pad and then we saw the sign announcing we were about to start the climb up the "Big Nasty". 

So our group decided we better commerate this moment in the true pioneer spirit.

Rocky Mountain TNT mocks the Big Nasty!

Like many things in life, the fear I had of being able to climb the Big Nasty were overblown.  I didn't fall off my bike.  I didn't have to stop and walk.  Some of the climbs I had done in Colorado were much harder.

There was one stretch where the road looked incredibly steep and so long.   I remember feeling very afraid  and I asked Kelly to stay with me during for the rest of the climb and I felt her presence as I have so many times before and we rode to the top of the Big Nasty together.

After the Big Nasty there was still many more miles of climbing to be done.  The next stretch was called the Stairway to Heaven.

Finally after 30 miles, we were about to start our first descent.   As always, that wasn't much fun for me and was even worse than normal as the road was really torn up and there was lots of loose gravel to try and navigate around.   My wrists were aching by the time I finally got to the bottom of this descent.  It was quite treacherous, lots of sharp switchbacks and the gravel that was all over the road.  What a relief to finally hit a nice long straight section with a nice gentle descent.

When I got to the TNT aid station, I caught up with Andres again and we set off on a long out and back section that had lots of rolling hills and zero shade for 18 miles.  It was really hot at this point and it didn't seem like we were ever going to get the turnaround point.

The return part was even worse.  The sun was beating down on us.   I had to let Andres go,  I couldn't stay with him.

When I got back to the TNT aid station, I was in bad shape.  I was dehydrated, and think I may have had some heat exhaustion.  Looking back now, I realize as hot as it was I had stopped sweating.  I felt awful. The people at the aid station were very worried about me and wouldn't let me leave without having someone else to ride with.   I sat in the shade for 45 minutes, drank two full bottles of Gatorade. 

The last 15 miles were a blur.  I couldn't drink any more water.  The sun continued to beat down.  I couldn't do anything, so as best as I could I pedaled on.

We stopped 2 miles short of the finish line to wait for the rest of our chapter so we could finish as a team.

I sat in the shade for another 30 minutes, one of my teammates gave me the last of her powerade.  That seemed to help a little.

Finally we were off and finished the ride as a team.

It was ironic that the part of the ride I was so fearful of wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  It was the last 50 miles of rolling hills and the heat that had done me in.  

My Garmin said I had only rode 98+ miles, not 100.  I didn't care.  I didn't tack on the extra mileage to get to 100.

I got off my bike and walked back to the hotel with Sue and Laura. 

I haven't been back on my bike since,

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TNT Group ride-Elephant Rock Metric Century course

TNT training ride on Saturday followed the Elephant Rock Metric Century ride course.

We did some pace line training. It is really cool if you can grab the wheel of the rider in front of you. Saves so much energy as you can draft is you stay close enough. Requires constant communication and trust with the people you are riding with. It is very powerful and also a bit unnerving. To do this correctly the front wheel of the bike you are riding should be right next to the rear wheel of the bike in front of you. This was our first pace line ride of the year so the gaps are a bit too far apart to get the benefit.


Rode up and down some rolling hills towards Palmer Lake.


Made sure that everyone was properly hydrated including Brian(Our sag wagging support :)


Andres got up after taking a nasty fall in the gravel. Andres is a board member for the Rocky Mountain chapter. Andres cut his leg, will have a good case of road rash, hurt his elbow and wrist on the fall. It is always unsettling to see a rider go down. Hope he is okay today.

We had our largest group ride of the season. 27 cyclists!

We have three cancer survivors riding on the team. One of the survivors is the Colorado Springs coach! Very cool to have them out providing additional inspiration to us.

The ride this week was not nearly as hard as last weeks ride. My legs did not feel very good again today. I had not been on my bike since Monday so I took it fairly easy today. My heart rate skyrocketed during the first climb of the day. I backed off the intensity and spent a lot more time trying to relax on the bike and spin at a higher cadence to try and keep my legs fresher.

I actually felt pretty good during the last climb of the day. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the top of Tomah Road and started to descend. I even managed to enjoy the descent. I remembered a tip my cycling coach from the 2003 season gave me and it really helped me feel like I had better control. Thanks, Gary!

2 weeks from Saturday is the Copper Triangle. 3 mountain passes, 78 miles and 5,900 feet of climbing.

9 weeks to the Moab Century and the encounter with the Big Nasty. 30 miles of climbing right out of the start....

I hope I will be ready. I am very nervous about the first part of the race. I have plenty of inspiration and reasons to ride. My heroes and my angels will pull me to the top.

For all of us involved in this fight to find a cure, the truth is that it will not happen soon enough.

I found out when I got home on Saturday that another angel had earned his wings. Please keep the Lindgren family in your thoughts and prayers.

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight".- Kahlil Gibran

My heart breaks again for some I don't know. The battle rages on.

For now I will continue to pedal. I wish I could do more...

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Thoughts on 7-11 Day

I drove down to Colorado Springs on Saturday to ride with the group of people that trains out of that area for the Moab Century ride on September 19, 2009.

It was an amazing day, great scenery, with some very challenging climbs. Coach Dale told me that some of the climbs we did today were harder than what the Big Nasty climb in Moab will be.

We started off doing a few miles on a bike trail before heading towards the west side of town.

I stopped and took this picture during the first really descent of the day. A lot of times when I ride I don't take the time to notice my surroundings.

A few climbs later and we headed towards Garden of the Gods. Pikes Peak is in the background which was the inspiration for America the Beautiful...

We started the climb up the Garden of the Gods road and were treated to some amazing scenery. The rock on the left of the photo seems to be suspended in mid air. Gorgeous.We continued down the road, enjoying some awesome scenery. I wish I could have taken more pictures. It was just amazing.

We headed off towards Seven Falls and Dale told us this next part of the ride would be a nice steady climb. He told me to go on ahead as he was going to do the ascent with Bonnie and Jetta. Just keep going up to you get to a dirt road and then you just turn around. Sounded easy enough.

NOT!

Parts of this climb were so steep that I almost fell off my bike into a ditch. I could barely stay upright.

I saw a parking lot in the distance and hoped that this was where I would find the dirt road and be able to turn around. I was sorely disappointed as I passed the parking lot the road turned up into some steep switchbacks.

The sun was absolutely beating down mercilessly at this point. I looked at my Garmin watch and thought I could run faster than I am riding. I was mashing the pedals, not spinning. Oh my gosh this is hard. How much longer to the top? The hairpin turns continued and finally I saw what appeared to be another parking lot. Straight up for another quarter of a mile and I see a dirt path. I was at the top. HOORAY!!!

I got off my bike to wait for the others to join me and my legs were shaking. I felt like I was about to fall over my legs felt so rubbery.

I saw Coach Dale. Jetta and Bonnie had stopped at the parking lot by the waterfall at Seven Falls and he had rode up to join me.

We stopped and took a couple of pictures and started back down. Naturally the sun went behind a cloud. It was now cool, overcast. I would have given anything for that during the last three miles. Dale told us later that we had climbed 2,000 feet over the last 3 miles which is even steeper than the climb of the Big Nasty in Moab.

We were back down where Bonnie and Jetta has stopped in the blink of an eye. It was kind of a scary descent for me. The switchbacks are so sharp you have to be really careful not to overshoot and end up flying off the edge of the road or veering to far to the left into the path of a car coming up the other side.

Dale cajoled Bonnie and Jetta to finish the climb. Somewhat reluctantly, but being good sports they accepted the challenge. I decided to ride back up with them and off we went.

It was Deja Vu all over again as I struggled up the steepest switchback. I made it to the top in time to be able to snap a picture of Jetta and Bonnie as they launched up the road to the finish.
Back down we went towards the waterfall and being in tourist mode and wanting to capture the day, I stopped and took a picture. Gorgeous. I love waterfalls and the sound of water!


During the last part of the descent, it began to rain to add to the challenge as now the roads were wet making braking even more difficult.

We continued on our tour and headed off towards the Broadmoor Hotel where at a very busy intersection we watched a deer wait patiently at a 4 way stop sign where she safely crossed the road and scampered into the trees.

We continued past the historic Broadmoor East course, build by Donald Ross where Jack Nicklaus won the 1958 U.S. Amateur and arrived at the roundabout entrance to the famous Broadmoor Hotel where we were eyed suspiciously by the security guards.

We turned and headed back to the bike shop where we had started the ride from.

Total distance today was only 46.4 miles which included over 3,000 feet of climbing.

I began the day thinking about Megan Dickey and Patti Kaufman who both passed away on 7-11 day one year apart. Meagan in 2007 at the age of 13, Patti last year.

I remember during one stretch of a hard section of climbing, thinking of all the people I was riding for, why I am riding. How many times did I lean on Kelly to get me through a bad patch of running or get me to the top of a climb? I miss her so much and I cry for just a moment.

I am grateful that I can ride for her and keep her memory and my love for her alive. I am grateful for the love I feel for Laiken and the people that she has brought into my life, Shanya, Stacey, Donna, people I have not met, but people I care about. I am grateful that I can ride for Brittany, Trista, Mason, Brandan and my latest little hero, Alyson in the hopes that a cure for all cancers will be found someday soon.

Till that day, I will keep pedaling, keep running, for my heroes and for my angels.

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