Shawty's like a melody

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

~37 miles, biking. Today was bike ride day - kind of did 2 rides (one with my brother, and one with Eric Tai). Good company, but not a good ride. I felt rather miserable, actually. My legs burned so much, I felt so slow, and I really felt like crying at points. But I like "having done" the ride - thank you :).

12.65 mi
Went for a bit less than an hour and a half with my brother this morning, along the Canal Trail. It was mighty chilly (in my opinion) so I was all decked out in UnderArmour, Jackets galore, and then I wore sweatpants. Silly me had left my tights at Tech. And gloves. But then it warmed up, so ended up taking off layers. Oh man... my brother rides this old (reeeeally heavy) steel bike, but he was booking it and I couldn't keep up =[.

25.6 miles
Then after eating breakfast (mm sausages and eggs), I set out to bike up Mt. Diablo with Eric Tai. The sky was completely clear - not a cloud in the sky, and it was a beautiful view, that just got better as we climbed, but of course I was not appreciating this on the way up... Climbed to 3849 ft over about 11 miles, to the summit. I kept wanting to stop, since my legs were really fatigued for some reason. There's the sore tired, and then the fatigued "I feel like they're going to collapse" tired. I was the latter, today. I was so so ready to stop... but then Eric Tai kept saying oh come on... just try a bit. And then eventually we got to the top. There was snow on the way up! And it was quite windy and chilly at the top. There were a few other bikers that we saw on the way up. "The final segment of the climb to the summit, after the junction, is 4.5 miles long with an average gradient of 6.5%-7%. Unlike the two roads that converge at its base, Summit Road is relentlessly uphill...but the defining feature of the climb to Mt. Diablo was yet to come—the narrow, one-way, 100-meter 17% finishing stretch from the lower summit parking lot to the higher one." So I ended up walking a bit, and kept having to stop on the way down, because my hands were getting really tired from braking. Right turns are so scary! When they are blind and tight, and if you don't turn tightly enough, then you risk biking off the edge of the mountain, or being hit by an upcoming car around the blind turn, going the other way. Anyways, I was a very complain-y one today... I hope that Eric Tai doesn't vow to never go on a ride with me again...