Bike Push

Lana has heard that the new bike route for the Waterfront tri on the 15th is hilly, so she wanted to get in some hill work before hand.

This is the email she sent out yesterday:

Ok - plans have changed just a little. We've decided to do some hills. One of them being Lakeview Rd in Normandy. Meeting time is 5:15. Meeting place is that church behind the track at Westwood Jr. High. Right beside Crestwood Nursing Home. The route is as follows:

Powers Bridge Rd to Old Stage Coach Rd
Left on Old Stage Coach Rd
Left on MG England Rd
Right on Wards Chapel Rd
Left on Lyndell Bell Rd
Right on Frank Hiles Rd
Left on Lakeview Rd
Left on Throneberry
Left On Riley Creek, which turns into Lyndell Bell
and backtrack back to Westwood.

I estimate this route to be around 23 or 24 miles, but Michele is going to plot it in her program and also get the elevation for it. Be ready to climb!

Let me know if you get this, sowe'll know to expect you...

I tried to plot it but it is probably best that I got the message "elevation tracking is unavailable at this time". I don't know that I would have gone had I known what was in store for me.

It ended up being Lana, Holly, Kelly, Don and me. When I told Tracy about the ride she said “Hell no”.

I knew the first hill, I had accidentally gone that way when I first got my bike. I haven't been back.

Well, today was the day. The first hill comes pretty quickly and my legs were screaming already. Holly told me she wished that she could say that was the worst of it but she knew better.

Hill number two...Don took a spill going down. He got banged up pretty good, but he wanted to continue. Now for the up hill. I didn't have enough speed and didn't get into my easiest gear. I tipped. I unclipped my left leg and fell over right. My right knee took a good bang. I pushed up the rest of the hill.

The Lakeview Road hill Lana mentioned in her email was up next. I started too hard and lost steam. I told Holly (as she passed me) that I wanted to cry. She said "You've almost made it" and I yelled back "I don't want to make it!!!". I couldn't do it. I had to get off and push AGAIN, I was not falling over this time.

We changed the route a little and eliminated one of the hills on the return trip. The two that remaining took everything I had, but I climbed them.

I was so glad to get back to the starting point and my car. All those hills made for a very long ride and I had to rush home to get ready for work.

Lana is never allowed to be in charge of picking the route!!!