Tales of a Novice Cyclist

It’d been a week since the Solvang Prelude and I hadn’t ridden AT ALL. So, I couldn’t wait to get back on the saddle on Saturday morning to go on the away ride in Santa Clarita. 40 miles through some rolly hills, I was told. After the 63 miler in Solvang, it should be cake! Right?…. NOT.

By the time I was done, my bootie was hurtin’ and my knee was tweakin’. What happened? Did I get that out of shape in 1 week? I was perplexed… I did notice that it took a full 30 minutes of riding to get warmed up (legs were screaming in the first 15-20 minutes… :0\). The entire first half of the ride was up-hill! Doh! I rode mostly with Joy and JC who stayed with me throughout majority of the ride. I was even able to draft off him on the latter part of the ride down hill which was pret-ty fun, I must say. But all in all, I thought the Solvang scenery was much prettier than the rocky desert. No lions either.

I managed to dig through the Solvang Prelude pictures and find a picture of me on my bike during the race~! Unfortunately, they were selling the pictures for exhorbitant amounts - $25 for a coffee mug, $20 for a photo keychain, etc. You can imagine what a 5×7 cost, right? :-\ So, I just ripped off the picture from the website and saved it to my computer - that’s enough for me. But I wish they had taken one with me and RL.

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The Solvang Prelude was SO MUCH FUN!  I had no idea that biking could be so much fun! The first 50 miles was not bad at all.  But the last 13 was bit of a struggle as my thighs started to cramp up.  Plus, they had put the biggest, longest hill of the route on the last leg of the ride.  WHO DOES THAT!!  At one point, I was pedaling only 3 miles per hour, just praying that I wouldn’t fall over, and telling myself over and over “DO NOT STOP!” until cresting the hill.  At the end, I made it.  WOOHOO!!  I think it took me a little under 5 hours.  Wowzers!  My knees feel OKAY too.  The bootie is not so bad either.  I had a minor case of tendonitis on my ankle, but some ice fixed it right up the next day.   Anyways, the ride in Solvang was a blast! Even though I rode mostly on my own, I was able to draft off other riders, view some great scenery, and ride the longest distance ever.  I saw some horses (I think)…  RL saw a variety of other animals - none that I paid attention to since I was too focused on following the orange arrows on the rode. HAHA!  There were a lot of nice bikes there that gave me bike envy as well - Colnago, Cervelo, Litespeed, etc… Sigh..  Maybe next year, I’ll get a new one. In the meantime, I’m going to ride my bike until it breaks!  I still can’t believe that I rode the entire metric century. My next goal is now a full century.   This weekend, I’ll do another 50mi and see how I do.  I can’t wait!  Too bad I didn’t take any pictures… I will take my camera with me next time.

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