Look Mom, no hands!

Sat 5/27
Supposed to ride on trainer for an hour, then run two hours. I’ve had a nagging pain in my calf for most of the week, which I thought was most likely from the 3 ½ inch red high heels I wore at the auction on Wednesday. Went to Dr. Rabbetz yesterday on way home, who told me it was actually a small tear in the muscle (but not from the heels!). Awesome. So no running for a few days. Heather and I drove to Sausalito to meet Ellery, and did Paradise loop from there (21 miles), with the intent of running in the water or swimming later in the day. Uh, yeah, no. Paradise was full of lunatics, including one dude who wouldn’t go away – whenever we’d try to lose him, he’d circle back and join us again. We finally pulled off so I could practice my right-handed ness (cause, yes, although I am about to do my second freaking Ironman, I don’t ever take my right hand off the handlebar!), and when he circled back again, I told him – ever so nicely – to please get lost.

Two sections of Paradise are washed out from all the rain this spring, so cars can’t go all the way through, which is great. It just means two sections of fence-jumping for riders. On the second section, a nice Good Samaritan offered to take my bike over while I climbed over the fence. Oh, I thought, that is so nice. She leaned it up against the fence….at which point it promptly fell over. Ohhhh. First scratch on new beauty. Too tired to cry.

Sun 5/28
Rode 50 miles, swam 3000 yards (supposed to be ride 60, swim 3700), core training.

Heather has been bugging me for about three years to do the Marin Headlands loop. Somehow I have always avoided it – I know it is steep and scary, and I am not into steep and scary. Today my luck was up. And guess what? It was steep and scary!!!

We left from my house at 8:30, over the bridge, no problem. Started climbing, no problem. Got to the top, where you start a gnarly descent? Large problem. I have never been so scared in my entire life. I don’t like downhills, and I particularly don’t like downhills when the side of the road plunges 800 feet down a cliff into the Pacific Ocean and I am physically attached to a piece of equipment with two wheels.

But, I didn’t have too much of a choice – I could pull over and try to get off my bike, but it was so steep I’d probably have fallen over anyway, so it was easier to just stay put. I think I went 4 mph the entire way down, my hands cramping the whole way. Heather was a champ and did not make fun of me at all (even if she had, there is not much I could have/would have done). At one point, I whimpered, “I can’t do this, I need to stop.” Being a good friend, and knowing how scared I was, she replied “ok, that’s fine, we can stop.” To which I promptly yelled back, “don’t let me stop!” She kept rolling with it, and we eventually got down the damn hill. (Seriously, I am not kidding – you descend almost 800 feet in less than a mile. And we were the only two ladies I saw out there the entire time. Now feeling slightly less crybaby and slightly more badass.)

Initially we’d planned to do two Headlands loops, and then our swim. I informed Heather there was no way in hell I would be doing that again, so why didn’t we consider adding Paradise on to the first loop. I saw a Muni bus drive by and briefly contemplated taking the bus home (on the descent I’d also considered giving Heather my keys, making her ride home, get my car, and drive back to get me. Fortunately this did not pan out, as I suspect I’d have a hard time living that down.)

Incredibly, we made it home alive just after one. More lunatics on Paradise today than yesterday – even saw one motorist spit on a cyclist stopped at a light with us. Yes, spit. Can you feel the love? And he had a kid in the car!

I thought I’d eat lunch and head off to the pool. Instead I ate lunch, passed out on the couch for three hours, and then headed to the pool. I swam until they kicked me out (literally “ma’am, we’re closing – you are going to have to get out of the pool now”), and then lifted.

Eat, bed, repeat. On to week 35!