Tahoe Century

Sat 6/3
Woke up in Tahoe, feeling pretty achy after sleeping in a bed that appeared to be at least 40 years old. After breakfast and coffee, took off for a 90 minute run with Heather and Rhian. Tahoe, run, how hard can that be, right? Wrong. It was after 11 when we started, so there was a ton of traffic. The “bike path” came to an abrupt end in a Burger King parking lot. Rhian and I ran around in circles in a neighborhood trying to run out the clock. Not exactly what we’d envisioned, but still a 90 minute run at altitude was pretty challenging.

Spent the rest of the day lounging, cooking, and watching movies, then bike prep and back into the 40-year-old bed early in preparation for a 5 a.m. wakeup call.


Sun 6/4
America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride – a century ride around Tahoe. Or, as I like to call it, “How fast can I possibly ride away from the hordes of Team in Training riders who are endangering my life.”

This ride is a national TNT event, which in theory is a great thing. Lots of people, all raising money for cancer, all riding their bikes and enjoying life. Only a lot of them have no idea how to ride (and mind you I am the last one to throw stones, I couldn’t ride a damn bike to save my life three years ago, but I didn’t go around endangering other people’s well being on mountain passes either). As in, “oh, I’m climbing up a hill with 3,000 others, I am tired, I think I will just stop here with no warning and walk my bike.” Or the opposite (also annoying), screaming “BIKER UP” when riding in a large group. Um…yeah, we know. You’re riding with 3,000 others. I did the 72 mile ride last year, and afterwards said the hardest thing about the ride was dealing with the TNT people. Same was true again this year.

The ride goes around the perimeter of Lake Tahoe (72 miles), with an additional out-and-back to Truckee to add in the additional 28 miles to make it a true century. We started at 6, when the ride began, but it quickly became apparent that many of the TNTers had started well in advance. The three of us hauled ass as quickly as we could to get in front of the majority of the crowd, thus saving our lives.

Rhian and I rode separately together for most of the whole day (in that she was always ahead of me, but we’d end up at the aid stations within 1-2 minutes of each other, and set off again together). We lost Heather by the second aid station - -she somehow ended up on an epic 115 mile ride.

The first time I looked at my odometer was at the "lunch" station (10:45), by which time we’d already gone 70 miles. Woo! Only 30 to go – that was a huge lift, and I am going to use this strategy (not looking) from now on. Until the headwinds of Truckee, I was averaging 17 mph. With the headwinds and the subsequent climbs, my average fell, but I ended up with 16.3 overall, or 6:09 for the century. Feel awesome about that, and it was a huge confidence builder for me.