Good ol fashioned fun

The plan: Great Western Loop
40ish miles of hilly fun.
+/-4400 ft of elevation
The meetup: 730am


The plan was to meet up with Katie b. and co at 7:30...things started, um, not very well for me. I typically am not directionally challenged, but this morning, I think google maps fooled me into looking for the wrong exit and what do you know...I ended up in Alpine. We were supposed to meet near that thumb thing on the map that sticks out, so I was WAY off. I did manage to get there by 745ish but I hate being late and I HATE when I get lost on a map.

Great Western Loop is talked about a lot in these parts. But really...why it is called great western loop when it is clearly east of San Diego? That is beyond me. But it is talked about how hard and hilly it is, sometimes with a bit of hush and awe and it has made me a little curious what it is all about. Me and a friend of mine had been discussing this a few weeks ago and wanting to do this someday and when katie brought up doing it, I jumped at the chance. I've been doing a lot of hills lately, but I had no idea if I was up for the challenge that it might be, but I thought why not: BRING IT. A good attitude can help one push through tough challenges, so I brought an optimistic attitude of: just get out there and DO IT.

During the first 10 miles there is a wicked short, steep hill where I literally started to wonder: at what speed will one fall over/roll backwards? Because I was dangerously approaching that speed. I think its around 3mph...because when I looked down at my speedometer I was sadly going about 4mph and wobbling around. It was then I thought: Um...we aren't even into 10 miles of this...is this how the WHOLE thing is going to be? Fortunately we had a veteran amongst our ranks who told us that while the rest of the loop will be really hilly, we won't see anything that sharply steep. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The rest of the ride was good. Hilly. Hard. But really awesome. (actually the roads are pretty decent and not that traffic-y either) I discovered that I am beginning to really like hills. (which is good since I live in San Diego which is one big hill fest) Going up them my mind just falls blank, and all I think about is spinning and moving forward. So often I over think my life and whatever i am doing that there are times especially during training that my brain shuts off and it is just the best thing for me. Going up a hill does that for me. Long runs do too. Now going down a hill...um...notsomuch. I'm not a great descender unfortunately. I think due in part to a nasty bike accident I had when I was 15 and ended up on spine board for 4 hours. What has been really good is that this season I have seen improvements in myself with descending and relaxing and bit by bit I am keeping my hands more off of the breaks, so that is good. And that is really what is about. All accomplishments no matter how minor are good things.

Saturday as I walked around I wondered how I would fare on Sunday as I feared sitting down all of saturday because i worried that I might never get up again. But interestingly on sunday, while I felt a little tired they felt ok. Katie and I met up and went for a swim...which had to have been the roughest mile I've EVER swam. After our swim Chris came and joined us for 9 miles of fun running, and over and over I was really amazed how good my legs felt. We took it pretty easy on the run, but my legs weren't heavy or acting tired to me which was really great.

And so it is done...I just signed up for two tri's this fall. The OC tri up in orange county, Olympic distance on Sept 28th (in two weeks) and an all woman's tri here in SD mid oct. I also have on my mind to do the 50mile or metric century at Tour de Poway and Tour de Jullian in early November. Who can pass up apple pie?