Snowy Ride in the East Bay

Leftovers from Sunday night still here on Tuesday. Had my left over Sunday workout which got pushed away for some Cherry Pie spectating.

I have a cruel coach who gives one nicknames to take away from
the self important seriousity of cycling. He also likes to give hard workouts to take away from the silliness of the nicknames.

I dread hills and Sunday was a multiple time up the mountain. Easily substituted by spectating. However, I pay this coach so I feel bad about wasting money, and I fear being unfit for Kern. I swapped my Wednesday vacation day for Tuesday and went to MtD today.

Climbing 6000' is fun for some but not for me. But, I managed to get up for the challenge. I listened to my 80s REM during the first 99 min climb. Didn't want to climb the 19% 1/4 mile to the top and actually wondered if the sign at the bottom indicating the top was closed was true. I snuck around the closed road gate and kept looking for ice. About 5 min before the steep part at around 3600', I saw the snow. Yes, I turned around. 3500' down 2500' left. The 30 min downhill was very very cold. I thought how cool it would be to have someone waiting at the top to drive you down and all you have to do is climb up.

Erika says when she is on her TT bikes she thinks of herself as long and lanky. Kind of funny. But when I climb on my own, I pretend that I am one of those drug induced
climbing fools from the pro ranks of the 90s. Pantani attacking in the drops, Chechcu pulling through the Alps, Escartin crabbing his way up a Col, that's me. And like Lance having a car following him in the bad weather, I imagined a nice warm vehicle saving me from hypothermia.

2nd time up, I switched decades and listened to Elton John. I did some intervals and reached my 170s and 180s and sang along to Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and Philadelphia Freedom. I rested to Daniel and Amoreena. I came up with the name for the next kitty: Levon, even if it's a girl.

Completly distracted and at 6300', I called it a day and headed back for the cold ride down. At the road closure, someone called out to me. It was VB teammie Andi, and she was bummed that she could not get to the top with her visiting sister from Minnesota. They were in car and imagine my surprise when she offered me a ride down... all the way down. How cool was that? So since my wishes 2 out of 2 have come true, I have a third one. Now, I think that I need to win an obscene amount of money so that I can stay home and keep Daisy company.