Up! Up! Take me Away!!!!

Training Ride # 6 – Calaveras 55 miles (or that is what the schedule says – they LIE!!!) It was actually 57.4 miles but who is counting? MY LEGS! That’s who! Probably 60% of this ride was some form of up-hill. No, that does not mean that 40% was down hill – oh no. It means that we had a few miles of flat road that had a nice wind to go along with it!

Saturday, July 25, 2009 marks the day when I finally cross the half way point to my century! Wheels up at 8am in Milpitas. This week worked a bit differently. I am part of the slow group or should we call us the newbe’s? We have finally come up with an official team name. Our coach’s name is Don and everyone in our group is a girl so we call ourselves “Don’s Angels”. LOL I think I need to get little devil horns for his helmet. Maybe a little toy gun for ours? Or should I go with halos? Anyway, I digress. Don’s Angels started to roll out at about 8am in one group. We stayed together for the first 20 miles or so until we started to climb. This was our first big challenge. We got to go up and over a mountain. 5 miles of climbing! Here is where we split into 2 more groups and I was on my own with my coach and my mentor. It worked out well. I am not used to being the slowest of my pack, but when left with these two I definitely was. They are great though and really patient. We climbed and climbed and climbed. After a while we were rewarded with an area that leveled off and there were big homes nestled into the country side. The whole climb we were hearing peacocks calling. When we leveled off my coach pointed to what our team calls the “Peacock House”. Coach has ridden past before and seen a ton of peacocks strutting their stuff. Today I was the only one to spot one between the trees – but what a site! It was a white peacock! Who knew they came in white! How cool is that? Unfortunately I didn’t see it with his feathers splayed, but it was still cool. Then it was more climbing up to the top of the mountain. Here we were treated to our first SAG stop. SAG is the ride support team that offers rest stops with food! We LOVE SAG! Christina, our director, was there with pom poms and a cow bell. We had made it to the top! Fresh food and water, a quick bathroom break and we are ready for our reward – the down hill! Now down hills used to scare me. Some still do but now that I know better how to control my bike – they are kind of fun! (much better than climbing!) The only down side to the down hill is that they go so fast then you are climbing again, but it is a welcome break. Our decent dropped us into the windy foothills and over along HWY 580. As we took the frontage road along 580 I looked up and saw to my surprise Dublin and Pleasanton! How on earth had I ended up here? I am in shock that I had ridden my bike all the way here. This is a good 40 minute drive from my house – over the mountains. CRAZY! I never thought I would be riding my bike here. We take a quick break at the Marriott hotel (where I have stayed before) and then started south along the foothills. This was more rolling climbing and turning and climbing with little downs then back up and up. This ride was all about the ups! We rode through areas that I have only seen from a distance from the freeway. I am still in shock that I am here – and feeling pretty good too!
We were treated to our second SAG stop. This was at a house. Our SAG captain’s mom lives in these hills and any time there is a ride she opens her home for a SAG stop. She had fresh watermelon – YUM and chips and sandwiches, fresh fruit and more water. Best of all was a flushing toilet! Something we don’t always get! J The only down side to her house is her driveway. Coach had warned me to downshift. Holy Cow! I don’t know if my van could make it up this driveway and back down on a regular basis! This thing was steep! My mentor Wendy got off her bike and walked it but Coach and I rode all the way up – to clapping and cheering. We were greeted by our other team mates too that we had separated from during the first mountain climb. We lingered a bit too long but were nicely refreshed when we started again and got to ride down the driveway. J It could have been fun if we weren’t worried about stopping before getting on the road again. We continued on through the hills into the small historic town of Sunnol and along HWY 84. Then we continued down under HWY 680 and down through the valley. At this point we were in the full sun and heat. It was a warm day and we were in the valley – NOT GOOD! I looked over to the pass that we usually drive over and never thought I would ride along and asked the coach if that was where we were going. “Nope! We won’t be going over the pass.”
“But we have to be going over those hills.” I questioned
“But not there” was all he answered
“But we are going through those hills, right? We have to be.”
Silence…. That is never a good sign.

Soon the valley road turned into a bit of a climb. Ok, I am slowing down now but I can climb for a while. It isn’t as steep as the 5 mile climb earlier – I can do this! What they didn’t tell me was that it was going to go on forever! This turned into the Ride That Has No End! We kept climbing, and climbing and climbing and climb…..you get the idea. It was hot. I was tired. It was hot and we kept going up….I don’t have a computer on my bike so I can’t tell you how long it was – it was just long. At the summit (or what I thought was the summit) we had our last SAG stop. Since it was the top there was no shade, but they had ice! I put ice in my water bottles – yay! Then I had Cheetos! Let me tell you – when you are working that hard and it is that hot – Cheetos never tasted SO GOOD!!! After our quick stop we continued on. There was a bit of down hill so I thought we were on our final decent back into Milpitas and our cars. I was SORLEY mistaken. We had a nice little downhill which lead to more climbing. We would turn a corner and the road would go up again! Then we would go down a bit just to be faced with more up! I was going slower and slower as the hot afternoon dragged on. Coach, Wendy and I kept up a friendly banter to distract us but it dragged. Finally Coach asked if I thought it would never end and I said that I trusted him to eventually get us to the car. He laughed and we rode on. A few minutes later and he asked me again. My reply was “Expletive! Expletive! Expletive!” The down hill had to be soon – PLEASE! For the love of all things good, it has to be around the next corner! We have been climbing forever! We turn the corner and “HOLY MOTHER!” The road went straight up! Coach just about fell off of his bike laughing at my reaction. This is his favorite part of the ride. He loves to watch the faces of his latest victims as we see our fate lying before us. To soothe me he starts to talk about upcoming land marks. “Eventually”, he says “we will come to a couple of large power lines – the big metal kind. At the top you will see a large nest. It belongs to two Bald Eagles and their chicks”. Ok, so now I have something worth looking forward to. I mean seriously, I have seen a white peacock and now I get to maybe see Bald Eagles? COOL! We don’t usually have them around here but for some reason we have a pair this year. After what seams like an eternity we came to the power lines and sure enough there was the nest. No eagles though. That is ok. The nest was huge and really cool. It also was a land mark that was almost at the end of the climb. Finally we got to do the down hill that we worked so hard for. It is called “The Wall”. It was fun to go down. Short but fun. Coach and Wendy warned me about the stop sign at the bottom. Good thing that they did! I had to slam on my breaks and throw my weight back to make it! I almost over shot it even with their warning! After that it was a relatively flat ride back to the car. I was pedaling quite a bit slower than I was at the first part of the day. Humm…wonder why? Bryan and the kids were there to greet me with cheers and hugs – which is always awesome!

So now I can say that I have ridden more than half a century. That is amazing! I did it and lived to tell about it!

So that is the update of my training. As far as our honorees – most are doing well. As I mentioned in a previous posting, one- Joseph - is not doing so good and has opted for the most aggressive treatment. He has completed his chemo but his white count is still poor. His spirits are up but his Dr.’s are pessimistic at best. Please keep him in your prayers.

My fundraising is coming to a close. I need another $1100. Almost there! I have a corporate partner who will match any cash donations I receive. So, anyone who has been thinking about making a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society now is the time! I am looking for my last few sponsors! If you make the check out to me I can have it doubled! That means that I only need about $550 more and I will have reached my goal of $3900!!! How amazing is that! So please consider making a donation. It all goes to such a wonderful cause helping to find a cure for cancer as well as supporting families who are dealing with this on a daily basis. As always, I appreciate your prayers as well.

Checks can be made out to me and sent to me at:
Susan Martin
137 Herlong Ave.
San Jose, CA. 95123

God Bless,

Susan

Hicks You!

Yep, I have a new bad word to add to the vocabulary. Hicks was evil and Shannon was even more evil – though I haven’t figured out a good way to use the new word Shannon. It doesn’t roll off the tongue like Hicks does. Perhaps I should explain – for those of you who don’t know our area.

Saturday, July 4,2009 – Independence Day! What a wonderful day to sleep in and spend time with the family…OR what a great day to get up early for a bike ride with the team! YAY! Ok, so in all fairness they did schedule the ride for 8:45 and it was only 10 min from my house – which was awesome! The only problem was that I got so excited about it being close by that I neglected to look at the start time. You guessed it! I showed up at the usual 7am excited about my extra ½ hour of sleep – since it was so close – but no one was there! A couple of panicked phone calls later and I realize that I am an hour early. I could have actually slept in!

Once the ride actually gets going it is starting to warm up and is pushing 9am. We started at the VTA parking lot on Colman between Almaden and Winfield. We went down Almaden Exp. Then back up to Camden – total about 7 miles. There is that killer incline on Camden that was a good warm up for what was coming. We then turned left on Hicks and headed into the hills. When I saw Hicks on our rout sheet I must admit I was a bit nervous. It turns out that in comparison – Hicks really isn’t that bad. It was when we made that right turn on to Shannon that things got really interesting! Now, let me attempt to explain. This is a part of town that really few people see. It is part of the base of the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains and really if you don’t live here the only reason to go on this road is for the scenery. This is where you see full on mansions on large acreage. There are horses and plenty of road kill along the way to distract you from the excruciating pain emanating from your legs & lungs. This pain is caused when the beautiful rolling hills decide to stop rolling go straight up! Oh, but there are turns in the road too! So after each bend you see the one ahead and think that it must level out there only to find that it does no such thing! It just keeps getting steeper! This goes on for what seems like an eternity. I am truly getting a glimpse of what Hell must be like. I can’t breath, my legs are shaking, and my goal is to keep my bike from going backwards! Just one more curve – it must level out right up there! Oh @%$*! There is another curve and the road just got steeper! Ok, don’t hyperventilate. Deep breaths from your center. You can do this! Just one more turn and you are there. DENIED! It seemed like it went on forever but in reality it was probably the longest 1 ½ miles of my life. Finally I reached the top and was greeted by an old shady oak tree and one of our honorees. Yep, he beat me up the hill! He was having a nice break waiting for the rest of us. Just to put this in perspective, he used to be an avid cyclist before his Leukemia. He has since fought the good fight, had a bone marrow transplant and just doesn’t have the strength and energy that he used to have. Yep, HE beat me up the hill with time to spare. What the @%$* is MY excuse? After that killer climb came the great reward of the decent. I will admit that going down still scares me a bit, but I am getting better.
We dropped down into Los Gatos which was full of people getting ready for the parade. We were like the pre-show! Then we went up Hwy 9 to Saratoga. Now we did Hwy 9 last week and it wasn’t really that bad. It has some rolling inclines but they are more long and gradual. This time though I was still recovering from Shannon and Hicks! Looking ahead at our rout sheet I realize that we still have a bunch of miles to go and then loop back and go the OTHER way up Shannon and Hicks! Say What????? Um…Coach? I think we may have a problem! Thankfully Coach Don was cool about it and said we would see how I felt when we got there. Well, by the time we rode to Saratoga and back down Cox to Blossom Hill there was a unanimous decision by the group to skip that wonderful hill and go straight down Blossom Hill Road to Camden then over to the VTA. I was SO thankful. I really don’t know if my legs could have handled that again. I think I may have had to walk my bike for the first time! All together the ride was about 39 miles which is officially my longest ride to date! YAY!
Saturday night my family and I enjoyed the wonderful fire works in Morgan Hill. They were really amazing. We had a great time hanging out and playing games until it started to get dark. Then Samantha and I went out and sold glow sticks to raise money for TNT! That worked out really well. We made a bit of cash and got back to our blankets just in time to curl up and watch the show. It was truly a great day!