Weekend Rides

Some of my teammates. GO TEAM!
The harbor






Bikes galore and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge






This is Sheryl, our honoree team member. She was diagnosed with with Hodgkins Lymphma, Stage II, bulky mediastinal mass in 2001 and will be completing the century ride in Solvang!

Well this weekend flew by, and even after a full eight hours sleep, I'm still beat.

I woke up early on Saturday morning to head out for a buddy ride with TNT. When I signed up for this, I knew it would be physically challenging, and I knew I would have my work cut out for me to raise the required $2,500. What I didn't know was that getting to the meet spots would be equally challenging (I swear, the drive to Sausalito was more difficult that the 22 mile ride we did!!!- NOT KIDDING). I got all mixed up.. I guess it would have helped to know that I crossed over the Bay Bridge and not the San Rafael one. Woopsy. I think this was my first time driving over the Golden Gate Bridge in my 26 years of living in the Bay Area. Mateo and I walked over it together this summer, but we parked the car near Golden Gate Park.

I have never been to Sausalito, and it's absolutely beautiful. We got super lucky with gorgeous fall weather- sunny and crisp with clear skies. The ride started out with a pretty good climb and then went around a peninsula and had some rolling hills. Thanks DHK for organizing this ride and selecting such a spectacular route. No wonder it's called Paradise Loop! I always feel like I can do more while I'm out on my bike, but during the drive home, I started to feel the after-effect. All I have to say is thank goodness for hot tubs!

I headed over to Jed and Holly's for a home-cooked meal after stopping by to say hi to Pokey and put her jamies on (it was COLD). We hung out, drank some wine, hit up the hot tub, and I fawned over baby Mia. I stayed the night and headed out to the barn early on Sunday morning and ended up spending 4.5 hours there just taking my time and being slow. It's rare that I'm not rushing, so I really just enjoyed the hours out there with my girlie.

We went out on the trails, just the two of us and saw lots of deer and wild turkeys. I bet they were glad to have made it through this particular holiday (o; I headed out with the thought of only trotting like we did on Thursday, but she really wanted to run, and I couldn't resist, so we headed up one of my favorite hills which gives a panoramic view of the South Bay.



She's hairy right now, and when she gets sweaty it takes forever to cool her out and get her cleaned up, so I just gave her a quick rinse (love that hot water!) and let her eat her grain while I waited for her to dry off.

This week's goanna be busier than normal, so I'm just hoping to get through it. I plan on going for a quick bike ride this evening... hopefully I won't get frost bite on my toes... they get so cold! I bought the first book of the Outlander series (thank you Jenny!) since I've been reading some heavy stuff lately and want some thing light and quick to read during my commute on BART.

For those of you who are wondering, no, I am not in Afghanistan. I guess that just came up by default and I'm too lazy to change it right now. So there!