Training Intensifies

Since my most recent post, I have escalated the miles in my training. In the aim of assuring myself that I can perform a century when asked, I successfully completed a 60 mile ride, followed two weeks later by an 80.

Next weekend I push for a century.

Observations along the way:

The first 5 miles are hard, sure, but the last 10 miles of the 80 were excruciating. I stood and coasted down hills to stretch my ornery glutes and quads whenever possible, and, on the return leg of the Los Gatos Creek Trail, the one section after the Los Gatos Creek Park where it starts mildly downhill and flattens out, perfect to blast on and lose a wheelsucker, well, I would've been grateful for another wheel.

Fear of immobility is an effective motivator. All I need to do in order to summon yet another unseen reservoir of energy is to imagine the impossible dreams of my mother and my fears of sharing the disease that rendered them so.

When physically spent, small acts of thoughtfulness can bring me to near tears. Came home drained after the 80-mile ride to the smells of my girlfriend cooking a steak dinner.