Santa Cruz Smackdown

In late July my family was heading to Santa Cruz to go camping for the week. Of course, that doesn't mean that training gets put on hold. It only means our scenery is changed (and in this case, a whole lot harder). My dad and I figured we'd do what we know to do in Santa Cruz and that's to go ride Highway 1. Our coach gave us a workout of a 3:30 ride and a 20 minute run. So Monday morning we got up, scrounged up some food and got ready to ride. This was where our problems started. Being away from home, we didn't have the normal food we have before a big ride. In hindsight, we likely had less than 500 calories prior to starting our ride which was way too little. Our second problem was that we were just plain unmotivated to get out there and do this ride. But we knew we had to get out there and get it done so we could meet up with the fam at the beach afterwards. So we got out there, parked, geared up, and got to riding.
Getting going it was a little cool. It was completely overcast and there was no indication that things would be clearing up anytime soon. The hills were the only time we actually worked up a sweat on the ride. The weather was a nice break from the 100+ degree temps we had been having in Sacramento. We hammered down the descent before making the climb up to Davenport. There, we made a pit stop to hit the bathrooms and eat something. We didn't stop for long and got back on our way.

Besides getting passed by some super cyclist guy and seeing some roadkill, the ride out was fairly uneventful. We did catch a glimpse of a flag that seemed to indicate we had a tailwind with us which can only mean one thing....headwind on the way back. O no. Flashbacks to Big Kahuna last year start playing in my mind. The ride back into town killed me then and I seriously wanted to get off my bike and quit the race. It was so mentally challenging to continue in that race. We kinda chatted it over and decided to turn around at 1:40 which would give us an extra 10 minutes to get back into town. The ride out was going pretty well. We both felt like we were handling the hills and even the flats much better than we had in previous years. It was clear we had made some improvements in our riding. We stopped and rested a minute before turning around. We instantly knew that we messed up on those calculations. The wind was blowing so hard straight into our faces. It was going to be a rough ride back into town.


Smiling because he hasn't started riding back yet!

We decided we might as well make a pit stop at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse since it was right there. We took some pics, laughed about a kid taking a pic in the phone booth since he had never seen one before, and commiserated about what we were facing on the way back. Complaints out of the way, we got back on the bikes.






  
 It was a much slower ride but we just soldiered on mile by mile. Coming up one long grind of a hill, I was seriously feeling the effects of not eating enough that day. I was feeling very weak and slightly light headed as we made our way up the hill. So we stopped at the top and ate. Dad realized that his saddle padding was shot and clearly needed to be replaced. That's something you want to find out before a long ride, not during! We wondered if we should call and get a ride back since we weren't feeling too awesome but we knew the rest of the fam was getting ready to head to the beach. I didn't think they would pick us up anyways. I also didn't want to quit. So we stretched a bit and once again, got back on the bikes and kept on going.


Had to sit down anywhere I could!



After a while of riding, we got to the best part of the day (aside from being done with the ride).....we made it to the strawberry stand! There was really no question that we might as well stop and get a snack. It was already taking us a super long time for this ride once you factored in all the breaks so a few more minutes wouldn't matter. We got the best 2 chocolate covered strawberries and strawberry lemonade I've ever had. And with a 10% bike-in discount, who could pass that up!?



YUM!


We had a nice break and got the mental boost we needed to finish up the ride. It seemed to go on forever but we finally made it back.....after 3:55 minutes! Yea, it was only supposed to be a 3:30 ride but it took way longer to get back than it did to go out. Since the ride took so long and it was already so late, we cut our run in half and just did 10 minutes instead of 20. The run was ok. Took us a few minutes to loosen up but we got it done. We packed up and went on a mission in search of food! Everything tastes so much better after a hard workout!

So I'm not sure if you'd say that Santa Cruz won or if we did. The wind definitely held us back but I think we won the mental game. And from what I'm learning, the mental aspect is a huge factor in Ironman training and an Ironman event. Overall, it was a fun day and as long as we are still having fun even under less than ideal circumstances, we are coming out on top!