The last 2 days have been a lot of 'Up' and it's proved to be brutal. Yesterday's ride was challenging as I biked 40 miles from Folsom to Omo Ranch with a climb of 3500 ft, but today was even tougher. I think the signs below speak volumes for today's ride:
Today I rode 40.5 miles and ascended 4200 ft. I did a 4 mile ride that went up 1076 feet, a 4.2 mile ride that went up 642 feet, and after riding 38 miles my last ascent was 2.8 miles that went up 777 feet. That last one was especially tough because I was so tired from all the previous riding. However, all's well that ends well. I took in a lot of fluids and really slowed down the pace being more like the tortoise than the hare to lower the stress on my body as much as possible. For the few short times there was a slight downhill run it felt like a drop of ice water to a soul in hell and was much appreciated. Slow and steady wins the race when you're climbing continuously for 4 miles.
Jaine and I have been eating very responsibly on this trip so far, but after this ride I had a real hankering for potato chips. I had a crust of salt on my body from all of the sweating from the ride and really had a craving for something salty. Check out the bag of potato chips after Jaine went to the car to fetch them:
Tomorrow I have about 6 miles of uphill pedaling and then it's all downhill to South Lake Tahoe and Genoa. Actually, I'm more afraid of tomorrow's ride than the last two days of uphill riding. There were a couple of times I was riding downhill on less than 7% grade and I got up to 40 miles per hour. It's not so bad (and even exhilarating) if the road is smooth, but when the bike is chattering and the brakes are squealing at the slightest touch it can be a pretty scary ride, especially when it's a mile of high speed riding. Tomorrow's ride after Carson's Pass has an 8% grade. Maybe I'm overthinking things, but I'm starting to worry about losing control of the bike at high speed. The last thing I want to do is hit a pothole or slide on pea gravel at 50 miles per hour.
Fingers crossed and hope the brakes hold!
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