The start of training for El Tour

This past week, was a good one for getting into the saddle again. I was able to ride Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun. I was happy with the performance on Sat, because this week the guys did not kick my butt as bad as the week before. Hopefully this means that I will be kicking their butts soon (heeheehee). I was able to keep up with them for the most part during our 50 miler.

During the week, my friend asked if I wanted to meet up with GABA because they were starting the training rides for El Tour de Tucson. For those of you who do not know, El Tour is an awesome cycling event that attracts cyclists from all over the world. They are expecting 9,000 riders this year and most of them are signed up for the 109 miles. There are shorter distances also if distance is not your forte. Although I am slow, it is mine :) !! So on Sunday, my sister and I met up with Garry. We picked the 35 miler, because I had ridden 50 miles the day before and I thought that I would need a little rest.

Our ride had some flats (not tubes), down hill and small hill climbing. The hills were ok because what goes up must come down!! We had a good time except, I felt a little bad, because there was this girl that was cross chaining and for her bike this put a big angle on the chain. She was a strong rider, but really seemed to be laboring up the hills even though she was keeping up with the front riders. As I sat back and looked at her chain, I rode up to her and told her that I did not mean to be rude and that she was a strong ride however, she should really change the gearing that she was using. She just looked at me and said "THANKS". I sat back for a moment and then rode past her. As I caught up to the guys in front of me, I told them that I think I pissed off their friend. They asked me how I had done this?? I told them about the cross chaining and then all of the sudden, they busted up laughing?? :( They then proceeded to tell me that they have already told her several times about cross chaining, and she still does it.

As my friend caught up to me, I told him the story from earlier and he had told me that he has watched people with their shifting and you can learn a lot from that. My other friend told me on a ride recently, that I had made his cycling easier?? I did not know how, so I ask. He told me that he had sat behind me on a ride and watched me shift gears. He said that he mimicked what I did and it had/has made riding a lot easier for him! Yay, that is awesome I thought. Moral, you can teach a rider new tricks, they just have to be willing to learn.

Garry, my sister and I had a great ride. We ended up going 44.55 miles and it has been the fastest ride of the year so far for me. I told Garry, that I would like to ride with him on these rides, because I am doing the 109 and I need the mileage.

Hopefully this will be the start of some good training :)!!

Hope everyone is well and have an awesome week. I will be at a wedding in Iowa!!

Swim, ride, run, move!