Aprehension

Five days until Ken and I participate in the Tour de Tahoe. It will be very interesting to see how my body responds to being back at altitude.

We arrived at my sister's house Sunday afternoon. Monday morning I went for a ride from her house up and over the hill into Lemmon Valley, rode down to the end of the road and then turned around and came back. On the way out I passed my sister returning from her early morning training run for the half marathon she'll be running in later this fall.

I hit the hill and the very cold morning suddenly felt a little warmer as my body began to feel the steepness of the climb. I was breathing in deeply but it didn't feel like I was getting much oxygen. This side of the climb is the steeper climb and I soon found myself in the little chainring big cog but I made the summit without stopping.

I zipped my windbreaker back up and started my descent to find another surprise, my brakes were woefully out of adjustment. Especially the rear brake, GREAT! I never realized this in Illinois because who uses brakes in Illinois? I stopped to adjust my brakes only instead of adjusting the barrel adjuster for the brakes, I was adjusting the barrel adjusters for the derailleurs. So now I had a bike with no brakes that wouldn't shift properly.

I coasted down to the bottom of the hill, scrubbing speed as best I could when needed. At the bottom I was able to correct my derailleur adjustment and then adjust my brakes so I had a lot more stopping power.

The trip back up the hill on the other side went pretty well, I even had a couple gears left at the top and the availability of brakes made the trip down much more enjoyable. From there it was a nice flat, quick sprint back to my sister's house.

Tomorrow, Ken and I are going to head out mountain biking. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe up in the higher country my allergies won't be bothering me quite as much as they have been here in the valley.

I'll update more tomorrow if I have the energy!

Ride on!