Day One and Day Two

Today is the second day of our adventure and what a wonderful time it’s been so far. We found out that Evelyn is the youngest cyclist this year! Go Evelyn! Many cyclists decided they wanted to race through the event, not us! When we started yesterday, we were the last ones to leave (busy taking pictures of the moment) but not the last ones to arrive. Close, but not the last. It was clear and sunny in San Francisco. It was the most beautiful day. There was not a cloud in the sky and the view of the Golden Gate Bridge was spectacular. We rode 85 miles to Santa Cruz and arrived at 5pm. (The first cyclist arrived at 1:30!) We saw over 100 people at a parasailing event and stopped at every vista point to take pictures. Christiana taught us a lot about not taking life for granted so we’re taking the time to enjoy God’s beauty. After we arrived at our destination, we pitched our tents, showered, ate a wonderful prepared meal and then went right to bed!

Today, we detoured a bit here and there to get a better view of the sites. In fact, we rode with 15 others and detoured an extra 15 miles. Our Daily Route Guide had us riding 52 miles to Pacific Grove (near Monterey) but we rode 65 miles. We had a snack at a nice place called The Farm in Aptos. We rode through a strawberry farm and it smelled so good. We had lunch at a place called Phil’s in Moss Landing. Good seafood! We ate dinner at Bubba Gump. The portions were really small so we went searching for Ghirardelli to have some icecream. Unfortunately everything closed by 8pm so we searched high and low for a Baskin Robbins. Found it! Can’t help but think about food after such a long day of biking. When we went back to the campground, the sprinklers came on soaking all our tents. So much adventure!

And so the adventure begins...

Tonight we had the kick-off dinner where Dwight and Dr. Balboni spoke on behalf of our team and got to share Christiana's story. What a blessing that was! Right now it's 11:45pm and we're in San Jose and we have to be in San Francisco tomorrow morning at 6:45am. 6:45 AM I hope biking 85 miles on little sleep is doable. We'll knock out tomorrow night.

So basically over the next week we'll call my mom each night and she'll post about our adventures...

Before I go, though, I figured you should all know our destinations from day-to-day:

Day 1: San Francisco to Santa Cruz
Day 2: Santa Cruz to Pacific Grove
Day 3: Pacific Grove to Big Sur
Day 4: Big Sur to San Simeon
Day 5: San Simeon to Pismo Beach
Day 6: Pismo Beach to Solvang
Day 7: Solvang to Ventura
Day 8: Ventura to Santa Monica

Here's a map of our journey so you can visualize it as well (now it's like you all are doing the ride with us!)

Tomorrow is THE Day!

Well, we are preparing for our ride down the coast of California tomorrow... 525 miles from SF to LA with 250 other riders in support of the Arthritis Foundation!

I am definitely excited and a little nervous because you never know what to expect. We will be riding down beautiful Hwy 1 and will be taking pictures (not sure about how many, but we will have some to post when we return).

The tour posts pictures of those riding on www.californiacoastclassic.org, so check out the front page of the site periodically to see if we get a little limelight.

Here is a picture of Evelyn and I from the Tour de Tahoe 2 weeks ago, where we rode 72 miles around Big Blue (not IBM, but the Lake). Also, posted is a picture of the doctors (Dr. Mel Balboni next to Evelyn and Dr. Joyce Hsu next to me).

Stay tuned as we (or Maria) posts more as we ride down the coast!

Can you say nervous?

3 days to go... and I'm getting a little nervous. 525 miles is a lot. That's a long bike ride.

I'm excited though. Very much so.

Counting down the days...

So we have 5 days until the big ride begins. This week will officially be the best week of training ever. We're supposed to be going at an easy pace for no more than 1 hour (basically only 10-11 miles). I've been feeling pretty tired lately on the bike, so hopefully I'll be rested enough before Saturday.

Here's the layout of miles and climbs per day:
Saturday - 82.9 mi and 4,270 ft of climbing
Sunday - 52.6 mi and 1,770 ft
Monday - 38.0 mi and 2,220 ft
Tuesday - 64 mi and 4,530 ft
Wednesday - 55.6 mi and 1,270 ft
Thursday - 63.8 mi and 2,400 ft
Friday - 86.5 mi and 2,410 ft
Saturday - 63.3 mi and 1,430 ft

As you can see, days 1 and 4 are the hardest (day 7 seems pretty tough too). When I say they're tough, I'm speaking relatively because obviously all of the days will be hard. Like one of the doctors who are riding with us says, take it one rest stop at a time (hahha).

Oh! We got our jerseys in the mail... here they are!
The first is the front; the second is the back.

Tour de Tahoe video

Here's a video I put together for our Tahoe ride. Enjoy!

(I tried uploading it onto this blog, but I think it's too big. Here's the YouTube version.)

So. The Tahoe ride.

We rode 72 miles around Lake Tahoe on Sunday. Needless to say, I was nervous. Weather.com said that in the morning when our ride started it would be a little over 40 degrees (wow). We started the morning off with arm warmers, leg warmers, a jacket and full-fingered gloves. By the first stop (after 13 miles and one of the big climbs) we were ready to strip it all off.

The first 10 miles were flat, and we were probably averaging 17 mph. Hardcore racer people still passed us, and they would comment on the little SpongeBob attached to my bike bag or on the AMGEN jacket I was wearing. Then the climb started, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It zigzagged up, and it was funny to see so many bikers going so slow. At one point a truck went by and there was a guy drafting the truck flying up the hill. Some ambulances passed us about 10 miles in because a lady broke her arm. Mel went into the sag wagon before the first hill because of her back, and we passed her on the way up the hill. At the first rest stop, there were a lot of people. We stayed there for awhile (that's probably how we got to the back of the pack) to relax, get some food, take off our extra clothes, and take pictures.

When we finally got going again, it was about 10 more miles before the next rest stop. It was fairly flat. At the next stop, I saw a little girl (probably 12 or so) who was doing the ride too. That amazed me. She had her little biking gear and muscular legs like she'd been riding for awhile. At that rest stop they had potatoes. Oh. At mile 16 I got stung by a bee. We were going downhill and a bee (wasp?) nearly flew into my mouth. For a split second it was stuck to my mouth until I spit/blew it off. Then, sting! and it was gone. I kept spitting because I felt some remnant in my mouth (a leg or something, gross, I know). And it stung. I've never gotten stung before, so I bit my lip to keep it from stinging and swelling. A couple minutes later when my dad and I pulled over, it was swollen. Mel gave me some medicine at the rest stop (I forget that they're doctors) and it was just sore for the rest of the day.

We kept going. Lunch was at 42 miles. It was a beach, and that's where we started to see the pattern of people leaving when we barely got to the rest stop. We had turkey sandwiches, peanut butter with bananas, powerbars, brownies, etc. It was pretty comforting that we were more than halfway done, except for the fact that there was a 7-mile climb looming ahead.

That climb took FOREVER. It wasn't steep, but it was annoying to be gradually climbing for so long. You'd wind around the corner and still be going uphill. On one of the stops during the hill, we met this group of ladies who made their own jerseys for this ride. They were so sweet! They kept taking a ton of pictures and laughing... since Papi had the same camera, he took pictures of them. They loved it. Then we saw them at every stop after that and we all yayed each other for finishing the next leg of it.

After the loooong climb we got to go downhill for 7 miles and then had rolling hills for the remaining 5 miles. The rolling hills were even hard. Finally we got to the end. (There was even an uphill to the finish line. That was cruel of them.)

THEN we had a pasta buffet. It was awesome. By that time most of the riders had made their rounds through the party because we were probably within the last 50 people. Once we ate, we were stuffed. So we went to the hotel room, watched TV and fell asleep. I was tempted when my dad suggested using a "Buy one get one free" Coldstone coupon, but once I was in bed, I couldn't get up.

It was hard. It was beautiful, but it was hard. I feel a little better about our ability for the CCC.

3 Weeks 'til the big one... Tahoe here we come

Welcome to Dwight and Evelyn's blog for the California Coast Classic. Here's where you can find the updates on our rides and even comment!

We currently have 3 weeks until we leave San Francisco for our bike ride to Los Angeles. We head up to San Francisco on the 28th for an orientation, and on the 29th, we're off! The most number of miles we've done so far is 50 miles - which we rode last weekend from San Jose through Morgan Hill to Gilroy and back. That's decent, considering that during the CCC, we'll average 65 miles a day for 8 straight days. We've still got some work to do...

Tomorrow we head up to Tahoe for a ride around the lake on Sunday (72 miles). That should be a good indicator how we're doing. It's supposed to be a hilly ride and they say the high altitude will also be a factor.

Pray for us, and we'll keep you posted how it goes!