ALC: double dose! days 4 + 5

oops! I missed my post from yesterday. let me tell you... it was a doozy. so, here comes a double dose!

both today and yesterday were really nice rides. however, yesterday in particular, was a true comedic shit show. we started off our ride for the day and I had some pain in my knee. I've been rising bikes now, pretty extensively, for many years, and never had any sort of knee pains. out of nowhere comes this shit. it started off pretty tame, but then we approached the infamous "evil twins" which we have been hearing about almost as much as the "quad buster." the evil twins are basically two really long hills back to back. we've heard all kinds of horror stories about these twins from people who have done the ride before... but honestly they were a piece of cake. even with knee pains I felt like they were pretty tame. however, by the time I reached the top my knee was having stabbing pains. gross. the top of the second twin was the halfway point of the ride as well. hooray!

anyway, right after the halfway point, we dropped in to what people had been telling me, was the most insane descent ever here people have breeched 50 mph. I was stoked to break some records, but was disappointed by getting slapped in the face with harsh head winds only allowing for a top speed of 38mph. boring.

to continue with my comedy of errors yesterday, my toe clips wore out and I wasn't able to keep my feet affixed to my pedals. luckily, this cushy tour sells new clips at the lunch stop. after getting my new clips and heading out from lunch i road another agonizing leg of the ride to the next stop where someone swiped one of my water bottles. thanks to whoever did that.

shortly after that stop I got a flat in oceans CA right down the street from a motel Zach and I stayed in on our bike tour. while trying to change my flat I broke my tire lever an had to wait for someone to stop and let me borrow theirs.

to top all of this bad luck off, I came slowly whimpering in to the last stop and was telling all of my teammates about my crappy day when a bird shat right on me. way to go! all garbage aside, we all finished the 97 mile ride for the day.

after we made it to camp and took care of things like seeing up tents, showering, and eating food... I went to the sports medicine tent to get my knee checked out. my dude tony, who is the sports med dude for the women's olympic volleyball team, dug his hands all in to my knee and quad muscles. it hurt, then I went to sleep.

on to today! today was red dress day. this the day where everyone dresses up in some ridiculous red outfit and we ride 42 miles through the hills. I didnt dress up, but almost everyone else did haha. some people went all out. I even saw a guy riding around in heals!

even though today was short... it was certainly not an easy day for me. my man tony did a real number on my knees, and I was feeling painless for
about the first 10 miles until we got to the first of 3 shitty ass hills. I am not sure why everyone bitches about the evil twins, but the 3 hills today were way worse and no one said shit. this may have been because my knee was shot and I was essentially rising up the hills by only using my left leg.. but they were not enjoyable.

regardless of the pain, i finished the ride around 12:45 or so where they had lunch 3 miles before the camp. we were fortunate enough to meet a really cool guy named David at lunch who really put some perspective on the entire event for us. he is an HIV positive dude who is doing the ride for the first time. he told us about how he was a former drug addict and when he was diagnosed with HIV he basically had to turn his life around or die. he cleaned up his act and got good insurance and is now living with undetectable HIV. dude is in great shape and is an incredible cyclist. he explained to us that if he keeps up his healthy lifestyle he can potentially defeat the virus completely and no longer be HIV positive. it was really cool to meet him an hear his story. he was also hilarious and we joked around a lot.

after getting back to camp, I went and visited my boy tony again and he dug in to my leg some more. this time hurt even more than the last, but I am hoping his magical hands will solve my problems so that I can ride like and adult once again.

tomorrow we ride 80 some miles to Ventura. I hope my knee will take me there.