Weekend's Ride 8/30 - 9/1: Triple Threat!

The last weekend of training rides!  Has it already been 2 months? (answer: yes, it has been two long months).  Due to travel schedules and vacation, we decided to mix things up and have 3 training rides on each day of the long labor day weekend.  I was going to lead the Saturday and Monday rides, and Ali lead Sunday's ride.  We had good turnout, and I think everyone is ready for the big event next weekend!  The special "Iron Henie" award goes to Evil Gary and Stacey who completed all three rides!

Looking back on the training season this year and it was great!  We had a nice mix of riders and ability, and it seemed like every ride was really fun.  As they say in life, you only get out of it what you put into it, and I thank everyone that trained with us this year! Go Domo!

Saturday's Ride 8/30:

Six of us met up at Oneill's for a quick city loop (route here) of 38 miles (amazing how over the course of the season 38 miles turns into an easy quick ride).  To the horror of everyone else, I chose the route because I wanted to test how the new bike performed on the long climb up Tramway.  The riders today were the Gary Brothers (Evil & Good), Greg, Stacey, Andrew, and myself.

As residents of ABQ, we must post the contractually obligated balloon shot.

The route took us north along the diversion channel to Alameda then over to 4th street and north to the traffic circle.  From there we headed east on tramway where we overlapped with the Unstoppable MSers team and their escort who ferried us through the first leg of the hill to I25. From there it was an 8 mile climb and another mile up the steep spur (>8% grade) to the base of the tram.  All riders completed this difficult task, including Stacey who did it for the first time.  From there we did the last 20 miles of mostly down hill dropping down into Nob Hill. From there we went straight to breakfast at Serafins.

At the top of the Tram!

Sunday's Ride 8/31 - aka "someone must have got a flat"

[Guest writer - Captain Ali] Five riders started from O'Neill's bright and early to head to the east mountains (route here)- Olga, Evil Gary, Blythe, Stacey, and Ali.  We headed up to Smith's where we met Greg and Nellie.  After a quick stop we headed out South 14 to rally at the Tijeras Subway.  The big surprise on the way was the arrival of Mr. Miyagi, who had a quick motivational word for everyone as he headed to catch the leaders (that is 4 of 4 rides for "surprise pop in" Jeff).

Passing Casa Scrymgeour - the only legit photo from the day.  Captain fail.

After a nice break for food and water, we headed (some of us more slowly than others) up the 9 mile slog with the promise of ice cream at the end.  Ice cream consumed, and the most horrible Powerade fuel up ever (note to self: never buy strawberry lemonade again), we headed back down.  Apparently we had lolligagged over ice cream long enough for the canyon winds to pick up and make what was supposed to be a breezy downhill all the way home, a struggle for all of our tired legs.  No fair!  Even though ironhorse Olga didn't seem to mind (ask her about the title of the post), the rest of us followed a bit further behind. Greg, Nellie, and Jeff split off at Tramway, and the rest of us headed back to O'Neill's.  We were hoping that, once in the city, the wind would leave us alone.  Somehow we managed to have a headwind all the way home...boo!

Somehow no one took pictures, so Captain Snookums found a photo that was probably close to the truth.

All in all I was quite proud of all of us.  While this was by no means my favorite route for terrain, I had a great time with the team.  Thanks again for the support, words of encouragement, drugs and backrub (in no particular order).  Looking forward to doing it again next weekend!

Monday's Ride (9/1) - the last of the last:

The last ride of the triple threat was a quick city loop of 35 miles around the city (route here).  There were only four of us riding - John and myself in the fresh column and the masters of self punishment Evil Gary and Stacey on their third ride in three days!  The ride was fairly uneventful, although we all noticed a distinct fall note in the air - a little briskness and multitude of balloons overhead.

Balloons!

The highlight of today were donuts at Tingley Beach brought there by the wonderful Ali and Scrymgeour boys. That certainly motivated us on session of Bosque Trail frogger as we dodged runners, walkers, cyclists, and roller bladers. After our mid ride donut break, we headed out and finished the rest of the 35 mile ride.  All in all a great training season!

Donuts, and strangely naked Captain Snookums legs.