Week 13 Training

Chris Glossner.  Keeper of the immunity helmet!

A great day of training but I’m definitely not an early morning person and I really hate getting up at 4:30 AM! Today’s ride (8/14) was “Kitchen Creek” and it started in Pine Valley at the Post Office. The radio contestants had to be there at 6:15 which meant I had to leave the house at 5:15 AM. For some of the other contestants this start location was a longer drive than our usual starting point at Fletcher Cove or at Flower Hill Mall.

We had an immunity challenge test, which was to guess how many calories were contained in a jar without going over. Adam had packed the jar full of various energy gel packets and “Cliff Bars”. I knew that each gel packet is usually about 90 to 100 calories and I estimated there was about 40 packets in the jar. So I guessed 4000 calories. Not a good guess. I was way over. The actual amount was about 3200 calories. Chris Glossner’s guess was within about 50 calories and was the immunity winner for the second week in the row. Congratulations Chris! He gets to decorate the helmet again!

Danielle

Mark Estrada

Part of the Group Two Peleton!

We (the radio contestants) then discussed various fund raising ideas and Sunday’s Rubio Fundraiser. Dave Mitchell and I will be passing out flyers for the Eastlake store. Please come out and support this cause by bringing the flyer (see link on left) to the restaurant. 20% of the proceeds go to the CAF. We also decided to try and have a poker bike ride on the 28th using the materials that Adam used last year. This doesn’t give us very much time to plan for this event.

Lake Cuymaca

Great Mountain Scenery!

Into the SAG after alot of climbing

The ride was great and one I had never done before. There was a lot of climbing but the scenery was fantastic, very little road traffic (part of the ride is basically on a path that cars don’t travel on), the temperature wasn’t’ too bad for this time of year, and there were no flats in Group 2 for a change. This is probably one of my three favorite rides now. The data from the ride is below. For the most part, we did a pretty good job riding as a group. We split into two or more groups during the climbing but for the last 1/3 of the ride we pretty much stayed together with various individuals taking turns pulling. As usual, I have a tendency to get out in front during the down hills just because I love to go as fast as possible on the down hills. In my mind the thrill of going fast downhill more than makes up for the pain of climbing! The only bad part of this ride was that I must have picked up a cold while in Charleston this week or on the airplane. I was extremely congested, which is not a good thing for climbing, and my throat was so sore that I trouble talking or swallowing. I stuck it out though and glad I finished the ride.

After helping John with the post ride snacks for group 2, a large group of us went across the street for some food. The food was a little pricy but the chocolate malt felt really good on my throat! It was great to sit around and talk with everyone. I met some people that I haven’t talked to before, like Buzz, who is one of the leading fundraisers for this event. After lunch, went back to the parking lot and talked with some of the other radio contestants who were riding in group 3. During this time, I saw Fred, one of the Challenged Athletes, finishing his ride. It takes a lot of will power to complete this ride with all of that climbing just using your arms!