Final Prep

Today was final prep day for our Team. This is the last ride we will take together before the actual event next week. We did a reasonable 36-Mile ride through Poway that included some pretty nasty hills on the way. It was a pretty dreary, bleak-looking day. I'm starting to get pretty worried about what the weather is going to be like in Tahoe so I bought some Knee Warmers yesterday. These are removable fleece leg insulators that you wear in conjunction with the cycling shorts. They may look a little goofy but they do the job and keep the legs warm which is key for both comfort and performance. The nice thing about them is that you can easily remove them when the weather warms up.

















I was also glad to have brought my jacket as we were treated to some bone-chilling wind and lovely rain. Good training for Tahoe, right?

Besides the weather it was a very kickback session and even included a 20 minute Starbucks stop! Back to the parking lot we were treated a pizza picnic and were given our final instructions for the ride. Each of the coaches and mentors offered some good advice that basically boiled down to

• Enjoy yourself and don't forget to take in the scenery;
• Watch out for the other riders. They don't have the training we do;
• Bring every article of bike clothing you own. The weather in Tahoe is unpredictable. Last year it was 80 degrees on race day but it snowed two days after that.
  

Afterwards, the majority of the Team turned in their bikes for transportation up to Tahoe. I held on to mine as we will be driving up ourselves.

One week left!

Take a look at our Team Photo. I'm 4th from the left. The people down below are part of the ACE team.