Sierra Vista

Ahhh...Spring. Yesterday was The Perfect Day. Jason and I rolled from his house at 6:45 am for a 100 mile training ride. We decided to make up the route as we went along, with an eye toward the toughest climbs we could find. In the Sierra Foothills, it's really pretty easy - just ride your bike in any direction and there will be something.

The trees are bright pink and white, the fields are emerald green, the sky bright blue. But then there was the view of The Sierra. Stunning. The snow-capped peaks loomed off on the horizion, just this side of Lake Tahoe. I was stuffed full with gratitude and Clif Bars as we clicked off the miles. OK, so here is a confession: I am consuming large quantities of Ensure Plus in preparation for RAAM. Yep, the magic elixir I used to order by the truckload for my calorie-deficient senior residents. I never dreamed that I would be drinking it as a calorie replacement drink!

Oh, and I recently received my first AARP membership letter. Jocelyn, you are really close, so be careful with those comments about us old people!

Here's some good news. At 50, I can ride with the best of them (OK, not Levi Leipheimer or Dave Stoker). One guy decided to flaunt his over-priced time trial bike by flying past me on Salmon Falls Road, in the aero position. Give me a big fat break. So, Testosterone Man (me) jumped on his wheel to see just how tough he really was. Uh...not that tough. On a 4 mile climb that loomed ahead, I arrived at the store in Pilot Hill about one mile before him. He quickly stopped talking to me. Go figure. What happened to his chatty self at the bottom of the hill?

Jason and I rolled on from Pilot Hill. The climb out of the canyon to Foresthill was punishing, and the temperature was pushing 75 degrees. Sheer glee. After winding through Auburn, down to Newcastle and then back through Folsom for a stop at Coffee Republic for a "Felix", we decided to tackle the single toughest climb in the county - Beatty Road. Of course, the bottom of Beatty came at 95 miles into the ride, when my legs were, uhhh...tired.

In short, the ride was Epic, at 101.8 miles (but who's counting) and about 5,000 in elevation gain.

The very best part of the day awaited me; the company of a great woman for an evening in downtown Sacramento browsing the galleries on Second Saturday, hanging out at Old Soul and pretending to know some stuff about art. I almost bought a $35,000 piece of stone sculpture, but we figured it was too heavy to fit on my bike rack.