week 13, Thousand Oaks

Cruisin' the Conejo is a bike event in Thousand Oaks. Our team rode for 68 miles and finished in 6 hours including 4 SAGs, 2 flat tires, 3-4 hamstring cramps that needed stretching, and several call outs of "gap." Prior to the event, I was feeling nervous because I hadn't ridden during the midweek and the longest ride I had done was 60 miles. In the end, I survived without falling or getting a leg cramp like I did last week and I still felt good. On the ride home, I did take a nap since my wonderful hubby came to support so he ended up driving.

It was an adventure to be a part of a bike event seeing numerous other cyclists on the road. The cyclists were very courteous greeting each other with "hellos" and "good morning," made small talks, and everyone knew the rules on the road. The majority of the bike models I noticed were Giant, Specialized, and Trek. In case you are curious, Lance Armstrong uses a Trek. I own a Specialized Dolce. One of our teammates just bought a sweet looking Specialized with carbon material (which makes the bike expensive because of its super light weight) and vibration control (makes the ride even smoother). If you are wondering how much a sweet bike like that would cost, well, it's about $3K. If you are a serious rider, then it's a great investment.

The toughest part of the route was the beginning because of its 8% grade incline. I was really using every ounce of strength and my breathing was very heavy. I was so relieved that the hardest part was over in the beginning.

During our SAG stops, boy scouts volunteered to hold your bike while you take a break to fuel up, use the bathroom, and stretch. One boy scout was holding 6 bikes and they were very enthusiastic to hold the bike for you. It was like a competition for them who could hold the most bikes.

It was a great ride to be out in an open country road. We saw a ranch of white picket fences, with tall iron gates as the entrance, horses, cows, and bulls. There were several farms of strawberries, cabbage, and orange trees. In the strawberry farm were several strawberry pickers. I made a mental note to experience strawberry picking in the future.

I felt very proud to have accomplished my longest ride so far. I was especially happy that my husband, Randy, came out to support and seeing him in the beginning, the middle, and the end definitely helped my mentality to keep going.