Mileage makes champions

I started writing the mileage of my rides on our Bainbridge-Ometepe Sister Island wall calendar on April 14th. 56 miles. That was a serious ride for me at that point, and one I still love; a flatter, gorgeous run along the east coast of the west bay, from the Mission in SF out to Tiburon in Marin. From April 14 to June 1, the smattering of numbers had accumulated to 969.5 miles. I nailed my rear wheel on a pothole in Sacramento while coaching at the NCAA Rowing Championships (another form of revolution I will get to eventually), so my bike was out of commission for a while at the same time as the lunatics were posting thousands of miles on my Bolder challenge. Got it back earlier this week, had a day off, and decided it was time to bike. While 70+ mile rides have become pretty standard, my biggest ever was still riding around Lake Tahoe in the summer of 2005, when we did 82 miles in a day. I've felt that I could beat that for a while, but hadn't yet embarked on a ride to do so.

I don't set an exact course to follow when I leave, but I have a general idea and know my favorite bike roads pretty well. Marin Headlands, Highway 1 out to Stinson and over Mt. Tam, or the awesome and fast ride out past Sausalito to Tiburon and sometimes along Paradise Drive up to Corte Madera. Well, on Tuesday, I decided to go big before I could go home. I packed up some leftover pizza, a good playlist, and set out to combine my two biggest rides: Mt. Tam and Paradise Drive.

It's 15 miles of mostly flat to Sausalito, which I consider my warm-up time. On the way out, I pondered how to go about this. Do the long, rolling ride to Tiburon and up Paradise Drive and THEN try to drag myself up Mt. Tam? No, that sounded terrible and I worried that I would lack the resolve to force myself up the mountain after being over 50 miles in. Up the mountain first, then.

Thus far, doing Tam, I've gone up the mountain first, then descended to Stinson Beach and ridden back along the amazing coastal Highway 1. The descent is kind of switchbacky and bumpy though, so I decided to mix it up. I rode up 1 to Stinson and began the trudge up Tam. 6'3/220 is the worst build for a biker ever not exactly the "ideal" climbing build, so climbs are slow and arduous. But I did it, stopped at the top for a water and pizza break, and then charged down the mountain at 35+ mph, using a new "look at the exit of the corner" technique to minimize braking (funnnn!). Tam spit me back out by Sausalito, I hopped back on the bike path and headed along my route to Tiburon.

For most rides I don't stop longer than to fill up my water bottle, but as evidenced by my pizza stop at the top of Tam and a relatively-leisurely lunch in Tiburon, I knew however long my ride ended up being, it would be worth it to take time and get some fuel. So, another piece of pizza, coffee, and a fruit cup got me ready to go for Paradise Drive, another great rolling coastal road, just this time looking across the Bay instead of across the Pacific. I was pretty zonked at this point and a bit of headwind didn't help, but I was able to push forward and cruise. Turned around in Corte Madera because you can either shortcut back through Mill Valley to Sausalito there, or just do Paradise Drive in the opposite direction. I prefer the latter.

Though my butt was increasingly sore and my legs were leaden, the rest felt like it was essentially downhill home, at least mentally. Cruised my Sausalito route, back over the treacherous tourist-laden Golden Gate, and along Embarcadero for the nice cool down. One of my (many) neuroses, I only check my mileage once I get home (or at my block, at least), but I had hit 94 miles. New record, and a good start into the challenge now set out by my challengees on Bolder. My butt hurt bad, my knees were pretty painful, and I had have a pink stripe of gnarly sunburn where I had accidentally pulled my bike shorts above my rather distinct tan line.

But I felt really, really good. 100 miles probably would have been cooler, but for some reason I didn't care about those 6 miles at all. I guess that's indicative of how I feel about my riding in general: it's for me, and only my personal goals matter. I am stoked to have the Bolder community giving me additional support to ride as far as I can, but I've learned that my biking is about me, biking. Riding with people other than family/closest friends makes me feel weird and competitive. By myself, I just get to be competitive with myself, which is the truest, realest competition. I know when I'm being weak. I know when I'm killing it. I know when I pushed through a tough part and came out better for it. That's why my initial goal was very simple, and unfudgeable: 150 miles a week. No time to shave off, no speed to hit. Just gotta put in the miles.

On that note, it's a sunny day, I got some work done this morning, and it's time to go for a ride.