More of the same....

Ride, stretch, rinse, repeat.  Doing our best to get out there several times per week, and trying to mix up what we're doing.  Saturday was a long(er) ride.  74 miles total for me (Den was shorter because we started by driving to Boulder in the car, and I decided to ride home instead of drive).  We climbed up to a tiny little place called Raymond.  Besides a few houses, the only thing there was a tiny general store.  If it weren't for cyclists, I'm not sure it would even be in business.  The amount of cyclists there using this as a refueling stop was hilarious!

Unfortunately, this only captured just under half of the cyclists....but you get the idea.  The store was only about the size of my walk in closet!

Similar to our previous climbing rides, this one was basically all gradual climbing up.  The grade varied from about a 4% to an 8%.  Den put a new cassette (I think?  I'm a bike knowledge loser.....I could have that wrong) on my bike, which gave me an extra 'easy' gear that I've never had before.  I appreciated it-it made riding up so much easier! (He would argue that I didn't use it, but I think I did?! LOL).  Anyway, as always, the ride DOWN the hill was pretty great.  We didn't coast though, we hooked up with another random rider and pushed ourselves to the limit, pedaling our butts off the whole time.  It was FUN!

We rode again Monday, and Tuesday too.  In the last 4 days, we put in 129 miles.

They should come in handy this weekend when we tackle a century ride called E-Rock (Elephant Rock) down in Castle Rock, CO.  We're trying to round up a few other riders to ride together with us to 'share the load', but we may end up on our own.  This will probably be our longest training ride before Ride2Survive.  It'll give us 160 km's, which is short of the 200km training ride that the Ride2Survive team will do......but we figure since we're pretty much doing it on our own instead of in a pack, it's close.  It's nice that we get to use it as a training ride and have it be supported too.  Non supported long training rides are a total pain.....always thinking about where you can refuel or use the washroom, or having to carry all of your own supplies.

Two weeks from today we'll be on the road to Vancouver already.  We leave June 12th for the two day drive.  We bumped it up so that we can get a bit more time in Vancouver, and do at least one training ride with the team.  On Saturday, June 15th, the team has a police escorted ride that we hope to join them on.  The police close off the street to let us sail through the lights.  It's supposed to be pretty fun.  I've never done it and am looking forward to it!

As the the knee.....I'm doing OK.  Still going to Physiotherapy twice a week, and it's making a difference (that, and the icing, stretching, and brace I'm wearing). I'm hopeful that I'm going to be OK for ride day.  This Sunday's century ride will be the real test.

There's talk of a new bike coming my way too.  I sent Den a picture of a bike I liked, and in typical Den fashion, he's obsessed with researching and finding me a bike.  Kind of hilarious actually.  He gets something in his head and he has a single track mind!!!  Don't be surprised if I'm riding a new bike within days.........

Some pictures from our gorgeous ride up St. Vrain on Saturday.  We had a perfect hot day, and were surrounded by this all day long.  LOVED it!