ALC8 Day Five: Red Dress Day and Mixing it up a bit
June 4, 2009
After the long quasi-century yesterday, today was to be a shorter, and you’d think, much easier day at 60-some odd miles (once again I couldn’t charge the Garmin properly). However, I’ve noticed that the harder days for me aren’t the long century days but the day after them! Though the difference between today and day three (the last post-century ride day) is that today is red dress day! Basically that means that pretty much everyone dresses in red, and preferably a red dress, for the ride!
However, while in years past the red dress day ride was a super mellow 40 miles, this year the course was changed to be a bit over 60 miles – and to include, I’m told, a bit more climbing. Knowing that, I was curious to see if people would be as dressed up and ridiculous as years past! I mean 60+ miles is a non-trivial ride! Are you really going to want to do it in a giant dress and heels?
The other difference between this “recovery” day and the last one was that a group of us (Ryan, Baris, and Topher) decided to do it together. Ryan wanted a real recvoery day and I figured if I pushed hard enough, I could keep up with that!
So after getting dressed up in our red day best, we got moving. The first rest stop was about twenty miles long and it was relatively chill-going. But, after looking at the route map a bit more I realized there was some significant climbing between rest stop one and lunch. And, while it’s possible for me to stay with Ryan on flats (when he’s in recovery), there’s no way in hell I can stick with them on the climbs. So, to avoid the stress of watching them zoom off into the distance, I just said we should split up and re-group at lunch for lunch and a stop in Solvang for some yummy pastries. So everyone agreed and we split up.
So after we split I had some rough goings for a bit. I think the grade was seriously only 2-3% with 4-5% rolling for a long time but ddaaayyuummm I felt like a slug. It wasn’t until the real steeper bit showed up that I finally felt like I had some energy. Oy!
Soon enough I arrived in oh-so-adorable Solvang to find Baris and Ryan eating lunch. And, soon after that Topher arrived, too. We ate quickly and then made our way to downtown Solvang in search of some cycle-friendly cafe Ryan had been to. Eventually we found it, ordered some drinks and a scone (guess who ordered the scone) and hung out for a while.
It was actually kind of nice to spend time riding with people. And, more than just that, to have people to actually eat with!
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Near the end Ryan and Baris pushed a bit ahead so Topher and I rode together. Poor Topher, his friggin ankle was so swollen!
That afternoon/evening the group took a shuttle into Lompoc to eat Thai food to prep for 80+ mile Friday.
Oh, and after all the eating, we went back to camp and decided to actually go to the town hall-esque meeting that happens every night. I ended up meeting a guy who got his PhD/JD and is about to start as a professor of political science at Santa Cruz! So we talked a bit about what that’s all like (since I’m interested in the PhD/JD track). I also got to hear some great speakers explain a bit more about what the SF AIDS Foundation and LA Gay and Lesbian Cener do. Pretty amazing.
And after that I am totally wiped out and must hit the sack!
Comments
Got something to say?