Chapter 2.....sadly over?

It started so beautifully- the weekly Saturday climbs up Palomar mountain. The 16 mile, 5000 foot effort was supposed to take an hour, according to the Coach. I laughed when I looked at my watch halfway up and the time was 40 minutes. At least the sun was shining. I thought all the horror stories I'd heard about freezing rain, hail, snow and ice, and, worst of all, COLD COLD rain (I know that sounds odd, but give me snow over cold rain any day!) were baloney. I trucked up the mountain the requisite 2 times, ate a bunch of gu, and smiled my merry little ignorant self all the way home.

The very next Saturday I got a little taste of Palomar love. But only the rainy, kind-of-cold love. She saved the really good stuff for later.

Somehow these pictures make the climb look flat. I promise it is not flat.

The really really interesting thing is how hot you get going up. I am comfortable in jersey, chamois, arm warmers, plastic rain thingy. Going down was ~29 degrees and required
++layers.

The Coach likes to taunt his minions by taking their picture and talking calmly to them while they struggle on. Sometimes he smiles from his warm car and I really want to scream.

It's not at all demoralizing when the World Champ comes blazing by you. Especially knowing she started climbing 15-20 minutes after you did! HA!

The only time I effectively had the World Champ in my rearview. Oh, because she hadn't caught me yet. Dang.

Goodbye Palomar. The odd thing is that on the last day (last Saturday) of this monstrous early morning ride, I didn't want to quit. In fact, I wanted to keep going badly. The Coach pulled the plug saying all was great and good and time to go home. I almost went back up after he left the parking lot, but I didn't.