Three months to go!

Quads of steel got me up the "Mountain" in Clermont Florida over Thanksgiving weekend.  7% average grade, 16% maximum grade. Amazing!  The women who are riding in March and April now have a Facebook group.  We are trading advice, stories, and encouragement.

Four months to go!

Hi all - With 30 women in a Womantours group, I will bike from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL over the course of March and April 2014.  It is 3000+ miles.  We stay in hotels, have a van to pick us up when we're tired, and have our own chef to prepare meals.  The only thing we have to do is hop on the bike every morning for 50 days and pedal our little feet across the country.  Well, that and laundry...  The shortest daily mileage is 34, the longest, 111; average 60 miles a day over 50 days.  In addition, there are 8 rest days built into the tour. The average age of the women on the tour has been 60.  Amazing, eh?  I'm a bit past that mark, but not over the hill, yet.

Training for the five months prior to the tour consists of Time In The Saddle, abbreviation is ... yes, you got it.  I've done 600 miles in October and intend to increase that by at least 100 miles a month till February.  Right now there is still time for golf and other pursuits, and I have a lot of energy.  I've worked out kinks in my back with exercise and a conscious change in my cycling posture, gotten some new cycling shorts with a lot of padding (!), and am making lists of what to bring.  My husband Dan is encouraging me in this BHAG (big hairy audacious goal), friends and relatives are supportive, although some are aghast that anyone would ever want to do this.

This is me, halfway into my first "century" (100 miles in a day) ride last year.  The caption is "I can do this."  Suitable for this larger endeavor too!