Just ride

Saturday: Yoga, run 2 miles

Sunday: Bike 21 miles, yoga

I've been going over in my head all the things I need to get better at on the bike—climbing hills, decending hills, endurance, speed, riding in the heat, riding in the cold, riding in the wind, comfort in both positions, tolerance of the saddle, eating and drinking without slowing down… it got a little overwhelming. How do I learn this stuff? What do I work on first? Then I realized that the answer is actually pretty easy: Just ride. If I just keep at it, I will get better at everything. Obviously!

I think it's too early to have a formal bike training plan for the race, so I think that's my new motto until about January. Just ride. Just ride. Just ride.

So today it was a nice morning (although I have to remember I can't ride only on nice mornings) and I decided to go out and see how the dreaded Molt hill compares to the Bridger Pass. Holy cow. The dreaded Molt hill is no big deal at all. This was only the third or fourth time I've ever made it to the top of it, but as I was going up, I noticed a) I was not breathing all that hard, b) I was down to 6 mph, sometimes in the 5's, but never 4, and c) it's really three hills, with flat sections between them. Piece of cake!

Ah, but could I go downhill without clutching the brakes in terror? Yep. I hit 36 mph, so it was not entirely without terror, but I stayed off the brake, and it was not as scary as I thought it would be.