375 Miles of California Dreamin'- Coast Ride 2012

Girl Time!

The coast ride is a bike ride with a large group of friends that I have always wanted to do but it hasn't yet fit into my schedule...don't know why that is, I work at a bank and ALWAYS have MLK day off.  Thank you Dr King for letting us all have a dream. 

The DODOcase Sandwich!

So this past weekend Mark and I joined 75 of our closest friends on a 375 mile ride up massive hills down the coast of beautiful California.  Most people were local, but I think the award went to "Hollywood" who lives in Rio.  Hollywood is living the dream for sure and was kind enough to help me get down the coast out of the wind on Day 2.  In fact most of the guys I encountered were pretty spectacular about helping the small number of gals on the ride.  Not that we needed much help, but a draft behind a strapping lad makes 125 miles that much more enjoyable.

Tacos and Muscle Milk...proper fueling, next up shower

Day 1 took us from San Francisco to Seaside, just outside of Monterey.  This meant riding through the city and down 1 through Pacifica and along the coast.  The weather was looking to be awesome all weekend and it did not disappoint!  Sunshine and it warmed up each day we were out there.  Going into Seaseide we saw whales spouting along the coast.  It was one of the most awesome moments of the day.  That and riding from mile 60-75, AKA the lunch stop on my own.  Sometimes you just get chewed up and spit out the back need some miles to yourself to enjoy the day!  I made it to the lunch stop in time for  a bag of chips and a coke, my signature mid ride pick me up.  I think Mark was a bit concerned at the picnic I had on the ground there but I rallied. 

Cracked.com but ready to rally!

I had the fortune of rolling out with new buddy Katya and Kate from lunch all the way to Seaside- and somewhere along the line Mark and his crew rode an extra 8 miles (for fun) so we picked them up as well and let them lead the way into Seaside. As soon as we stopped we did not pass go and went directly for a Muscle Mile to "fuel for tomorrow". It was our other race for the day...the race to refuel and not get depleted. After a protein shake I hit up Jamba while Mark went to BK, no lie and then we showered up and headed out to dinner. This is how all three days went-eat, ride, eat, sleep, REPEAT!

I was a VERY lucky to be able to test out some serious goodies for 3GO Magazine this weekend and here is a pic of the goods I tried out.   My most fave piece of gear were the leg warmers from Castelli, they didn't budge an inch, literally and I was weraing my short shorts and not one time did I have any "gappage".  Move over Pearl Izumi!  I also fell in love with the Rudy Projectt sunglasses, super light and CRYSTAL clear lenses...although they did fall out of my helmet flying down Highway 1 making me have to chase for my life to catch back on after turning around to pick them back up!

And that is just Day 1! I will finish up Day 2 and 3 later in the week!