I have a ticket, so I must be going

My "to do" list is quite substantial this year, including a number of items that are not optional. The one big item that was on the list that could most easily be crossed off was the Seattle to Portland ride. It is just over 200 miles in one day, the way that the group of us planned to do it anyway. I have wavered between thinking that it was a great idea to thinking that it was completely nuts. I knew that asking advice from the friends who are also planning to do it would be useless. They would tell me of course I could do it and that no one is getting in as much training as they would like (except maybe Beth and Chris who ride more than all of us anyway). Besides, it is all downhill, just look at a map.

I came to the conclusion that I would probably never fly out from the east coast to do the ride (although Bob will be doing just that), so if I was going to do it, I needed to do it now. I bought myself a ticket last night and packed my stuff so I can get a ride in after work tonight.

I came to an interesting realization about training for riding this weekend on the ride home from climbing. A typical day of climbing is a full day event. I left the house around 7:30 AM and got back a little after 11:00 PM. This included a stop for dinner, but it was clear that I was not going to do anything on Sunday except climb. I accept this time commitment because climbing has always taken all day, regardless of my climbing ability. Riding on the other hand, used to take a few hours to thoroughly exhaust me. I would meet Sue at 9:00 AM, we would ride for a few hours, and then have plenty of day for all of the other things-- errands, laundry, napping, whatever the weekend might hold. Now, a good ride takes more than half the day and then requires some couch time afterwards. I guess that would be the thing with endurance sports, they take a long time.