The Gats

I had to post about my ride tonight. I went out with Ruth to the gats. The two of us seem to be doing this one a lot together so far this season. It's great. Ruth is a lot stronger than me, but I go down the hills faster because I'm a lot bigger than her - yeah, she's tiny. So after I go down, she catches up on the uphill and passes me and then I catch up on the flat, or sometimes at the top if I'm feeling strong (or if she slows down - lol). She only has to wait for me at the hardest points - mainly at Fortune Lake, and typically at the top of Pink. Tonight proved how much stronger I'm getting though, because I was pretty close behind her on Pink - and I've been having a lot of asthma issues the past week. I got my fastest speed up Pink tonight - about 2 kph faster than I typically do it!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!! And I passed other people when I was going up! Wow! Ok, well, I have passed other people on like mountain bikes and stuff before, but these two people were on road bikes and by the looks of their calves they are in good shape. He, he! God - the things that go through your head on the bike eh? Anyway, lots of success tonight. And I'm pushing through... I had 2 asthma attacks last Friday trying to tackle the park in the smog. Not good. I couldn't do the loop. Tonight the weather was way better for me - nice and cool. But, as was pointed out to me, there was a lot of pollen - actual green dust collected on our bikes. As a result I got home and coughed a lot of crap out of my lungs. No asthma attacks during the ride though. Breathing was challenging at times, but I prevailed. Progress. :) It helps to have someone so encouraging to ride with. Ruth always tells me how great I'm doing and if I tell her I'm tired or my legs are done she reminds me to just keep pedalling. I told her tonight that I LOVE the last hill coming back to the parking lot. You have a really nice decent and then you can stand up and climb this quick one. I love it because I look down every time to see I'm going 30 kph UPhill. And then every time on the last flat after that hill I think how amazing it is that I did the loop yet again. Especially after a night like tonight, when I quit on myself like 5 times during the ride. I still did it. I'm not that self-defeating every time. Mostly when I can't breathe. Sometimes when I'm tired. But then you remind yourself that you've done this many times before; you think about what's left ahead on the route (especially after Fortune - then you know all of the hard stuff is done); and you get to the end, and you did it... that's when you remember why it's so great.