When is a hill not a hill?

Evidently when you're a cyclist.

T and I met up with the Velo Girls for a Cinderella training ride. They were meeting down in South San Jose for once, instead of up north, so we drove the 40-45 minutes down there to meet them. The route covered part of the Uvas Tri route (in reverse), part of the San Jose Tri route and a whole bunch more. We were given two choices when we showed up. We could do the full 45 mile route or take a shorter 30-35 mile route with one of the ride leaders who wasn't up to the 45 miler. Of course we opted for the longer route.

First thing we noticed was how easy going and nice the riders were. They were also *way* more organized than the Luna Chix group. And although we didn't get any free Luna stuff, we did get a free Velo Girls water bottle! Woo Hoo! ("Another water bottle!?!", says Jeff :-)

We rolled out around 9:00 I'd guess, I wasn't really checking the time. Of course I forgot to hit the start on my Garmin right away. Sheesh, me and my tech issues. Not too long into the ride we hit the hill we had been warned about. It was fairly long and fairly awful, but we managed. The rest of the ride was supposed to be flat, or so we were told.

As a 'runner' (and I use the term loosely), a hill means something different than it seems to mean to all these cyclist groups. Because although there weren't any hills as bad as that first one, there were still what I call hills! At the top of the last of the hills I waited for Tina while the rest of the group we were riding with enjoyed their reward and took off down the hill. T and I soon followed, but couldn't see them anywhere on the route. We backtracked and tried to decipher the route sheets cryptic comments about a 'side loop', but still couldn't find them. So we skipped the side loop (and were we sad about missing that incline? no, I don't think so) and hooked back up to the trail that was listed on the route sheet. Still no sign of the other groups. We made our way *all* the way back to the car and still didn't see anyone. It was really weird. But just after we arrived, the faster group came rolling up. Evidently they took the side loop and that's where we passed them.

Again, my legs were wiped, but it was better than last week's ride. I didn't have to collapse to the ground when we got back to the car. And my butt must be toughening up a bit. Oh, don't get me wrong, I still wanted *OFF* that saddle at the end.

Eventually the ride leader showed up and T and I were lamenting that we'd never make it 65 miles when we felt like this after 45. Her advice? "You might want to slow down *just* a little." Obviously she doesn't know who she's talking to. :-)