“I want to do a ride in Tahoe,” Noah said during one of our 70 miler bike rides.

“Let’s do it!” I shouted as we rode up that long hill.

So he planned it. And it was an amazing weekend trip.  I rode up with Ryan and we listened to “Born to Run” on audio for 2/3 of our trip – great book, but quite wordy we thought! We got there and pretty much everyone showed up at once: Noah, Miles, Drew, Ryan K, Sugeeti, Swaroop, and Jeremy. We ate and stayed up till 2 am…super late for me, LOL. We knew though that the next morning we weren’t going to go for our 70 mile ride considering it was snowing all night long.

The next morning we hung out at the house and some of the guys tried out Ryan Knott’s trainer which was hooked up to the TV so you could see yourself riding amongst others – looked like a video game but you were actually on the bike.  We then went for a hike. Our sneakers were getting soaked! And then we saw a tree. So we started climbing it, and I decided to go in between the two trees climbing up them. “Not a good idea,” I thought to myself. And it wasn’t. I jumped down and tweaked my foot. Ughhhh, the weekend before Wildflower. Totally not a good idea. We went to Safeway and then CVS where Drew had this sort of stuff happen before, so he knew what to do. I got an ankle compression wrap and hung out on the couch that evening with ice.

We woke up early the next morning, had breakfast and headed out. We started from Sprouts and I had 5 layers on!  1) Box running shirt 2) bike jersey with arm warmers 3) Nike running long sleeve 4) North Face fleece 5) Neon yellow biking jacket. I was going to be warm in this super cold weather!

We started biking – Ryan K and Ryan L leading the way, and boy they were fast. The speed and elevation hit me. I’ll be able to keep up though, and this group stops every so often to make sure we’re all with each other which is one thing I love about our team and the people I ride with. The first 20 miles was uphill and hard. It was a lot of climbing.

We finally got to mile 20 and we cruised. It was super flat for a good 10 miles. There were a couple of hills but even miles 30 – 50 were pretty speedy as well. Ryan Knotts gave me some helpful tips along the ride – super fortunate for him sharing his knowledge!

At lunch, Drew and I split a veggie burger. As I was eating I went on Instagram and saw that Alex Honnold posted he was riding his bike around Lake Tahoe.  I had a total fan moment. World famous climber was biking around Tahoe the same time we were. Super cool.

Miles 50-57ish we climbed. And climbed. And climbed.

At mile 57 we went downhill. And flew. Drew led the way flying at top speed. It felt awesome! And the views were absolutely gorgeous!!

Noah even took a video during one of the downhills.

We finished at mile 72.2 and it felt great. And Sugeeti was AMAZING. She took pictures all along the way, and met us at all the rest stops Noah had planned. We got to take off layers and put them in the car.

What an amazing crew as well – I love biking with these guys. Positive energy. Always happy. And enjoying the ride.