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07-05-04, 04:56 PM
For people that don’t know, I spent the last 5 weeks in Italy and I also spent a bit of time in Switzerland. The shocker of my trip was that the best part of my cycling trip in Italy was my side trip to Switzerland. In Switzerland, I had the opportunity to meet two of the forum members, with both members generously opening their homes to me and allowing me to spend time with their families.
I made initial arrangements to meet with the first forum member, Jerry, in Italy. His son, Sven, rides for Gerolsteiner, and Sven was riding in the Giro. Since I was going to be in northern Italy and would see the last few stages of the Giro, we figured we’d meet up at some point and watch his son ride. But unfortunately, a couple of days before we were to meet, Sven crashed pretty badly in the individual time trial and had to pull out of the race. It was bitter disappointment all around, especially for Sven, of course, who was in the top 15 (I believe he was number 12 overall in the GC at the time of the crash). I remember that time trial well. I watched it at home and that day, it was raining pretty badly on the course. It was one of the few times that the OLN announcers actually commented on Sven, and I watched them replay the fall, not really knowing how badly Sven was hurt until I received a text message on my cell phone from Jerry saying Sven withdrew from the Giro due to injury, so Jerry would not be coming to Italy after all. I was disappointed, but I did wish Sven well and kept my fingers crossed he would recover in time to race in the Tour de France (which he did, luckily!).
After vacationing pretty hard in Lake Como for three days, I packed everything up, including my bike and boarded a Swiss train to Zurich. In Zurich, I would switch trains and catch another train to Spiez, and in Spiez, Jerry said he would be able to retrieve me, thereby saving me yet another change of trains and the agony of having to drag my overloaded, overpacked self to yet another train. I was severely overloaded, and I looked forward to getting to Switzerland, where Jerry and his wife, Marianne determined that I would be able to safely mail my unneeded extra baggage back to Chicago.
I hadn’t really kept much in contact with Jerry, except through some sporadic text messaging on our cell phones, so I was a bit afraid that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to reach him, and I would have to find accommodations in Spiez. So, when I finally did arrive in Spiez, I immediately sent a text message to Jerry, then went to the visitor information center and obtained hotel information for the cheapest and nearest hotels. I needn’t have bothered, however, because later in the day, I did receive a text from Jerry acknowledging receipt of my messages and assuring me he was on his way. By that time, I’d settled comfortably into my seat at the train station, having had lunch and was reading a good book. No biggie, I could wait.
As I thwarted the unwanted attention of a drunken woman at the train station, I was relieved to hear a tapping on the window. I looked up in relief to see Jerry standing outside the train waving at me, and I quickly stood as he approached. The drunk woman left, and Jerry and I quickly moved all my bags into his car, and that’s how I first met Jerry. He laughed at all the bags I carried and assured me that we would be able to send a lot of the junk back home. We chatted in the car all the way back to his house, and there, I met his quiet, gentle wife Marianne. They both were courteous and friendly, helping me to feel right at home right away. They showed me the room I would be staying in, and I quickly settled into the room. Later, I came downstairs and we all talked for a bit before I retired to bed. Laying in bed that evening, I replayed my day and stared out of the window at the most beautiful scenery I’d seen in a long time. The Swiss houses surrounding us were beautiful and quaint, and the mountain off in the distance was breathtaking. I marveled at how quiet it was too- so quiet I could hear the cowbells of the cows as they grazed in the mountains, and I could hear…. crickets? Wow. As a city girl, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard such a sound. I couldn’t stop staring, and I decided to capture the picture of that perfect neighborhood, so I pulled out my camera and took a few shots. And as I finished taking a few shots, I noticed something else… stars? Wow. That was yet another thing I’d forgotten about. Living in the city, you rarely get the chance to see stars, but out in Feutersoey, Switzerland, the stars glittered in the night sky like newly cut diamonds. Every night that I stayed with Jerry and Marianne, I stared out the window and enjoyed the nature surrounding me. But that first night… it was wonderful.
At the Little Red Huus of Jerry and Marianne, it was so peaceful and so quiet that I slept for the first time as soundly as I ever remembered, waking up the next morning around 10am. As I awoke that Saturday morning, I stared in constirnation at the clock. 10AM! I quickly threw on clothes and ran downstairs, encountering Jerry. He said I’d slept so soundly that he didn’t want to wake me up. I told him that the neighborhood was so quiet I actually could sleep soundly. We chatted for a bit, and since Marianne had to go out for the day, we made plans for the two of us to go for a ride. I was fearful of riding with Jerry- being from Chicago, we didn’t have one hill, and here in Switzerland, there were hills and mountains everywhere. I was afraid that I would be slowing Jerry down, as well as just being afraid of hills in general! I’d never seen elevations like the ones Jerry talked about us tackling, and I secretly cowered in my slippers! Still, I showered after breakfast and after a little preparation, we were underway in my first ride in Switzerland.
Jerry and I ended up doing just 35 kilometers that day. I borrowed Marianne’s bike, since my bike was having a little bit of mechanical issues, so no granny gears for me to help me through the ride- the thought alone of no granny gears almost had my knees knocking from fear, but I swallowed hard and trusted Jerry when he believed I could do the ride regardless. I had to say, I almost went dizzy, hot and cold, and threw up during that ride. It was a bad day weather wise- raining on us completely at one point, and drizzling at other points before clearing up somewhat later on in the ride and turning just a little bit hot (for the ride, that is, since I don’t think it ever got over 17 degrees Celsius). We did a little bit of climbing, and after Jerry and I stopped, I confessed to him that I had been struggling a bit. He looked at me and commented that the little bit of climbing we did was nothing…. just a small elevation in his mind compared to what he had in mind for us for Sunday’s ride. I think at that point, he mercifully made the decision to turn us back so we could head home. When we got back, I showered and changed, and by the time I’d emerged from my room, lunch was being made, and that lunch was just in time, and absolutely delicious! Afterwards, we all went off to different parts of the house and relaxed. Later, we watched Tour de Suisse on television, then relaxed before dinner. That night, we had yet another wonderful dinner, and I settled down with a book yet again. Another beautiful night, and I again had the pleasure of staring out at the mountain yet again.
The next morning, it was still pretty grey, but we decided to go for another ride- this one, even longer than Saturday’s ride. Since Jerry took the time to help me put my bike together on Saturday, Marianne could come with us, so that was a little bit of a relief. I suspected that with Marianne, I would be able to keep up with her while Jerry would be able to continue on with his ride unencumbered by my weakness with riding hills. So that morning, we all got ready, then embarked on our next riding adventure.
For Sunday’s ride, it was still a bit chilly out. Also, it was a bit drizzly too. Jerry had some plans for us to ride some more hills, and I found to my surprise, that I was feeling just a little bit better about riding on the hills. It still hurt, but I wasn’t as fearful as I was on Saturday. As we took off on that next ride, Jerry took the lead and Marianne flanked me, making me feel like I was cocooned in a safety net, so I felt in my heart that it would be a better ride. And it was- I was still very weak with climbing, but it didn’t seem as bad. Don’t get me wrong- it was still bad, but I really think I was very very very much feeling a little more used to the hills. Still, descending hills was terrible for me. I really didn’t like going fast down the hills, but I could see Jerry loved it, and Marianne was nimble and adept with descending also. I felt my heart in my throat- going that fast was just not familiar to me, and I couldn’t get used to it. My fingers were going numb from gripping the brakes so hard when descending that I began to feel relief when we did hit some climbs. Finally, we got to a quaint church- we stood outside and viewed the graves, then took pictures and went inside.
Going inside, we could hear organ music. There was a woman practicing the organ, and I felt the giggles as I recalled that Simpson’s episode where Bart replaced the organ music with the “Garden of Evil” song and the part where the woman playing the organ jammed through the solo then passed out on the keys after she finished. I was fondly giggling as I took some pictures of the inside of the church. I asked Jerry if the woman would mind if I took a picture, and he called up to her and asked for me. The woman didn’t mind at all, so I quickly took a picture of her. At the last moment, she turned as I focused, and she smiled. It was a wonderful picture, albeit dark. We exited the church and decided to have a coffee at the neighborhood restaurant.
After coffee, we headed back home- just in time for the drizzle! Somehow, it didn’t seem as bad, and I suspect it’s because we skipped some of the hills returning! Jerry went ahead of Marianne and I, so we made it back home after Jerry. When we got back, Jerry made a wonderful meal for us, and we sat down to yet another wonderful meal. After, we watched Tour de Suisse again, then turned off the television and sat around talking again. Later, everyone went off to their different activities, and I briefly spoke to Jerry. We had another ride planned for the day, and he told me that it was more of a doozy. As I read my book, my mind raced as I imagined just how much pain my legs would be in after the next day’s ride.
The next day, we sat down to a wonderful simple breakfast and then a little later, we set out again. Initially, we all rode together. It was much better weather, and Jerry and Marianne were extremely understanding about my weakness with riding. Jerry made plans to extend the ride while Marianne and I would stop after a point and have a coffee at the local restaurant and wait for Jerry. Also, I wanted to stop for pictures from time to time also, so Marianne told me to let her know anytime I wanted to stop. Well, we all started out together, but after a few minutes on the climb, Jerry began to pull away. I was climbing and Marianne wasn’t too far behind me when she stopped to take off her coat, so I continued alone, confident that Marianne would catch up with me. Before long, though, I felt that the hill was getting higher, so I immediately began to shift to my granny gears. Unfortunately, because my Bike Friday was still new to me, and I hadn’t ridden with road bike handlebars (and Shimano gearing), I still wasn’t familiar with shifting yet, and I’d abstractly lost track of what gearing I was in. So when I tried to shift, I actually downshifted and knocked the chain off my bike in the process just as the hill turned sharply upwards and WHAM! I fell, still clipped in- double unfortunate for me that I wasn’t used to riding clipped in either. At that point, Jerry completely disappeared from my eyesight and I laid on the ground, temporarily stunned by my stupidity and inability to remember my gearing. Then I kind of grinned and unclipped off my pedals, jumped up and got back on my bike and began to ride again. Just then, Marianne came riding up behind me. I don’t think she saw me fall, but she did see me slowing, so I told her how I’d fallen. She took over the lead and continued the climbing as I followed her and used her momentum to keep me going. When we reached the top of the hill, we stopped for pictures and Marianne also pointed out this restaurant waaaaaaay at the top of this mountain in the distance. As she pointed to the restaurant, I smiled and bet her I couldn’t capture the restaurant with my zoom lens. She didn’t think I could, but guess what? I got the picture and I had to laugh when I viewed it later. Then Marianne pointed out the names of the mountains and she also told me why a mountain pass is called a “pass”, which I also found interesting. From there, we mounted our bikes and descended to the bottom of the mountain (at least, I think it was close to the bottom) to the restaurant, and we stopped for coffee. And just as we sat down, Jerry turned up- he’d completed the extended part of his ride and was now on his way back and stopped at the restaurant to join us. As we sat with our coffee, Marianne scared the life out of me by reminding me that the long long descent we did would now turn into a long long ascent back up. I totally took a mental moment to mentally prepare for the uphill ride back home. Jerry drank his coffee and left. Then Marianne and I also left and began the ride back up.
I really felt inspired- I knew I was weak with the climbs, but Marianne had this quiet confidence in me that really made me feel as though I could do it. She encouraged me to take my time with it and pace myself. While I was in the restaurant, Jerry and Marianne told me to just pace myself and climb. So that’s what I did. I focused on keeping my pedal stroke round and smooth, I worked on keeping my breathing under my control as much as possible. I tried to keep my heart rate from getting too high. I definitely felt as though the climb up was a lot more difficult than the first part of our ride- this pass was kicking my butt, but I just paced myself as best as I could. I also paid better attention to my gears so I wouldn’t make any further shifting mistakes.
Climbing…. oh the pain! My breath became ragged and short, and the pain in my legs began to mount. I checked back periodically to see if I was holding up Marianne any, but she seemed to be fine with my climbing. I could feel every inch of that climb, all the way to my femur bones. With each turn and bend, I felt more and more like if that climb didn’t end soon, I would have to cut my legs off. Closer to the top, I felt my breathing begin to lose control, and I began feel many emotions going through my mind- anguish, pain, acceptance- it was like going through a twelve step program for cyclists- going from denial to acceptance and then putting my fate in the hands of a higher power! But as bad as it felt, after a while, it just seemed as though the pain was just as bad as it would get. In a big way, that was comforting- to know that it was about as bad as it would get, so then in a way, it started to feel a bit better.
After a while, Marianne shouted that the top was coming up soon, and I shouted to her that I could see it. And as the top of the hill crested into our view, I decided to push ahead instead of taking the break at the top. So as we pushed over the top, I continued on and we began descending. I cautiously began, but I took advice Marianne gave me earlier- not to grip the brakes the entire ride down, which earlier caused my hands to become numb and sting. This made me a lot faster with descending, but I still was freaking- I just wasn’t used to going that fast. Eventually, Marianne passed me and I could see her skill in descending as she turned and manipulated her bike down the pass. I followed as best as I could, but after a while, I couldn’t take it anymore and I pulled over for a few minutes. I knew we were close to the bottom, but my mind was playing tricks and I just felt like my mind was saying “enough!” when it came to descending. I stood for a few moments, savoring the time off from hearing the whizzing of the wind in my ears and then quickly remounted. I wasn’t worried about Marianne. I knew when she didn’t see me she’d pull to the side and wait, and as I descended, I ran into Marianne. True to form, she’d pulled over and waited. When I came upon her, I told her that I’d lost my nerve, and she reassured me that it was perfectly ok with her. So we continued descending together.
Once we got to the bottom, we continued home. Marianne had told me at some point during the ride after the climbing that my speed and tempo was just perfectly matched to her speed, so I didn’t feel bad at all about our ride. When we got home, not only was Jerry already there, he’d started on lunch. I suddenly felt ravenous, so I ran upstairs and showered and changed. As I ran for the shower, I heard Jerry ask Marianne how my stamina was for the ride. I don’t know how she answered, but I hoped that she was impressed enough to tell Jerry that I at least had the gumption to finish a ride and give it my best shot. When I returned, lunch was almost ready and my stomach was practically falling out of my abdomen! We sat down to a delicious lunch, then after, we rested and waited for Tour de Suisse. When the race came on, we sat down again, commenting on Jan Ullrich and enjoying the riders. Later, we watched the weather, and saw it was going to be good weather. Jerry told me he had a big ride planned for me. We were going to take a 100 km ride to a castle at the top of a hill, and Marianne had to work, so we’d go at it alone. I gave a mental gulp, but at the same time, I began to look forward to the climbing. I knew it would be tough, but at the same time, the more I climbed, the more I would feel better about climbing. Despite me still being a weak climber, I felt like I was feeling a tiny bit more comfortable with climbing. At some point, even though the hills still scared me, I really began to feel like I should ride hills and that with practice, I would become better with climbing. Not as good as Marianne and Jerry, but for me, definitely it would improve me as an overall rider. Going to bed that night, I reflected on the day and felt like my day had been so good. I felt totally satisfied about life laying in bed that night and stared out at the mountain as darkness softly cloaked the mountain in my window and the stars appeared in the night sky.
I made initial arrangements to meet with the first forum member, Jerry, in Italy. His son, Sven, rides for Gerolsteiner, and Sven was riding in the Giro. Since I was going to be in northern Italy and would see the last few stages of the Giro, we figured we’d meet up at some point and watch his son ride. But unfortunately, a couple of days before we were to meet, Sven crashed pretty badly in the individual time trial and had to pull out of the race. It was bitter disappointment all around, especially for Sven, of course, who was in the top 15 (I believe he was number 12 overall in the GC at the time of the crash). I remember that time trial well. I watched it at home and that day, it was raining pretty badly on the course. It was one of the few times that the OLN announcers actually commented on Sven, and I watched them replay the fall, not really knowing how badly Sven was hurt until I received a text message on my cell phone from Jerry saying Sven withdrew from the Giro due to injury, so Jerry would not be coming to Italy after all. I was disappointed, but I did wish Sven well and kept my fingers crossed he would recover in time to race in the Tour de France (which he did, luckily!).
After vacationing pretty hard in Lake Como for three days, I packed everything up, including my bike and boarded a Swiss train to Zurich. In Zurich, I would switch trains and catch another train to Spiez, and in Spiez, Jerry said he would be able to retrieve me, thereby saving me yet another change of trains and the agony of having to drag my overloaded, overpacked self to yet another train. I was severely overloaded, and I looked forward to getting to Switzerland, where Jerry and his wife, Marianne determined that I would be able to safely mail my unneeded extra baggage back to Chicago.
I hadn’t really kept much in contact with Jerry, except through some sporadic text messaging on our cell phones, so I was a bit afraid that perhaps I wouldn’t be able to reach him, and I would have to find accommodations in Spiez. So, when I finally did arrive in Spiez, I immediately sent a text message to Jerry, then went to the visitor information center and obtained hotel information for the cheapest and nearest hotels. I needn’t have bothered, however, because later in the day, I did receive a text from Jerry acknowledging receipt of my messages and assuring me he was on his way. By that time, I’d settled comfortably into my seat at the train station, having had lunch and was reading a good book. No biggie, I could wait.
As I thwarted the unwanted attention of a drunken woman at the train station, I was relieved to hear a tapping on the window. I looked up in relief to see Jerry standing outside the train waving at me, and I quickly stood as he approached. The drunk woman left, and Jerry and I quickly moved all my bags into his car, and that’s how I first met Jerry. He laughed at all the bags I carried and assured me that we would be able to send a lot of the junk back home. We chatted in the car all the way back to his house, and there, I met his quiet, gentle wife Marianne. They both were courteous and friendly, helping me to feel right at home right away. They showed me the room I would be staying in, and I quickly settled into the room. Later, I came downstairs and we all talked for a bit before I retired to bed. Laying in bed that evening, I replayed my day and stared out of the window at the most beautiful scenery I’d seen in a long time. The Swiss houses surrounding us were beautiful and quaint, and the mountain off in the distance was breathtaking. I marveled at how quiet it was too- so quiet I could hear the cowbells of the cows as they grazed in the mountains, and I could hear…. crickets? Wow. As a city girl, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard such a sound. I couldn’t stop staring, and I decided to capture the picture of that perfect neighborhood, so I pulled out my camera and took a few shots. And as I finished taking a few shots, I noticed something else… stars? Wow. That was yet another thing I’d forgotten about. Living in the city, you rarely get the chance to see stars, but out in Feutersoey, Switzerland, the stars glittered in the night sky like newly cut diamonds. Every night that I stayed with Jerry and Marianne, I stared out the window and enjoyed the nature surrounding me. But that first night… it was wonderful.
At the Little Red Huus of Jerry and Marianne, it was so peaceful and so quiet that I slept for the first time as soundly as I ever remembered, waking up the next morning around 10am. As I awoke that Saturday morning, I stared in constirnation at the clock. 10AM! I quickly threw on clothes and ran downstairs, encountering Jerry. He said I’d slept so soundly that he didn’t want to wake me up. I told him that the neighborhood was so quiet I actually could sleep soundly. We chatted for a bit, and since Marianne had to go out for the day, we made plans for the two of us to go for a ride. I was fearful of riding with Jerry- being from Chicago, we didn’t have one hill, and here in Switzerland, there were hills and mountains everywhere. I was afraid that I would be slowing Jerry down, as well as just being afraid of hills in general! I’d never seen elevations like the ones Jerry talked about us tackling, and I secretly cowered in my slippers! Still, I showered after breakfast and after a little preparation, we were underway in my first ride in Switzerland.
Jerry and I ended up doing just 35 kilometers that day. I borrowed Marianne’s bike, since my bike was having a little bit of mechanical issues, so no granny gears for me to help me through the ride- the thought alone of no granny gears almost had my knees knocking from fear, but I swallowed hard and trusted Jerry when he believed I could do the ride regardless. I had to say, I almost went dizzy, hot and cold, and threw up during that ride. It was a bad day weather wise- raining on us completely at one point, and drizzling at other points before clearing up somewhat later on in the ride and turning just a little bit hot (for the ride, that is, since I don’t think it ever got over 17 degrees Celsius). We did a little bit of climbing, and after Jerry and I stopped, I confessed to him that I had been struggling a bit. He looked at me and commented that the little bit of climbing we did was nothing…. just a small elevation in his mind compared to what he had in mind for us for Sunday’s ride. I think at that point, he mercifully made the decision to turn us back so we could head home. When we got back, I showered and changed, and by the time I’d emerged from my room, lunch was being made, and that lunch was just in time, and absolutely delicious! Afterwards, we all went off to different parts of the house and relaxed. Later, we watched Tour de Suisse on television, then relaxed before dinner. That night, we had yet another wonderful dinner, and I settled down with a book yet again. Another beautiful night, and I again had the pleasure of staring out at the mountain yet again.
The next morning, it was still pretty grey, but we decided to go for another ride- this one, even longer than Saturday’s ride. Since Jerry took the time to help me put my bike together on Saturday, Marianne could come with us, so that was a little bit of a relief. I suspected that with Marianne, I would be able to keep up with her while Jerry would be able to continue on with his ride unencumbered by my weakness with riding hills. So that morning, we all got ready, then embarked on our next riding adventure.
For Sunday’s ride, it was still a bit chilly out. Also, it was a bit drizzly too. Jerry had some plans for us to ride some more hills, and I found to my surprise, that I was feeling just a little bit better about riding on the hills. It still hurt, but I wasn’t as fearful as I was on Saturday. As we took off on that next ride, Jerry took the lead and Marianne flanked me, making me feel like I was cocooned in a safety net, so I felt in my heart that it would be a better ride. And it was- I was still very weak with climbing, but it didn’t seem as bad. Don’t get me wrong- it was still bad, but I really think I was very very very much feeling a little more used to the hills. Still, descending hills was terrible for me. I really didn’t like going fast down the hills, but I could see Jerry loved it, and Marianne was nimble and adept with descending also. I felt my heart in my throat- going that fast was just not familiar to me, and I couldn’t get used to it. My fingers were going numb from gripping the brakes so hard when descending that I began to feel relief when we did hit some climbs. Finally, we got to a quaint church- we stood outside and viewed the graves, then took pictures and went inside.
Going inside, we could hear organ music. There was a woman practicing the organ, and I felt the giggles as I recalled that Simpson’s episode where Bart replaced the organ music with the “Garden of Evil” song and the part where the woman playing the organ jammed through the solo then passed out on the keys after she finished. I was fondly giggling as I took some pictures of the inside of the church. I asked Jerry if the woman would mind if I took a picture, and he called up to her and asked for me. The woman didn’t mind at all, so I quickly took a picture of her. At the last moment, she turned as I focused, and she smiled. It was a wonderful picture, albeit dark. We exited the church and decided to have a coffee at the neighborhood restaurant.
After coffee, we headed back home- just in time for the drizzle! Somehow, it didn’t seem as bad, and I suspect it’s because we skipped some of the hills returning! Jerry went ahead of Marianne and I, so we made it back home after Jerry. When we got back, Jerry made a wonderful meal for us, and we sat down to yet another wonderful meal. After, we watched Tour de Suisse again, then turned off the television and sat around talking again. Later, everyone went off to their different activities, and I briefly spoke to Jerry. We had another ride planned for the day, and he told me that it was more of a doozy. As I read my book, my mind raced as I imagined just how much pain my legs would be in after the next day’s ride.
The next day, we sat down to a wonderful simple breakfast and then a little later, we set out again. Initially, we all rode together. It was much better weather, and Jerry and Marianne were extremely understanding about my weakness with riding. Jerry made plans to extend the ride while Marianne and I would stop after a point and have a coffee at the local restaurant and wait for Jerry. Also, I wanted to stop for pictures from time to time also, so Marianne told me to let her know anytime I wanted to stop. Well, we all started out together, but after a few minutes on the climb, Jerry began to pull away. I was climbing and Marianne wasn’t too far behind me when she stopped to take off her coat, so I continued alone, confident that Marianne would catch up with me. Before long, though, I felt that the hill was getting higher, so I immediately began to shift to my granny gears. Unfortunately, because my Bike Friday was still new to me, and I hadn’t ridden with road bike handlebars (and Shimano gearing), I still wasn’t familiar with shifting yet, and I’d abstractly lost track of what gearing I was in. So when I tried to shift, I actually downshifted and knocked the chain off my bike in the process just as the hill turned sharply upwards and WHAM! I fell, still clipped in- double unfortunate for me that I wasn’t used to riding clipped in either. At that point, Jerry completely disappeared from my eyesight and I laid on the ground, temporarily stunned by my stupidity and inability to remember my gearing. Then I kind of grinned and unclipped off my pedals, jumped up and got back on my bike and began to ride again. Just then, Marianne came riding up behind me. I don’t think she saw me fall, but she did see me slowing, so I told her how I’d fallen. She took over the lead and continued the climbing as I followed her and used her momentum to keep me going. When we reached the top of the hill, we stopped for pictures and Marianne also pointed out this restaurant waaaaaaay at the top of this mountain in the distance. As she pointed to the restaurant, I smiled and bet her I couldn’t capture the restaurant with my zoom lens. She didn’t think I could, but guess what? I got the picture and I had to laugh when I viewed it later. Then Marianne pointed out the names of the mountains and she also told me why a mountain pass is called a “pass”, which I also found interesting. From there, we mounted our bikes and descended to the bottom of the mountain (at least, I think it was close to the bottom) to the restaurant, and we stopped for coffee. And just as we sat down, Jerry turned up- he’d completed the extended part of his ride and was now on his way back and stopped at the restaurant to join us. As we sat with our coffee, Marianne scared the life out of me by reminding me that the long long descent we did would now turn into a long long ascent back up. I totally took a mental moment to mentally prepare for the uphill ride back home. Jerry drank his coffee and left. Then Marianne and I also left and began the ride back up.
I really felt inspired- I knew I was weak with the climbs, but Marianne had this quiet confidence in me that really made me feel as though I could do it. She encouraged me to take my time with it and pace myself. While I was in the restaurant, Jerry and Marianne told me to just pace myself and climb. So that’s what I did. I focused on keeping my pedal stroke round and smooth, I worked on keeping my breathing under my control as much as possible. I tried to keep my heart rate from getting too high. I definitely felt as though the climb up was a lot more difficult than the first part of our ride- this pass was kicking my butt, but I just paced myself as best as I could. I also paid better attention to my gears so I wouldn’t make any further shifting mistakes.
Climbing…. oh the pain! My breath became ragged and short, and the pain in my legs began to mount. I checked back periodically to see if I was holding up Marianne any, but she seemed to be fine with my climbing. I could feel every inch of that climb, all the way to my femur bones. With each turn and bend, I felt more and more like if that climb didn’t end soon, I would have to cut my legs off. Closer to the top, I felt my breathing begin to lose control, and I began feel many emotions going through my mind- anguish, pain, acceptance- it was like going through a twelve step program for cyclists- going from denial to acceptance and then putting my fate in the hands of a higher power! But as bad as it felt, after a while, it just seemed as though the pain was just as bad as it would get. In a big way, that was comforting- to know that it was about as bad as it would get, so then in a way, it started to feel a bit better.
After a while, Marianne shouted that the top was coming up soon, and I shouted to her that I could see it. And as the top of the hill crested into our view, I decided to push ahead instead of taking the break at the top. So as we pushed over the top, I continued on and we began descending. I cautiously began, but I took advice Marianne gave me earlier- not to grip the brakes the entire ride down, which earlier caused my hands to become numb and sting. This made me a lot faster with descending, but I still was freaking- I just wasn’t used to going that fast. Eventually, Marianne passed me and I could see her skill in descending as she turned and manipulated her bike down the pass. I followed as best as I could, but after a while, I couldn’t take it anymore and I pulled over for a few minutes. I knew we were close to the bottom, but my mind was playing tricks and I just felt like my mind was saying “enough!” when it came to descending. I stood for a few moments, savoring the time off from hearing the whizzing of the wind in my ears and then quickly remounted. I wasn’t worried about Marianne. I knew when she didn’t see me she’d pull to the side and wait, and as I descended, I ran into Marianne. True to form, she’d pulled over and waited. When I came upon her, I told her that I’d lost my nerve, and she reassured me that it was perfectly ok with her. So we continued descending together.
Once we got to the bottom, we continued home. Marianne had told me at some point during the ride after the climbing that my speed and tempo was just perfectly matched to her speed, so I didn’t feel bad at all about our ride. When we got home, not only was Jerry already there, he’d started on lunch. I suddenly felt ravenous, so I ran upstairs and showered and changed. As I ran for the shower, I heard Jerry ask Marianne how my stamina was for the ride. I don’t know how she answered, but I hoped that she was impressed enough to tell Jerry that I at least had the gumption to finish a ride and give it my best shot. When I returned, lunch was almost ready and my stomach was practically falling out of my abdomen! We sat down to a delicious lunch, then after, we rested and waited for Tour de Suisse. When the race came on, we sat down again, commenting on Jan Ullrich and enjoying the riders. Later, we watched the weather, and saw it was going to be good weather. Jerry told me he had a big ride planned for me. We were going to take a 100 km ride to a castle at the top of a hill, and Marianne had to work, so we’d go at it alone. I gave a mental gulp, but at the same time, I began to look forward to the climbing. I knew it would be tough, but at the same time, the more I climbed, the more I would feel better about climbing. Despite me still being a weak climber, I felt like I was feeling a tiny bit more comfortable with climbing. At some point, even though the hills still scared me, I really began to feel like I should ride hills and that with practice, I would become better with climbing. Not as good as Marianne and Jerry, but for me, definitely it would improve me as an overall rider. Going to bed that night, I reflected on the day and felt like my day had been so good. I felt totally satisfied about life laying in bed that night and stared out at the mountain as darkness softly cloaked the mountain in my window and the stars appeared in the night sky.