The bike computer's rewarding readout		PARCA Giro di San Mateo July 01, 2001 It's performance training showtime! The ride I participated in today -- my third century (100 mile) of the year -- was perhaps the toughest ride I've done yet, so much so I feel as if I left my right knee somehwere in Palo Alto. Today's event, dubbed the "Giro di San Mateo" due in part to an encompassing Italian festival theme, was a benefit for PARCA, a Peninsula-based organization that offers offers programs for people with developmental disabilities and their families. The route began in San Mateo and circumnavigated much of the Peninsula area with four significant hills -- I'm told over 7-thousand vertical feet of climbing today. Youch! I thought I was done for during the third climb, a seven mile stretch near the Pacific coast heading back inland. The voice in my head that normally tells me "You can do this" all of a sudden was screaming "Mommy!" To add insult to injury, the end of the ascent still left 30 miles ahead in the ride, with another lung busting climb up Page Mill Road on the horizon. Steady pacing and friendly conversation with one local cyclist named Jim boosted my morale from this point on. Better yet, the conditioning I got from a 60-mile ride with friends (thank you, Ted, Peggy and Aric) yesterday ensured the leg muscles were good enough to ride as strong as I pushed myself. I finished with a time of 6 hours 45 minutes -- no way near true racing peformance. But it definitely helped boost the ego and assures me that I'll be able to finish strong on all four days of the Northeast AIDSRide. Next step in training: getting up at the crack of dawn each day after a ride like this one.
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