So far I’ve been training on a hybrid bike that I borrowed from a friend, and that was great for getting me back into cycling and for my first couple of months of training.  Last week I decided to take the plunge and buy a new road bike!  I visited the great folks at Chain Reaction in Redwood City, and they were very helpful.  Here’s what I ended up with – a ‘Trek Domane 2.0’ – it’s a pretty nice bike!

new Trek bike!

Yesterday after an hour in the pool we went on a 24 mile ride so that was a great way to test out my new bike.  It was a gorgeous ride and a gorgeous day, and I definitely noticed a difference riding a road bike.

Aug 11 ride

Last weekend we did went down to Capitola for a preview of the mighty mermaid course.  Was good to get a sense of what the ocean open swim was like, and I managed to swim around the pier twice.  After that it was a 19 mile ride, again riding along some of the actual course.

Mighty mermaid 'preview ride' in Capitola

We saw some beautiful scenery – the course goes along the coast for a bit and through some pretty rolling hills.  There were a few absolute killer hills – I was able to stay on the bike for most of them, but ended up walking my bike up the last couple!  We finished off the day with a 2 mile run, which was a little challenging after the long ride, but we managed to complete it.  It was great to get a preview of the course!