Last time we made a coast-to-coast ride, we didn't do any preparation. We got pn our bikes and started riding. We were a lot stronger a week or two into the trip than when we started. The terrain from Astoria to Eugene was not challenging, in retrospect, though it seemed mountainous to us at the time. This approach will impress some as reckless. It's comfortable to me as "muddling through" is my primary life strategy.

Starting from San Diego, we will be looking at 3500 feet of climb. Michele doesn't want to undertake that climb in her customary soggy couch-potato condition. She insists that we train up like Lance Armstrong in late June. So for a start, yesterday we met up with a couple of friends to ride the Palomares Canyon loop. Over the Dublin grade to Foothill Road and on to Sunol. Seventeen miles. Maybe we should stop for lunch? Two thousand calories later, we stumbled out of the cafe and groaned onto our bicycles again. We made it over Palomares Road and back to the truck gasping and panting. I think we lost ground in the fitness war!