June 3 ride reports...

[DrBee]

Good morning! I'll be the one to start this thread today.

I made a new personal best - 28.2 miles with an average speed of 14.7 and 16 on straight sections. There was NO wind for most of the ride and the temp was in the mid to upper 60's with relatively low humidity! That's all quite unusual for here. Between the clif bar and sport beans and lots of water - I felt great. The Terry Zero X saddle is still wonderful! Even with the lousy $20 shorts from Nashbar.

Nearly had a dog encounter - mangy mutt (literally on both accounts) stopped and watched me. I chose to turn around and go the other way - wasn't feeling super brave today. This was a good thing because I found a better 5-mile loop that has fewer stopsigns than the other route I was riding.

I saw an older woman out riding on some sort of comfort bike - she gave me a big wave. I hollared hello back at her. She had a helmet on - which is unusual for cyclists here unless they're roadies. Also saw a man on a roadbike - no helmet and he didn't even acknowledge I existed. Go figure.

I hope everybody has great rides today!

[Brandy]

Lifted straight from my blog...

The 2.9 Mile Ride
Today was the day. I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. to get in my very first early morning ride. After one push of the snooze button, I dragged myself out of bed, put on my long sleeve jersey and knickers and wandered downstairs to eat half of a bagel. By the time I was ready to roll the sun was up, so I took off from home instead of driving down to the beach path. My goal was to ride the same route that I did yesterday...Magnolia to the end of the Newport beach path, turn around and ride north to the end of Bolsa Chica State Beach, then back to Magnolia. With six extra miles added in going to and from the beach from home, I was looking at getting a 32 mile ride before the crowds hit the paths.

Of course, the best laid plans...blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. **** happens and my **** just happened to go down right in front of Huntington Beach Fire Station Number Four. I'm riding down Magnolia feeling great and enjoying the cool morning air when my smooth ride starts to feel not so smooth anymore. Damn...I've flatted in the front. So I hop off of my bike, fairly confident...okay, truth be told, I wasn't confident at all because I'd only changed one flat and it was in my living room and it took me an hour. I figure that I don't have any choice but to change the thing, so I flip the bike over and get to work. Just as I'm getting started, the fire engine pulls into the station. One of the guys pops his head out and asks if I'm okay. I tell him that I think that I can handle it and he says "Okay, well if you need anything we're all awake and there are four of us that can come over, stand around and watch you." After struggling for several minutes I finally get the tire off of the rim and start checking for a leak. I found the hole in the tube pretty easily, but can't find anything in the tire that might have caused it, despite checking for a good five minutes. I put in the one spare tube that I had and put the tire back on the bike, wave goodbye to the fireman and I'm on my way. For a minute. Something isn't feeling or sounding right and let's face it...I'm a total newbie and I was just pretending that I knew what I was doing back there. I turn into the park behind the fire station and after riding there for a couple of minutes, the little voice inside of me tells me to call it a day and bag the ride. I decide to swallow my pride and go make friends with the firemen.

I explain the situation to the fireman who had been checking up on me while I was changing my tire and he asks me if I'd like a ride home. I accept and ask if one of them has a truck. He tells me that they can't break the crew up and that I'd have to ride home on the fire truck. Now who would turn down a ride like that? They load my bike into the hose bed on top of the truck, open the door and ask me to take a seat. We chatted about kids, their schedules, my husband's job and before I knew it we were pulling up in front of my house. As they're unloading my bike I hear them shouting across the road to the firemen at Fire Station Number Three which is about 300 feet from my front door. Good natured ribbing at 6:40 a.m. which I'm sure that my neighbors appreciated. What do I care though? I got to ride home in a firetruck. Yeehaw!

[Selkie]

Brandy, I'd say that was a flat worth having! ;)

Got up early to get out before the Team in Training crowd started hogging the trail. The minute I opened the door it started raining. As I was setting up to do the Spinervals killer workout (Hillacious followed by Iron Girl), Divine Intervention: the rain slowed to a sputter, so I pulled out one of my beater bikes and got the spokes spinning by 5:30am. Wet pavement, humid and warm, some intermittent drizzle, but the trail was pretty much deserted. Didn't see the coyote but the rabbits were out.
Unfortunately, I noticed the Team in Training Trail Hogs assembling in their pre-run/walk circle. Since I'm battling a virus that's giving me a stuffed head/ears, I didn't want to deal with getting safely past their multiple squadrons of two abreast, especially since it's early days in their training and the most inconsiderate of them havent yet tossed in the towel [note: I don't mean to be so down on Team in Training, as I'm sure they are a great organization. However, my "share the trail" experience with these Team in Training folks--last year--was not positive because some, not all, of them seem hostile toward cyclists and more than once, they put my safety at risk by crowding the trail and/or acting in an unsafe manner]. So, I decided to bag it at 30 miles and head home.

[Aggie_Ama]

Finally got on the bike after a nasty stomach virus sidelined me all week. I don't even get stomach viruses like this, so I was down for the count. I got up early to see DH off for a little guys weekend. I then went on a nice 23.6 mile ride in cool weather, little wind and traffic. Even ventured out of where I would normally ride by myself. My stomach was still cramping a little, making me much slower than I would have been under those conditions normally. It felt nice to be back on the bike.

[mtkitchn]

I got up at 5am, opened the front door and felt 82 degree heat on my face. Closed the door and went to the gym. :D

[LL_Super_D]

It's official... I've turned into a real cyclist - ha ha ha. Yesterday I agreed to go on a ride that started at 6:45 am this morning so I readily called it a mellow Friday - went to bed at 10:30 on a Friday night and happily woke up at 5:45 :eek: . The last wake up call I've done before the crack of dawn was when I was in Peru in the Amazon rainforest going on a jungle expedition!

Anyway, I met up with one of my friends at the local Peet's Coffee and off we went. Rode 7 miles of flat/slight steady climb with one steep short hill for good measure to Tunnel Road (for those of you in the Bay area). I was able to ride up the hilly road one mph faster than last weekend! and went downhill one mph faster than last weekend as well. Woo hoo! Ended up riding 20 miles. From the Berkeley hills, it looked like it was gonna be a beautiful day!

[im4smiley]

Rain...rain...and more rain..lots of rain..no bike ride :(

[Fredwina]

I would being a ride marshall for the Lytle Creek half Marathon in Fontana. I took my bike friday, I need to get a kickstand for it, since whenever I fold or unfold, I do the mega -chainring tattoo thing. We met at the half way point and road up to that start . This half marathon is all down hill. My hands are sore form all the breaking I had to do, and my headset loosened itself on the way down, which I think is beacuse I didn't get the stem in right. I'm highly tempted to do another quickie ride, since I did oput new tire on my Cannondale, and want to make sure everything is OK there.

[winddance]

bikerz called me a bit before 10 this morning, wanting to ride. We had kind of decided that a ride was unlikely this weekend due our bustling social lives. However, we both got to sleep in and decided that we needed to ride anyway, because we are shameless addicts.

We rode up the Bay Trail to Richmond. It was very nice on the trail, and not horribly windy. We stopped at the Richmond marina to grab a sandwich and sat outside and gabbed for a while. We saw a heron and a lot of geese of various ages in the water on the way back.

We rode 24 miles or so. Z may or may not have run over a lizard. I learned how to drink out of my water bottle while still moving. That's right, I did! I didn't run into anything or fall over! I felt like a rockstar.

[bikerz]

What she said!

It was beautiful along the Bay today - warm, but not hot (thanks to the headwinds! :rolleyes: )

It was a great day for everyone (except the lizard... :( )

[bikerchick68]

I got to ride with tprevost today... we took off and headed from inland SD County to the coastline... had a GREAT ride! It was her, me, PurePink, Pink's DH and a friend named Bill. We sagged at a well known cyclist stop called the Pannikin Coffee House and then headed back... got in 27 miles and had a VERY good time...

didn't get to ride in any fire trucks tho! :mad: :D

[mimitabby]

what a beautiful day we had. our first century on a tandem
and a lovely day to boot, riding up the serene, sweet smelling
entiat river gorge!
hardly any cars, the only noise was the river screaming by and 1000
of us riders yakking as we pedalled up the gorge and back down again.
total climb was 4197 feet. what a great day.
another 100 miles for team estrogen!
mimi
ps 100 miles on my brand new brooks b67 and i can still sit!

[bikerchick68]

mimi... AWESOME! way to go lady... and nice to hear about that brooks... just got the same one but haven't ridden it... yet :D

[Nokomis]

37 miles with lots o' hills ~ and I made it up each one! I don't have altitude or grade, but there was lots of climbing & length to them -and I didnt' have to stop part way on any of them!

We get ready to go & make one little adjustment to the front derailure as it was being loud & tempormental. Got a couple miles down the road, and I can no longer shift into my big ring up front. Stopped to work on it, wasn't pretty & almost killed the ride, but we got it functional enough that if I was VERY Careful, I could Try to put it in the big ring. It held together, and the bike is now receiving a much needed full tuneup.

First climb was mason hill - last year I distinctly recall walking. Paused at the top to discuss where we were headed, and decided it would be a good day to ride to out LBS to find me a new seat. We bombed down to the next climb, one we do fairly often ~ went smoothly.

We had a few little rollers, and then we made it to the bike shop. I picked out a seat, thinking *maybe* this would work, and got it all set up. As we're leaving, DH so kindly suggests that we try this other climb just around the corner. Up and up and up we go ~ switchbacks and constant climb for I don't know how far, until we make it to the top & dart across to a safe place to rest on the opposite side of the intersection. Recovered fairly quickly (felt like forever, but he said I did SO much better!) and celebrated a long & difficult climb.

We rode the ridge to the end of the road, and Flew down my favorite descent. Top speed was Probably on that stretch, 34.4mph

On the final stretch home, I felt great. Maintained 20-21mph, and felt like I could have kept going.

The seat didn't work out ~ so post ride I took my bike to shop A for tuneup, and returned to shop B to find a new seat. May have one that works, I'll find out early this week once I can get it on the road.

[Brina]

a strange riding day. i finally had the time, i thought, to get the road bike out for a real ride. But one thing after another this morning and I didn't get out till 8:30, and the boys had soccer at 9:30, so 10 miles was all I could squeeze. The battery died on my computer since last time I rode, so I have no idea what kinds of speeds I was going, but since most of my riding lately has been on my hybrid while pulling the burley trailer it felt fast as hell. Later i got my daughter in the burley and the boys and my husband on their bikes and we did a 7 mile round trip to the kids' favorite playground at about 8 miles an hour. I can't wait for them to get bigger and go a bit faster. I have thought about getting trailer bikes for them, but the thought of pulling a trailer bike and the burley scares me.

[Duck on Wheels]

Today I walked. Was planning on doing the Farm Market and don't have a good way to tote stuff on the bike. So I walked 6 miles, which is decent exercize anyway. Got a present for UK Elephant (shhh, don't tell). Also found some cool T-shirts and buttons, including one (of each) for Trek420, but I'll have to go back and get those later. Got some flowers and some veggies for me. Then passed a ceramics club sale and saw a perfect cake plate for our neighbors. All in all a good thing I wasn't riding a bike. Would've been really adding insult to injury if I'd had my first FU fall with a $30 cake plate in the back pack.

But what I DID do was to stop at another bike shop and ask about flatbar road bikes/fitness bikes. Oh dear. Now I have more to choose from! In addition to the Trek 7.6 and the Specialized Sirrus I was planning on taking second test rides on tomorrow, I now have to test a Fuji and a Jamis too. Advice on choosing is most welcome!

Oh, and I found out where they sell Sport Beans here, but got there too late. They close early on Saturdays.

[Geonz]

I led my "saunter" ride and decided to start out in front... it worked much better than earlier when I've been starting in back. (I also didn't have a huge group because half of 'em went off to do a longer, faster route). When I'm in front, people stay behind me... I don't even think it's conscious (abject terror that I will snarl and bit if they go by !!) - but the group stayed togethera lot better.

We rode out to St. Joe ("Holy Joe") and dined at the Golden Mine, and went back and then some of us went out to the fairgrounds for the Playing It Safe stuff where we had a booth selling and fitting helmets for $10 ... we just about sold out this year! It helped 'cause one of our racer guys was there with the helmet he'd worn when he was hit by a car... the man has endless patience with small children, too!

Yes, I wore the pig snout helmet cover ... and brought the blender, but I need to work on getting the proportions right. I was a little too heavy on the yoghurd :-)

The weather was PERFFECT!!

Hugs to you poor souls with flat tires and rain....

My perfect-fit bike makes a perfect triangle balance with feet, butt and hands, so all I have to do is shift a little to totally shift weight. I like my Trek 7500FX, too, but when I got it, it was the new kid on the block and there weren't other flatbarred fast "city hybrids." I'm afraid it's got fewer than 500 miles on it 'cause Mr. Extra and I have been inseparable.

[Eagle-Eye]

I rode 100 miles today in the Trek 100! I am pretty proud of myself :D I surely wasn't the fastest out there, but who cares? It's not a race (and even if it was, I wouldn't care either). The course was fairly flat, with a few rolling hills. Nothing too dramatic. The one big hill everyone was talking about was taken off the course this year due to road construction.

Going the 100 miles was definitely a challenge for me both mentally and physically. I woke up this morning with a bit of stomach trouble. Fortunately, that went away by the time the ride started. I felt great all the way until mile 60 or so. Miles 60-80 were the toughest for me. That's when my legs really didn't want to keep peddling, and a nasty cough set in.

After the rest stop at mile 80, I got some renewed energy... probably because I knew it was going to be over soon. The finish was a little anticlimactic. I still don't think it has fully hit me what an accomplishment I made today.

Right now, I just need to get to bed early. I have another ride tomorrow. At least that one is "only" 25 miles :rolleyes:

[Quillfred]

Congrats on a job well done, Eagle Eye!!!

I drove over to Vashon Island with my bike in tow as a reward for doing what would have been a monumental amount of brush cutting. Instead I find that someone has helped themselves to my Echo. :mad:

The good news is that the house hasn't been vandalized, the roof has done its job....and I get to ride instead of work. :)

I only rode about 15 miles or so but it was hilly, hilly, hilly. Humblingly hilly. My metric century (attempt) is next weekend. :eek:

It was overcast but a comfortable 70F. It was a good workout flying down each hill only to stuggle up the next. The Islanders were polite and gave me much room. I realized how much I miss spending time there. I also learned there are now mountain bike trails I will have to explore some time this summer.

Quillfred

[Duck on Wheels]

I rode 100 miles today in the Trek 100! I am pretty proud of myself :D


And well you should be. WooHoo!!! I am very impressed. Waytago EagleEye :D :D :D

[tprevost]

I managed to harrass Bikerchick68 long enough to get her to let me tag along for a ride and today was the day! We started in San Marcos at Restaurant Row (IHOP) and headed west to the beach.... Here are some pics en route:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i104/tprevost/June%203rd%20Ride/2fa74432.jpg
Mac, Kathy (purepink), Bill, and Jennifer (BC68)
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i104/tprevost/June%203rd%20Ride/e1e6381d.jpg
A view from the road
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i104/tprevost/June%203rd%20Ride/June3rd008.jpg
We stopped at this cute little coffee/bagel etc. place in Leucadia and sat down for a while... this is us getting back on the road
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i104/tprevost/June%203rd%20Ride/32748a94.jpg


It was only 26+ miles but a little hard for me as they are a bit faster than I'm used to riding. I managed to keep up without holding them up too badly but it started getting pretty warm as we finished (coming out of the fog at the coast)... here's a picture of us before we left for home (btw, it was 103 when I got home today!)
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i104/tprevost/June%203rd%20Ride/June3rd011.jpg
That's Jennifer (bikerchick68), me (tprevost), and Kathy (purepink) on the right.

Thank you ladies (and Mac & Bill too!) for letting me tag along, what a great ride! AND, thank you SOOOOOOOO much Jen for the help w/decents!! YEAH!!!

Tracy

[caligurl]

hubby had to work OT.... so i was on my own for a ride.... took off later than i wanted to (6:21).... and knew i was going to head "up the hill" into the national park to get some hill riding in before next weekend....

when i was climbing the hill to the entrance kiosk... i was thinking to myself that i wasn't going to make it all the way to jumbo rocks (campground) or that it was going to take me a long time to get there.... but then somewhere along the way... my legs woke up and i felt much better! i got to jumbo rocks and decided to keep going... (it's rollers once you get to jumbo... at least for a while)..... well then i got to ryan (another usual turn around point) and decided to go just a little further... perhaps key's view turn off.... well i got there and turned.... so i'm thinking... hmmmmmm i should climb to key's view (highest point in the park)..... so i keep going..... then i realized i probably didn't have enough water to make it back out of the park... uh oh! but then.... it's mostly downhill... i should be ok! so i climb and climb to the top! now my brave/stupid comment comes from not having an cell phone signal in the part EXCEPT at the very top of key's view.... nothing else the whole way til i hit the kiosk/entrance again..... i had called and left a message for hubby that i was going into the park.. but he would have had no idea i would have gone up to key's view on my own! i did call from KV and told him "guess where i am!"

i did run out of water just before getting back to the entrance.... i had told hubby i would call him if i did (he had gotten off work just before i called from KV).... well DUH... remember i said no cell phone service! fortunately the ranger at the gate had water for me... plus.... as i was descending the hill from the gate on my way home... hubby was on his way to bring me water (awwwwwwwwwww)

so note to self: don't leave or deviate to a long ride in the desert in the summer without plenty of water or a camelback!

i ended up with 55.6 miles and 4226 feet of climbing!

[Nanci]

I rode 40 miles on a paved trail. Animal encounters included the hitchhiking anole, a deer who crossed at a leisurely pace about three feet ahead of the rider ahead of me (I resisted saying, Hey, Velvet, did you see that deer?) and a hatchling Gopher Tortoise (VERY EXTREMELY rare to see a hatchling) which I resisted, although I did have a short visit with him. Oh, lots of river cooter turtles- they must have been out looking for egg-laying spots. We then went to a restaurant for lunch, and it began thunderstorming the minute we were back in our cars on the way to lunch. Perfect timing!

Nanci

[betagirl]

Did 45 miles, 42 of which were with Fuji Girl and some other ladies that ride as a group up north of the city. There was 1 guy, so it was the complete opposite of what I'm normally used to with group/club rides :D We rode up through the affluent north shore suburbs, on a crappy road for part of the way. Once we got beyond the patchwork, it was great.

[alpinerabbit]

I am ready for the Engadin Radmarathon (http://radmarathon.com/show_page.php?pid=330). (Note I am doing the 100 k, not the 182!)

July 15th, I am to ride 100 km in the Alps, 3 passes, 1200 m ascent within the first 50k. The scariest part is the Forcola di Livigno (http://www.ciclomaniac.com/altimetria.asp?ID=Forcola+di+Livigno+-+da+Livigno&racetype=climb)* with ~500 m ascent over 5 km.

Yesterday, we did a total of 92 km with 1375 m ascent, in 4 hills, the first one over 500 m, one 17% grade and the rest 10-12% on average, which is more than the Forcola.
Needless to say I stopped looking at my polar to avoid frustration. on the 17% it was 179, but that dropped and I think I was just over 170 most of that first ascent. The other 3 are not over 10%.

We got home happy, but utterly drained.
Subsided on water, dried fruit bars, more dried fruit, oat cookies and one hot chocolate (one small beer (!!!) for boyfriend).

Now for the real mountains (a mere 1000m higher altitude to do the same thing won't be a big deal :eek: )



(*useful link to check out many classical ascents of the pro races)

[uk elephant]

I had a looong ride yesterday (cycled all the way home from work, ~40miles including hills) so today I just went for a little leisurely "pootle" along the river with BF and a couple of friends. Glorious sunny day, so we took the bike path along the river down to a quaint little village with a nice pub right on the river. Had a pint, got tempted by the people eating fish and chips, then pedalled home again to fire up the grill. A total of 8 miles in glorious sunshine topped off with delicious food for dinner in the evening.

[SJCzar]

I also did the Trek 100. Perfect weather for a long ride. Miles 60-80 was probably the hilliest section but not terrible. I got inspired on the biggest hill when the guy ahead of me got off 3/4 of the way to walk it. I just had to stand up and grind past him.