Prime Bike Riding Time!

[Dogmama]

Attention ladies!

Superbowl is a great time to get on your bike! All of the rednecks are parked in front of the tube & their trucks are leaking oil in their driveways, bars, etc.

Seriously, it is almost as good as January 1 morning. Traffic is very sparse. And, you can pre-ride off those calories that you'll take in with the chips, dips, etc.

This announcement does not apply to those living in Houston!:D

[annie]

LOL! Prime bike riding time for those in warmer climes, maybe! I had to laugh, thinking of calling this prime bike riding time here in the midwest, when our high temp today MIGHT hit 10 degrees F, if we are lucky. It didn't even hit 0 yesterday. Tomorrow might be a heat wave of around 20, but that's with 10 inches of snow predicted. SO......... you who live where it's warm now, enjoy it for yourselves and for those of us who are freezing. :cool: It warms me up just thinking of you our there biking tomorrow. I will stick to the skis.........

Confession: In spite of the cold, I rode my bike outside today for a brief time. Wanted to see just how many layers it would take to stay warm, how my face, feet and hands would handle it. It was sorta ok......... Do-able, at least. There's a ride here in Iowa every year in early Feb called the BRR ride. It's next weekend; I am going so had to test out the cold weather gear. Decided it could be done at this temp if it isn't too windy. Only 25 miles but you can get awfully cold in that amount of time. Just have to keep moving, I guess. It's as much for a weekend away as for the bike ride; some people don't even take a bike. I am determined to ride!

[missliz]

You go girl! Just think of all those crazy Belgians who train every day in snow, ice, cowpoopie,- on cobblestones! You're that tough! It could be a glorious ride...
Enjoy

Lizzy

[Trek420]

"Confession: In spite of the cold, I rode my bike outside today for a brief time. Wanted to see just how many layers it would take to stay warm, how my face, feet and hands would handle it. It was sorta ok......... Do-able, at least. "

Confession? You should be bragging, that's great! I'm the one who should be confessing "forgive me sisters I wimped out on the Sunday club ride because there was a little rain and looked like it was heavy in the hills where we were heading." ;-)

Although I'm back inside and my dog is glad to see that I will have the bike up on the Cycleops during the game...maybe the entire game. :cool: :)

[bikerchick68]

ugh... how do you ride in that weather??? When it gets down to 40 here I start whining...LOL

I did a ride today but got a late start so only got 18 miles in... better than nothing I guess... It was gorgeous out... close to 70 degrees so no complaints here at all!

Trek- I will not ride in the rain either... not because I worry about crashing and getting hurt but because I worry about crashing and screwing up my BIKE!!! I just got it in Dec... the husband sprung for a new bike and I LOVE IT!!! If I wrecked it I'd be horrified...

[Trek420]

"Trek- I will not ride in the rain either... not because I worry about crashing and getting hurt but because I worry about crashing and screwing up my BIKE!!! I just got it in Dec... the husband sprung for a new bike and I LOVE IT!!! If I wrecked it I'd be horrified..."

If I'm caught in the rain I don't mind especially if I have a jacket with me, but it's hard to set out in bad weather. And it was cold but not as cold as where some of you gals are...

Congrats on the new bike...whadja get?

--was TREK420 soon Mondonico

[jobob]

I'm finding it's not the rain that bothers me so much, but I'm an absolute wimp in the wind.

Hubby and I set out this morning for the Alameda Creek trail and Coyote Hills, and it was drizzling. Not too bad, but then we turned a corner along one of the hills and ran face first into cooold wind, yech.

I met a new nemesis today too - there's a trail I never tried in the Coyote Hills called the Meadowlark Trail, which is a paved, fairly steep (to me, anyhow) uphill grade which goes for about 0.5 mile - Mt. Diablo it ain't. But still, I only made it maybe 1/2 of the way up that sucker today :p Something to work on.

- Jo.

[Trek420]

"I met a new nemesis today too - there's a trail I never tried in the Coyote Hills called the Meadowlark Trail, which is a paved, fairly steep (to me, anyhow) uphill grade which goes for about 0.5 mile - Mt. Diablo it ain't. But still, I only made it maybe 1/2 of the way up that sucker today :p Something to work on. "

I haven't been to ACT in a while, the last time I was there the trail near the staging area near the town of Niles was closed. haven't been back since.

sounds like the trails fixed now, I'll have to go back.

I think I know where your nemesis is, as you head west, towards the bay on the flat part of the trail there's a place where the trail curves and then you take a sharp left and imediate uphill. Is that it? If I don't downshift in preparation for it that stops me too.

TREK

[jobob]

I haven't been to ACT in a while, the last time I was there the trail near the staging area near the town of Niles was closed. haven't been back since.
sounds like the trails fixed now, I'll have to go back.
Actually, only the last maybe 1/2 mile of the trail, where it crosses Mission Blvd. near Niles, had been closed (and it still is, it's going to be finished sometime this year they say) - the remainer of the Alameda Creek trail past Mission Blvd. heading west toward the bay has been open.

I think I know where your nemesis is, as you head west, towards the bay on the flat part of the trail there's a place where the trail curves and then you take a sharp left and imediate uphill. Is that it?
If it's what I think you're talking about then, err, no... I'm glad to say I can do that one. :D The one I'm talking about is farther south, more towards the Dumbarton. It's near the camping area called Dairy Glen.

Here's a link to the map of Coyote Hills, if you're ever interested in going back there. I really love it there, it's especially beautiful this time of year with all the greenery:
http://www.ebparks.org/resources/pdf/trails/coyote.pdf

Jo's Nemesis Du Jour is the Meadowlark Trail, which is the gray line just above the words "Coyote Hills Regional Park" on the map. Good grief, according to the map the paved uphill part is only about 0.4 miles. Oh the shame :o I hope I can made it up it soon, LOL!

So when does the Mondonico arrive? :)

[Trek420]

"So when does the Mondonico arrive? :)"

...March, April'ish. I'd count the days but I'm not exactly sure of the date. :rolleyes:

[snapdragen]

Cut yourself a break girl! Although what we did in the Cindy training were not huge hills, there were some long, slow, "God will this ever end" hills. Maybe your legs were just tired. That's my story, I'm sticking to it!;)

[Dogmama]

I don't like to ride in rain because my brakes don't work as well. Wind - hey - consider it your own personal trainer! Same goes for hills! Where I started riding (outside of Tucson in a small town) the wind blew constantly. So, I just get down in my aerobars & pump through it. Hills - they gotta go down sometime, so that's a big plus!

[jobob]

LOL, I'll try to remember that, Dogmama !

And Snapdragen, you're so nice to say that. Some of those hills did go on for a bit, didn't they? :p

Sad occurrence on our training ride yesterday - a woman in one of the more experienced groups fell, sounds like it was a fluke accident. Come to find out she broke her pelvis, and word is she won't be able to walk around for about a month :(

- Jo.

[Dogmama]

I really think that the fact we don't bounce off of pavement (like kids do) is another good reason to weight train. Get those bones up to their max density so that falls aren't so catastrophic. Not to say that the poor lady who broke her pelvis did anything wrong - she may have landed in such a manner that she would have been seriously injured regardless. But, it's like buying insurance for your body. Especially for those of us who are pushing 50 (but keeping our cadence up! Don't want to blow out those knees!)

[missliz]

One of the big perils of high mileage training is birdbones- literally! As the body dumps all the fat it can it'll start to thin out, and even hollow out the bones. Yeah, this was a real medical study and everything. I remember crossing that line and how creepy I felt. It's a training adaptation, but not a good one! Weight work will reverse it.
Some people break more easily then others too- weight training will help there ('nother study... )

Lizzy

In training to go make groceries on her Ugly Bike

[fasteryet]

To everyone on the prime time thread:
Happy trails to those of you in the warm parts of the country. I'm sitting here with freezing rain and two bored dogs.
Seriously, though, what's the story on the bone density study? I don't train hard enough and have plenty of body fat, but would still like to know.

[Steph_in_TX]

Interestingly enough, there's an article on bone loss in the most current issue of Bicycling. It's the March issue. They say that they can't carry the theory of bone loss from professionals to those of us who just do it for fun...but I certainly don't see why not. It probably wouldn't be as pronounced, but why wouldn't it happen just the same? Anyway...it's an interesting article.

Steph

[fasteryet]

Thanks. I'll check it out.

[missliz]

I don't remember a lot of detail- I read about it in one of those Rodale Press bike rags we all think are so boring :p about ten years ago. This is not an estrogen/ womens thing- men get it too. I could feel it after a summer of hard training and I had plenty of fat! Although that was going pretty fast too. This isn't after you get emaciated and lose muscle; It's just a training adaptation. I was around 160 and a hardbody when this caught up with me.
If it's asked to move fast and long, your body will shed ballast to lighten the load. It's not just about burning fat for energy; the very fit get very slender because the body is trying to get as efficient as possible. As Covert Bailey says- "Have you ever seen a fat fox?"
For runners and such, the bones take a pounding so I don't think they lose bone mass; but in a cyclist who by her nature is bird st heart ;) losing bone density is really effecient training adaptation. Birds have hollow bones. And a rider with this, well it doesn't exactly protect you from breakage in a crash does it?
We're talking lots of riding hours here, and some people get this bad and some never get it at all. Weight training and/ or crosstraining, anything with resistance will reverse it. I'm not an expert- I just know it happens. Not all adaptations are all good.
It's very simple. It's a training adaptation, and you should be aware of it and hit the weights. You need the crosstraining for better performance anyway.

Lizzy

[Veronica]

Here's a link to an article that seems to suggest the bone loss is brought on from lost calcium through sweating.

http://www.bikeparts.com/articles/book.html


Veronica

[bikerchick68]

you know I just read an article in "Bicycling" that was about cycling and osteoperosis... don't forget to make sure you are consuming calcium in some form pretty much daily... I have yogurt at my office so I have one with lunch...

Trek- I got the Litespeed Tuscany... it is a dream to ride... now I'm selling my Lemond because I don't need 2 bikes... when I got the Lemond originally the frame was out of alignment (keep in mind this was my 1st bike ever)... so we shipped it to Lemond and they sent a new frame... just never felt comfortbale on it... had problems with discomfort when going to the bathroom after rides, neck and shoulders sore, reach to brakes etc miserable... so my husband said let's get you a new bike... (I had completed a 53 mile event ride on it and want to do my first century so I need a bike that is comfortable)... anyway, we got the Tuscany and put the Lemond on eBay... 51cm low miles etc... some guy sends an email to measure the bike... turns out Lemond sent me a 53cm!!! which explains why it was so miserable to ride... It was too big... so now Lemond has made good on it and sent a new frame, a 49cm WSD Maillot Jaune (I had the Buenos Aires)... and we measured it to be sure...

long story short now I have to sell that bike because I don't need two... good thing I ended up really loving this or this whole fiasco could've turned me off the whole bike thing!

[Trek420]

"long story short now I have to sell that bike because I don't need two... good thing I ended up really loving this or this whole fiasco could've turned me off the whole bike thing!"

noooo, you can't have too many bikes only not enough room.

TREK ...too bad I take a 47cm

[missliz]

Oh PUHLEASE! Too many shoes, too many tiaras, too many shares of Microsoft, too many freinds, too many bikes?
Keep the Lemond. Play with it. Life is short; You can have all the toys you want! Only one bike is for six tear olds. Why do you have to give up a prize? Build it up and then get a wardrobe to match each. You don't even have the other seven bikes of the basic stable.

Incidently- grownups get to roller skate in the house too. And sit up late and drink cocktails. What endless possibilities there are!

Lizzy

[bikerchick68]

hehehe... good news the bike sold today. I would have kept the Lemond if I thought I would ride it... but I just really love the Litespeed... however, if Trek changes the Project One even minimally it may fit (I tried already... I wanted the "Deep South" paintjob...) then I may end up with two... My next road bike will undoubtedly be full DuraAce...

my other reason for selling the Lemond is to justify the purchase of a mountain bike... the best riding area here is closed still (burned during the wildfires and they don't want to reopen it until the regrowth is more deeply rooted) so hopefully by summer... we'll see! Now if I was actually MADE of money then I'd have it all!:D

missliz... there can be noooo roller skating in my house! I even have wood floors which are very conducive to skating... but I also have a 80lb German Shepherd who thinks anything that moves quickly wants to play... ever been hit by a 80 lb dog that is only thinking "gotta play, gotta play, gotta play...":p now the cocktails on the other hand... the bar is stocked come on over!