Rides - September 11th, Monday

Wow, I get to start the daily riding thread twice, in a row no less! It must be something in the water I'm sure... :cool:

Soooooo, I did the commute to work this morning. I moved recently and now live about twice as far from work as before (13.5 miles vs 5).

It was rather windy at the start but once I got on the northbound route by the foothills, conditions calmed noticeably. I ended up taking a more direct route on the last part of the ride, which while shorter, does have a rather difficult stretch with traffic. I'll have to think of a better/different route in the future.

The ride back is all uphill of course, but I'll take it easy and spin my way home.

This morning I rode the Alameda Creek Trail from near my home, out to the San Francisco Bay, and back again, about 10 miles. It was chilly so I broke out my Witches Britches, wool jersey and bright yellow vest.

I headed out right after sunup and there was a pretty mist along the ground. But once I reached the end of the trail out at the bay and headed back inland, the fog was really coming in ! I think I had less than 1/4 mile visibility on the way back home. :eek: Good thing I was wearing my yellow vest. I turned on my rear red blinky light for the mile or so of street riding before I reached home. I wish I had a headlamp too, someone nearly backed out on me from a driveway. The visibility was that bad.

Still, it was cool riding in the fog. I'll just be better prepared next time.

what was your final stretch CC?? We can check the bike map and see if there's a bike path nearby. Also: what time are you leaving work??........wanna head my way and pick me up on your way home?

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Originally Posted by CorsairMac

what was your final stretch CC?? We can check the bike map and see if there's a bike path nearby. Also: what time are you leaving work??........wanna head my way and pick me up on your way home?

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Hey C-Mac :)

That last bit was on San Antonio, west past I-25, across jefferson before I got into the journal center. I had a good plan but the last part of the bike path between San Pedro/San Antonio & I-25/San Antonio is closed. Next time I'll probably opt for catching the diversion channel and riding up the back to the center.

Sure we can meet up on the way back - where will you be exactly and what time? I'm living on central & tramway now, so I'll definitely be headed your way on my commute home.

I'll probably leave here around 4:30 or so.

My husband and I both work at home in separate offices. At 4:30 today I heard him call from downstairs: "Come on, SADDLE UP!!!" What a guy! :p

We jumped on our bikes and did an hour and forty minutes very lovely country ride. It just doesn't get any better than that for me.

The commute today, as per usual. B U T, this time I stayed in the big ring all the way to work! Zooom!

Breezy and cool, with a fabulous beach-smell and you could see the ferry coming in as I whooshed through town.

32 minutes of single track on our acreage after work. Not very long, but I crashed trying to work on slow-speed tight turns (for some reason tight left-hand turns give me much more difficulty than right-hand turns, so I was working on those). I didn't hurt myself too bad, but will have a new crop of bruises. I decided to quit while I was ahead.

On a more positive note, I felt strong the entire time, climbed well, my breathing was great. I started Advair a couple of weeks ago, and I think it's really helping. I am not huffing and puffing so much, and my HR is lower than before on these same trails and with the same effort level. Fun!

I also got to try out my new Cateye Mity 8 computer - it rocks! I averaged 6 mph for the ride, including some slow-speed maneuvers and my fall, so not too bad.

Emily

I haven't posted on the daily ride thread for awhile - I haven't been riding as much since school started.

Ate too much all weekend and discovered the night class I am teaching started tonight not next week as I thought. I had an hour and a half in between and thought "Nap or ride" Remembered every delicious bite over the weekend and ride won out.

Rode our 13 mile return bike trail and figured I had better do more of a workout ride than a leisure one. kicked it up a notch and started spinning, was making great time on the way out then discovered it was a little bit of a cross tailwind helping me. Oh oh head wind back :( turned around and still made good time with some additional heavy breathing.

All in all did the ride in 52 minutes with an average speed of 14.7 including the streets in town, had time for supper and prepare for class :)

Just about to dash out and ride home (it's almost 10:00 p.m.) and beat the second mess of storms... which waitied for me to get to work this morning.

So, aside from a bit of mist a few weeks ago, it *still* doesn't rain on me :-) Thank you, goddesses of weather!!

Did two longer rides today; one north; one south. One for each tower.

30 mile ride today in gorgeous weather. Got to take my shirt off when a bee went down it (note to self--get a Brandi Chastain-style sports bra for such moments). Did not get stung, I am glad to say (got stung by a yellow jacket on my neighbor's porch last week, figure that's enough). Ate some---yes---gnats. Did my little hill. Got my bald eagle sighting quotient for the day. Wished I could just do this every day.

Finally got started on my plan of cycling home from work. I only started in my new job last week, but last week my dad was visiting so I had to get home right after work. My new job is actually the same as my old job more or less. Same office, same boss, slightly different tasks. But I had two months off between jobs so I haven't done the ride home in quite a while. My plan is to ride half way home on days when I work full days. On days when I work half day, I'll aim to ride the whole way home.

So Monday I headed for the halfway ride. It is 20 miles (actually 19, but I do ride 2 miles to work from the station in the morning so I count it as 20). The ride includes the closes thing I get to a big hill anywhere around here. It's not big by normal standards, but for Essex it's not bad. I took a while to warm up and was feeling particularly tired and achy at the beginning of the ride, but still kept a good pace up the hill. Good for me that is. I managed not to drop below 7mph the whole way up which I was really happy with. Happy enough to give me a burst of energy and I was flying in to the station by the end of the ride. My avg speed for the whole ride was 13mph. Faster than I've ever kept up on that distance before. I must be getting in better shape without realizing it. And to top it all off, it was a glorious sunny day without being too hot. Just perfect.