August 7th rides!

The usual commute for me. Got to work before the sun peeked over the mountains, which is sorta nice. A bit warm at 65 degrees though.

A new cafe opened in my little town today! This is great news, as I live in a transitional neighborhood. Finally, the retail establishments are moving away from liquor stores to cafes and ice cream stores (although we still have two liqour stores close by, which is fine, since gin and tonic are on my summer menu!)

So my commute started with coffee instead of ending with it. I usually stop at a cafe near my office at the end of my 14-mile commute.

I thought that pre-commute doping (i.e., caffeine) would improve my time, but alas, I had one of my slower commutes...But I'm so glad there is a cafe two blocks from my house! The neighborhood is really coming up!

I was thinking I made a huge mistake today by deciding to ride some hills in preparation for the upcoming Vine Ride, especially after my legs were still achin' from my 44 miler on Saturday.

I went with 2 couples on tandems and another single rider. The first hill we hit was a loooooooong one! You know, one of those ones that you just don't look up because you think it's never going to end. It wasn't very steep, so I made it up with much huffing and puffing (boy, I miss the tripple on my old hybrid!). After that was a screamin' downhill...got up to 37 on that one! A few miles later I told everyone that I was going to call hubby to pick me up. My legs were really hurting! Then I got off and stretched a bit. I felt a little better so I told them that I'd at least make it to North Valley Rd. (where there are many, many more hills) before I threw in the towel. Well, North Valley comes up and I just keep on riding! There were some rollers, but not nearly as bad as I had remembered (yes, I have been avoiding that road!) and I only had to walk up the one monster hill at the end.

So all in all...13 miles at 13 mph. I felt good about myself because I didn't have to call in the reinforcments to pick me up!