Finally got to ride my new bike again

Sad, but true -- I got the new Trek 5200, went on one glorious ride, then got hit by the flu the very next day. I skipped the next week's ride, because I didn't want to end up with a relapse of the flu. In fact, my energy level took a while to catch up, so I didn't do ANYTHING fitness wise for two weeks.

Saturday was our training ride, so I was a little apprehensive about being able to keep up with my group. My ride leader assured me that I would be fine.

Off we went -- two miles into it, one of our leaders caught some shrapnel in her rear tire, so we stopped by the side of the road while she changed it. Kind of an entertaining stop -- we discussed a few controversial things, such as the merits of Tire Slime in the tube, Mr. Tuffy liners between the tire and tube, the best position for the rear quick release lever, and the optimal tension for said quick release lever. Oh, and the merits of different tire pumps.

Once the tire was changed, pumped up, and affixed properly, we were off again. Boy did my legs tighten up during our impromptu break. Hmmm, maybe not a good sign.

Oh well, after a couple of miles, they loosened up again. We continued the warm up portion of our ride on a nice flat section, with a couple of rolling hills.

Then it was time for the climbing portion of our ride. Up we went -- a sustained climb of about 4 miles. Awesome scenery, but lots of pedaling uphill. The triple came in mighty handy here!

Riding with a group also came in handy. Rather than focus on how hard the climb was (I had a nasty side ache for about half of the climb), we entertained each other. We talked about everything from how far we thought it would keep climbing, previous rides we'd done, when to switch into the small chainring. Yes, the theme to our conversations was climbing, but it wasn't "When is this hill EVER gonna end?!"

Well, it did end; at the top we re-grouped, stretched, drank water, etc. Then we turned around and descended like mad women! Yee haw!!

Then it was out on more flat terrain to go to downtown Pleasanton for a coffee stop. Very nice, quaint downtown. Nice Lotus roadster (probably set up for vintage racing) parked in front of the coffee house, which attracted quite a few onlookers.

After a nice rest, it was a quick jaunt back to the parking lot over more relatively flat terrain.

All in all, a great ride; rides like this are why we cycle.

Hope you all had a great weekend for cycling....

-- Melissa

Sounds like a fabulous ride; it's so much fun to ride a new bike, as I am finding too with my Aegis. Glad you're feeling better now!

Glad you're feeling better Melissa.

When will we see you on Diablo? That's a screaming downhill! We rode the tandem up to the ranger station at the junction of North and South Gate roads yesterday. Usually for the downhill we take it pretty easy, there's the traffic to deal with and usually we're too cold to really let it fly. The gods must have been smiling on us yesterday, because it was a beautiful, warm day and there was virtually no traffic on the downhill. We stayed in the high twenties, low thirties nearly all the way down. Even hit forty a couple of times. That's not the fastest we've gone on the tandem, but it is the fastest we've done the twisty descent of North Gate Road!


Veronica

I'm really glad you're feeling better Mellissa!

You're making me sorry I missed out on that ride. I got an attack of the lazies and decided I really didn't want to load up my bike and drive to the start, so I slept in another hour or two and rode around home. I made it 3/4 of the way up my nemesis hill this time (which I'm told is called Nike Hill, no, there are not small children sewing athletic wear at the top, legend has it it was once a missle launch site). The summit is in reach. The only other notable moment from my ride was a close encounter with a goat herd. :)

Can hardly wait until next weeks ride :rolleyes: - I'll be packing the strecher...

Stay healthy, - Jo.

Glad you're feeling better Melissa! Now I'm sorry I missed the ride too! Downtown Pleasanton is cute, my ex-bf and I used to hang out there a lot. He lives in Tracy, I'm in San Jose, so Pleasanton was a good halfway point. I played couch potato all weekend, and let my back rehab a little more. Saw my chiro tonight - she's also a fantastic massage therapist, so I'm a happy, relaxed camper.

Jo - where is your Nemisis hill? And if you're going to be attracting goats, I'm riding in front......

:p

Quote:

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Originally posted by Veronica
Glad you're feeling better Melissa.

When will we see you on Diablo? That's a screaming downhill! We rode the tandem up to the ranger station at the junction of North and South Gate roads yesterday. Usually for the downhill we take it pretty easy, there's the traffic to deal with and usually we're too cold to really let it fly. The gods must have been smiling on us yesterday, because it was a beautiful, warm day and there was virtually no traffic on the downhill. We stayed in the high twenties, low thirties nearly all the way down. Even hit forty a couple of times. That's not the fastest we've gone on the tandem, but it is the fastest we've done the twisty descent of North Gate Road!


Veronica

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this is totally OT but I can see where you are talking about... I went to Monte Vista ('77) and we got married at BBQ terrace in the spring, 20 years ago... i used to cut school to go up there all the time, but that's another story... ;-)

Irulan

carry on....