SheGotBike! 2008

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Originally Posted by Zen

Remind me to slap you.
Look at my sig line.
Dammit woman, I'm a ride mentor for this and you're my first customer

I s'pose I should go AV as well.
If you hear somebody call "DammitWoman" that'd be me calling you :D

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Zen - I keep telling you, I have no experience with hills. There are 3 bridges here in a 25 mile radius from my house with elevations about 60 feet. That's it. The closest is about 7 miles from me and the others are much farther. So I don't even get a chance to do hills, much less hill repeats. We do have a lot of wind to contend with so that helps, but wind isn't a hill. So that said, I hope I can make it up some of the hills, but don't be surprised if I have to walk on the big ones. I just hope when I do the timber thing and fall over from going so slow that it doesn't hurt too much. :)

See you Sunday and you better have all your hill tips and tricks ready to dole out along with that slap.

There is no shame in walking.
There have been two hill incidents I recall clearly. Once when I couldn't get properly geared in time, once when I just ran out of steam.
In both cases I couldn't get unclipped and did an Artie Johnson.
One of those AJ's was into brambles
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...ll1-1-2003.jpg
This isn't a competition, it's a confidence building event.

Here's what I do.

Curse.
Go to granny.
Then if I find I can do better, upshift.
Simple!

You're a strong rider, you can do this.

Ha! Artie Johnson. Perfect description.

I haven't actually toppled over (yet!) but there have been plenty of times when I thought I was going to.

There have also been plenty of times when I managed to ride all the way to the top of a hill but the people walking were faster than me. But we all made it eventually, and that's all that mattered.

I got an email saying the road markings are incomplete.
The women who are doing them got stopped by the POlice and apparently couldn't convince them of the importance and temporary nature of their act.

This makes no sense to me.
I hope they went out again to finish or there are going to ba a lot of confused cyclists in the vicinity on Sunday.

Oh yeah, I notice the forcast for Sunday is very hot.
They even wrote HOT in red letters.

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Originally Posted by Zen

I got an email saying the road markings are incomplete.
The women who are doing them got stopped by the POlice and apparently couldn't convince them of the importance and temporary nature of their act.

This makes no sense to me.
I hope they went out again to finish or there are going to ba a lot of confused cyclists in the vicinity on Sunday.

Oh yeah, I notice the forcast for Sunday is very hot.
They even wrote HOT in red letters.

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Zen, I thought the e-mail said that there was a new county law and they weren't allowed to mark the roads. I'm a bit nervous about this, since I can't read cue sheets when I wear my sunglasses (no bifocals). Might make for a long ride, stopping all the time to read the cue sheet. I think I'll do the 28 mile ride, both to account for the cue sheet time and because of the heat/humidity.

As a mentor (haha:rolleyes:), I may have gotten a different email.
Maybe they were trying to save face. I find that one a little diffcult to swallow.

Right now I'm leaning toward not going to SheGotBike tomorrow. Between the heat and humidity and no road markings and losing a whole day when I've got a to-do list a mile long, I'm not too enthusiastic.

Zen, could you pick up my t-shirt for me? I think I ordered a large.

Can't blame you.
I feel I have an obligation and would follow suit if I could :o

So how was it?

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Originally Posted by divingbiker

So how was it?

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From the eyes of a flatlander....

It was HOT, HUMID, and all hills! If I wasn't going 4mph UP the hill, it was 25mph DOWN. I confess I had to walk the tops of a couple of them when I ran out of gear. I learned that trying to clip out with that much pressure on the pedals was scary - almost couldn't do it. There were so many hills that my average speed for the day was so slow I can't even type it here. (:() Yikes! Did I say it was ALL hills? If I rode more than 2-3 miles on "flat" terrain I'd be surprised.

The group rides had designated starting times, but by 8am it was looking to be really, really hot, so I just set out by myself and did the whole ride that way. Waiting another hour or two for the group start was not in my best interests. So I missed the yoga class. Oh well. There were fix-a-flat classes and a mountain biking class as well but I did not attend any of therm.

The cue sheets were very good (large type) and included maps on the back if you got lost, but not all the roads were marked. Apparently they were stopped by the State Police while marking the roads and prohibited from continuing.

Rest stops had bagels, PB & J, bananas, water, Gatorade, the usual. The lunch food was great, and lots of veggies cooked all different ways. Grilled chicken, and hamburgers. Lots of desserts.

They had a few prizes - a Trek saddle (new Inform style), jerseys, t-shirts, gift certificates (a bunch of Road ID certificates), and Trek was there with all their new WSD bikes available to test ride, and the new Trek saddles. If I hadn't been so challenged by the hills, I would have test rode some of the bikes, but there just was no flat area around, and I just could not face anotherhill. Quite a few other vendors of services - but not so useful unless you live in that area.

Mostly it was brutally hot and humid. And hilly.

Overall it was a good day (heat notwithstanding) but I don't think I would bother to do the ride again next year unless the weather was gorgeous, and I had a reason to be over that way anyway.

It was definitely the hilliest (and slowest) ride I've ever done.

After the ride I did finally run into Zen, and we chatted for the rest of the afternoon, and waited out all the raffle drawing together, though neither of us won anything. It was really so hot that both of us were fading fast and I'm not sure I even remember what we talked aobut.

That sounds like torture, Martha! But good for you doing it.

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Originally Posted by divingbiker

That sounds like torture, Martha! But good for you doing it.

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Hey!!! Talking to Zen isn't THAT bad!!! ;)

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Originally Posted by 7rider

Hey!!! Talking to Zen isn't THAT bad!!! ;)

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hehehe

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Originally Posted by 7rider

Hey!!! Talking to Zen isn't THAT bad!!! ;)

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Well it was so hot that we were probably incoherent at the end...

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Originally Posted by divingbiker

That sounds like torture, Martha! But good for you doing it.

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You know, it was hard (for me anyway - since I have never ridden any hills at all except for a few bridges) but when it was done I still wanted to ride - I just wanted to ride where it was a little, no - a lot, less hilly. I really thought I would go do another 20 miles when I got home. Yeah right. I finally got home around 7pm - and by then the last thing I wanted to do was get back on a bike.

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Originally Posted by withm

Well it was so hot that we were probably incoherent at the end...

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WHAT?
I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS STUPID P.A. SYSTEM!!!

I didn't get there until ten am and it was far too hot by then to start a ride.
I was also nursing a sprained wrist/hand.

lunch was excellent though:D

And I got your swag bag, DB.

I don't know if I'll do this again. Its a great opportunity to pick up some clothing bargains but it took me an hour and a half to get there :(

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Originally Posted by Zen

WHAT?
I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS STUPID P.A. SYSTEM!!!

I didn't get there until ten am and it was far too hot by then to start a ride.
I was also nursing a sprained wrist/hand.

lunch was excellent though:D

And I got your swag bag, DB.

I don't know if I'll do this again. Its a great opportunity to pick up some clothing bargains but it took me an hour and a half to get there :(

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Too bad, Zen. So I guess you didn't get to torment(or) anyone.

Thanks for picking up my loot.