January 27th Rides

And I spelled the month right for a change!
I was supposed to be leading the club ride, and thought it would be me, myself, and I again. I was surprised when I wheeled into the shopping and was greeted by 15 other riders! We went out to Claremont , where we split in to two group. I went with the faster group and did some climbing. We had one guy who had been happier with the slow folks. I was talking with him on a 8% climb Him: "why are we doing this?" moi "because it's fun!" Him "I think I'm going to throw up" Thankfully, he kept his lunch down. We made it back to Cuca and Monga, and decided to have lunch, So I got in some extra credit miles:) Had to make for the bad Mexican food:p
Since lunch was in a shopping center with a Henry's/Wild Oats, I stopped and did some shopping (Fair Trade coffee) I then head home with 55 more mile than I started out in the morning!

Had a great club ride today. First nice day in a while so there must have been 50-100 folks there. It was in the low 50s and foggy at the start, so we headed out in a single huge peleton, even the fast guys were moderating the pace until the fog lifted. It was nice cuz I had a chance to chat with the faster guys that usually take off ahead of me. I rode with some nice folks, some new friends, some old friends I hadn't seen in a while, some regular riding buds. Heavy winds did hit us coming in (and darn, we didn't even get the benefit of a tailwind going out!) but the sky was sunny and temps in the high 60s by the rides end so we really couldn't complain (got to pull my arm and leg warmers off too, yipee!). Got 39 miles in for the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice too (yey) and we have a killer hill ride planned.

52 miles for me today. The sun was finally out!:) I was able to wear shorts, and a short sleeve jersey with arm warmers. It was a nice break from the cold, rainy, windy weather we've been having. It's supposed to be cold and windy again tomorrow, but at least the sun is supposed to stay.

short sleeves, Aggie?
It was 33 degrees when we started. I had 3 layers. we rode from Lake Forest Park to Marymoor and then to my dismay, instead of turning around and going back (flat) the leaders turned onto the trail that parallels 520. HILLY... and then we went up Juanita drive. Needless to say, i was last ... my DH and another great guy stayed with me for most of the humiliating hill climbs.

32 miles for TE!

Warm but windy here. I made the mistake of not wearing tights and my knees are swollen! It was a north wind, so I felt colder than low 60's. I wore shorts, short sleeves and arm warmers.

Only got in 33 miles due to other things needing to be done: DH work, car oil change. Tomorrow I hope my knees will tolerate 52 miles. :o I may be heading to the doctor soon about the knee issue, it keeps happening. Right now the hot tub will be my medicine. Ahhh...

It's raining off and on so I went to the dojo today, it was a hard class. I can still hear my teachers voice yelling in back of me. "hands closer together, move further off the line, bigger strike, your other left foot not that left foot..."

You'd think with an ancient art that things...would...not...change. But if you go away even for a week I seem to always miss the memo "we're doing it this way now".

Afterwards I stayed after and trained a little more, then headed down the street to my LBS where I ran into Rougedog and her new-old bike.

I'll let her tell you about that, it's an exciting project and I got to see the "before" picture. I look forward to seeing the progress as it transforms.

I was starved so we stopped for coffee/bagels/chat and then headed off and now here I am.

I had a date with Coach Troy. :p

V.

I rode a horse.

We have a date with some housework & then the beach. :p

c

22 mph winds, 21 or 31 degrees, I forget (it got to 31 but I don't know where it started). I went out for my own ride on the Xtra with its funny-sounding wheel and did intervals for a total of 20 miles that felt like 60 ... I'm taking Road Raven (and my indoor TT experience) at her word and breathing harder - and, indeed, I haven't blown up yet! ("Of course you can't possibly continue this... but that's what you said last breath! Come on, it doesn't even hurt or anything, you're just breathing hard!") So I was TIRED after 12 miles...
I've found out that the fella I beat is something of a serious triathlete ... we'll see if he signs up next to me next time :)

Ended up riding close to a whopping 3 miles with my daughter who was disappointed to miss out on our planned ride yesterday due to rain. So since she's staying at her grandparents tonight (to facilitate a couples ride tomorrow), she insisted on riding to their house. All good. Had to put a blinker light on her because it was starting to get a bit dark.

Did a quick ride this morning...11 miles, it was about 8 degrees...brrr. I rode my mtn bike instead of my road bike because it was snowing a bit when i left. I felt pretty comfortable after about a mile or two...but when I stopped boy then did the cold hit me BRRRR. Hubby thinks I am crazy....maybe I am

3 wonderful hours in the countryside around the border.

Sunny and clear, the wild mustard starting to flower now and a very early wild red anenome patch (on a north facing slope - obviously some sweet micro-climate) and a whole colony of cormorants in a eucalyptus grove...
A patch of mud (re-baked in the sunshine of the last few days) was a bit of a challenge being all rutted and ridged from tractor tread, but the rest of the tracks were dry and pleasant.
My new thermal top (The North Face poly-prop, raglan sleeves and a 1/4 zip to a mandarin collar in baby blue) was perfect and I was nice and toasty all the way.

Hubby and I did a great ride around Lake Tapps area where we live. Just out the front drive and off we went like kids! The weather was beautiful today. It felt so wonderful being on my road bike. And tomorrow . . . mountain biking with friends in Black Diamond! What more can you ask for, two weekend days of riding! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Veronica

I had a date with Coach Troy. :p

V.

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Me too. Had my first introduction to Coach Troy and HILLacious! Didn't so much like the workout, but felt great afterwards. Great workout.

Saturday was my only day to ride this weekend. I met a friend, in the afternoon, for a nice 10 mile mtn bike ride. My legs sure were feeling the earlier workout. Had a great ride though.

Kerry

I did a little over 30 miles yesterday. It was the longest I've ever ridden and it wasn't too bad. I'm a bit stiff and my right knee is a bit sore (I've always had problems with that), but other than that it went okay. I was feeling really bad at first, but after a quick break, I felt great! There were even some rolling hills and a bit of a climb. I'm beginning to think that I can do this MS150 thing! :D

I had to go to work early, which meant I had to be back at my house by 7:30am. So I rolled out about 5:30am and headed towards the Palos Verdes Hills. I passed the beautiful Malaga Cove Plaza at the foot of the hill, where I knew my tri club would be organizing a ride at 7:00am. Did the climb in the pre-dawn darkness and did some rolling hills before heading back down to Malaga Cove.

At 7:00am I saw the tri club heading out so I turned my bike around and joined them as they started up the climb again. I wanted to ride!!!!
Ride???:D Work!!!! :mad: Ride???:D Work!!!!:mad:

But darn...I had to go to work. Partway up the climb, I bailed and yelled to the ride leader that I was gone. I turned back down and headed home. On the way home, I realized that the ride leader thought I couldn't make it up the simple hill. He must have thought, "What a wuss! She got dropped early!" :(

We had a fun little adventure. Someone in the local club leads an Amtrak ride by taking a long route to the next station down the way and returning home via train. Amtrak's Capitol Corridor route is the 2nd busiest commuter route in the nation (2nd only to Boston-Wash DC) and they have lots of bike racks aboard. We did a successful test run last week via a 47 mile flat loop but yesterday we took a friend and headed out for Lake Berryessa and the hills.

10 miles from the station we realized that with a sprint we could make the 3 pm train but, of course, Amtrak was late and it was starting to rain. So, Bubba stayed at the station and on alert with one cell phone at the ready while Cyndi and I went to the pizzaria right behind the depot and ordered a yummy pizza to go. 24 mins later we were back in Davis with lots of warm pizza in our tummies.

We decided this was an absolutely excellent way to end a ride and in need of a repeat. Pizzaria's number is going in my cell phone so we can order on route.

It also helped that we rode home with an extra loop of the neighborhood so we could finish with a metric. Somehow that extra half mile was soooo critical to our happiness.

It was a new record for me today in terms of temperature. I'm very comfortable with temps in the 30s (yes, Fahrenheit!), and I've done rides in the high 20s before.

Today? My bicycle and I rolled 18 miles while the thermometer was stuck at 18 degrees! If you're interested, the story of my ride (or maybe I should say of my decision to ride...) is at http://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com/2...s-rolling.html.

--- Denise

Saturday was a "Friday the 13th" for me! Beautiful weather, if you didn't consider the wind. About 55 degrees & sunny. Too nice not to get out on the road. Changed my tires first - had a split on the rear plus a LOT of miles on those puppies. Then decided to give Godiva a good cleaning (needed to get rid of the "mice" that had been accompanying me on the last few rides :rolleyes: ). SO offered to help so he removed the chain & cleaned it. Went to put it back on the bike & noticed 1/2 of the removable link was gone (SRAM chain). He found it - teetering on the edge of the drain in the laundry sink! He grabbed some pliers and.......PLUNK! Down the drain......:mad: :mad: :mad: I handed him his wallet & the car keys & sent him to the LBS to get another link.

Finally got out on the road at about 2:30 - 26 glorious, hilly, windy miles!