First group ride attempt!
I told Mr. Sheesh that I wanted to go for a ride this weekend, and I did not want to ride on the lake path. Now that I'm commuting by bike 3-4 days per week, along the lake path, it isn't as much fun to just ride the lake path anymore. It's kind of like going for scenic Sunday drive on the same route you drive to work every day. Instead, we headed north.
The first section is very bumpy - the roads are crap. Once you get past the first 10 miles though, the route is beautiful. Twisting roads through quiet northern suburbs with a few rolling hills thrown in for good measure. The route back took us through Fort Sheridan. At the end of the trip, we had ridden 37 miles in two hours and forty five minutes.
This morning, Mr. Sheesh asked me if I wanted to try and catch a local group ride that leaves from Evanston at 8:00 a.m. I've never been on a group ride before, so I was very nervous, but up for the challenge. I'd like to learn to ride with other people - close proximity, drafting, talking while riding. We got to the local coffee shop with just enough time to introduce ourselves and learn that the route would be the same one we had just ridden yesterday. Good! I knew what to expect!
This was supposed to be an open "anyone can join" ride where noboby gets ldropped. So I didn't expect the pace to be so fast that we lost sight of the group within the first five miles. So much for a no drop ride! :mad: Good thing Mr. Sheesh was smart enough to know to stay near me, because when he saw me falling off the back, he came back and rode with me. Since he knew the route, we rode it at our own pace. On the way back, we picked up two other guys who had been dropped from the ride and they rode back with us.
In all, I had a great weekend of riding - 75 miles! Now I feel like I could eat a horse, though! Good thing we're having steaks on the grill for dinner! :D
my Sunday ride didn't go quite according to plan ...
On Sunday morning I was thinking I'd head out from home and go up Palomares / Redwood / Pinehurst to Grizzly Peak Blvd. & back, about 80 moderately hilly miles. And maybe once I reached the vicinity of Skyline & Grizzly Peak I'd give bikerz a call to see what she was up to.
Once I reached Palomares Road, a moderate climb between Fremont & Castro Valley (about 4 miles, 1000ft, with an avg grade of ~ 5% and some steeper sections), I got the bright idea that I'd see how fast I could go up it.
About halfway up my stomach started getting queasy & I lost all energy and motivation ! :(
(I'm thinking either the Endurolyte capsules, or the Perpetuem, or the combination of the two, just don't agree with me when I'm climbing with any sort of effort. What is up with that??? I only take one Endurolyte capsule. I'm almost out of Perpetuem, so I'm going to try Sustained Energy next)
I seriously wanted to just turn around and head back for home. Instead, I talked myself into just gearing way down & taking it very easy the rest of the way to the summit, and then decide from there if I was going to turn around or not.
Well, soon I felt much better. I managed to make it to the top of Palomares at almost exactly my current best time, which, considering how I took it really easy the last half, cheered me up a lot and motivated me to keep going.
I had my usual very fun 40+ mph descent towards Castro Valley. At the bottom of the descent there are a few rollers which are really fun to zoom over with momentum.
I must have been off in la-la land over the last roller, because as I crested it and started going down the shallow descent on the other side, I rode off the pavement into a ditch adjacent to a steep up hillside. :eek:
Since the ditch contained a lot of dirt I couldn't regain enough control to hop back on the pavement, and braking wasn't working well either. I did manage to slow down enough so that when I had the inevitable el-face-o into the hillside it wasn't bad - my shoulder and upper arm took the brunt of the impact. Lucky for me, the hillside was dirt and not rock!! :cool:
I just lay there for a few moments thinking "well, this could have been worse" and then finally, very gingerly, got up. Gahhh, my whole right side was just covered with red clay dirt, and poor Dusty was filthy - but otherwise we were both unscathed. A couple of guys pulled up in a pickup truck as I was getting up, and they asked me if I was hurt. I managed to laugh and answer "just my ego!". They hung around for a few moments to make sure I was actually OK and then they went on their way - it was really nice of them to stop.
I spent a while just hanging out along the side of the road, brushing dirt off me & Dusty, and making sure there really was nothing amiss with my bike. My right shoulder and upper arm were pretty scratched up but that was about it.
Altho my bike & I were OK, I wasn't up to continuing on. But I also wasn't too keen on turning around and climbing back over Palomares, so I decided to take the longer but much less strenous route back along Foothill Rd and Sunol. I rode back at a very leisurely pace since I was still a bit shaken up. But the rest of the ride went fine.
By the time I reached the AC Trail I was feeling really good again so I cranked it up for the last 8 miles or so into the wind tunnel. (In preparation for my double century at the end of October, my "coach", maillotpois, had suggested that I work on speed & power over the months of June & July, so I started doing intervals and short power power rides weekday mornings for the last few weeks.)
Well, was delighted to see I could maintain a 16-18 mph pace into the afternoon head/side wind along the Alameda Creek Trail (with a couple of kicks up to 20 mph, woo woo), where previously I could only eeke out maybe 13 mph and nearly die trying. Progress!
I managed to get in about 48 miles altogether. I was so glad to get home and jump in the shower, and give Dusty a bath. :p
While this ride didn't go according to plan, I was able to see a noticeable improvement in my speed, so it still turned out pretty well. :cool:
