September 6 rides

[Fredwina]

I had to drop my car off to get some work done, so I didn't get as much miles before the club ride.I did ride by the grape in Fontana, and there were harvesting , but no camera
Unfortunately, riding back by Victoria Gardens, they was a Kitten in the middle of the road. It apparently had been run over and it spine was broken. I was debating what to do, as there was a rider who was going to do one of my perm routes and was waiting for me to sign him out. The cat got me upset ,even though I didn't think there was much I could do for it....
anyway, on to more happier things.
I circled back, and found a motorist had also spotted the cat and was taking it to the shelter. I got the Randonneur out on the ride, and took off with Bruce,
And I didn't get dropped that bad on the first hill I could catch them at a light
I took my shortcut and found bruce chatting with Brandy she was doing hill repeats. I still had cat on the Brain (guys didn't seem to be much in to emotions, other than arrgh! I can't drop the fat lady!)
we all rode back together. I decided that I need to get my mind off of the cat, and had some cheesecake.
I still needed some extra mile so I doubled back on baseline. Big mistake, as wound fighting the wind and the heat. did I mention my apt's a/c is out for the third time this month?

[makbike]

It was a beautiful day to ride - blue skies, scattered clouds, a nice breeze, low humidity and temperatures in the upper 70's. My legs have felt dead and heavy recently so I took Thursday and Friday off to let them rest. They felt great today, full of energy and even with a strong headwind/crosswind most of the way I was able to post a nice average speed. I logged 23. 7 miles and had a great time. I even spotted the Goodyear blimp as it passed over my small community (I wonder what it was doing in our neighborhood?).

[MrsB]

DH and I started out going to do our 28 mile loop which includes seafood. LOL. We make it no problem to the seafood restaurant but it started to down pour as we were riding away. We made it another 4 miles and called for oldest son to come get us. :0( Hopefully tomorrow we can get back out and get a good ride in. WE made it only 20 miles today. Hopefully we get the remnants of the hurricane out of here quickly!

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

First off... Krista...where were ya, sweetie?? I looked and looked for ya at the start. If we just missed eachother, I'm so sorry!! I really hope that was the case and not that your ankle kept you from riding. I'm really bummed we didn't get to meet!! The weather kept me off the century. DARN IT!!!

Rather than type out my ride report...please allow me to just cut-n-paste what I wrote to my "old" cycling mentor. He'll be 83 this month and is a complete SPITFIRE. He did HHH this year...in 10hrs...but he did it!! Amazing man. Anyway - here's my report

WOOM,
You and I have done this ride... a "dam near perfect ride." I remember how you'd look forward to this one. This is my 3rd in a row since my gloried return to our beloved sport. Also...out of the 17years this ride has gone on, the last 2 in a ROW have been rainy! I never much liked riding in rain...much less in COLD and rainy conditions. It was 59 degrees at the start of this puppy! Did we turn back? HECK NO. ha ha

I didn't stop at the first rest stop, but at the second and third, I SERIOUSLY considered hailing a cab! That freezing cold rain really took a toll on my brain. I forced myself, however, to "just make it to the next rest stop"... repeat...repeat.. Well, you know "THAT HILL" on DamJam? The long nasty one that pitches up steeply for the last 1/3 of the hill? (by the way, I saw a few men walking that hill today! hee hee) As I topped that hill - with my marvelous triple - the clouds parted and a huge ray of sunshine poured out on me. It was such wonderful timing, it had to be a gift from the heavens.. Up until that point, I'd been rained on fairly consistently since mile 15. This sunshine was at mile 50.

It was at that point that I told myself "all bets are off". I busted my tail to make up time that the rain and cold had stolen from my psyche. I rode inbetween 16-22mph for the last 22 miles. And the hills weren't over (check the ride profile attached). There was a new part of this ride that took us up a short 14% honker (passed another man walking it) which I didn't remember from yrs past.

I am pretty sure you and I did the 3/4 Dam Jam when we last rode together...but that had to be at least 11 yrs ago. I haven't done the 3/4 DJ since then. I did the 1/2 in 2006 and got completely rained off the 3/4 last year, only able to do 46 miles because they closed the route. We had to double-back over our outward track last year.

Anywhoo.... my friend...hope I was able to give you a humorous glimpse into my day AND your memories of DamJam. Can you believe...my friends want to do a 70 mile MS150 training ride in the morning?? Woof....

Love ya and miss you,
WCF

Here's the ride profile from my Garmin:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6698233

By the way... WOOM and WCF are monikers he assigned us 14yrs ago.. LOL He is WOOM (Wild n Wooly Old Man) and he called me WCFBRP (Wild n Crazy Female Running and Biking Person). Everyone should have a wiley older friend like him.

[Zen]

Daggone it, Fredwina!
When I see a ride thread started by you I look forward to photos!

[DebTX]

DH and I did our usual 20 mile loop. I was on the slow side today, but had a great ride Thursday so didn't beat myself up over it.

After the ride, we went to a friend's house for a big BBQ and I had a couple of margaritas out of his margarita machine. The first one didn't taste like it had much alcohol in it (I shoulda known better). By the time I'd had 3 or 4, I was plastered! OMG, I don't think I've been that buzzed in quite a few years

I took a few tylenol, but I suspect tomorrow's ride might be a bit slow too.

[Aggie_Ama]

Deb- I have one of those friends with a Killer Rita machine. Worst hangover of my life is from that thing, two days of pure hell. My Nanny (yes my grandma) gave me the best hangover cure, a regular Coke and if you can stand it drop some pure sugar in it. Just in case you need it in the morning.

DH and I went to do some mountain biking today. It took me forever to go over the rock bridge, the first technical section. My nerves were purely shot after my crash. I ended up walking it. I finally started to loosen up after going down a large hill and stopped while he did a technical section. I saw him coming up a hill he has really been testing himself on, pushing his bike. His chain had sanpped.

We went back to the truck and I left him there long enough to ride back to the rock bridge, went over it and felt better. Drove to the LBS and then came home. Puttered around the neighborhood a bit trying to get more comfortable with my darn Candies pedals. Still not but hopefully I can suck it up or just go get some different pedals.

[Brandy]

51 miles and 9,120 ft of climbing. That was two ascents of Baldy Rd, all the way to the ski lifts.

http://www.socalvelo.com/sub/mount_baldy_road.htm



This was my last big climbing ride before Everest Challenge. My first time up was great, I was actually able to maintain decent power and came in with a great time. At the beginning of the second climb I started chatting with a guy in a Triple Crown jersey and at some point he asks me "do you know George Vargas?"...I said, "yes, he's my boyfriend...lol." I swear I can be pretty much anywhere and run into someone who knows him. He gets around.

I stopped to talk to him (Bruce) and up rolls Jana (fredwina)!! It was nice to finally meet you after all this time on TE together.

They rolled on and I continued on my climb, which was by now, BLAZING HOT! I refilled bottles at the post office/fire station drinking fountain, and soaked myself with water for the climb up to the lifts. Four firemen stood watching me, so I had to explain that I was creating my own micro-climate...ala Floyd Landis...lol. The climb to the lifts went well again, though I came in nine minutes slower. I slowed to try to encourage a guy who was cramping and rode with him for a little bit. He was about to stop again and I told him to hang on until we hit the shade. I realized then that he had two small EMPTY bottles. I gave him one of mine and a few Accel Gels and told him I had to be on my way, but that I knew he could do it. He only had another 300ish ft of climbing to the top. As I was descending, he was on his final stretch (and had found his friend who was now climbing with him) and I cheered him on. Hopefully he was able to make it back okay as he had come across the ridge.

I was hoping to hit 50 mph on the descent, as I had hit 47 on the previous descent. The wind had other ideas though and slowed me down. Darn it!

[Susan126]

Just copied my report from my blog:

I went for a bike ride around 1:30 this afternoon. The day was beautiful. Clear skies, sunshine, and very windy. Rainer was out and he was looking mighty fine. I set a casual pace because tomorrow Joe and I are riding in the annual Headwater Century Bike Ride. Today I just wanted to get out and stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and enjoy the beautiful late summer early autumn day. It did not disappoint me.



I rode the Orting Trail. It's a beautiful trail with a lot of trees on either side of it. It was also very busy. I guess I wasn't the only one who was out enjoying the day. There were moms and dads with their kids. People on roller blades and skateboards. There were walkers and hikers and of course a ton of bicyclists.







There were also a lot of people fishing on this fine day. As I rode by the Carbon River I saw dozens of men, women, and kids with poles in their hands. The king salmon run had begun and people were out casting their lines in hope of catching the big one. The Carbon River is very silty from the glacier run off from Mt. Rainier. It is also very cold! I stopped and watched for a while and then continued on with my ride.



I got a good 29.77 miles in and finished around 4:00 PM. It was a good day and a good ride, I hope there will be more rides just like this one. I'm ready for tomorrow's ride. Check back for a report on it. Tomorrow is supposed to be as gorgeous as today.

[DebTX]

Aggie - thanks for the hangover cure. So far, so good. But DH woke up with a cold, so no ride this morning (I'm kinda grateful, I'm not sure I'd be doing much)

Brandy - OMG, when I read that you did that climb twice I was awed. I complain about being slow on my small climbs (a 6% incline is still hell for me.) You are my hero.

Susan - your photos are beautiful. I love to look at Mt Ranier and the only thing better than looking at it for me, is flying out of SEATAC and getting a view from the air. I lived there for 18 months and the pacific NW is one of my favorite places in the country. It was there that I discovered what real salmon is. The stuff we all eat in the rest of the country is a bad imitation. You guys get the real stuff -and once I tasted it, I was spoiled for life.

[Brandy]

Brandy - OMG, when I read that you did that climb twice I was awed. I complain about being slow on my small climbs (a 6% incline is still hell for me.) You are my hero.

Thank you Deb. I just love to climb. Scratch that. I love to suffer. Truly, it's an illness. I don't know why I do some of the things that I do. Okay, that's a lie. When you live with someone that does things that are out of your reach, you're always chasing them. I'll blame it on George.

Oh...and I couldn't do it without the help of DJ Tiesto. In Search of Sunrise 4 has been my climbing companion all summer. GREAT MUSIC!

[Kvixen23]

I did it!!!! I rode my first Century!!! It was the Oklahoma DAM J.A.M. the same one that BabyBlueNTulsa did (with the hill ). I had to walk up the last .20 miles .....It was at mile 81 and I just couldn't hold my bike up going less than 3 mph

It was a beautiful ride. Even though it rained on us for 40 miles it didn't deter us. Once the sun came out it was gorgeous. My friend and I finished in 9 hours (I know, impressive right ) with 7 h 36 m in the saddle. I had a flat at mile 50 but other than that it was a wonderful ride.

I'm so happy that I was able to do a century. As some of you know I was unable to do HHH due to ankle tendonitis. My ankle is fine today. A little swollen but nothing worth writing home about.

I can't wait to do my next century!!!!!

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

Krista - don't beat yourself up at all for having to walk that. I saw men walking it who hadn't been on the century route. You did nearly DOUBLE the climbing that I did with "only" 30 extra miles. Awesome awesome job, girlie!! Glad your ankle had healed up! This certainly would have 'broken' an insufficiently-healed one.

You should be EXTRA proud of completing your first century right here in Oklahoma. Those Texans don't know what they're missing at Hotter-n-H*ll. Yeah, they have the heat...but I'm betting you did about 6,000 more feet of climbing...ANDDDD they don't have NEAR the views.

HUGS GF..and CONGRATULATIONS!!
Susan

P.S. Its your turn to tune ME into a century in YOUR neck of the woods. Okie dokie?

I did it!!!! I rode my first Century!!! It was the Oklahoma DAM J.A.M. the same one that BabyBlueNTulsa did (with the hill ). I had to walk up the last .20 miles .....It was at mile 81 and I just couldn't hold my bike up going less than 3 mph

It was a beautiful ride. Even though it rained on us for 40 miles it didn't deter us. Once the sun came out it was gorgeous. My friend and I finished in 9 hours (I know, impressive right ) with 7 h 36 m in the saddle. I had a flat at mile 50 but other than that it was a wonderful ride.

I'm so happy that I was able to do a century. As some of you know I was unable to do HHH due to ankle tendonitis. My ankle is fine today. A little swollen but nothing worth writing home about.

I can't wait to do my next century!!!!!

[ridenread]

KVIXEN Congratulations on your first century

Susan126 Beautiful pictures

[spindizzy]

I realized then that he had two small EMPTY bottles. I gave him one of mine and a few Accel Gels and told him I had to be on my way, but that I knew he could do it. He only had another 300ish ft of climbing to the top.

Woa!! Fantastic work on your ride.
You are a very thoughtful, observant and generous rider. And you put him on the path of positive thought, which is sometimes all one needs to reach a goal. I'm glad he wasn't too "put off" by your actions to not accept your generosity.