saturday apr 7th ride

[mimitabby]

we're in wenatchee, we did 76.3 miles on the tandem, way way more than i planned!!!

lots of hills, no heavy winds, NO RAIN, and even a little sun.

i started out feeling really awful have been fighting a cold/sinus thing,
but when we got back (like to Wenatchee) I was feeling much better.

talk about a recovery ride!

pictures later!

[teigyr]

Yay, sounds beautiful!!! I know what you mean about the cold/sinus thing, I'm doing that too. Let's hope my ride tomorrow knocks it out of me.

I can't wait to see pictures! How were the downhills?

[Crankin]

Well, I didn't ride today because I was teaching at my club's bike workshop. Steve and I do "Basic Bike," where we teach about different kinds of bikes, gearing, accessories, clothing. We did four one hour sessions and I am exhausted (more than if I actually rode). At each session, people asked what bike shop we owned or represented, because of all of the shwag that was displayed. The only thing that wasn't ours was one stand and a hybrid bike! Of course, this stuff has been acquired over almost 10 years, but when you see it all spread out on a table, it made me feel a little guilty, like I must be crazy.

Yesterday, I did take my commuter bike on its maiden voyage. I rode 7.9 miles round trip to Concord center and back. There were a few annoying things, like when I tested out the spd pedals in my driveway, I couldn't unclip, so those need to be adjusted and some of the shifting was a little rough. So, I rode on the flat side of the pedals and my feet were flying off every few minutes. It was 35 degrees out when I left, so this was my coldest road ride ever. Well, on a hard tail mtb, I was not going that fast; I actually got up to 15-16 for a bit, but the bike, along with the pannier must weigh 30 lbs. Quite a different feeling from my Kuota. I bought some stuff at one of the stores and had a mocha latte. When I came out of the coffee place, it was snowing ! Well, flurries, and looking very dark.
I did notice that motorists were much friendlier to me. Three times cars stopped and let me make a left. Now, I ride these roads all of the time and nobody does that. I was wearing cycling clothes, but I looked like a "regular" person, commuting/doing errands.
Hopefully, I will get a real (long) ride in tomorrow.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow Mimi...76 miles with lots of hills??? Amazing.

DH and I did 18 miles today. It was only 26-29 degrees F for our whole ride, so it was kind of cold but it was sunny and no wind, we didn't freeze. In fact, I stayed quite comfortable!
We did one long steady highway incline of about a mile that I remembered from last year a couple of times- I recall how I used to gasp for air and my legs would be in some pain and i had to concentrate real hard to make it up to the end. This time (6 months later) I was only breathing hard (not gasping) and my legs were burning but not in pain at all, and I kept a steady pace that I know was faster than last time (which had seemed to take forever). It was an effort but not unpleasant at all now. YAY, progress that I could really see!
This was a route i used to sort of avoid because of that long hill. Not anymore, it's a good pleasant leg muscle builder now!

Oh, and DH put on some nifty Kool-Stop brake pads for me this afternoon. No more losing my braking ability in unexpected downpours.

[Wahine]

Mimi - that area is beautiful. I bet you had a fantastic ride.

DH and I rode up along the Klickitat river, one of the few natural rivers left. The grade was steady and moderate until about mile 20, then we had to climb a big pitch with switchbacks. We were rewarded with a large herd of white tail deer and 3 bald eagles. It was quite spectacular. Cloudy and a little rainy but not cold. We turned around at mile 22 and headed back. We saw another bald eagle on our way back to the truck. 3:19:55 for 43.40 miles. Thank goodness that nothing at Ironman is nearly this hilly or I wouldn't make the cut-offs.

I jumped off the bike and ran 3 miles. This is the beginning of the longer brick workouts for Ironman. Gotta love how your legs feel running after those hills and miles.

[lesliejo]

Wow Mimi,
I love the ride that you did today. The Klickitat River Road is beautiful.
I rode from White Salmon to Trout Lake this morning. I tried to beat the rain, but no such luck. It started sprinkling about BZ Corners, then turned into a drizzle. No worries though, it was warm and relatively light traffic. Not a lot of road spray. It was only about 42 miles, but a real nice ride to start the day. I will have to head east and do the Klickitat soon. Did you run into many dogs....had a problem last time I rode that route. Good thing my riding buddy had dog biscuits in his bike bag. Looking forward to sunnier days.

[LBTC]

Yay! I finally have a ride report!

Our friends B&C, DH and I drove to Salmon Arm (about 40 minutes away), and rode the Salty Dog race course. The event is May 6 and is a 6 hour enduro mtb race.

After having just learned about the muscles in my abdomen that are involved in the Crohn's symptoms, I was focussed on completing the trail loop, having fun, but avoiding any overuse of the involved muscles. There was quite a lot of climbing on the course, and I'm used to climbing hard and digging in in the cosmic crunch when the sudden steeps happen. However, at just about every change of incline to a bit steeper, I'd feel the familiar twinge. I'd gear down if I could, pedal lighter, and sit up as straight as possible to give my lungs and belly lots of room to breathe.

It worked!! At about 1 hour 40 minutes I started to notice that I wasn't getting twinges anymore, just a fairly constant but low-grade discomfort. More keeping my upper body as relaxed as possible, more long breaths and belly breathing, more slower speed than I'm used to, and consequently, for the rest of the ride and now, several hours later I feel only the slightest discomfort, similar to any evening. Yay! I'm so glad my belly didn't get to full-on cramped stage and seriously, the rest of me feels ready to go again! My legs and lungs feel absolutely fine!

And, despite the slower speed, I really enjoyed myself and felt like I still have the bike skills that took me so many years to acquire. The course has lots of man-made obstacles - ramps, bridges, etc. I haven't been riding these for several years now, and had basically become quite afraid of them. I love that the obstacles on this trail system are all very confidence inspiring! There was only one incident, and the trail goddess and my tires really helped me out with that one - tire had a bit of mud on it, so tire spun on the little ramp, then spun again, then a sort of shot over to one side, luckily it was not a really high ramp, and somehow I managed to pedal through it and not put a foot down. Cool!

There was a super fast section near the end - so much fun! I can do that faster next time now that I know there's nothing super scary on it! There was some fabulous deep tree riding that was just divine! Just the right amount of roots rocks and odd corners, all winding through big trees with little underbrush. My favourite!! No, I wasn't really thrilled by the longish road climb in the middle of the ride, and I so had to go slow on it to keep the belly happy, but that allowed me to enjoy the scenery and the view! as we got higher and higher.

Best of all were all of the (get this) butterflies!! I kid you not! At the onset of the ride, they were just everywhere, and there were at least 4 different species. What a joy to see them! And there, on that terribly long road climb (no, it wasn't that bad, I've ridden worse), as I plodded along, a lovely mourning cload butterfly, fluttered alongside me for a bit, then alighted on a nearby rock to bask in the sun. It didn't even move when I pedaled by. Ah, thank you!

Part way through I also remembered to converse with the trail goddess. I thanked her a lot. What a wonderful world we live in - what a great life to have. To live in such a wonderful area with so many riding opportunities, to have great friends to ride with, who know the trails, and to have enough health to enjoy the riding, and enough new insight in my health condition to adjust my riding style to accommodate my body's new needs.

I'm hoping we can do a nice little ride nearby tomorrow. There's a few other big things to do, but we hope to get out to the park anyway. I'll certainly find out if my "new" body can tolerate the effort two days in a row!

Thank you for listening and happy riding to you all!

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~