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.