Mines Road Recap

[Veronica]

I decided to start a new thread to describe the actual ride.

SK, Jobob, MP, akaKim, BikeMomma, and Bike Goddess were there from TE. There was also a group from BG's bike club, a guy from my club, Patric, my honey, Thom, Robert of 508 and soon to be RAAM rider fame and Glen, I'm not sure where he fits in.

We took off about 9:20 and it was already a bit warmer than I would like. I started off riding and chatting with MP. My HR quickly shot up and my monitor was beeping. And pretty much beeped for the next 30 miles.

We had a partial regroup after the first big climb. The route then becomes fairly rolling, a steady one percent grade for the next twenty miles or so. Kim passed me and said Patric was having some mechanical problems, but Thom was with him so I wasn't worried. I expected Thom to catch up with me, but he didn't and he didn't. I eventually turned around and went back to see where he was. He had had some brake issues and the heat was really getting to him. This was after all our first really hot ride of the season, and he doesn't acclimate to the heat as quickly as I do.

We discussed where we thought the next regroup would be, so we could tell the group that we were going to bag the ride. He just wasn't having fun. After about 12 miles we eventually caught up with Kim, Patric and Jo, who had stopped to refill water bottles. By this time Thom was feeling better and quickly left me in the dust.

There are two little climbs about five miles before the Junction and then a 2.5 mile descent. We had a full regroup at the Junction Cafe and a resupply of water and Gatorade. I talked with Robert a bit about HR. He reassured me that it's normal for the heat to cause your HR to be 5 - 8 beats higher. This is my first season of really paying attention to my HR. And in the past, I've been able to get the beeper to stop beeping without too much difficulty. I have my next double next weekend (and dang it I WANT to finish this one!) and it's going to be just as hot if not more so.

I wasn't looking forward to the climbs back out of the Junction. It was hot and the last time I rode them was after going to the Summit of Hamilton and I felt horrible on these climbs then. Amazingly, I didn't feel horrible at all yesterday. In fact on the second one, I remarked to Jo that this is the kind of riding I like.

Once over the two climbs, the four of us at the back regrouped in a shady spot. Then Thom and I pacelined back for about 10 miles to mile 12 on the road where he had dropped a Gu. Unfortunately it had gotten run over, but he picked up his trash. Patric and I then took off and zoomed through the furnace that was the last downhill. We stopped again in the shade to wait for Thom and Jo. That Jo has become a wicked good descender since I last rode with her. Woooohooo for Jo! Another convert to the fast is fun group!

We then pacelined out to the end of the road where the rest of the group was waiting. It was about 4 miles out to the cars at this point and Thom tells me not to stop. I continue pulling my little train at about 18 mph. But my HR is climbing, climbing climbing. Four riders from the other group pass us like we're standing still. Man, MP and BikeMomma are fast! My HR is now up above 180, which puts me solidly in the puke zone and I start to coast. Thom hollers, "Don't coast!" I yell back, "I'm going hurl!" So he says, "Go the back!" Man, life at the back of the paceline is way better. We were still doing around 18, but within a few seconds the urge to puke was gone and the HR dropped.

We hung around the cars for a bit yakking and drinking the sodas Robert bought. Three cheers for Robert! I don't think a 7 Up has ever tasted so good!

Then the TE ladies, except BikeMomma, who needed to go go be mom, it being Mother's Day after all, Patric and Thom went and had pizza and beer.

It seemed to be a good ride, although a "bit" warm, for all. Pictures were taken of the group at the Junction Cafe. Hopefully someone will post them. My average speed was 1.5 miles higher to the Junction, then it was on DMD. I guess 91 miles and 9,000 feet of climbing really does take a toll. Duh!

V.

[Bike Goddess]

Thanks V for the excellent write up. As an addendum, the folks from my Benicia bike club left us at the Junction Cafe to go on to the summit of Mt Hamilton. I just wasn't up for that kind of riding, so I rode back to the cars with the rest of the group. Fortunately Tall Joe had given me the comibination to the door lock of his car so I could put my bike away and join the group for pizza.

Tall Joe and Craig (the faster riders of that group) got back at 6:45. (about 3 hours after us) They both said the last climb to the summit was very steep and hot. I'm glad I didn't go on! They also said that it is 20 miles to the summit instead of the 14 miles I had understood it to be. That gave them a century ride!

Of the 5 riders who went up that way, 4 made the summit including Joe Shami (our eldest member at 71). He also did the Grizzly Peak Century ride last weekend-a grueling ride of the SF Bay area hills (109 miles - 8550 ft elev gain) This guy has stamina!

As V said it was a nice ride, but the heat took its toll. Someone said they had recordings of 100 degrees- probably more like 95. Not easy riding with sun on us most of the way up. Coming back down from the Junction Cafe we hit headwinds (no wonder it felt so warm going up!) which somewhat impeded our rapid descent. But at that point, it was great to have something in our faces!

Lesson learned- on a day like yesterday, it would have been prudent to schedule this ride for a 7AM start. That would have made it much more pleasant for all of us!

[maillotpois]

Wow what a great ride. Thanks for organizing, Nancy.

It was super hot, as noted. Probably good practice for next weekend (Davis Double). BTW, V, Glen is "gw_12" on BJ, so I guess that's where he fits in! He was super fun to ride with at the end and had some good stories.

Boy did I have fun climbing the first half of the ride with SK. It is so much more fun to do a super long hot climb with someone where you can chat the whole time and just let the miles go by. It really makes the climb seem shorter!

It was so great meeting some of you wonderful TE ladies for the first time. Thanks so much for welcoming me into your group!

Edit: Wow - I just went back to the original thread and saw Jo's super cool graph. Such a technically advanced person!!

[jobob]

This is near the start of the ride. You can tell because it was one of the very few times I was with at least some of the group.



I was (sort of) riding with V. at one point - if you look reeealy hard you can see the tiny dot on the curve in the road up ahead.



V. at some point turned around to check up on Thom and Patric. I was stopped under a shady tree having a Motivational Crisis moment (geeze, it's only going to get hotter, what am I thinking ???) when Patric showed up. He said Thom had a bit of a mechanical problem and he & V were working on it. He said we were pretty much over the worst of it, and encouraged me to keep going, and having already fried a sufficient number of brain cells so all common sense escaped me, I figured, oh what the heck.

Patric and I kept each other company through the remaining steeper parts of the road. I managed to not overheat by continously dumping water on myself. Did I mention that the scenery was lovely?



Eventually we encountered aka_kim who was waiting for us near a shady section - she wanted some company . We passed through some more very scenic areas.



The three of us were stopped along the side of the road to refill water bottles (yay for my big saddle bag) and along came V. & Thom! I had thought maybe they had called it a day, so it was really nice to see them.

We still had some miles to go to the Junction, and V. coached me over the two remaining climbs. The descents into the Junction were really fun but I couldn't help but think of the couple of climbs we had in store for us on the return trip

Here we are at the Junction - from l to r, it's aka_kim (in the background), V., BikeMomma/Kim (also in the background), Robert, MP/Sarah, SK/Sarah, and Patric.



And here we are hanging out. Lots of bicycles and motorcycles at the Junction Cafe!



Ah, the return trip. It was hotter than stink, my legs were like lead and the road tilted up entirely too soon. Oh, and we had a headwind, naturally. Patric's saddlebag was rubbing his rear tire on account of the weight of his extra water bottle so I carried 2 extra bottles in my rear bag. My good deed for the month.

I figured if I pushed it I'd only cook myself even worse, so I geared waaaay down very early on and was going up those initial hills at a rip-roaring 3 - 4 mph. Far be it from me to ignore the traffic signs.


Patric and I eventually encountered V. and Thom who had hung back to check up on us.

We finally got over those hills and it was a descent for most of the remainder, thank goodness. I actually didn't realize that we had been climbing almost the entire length of Mines heading towards the Junction, since a great deal of the climbing was at about a 1-2% grade. The descent was fun, but it would have been more so it wasn't into a very warm headwind - I felt positively dessicated when we reached the bottom of the descent

When we got back to our cars, SK brought out her Portable Changing Room which some of us took advantage of. It was fun to watch SK, MP and aka_kim try to figure out how to collapse the structure into the nice little compact form to fit into the eensy bag. They finally just wadded it up and stuffed it into the back of SK's car




Going into this, I knew it would be a hard ride and that I would be bringing up the rear. But in retrospect, I think it was pretty irresponsible of me to go on such a tough ride in such a remote area. If Patric wasn't there for moral support, I would have turned around at my first Motivational Crisis moment which was around, oh, mile 10. As it was, it was great he was there because the two of us pretty much stuck together since we were both having a tough go of it. But if one of us did get into trouble on account of the heat, or had a mechanical problem, it might have been a long time before we could have gotten any help. So I'm really grateful for V. and Thom hanging back and being there with us.

[bikerz]

Fantastic write-ups and photos - thanks!

[tprevost]

Thank you SO much for posting your pictures and commentary!!! How cool (okay, hot) is that?!?!?! It is always so much better for those of us not able to make it to the rides to be able to see what everyone is talking about. That looked like a fabulous ride!!! I hope to get to ride w/you all sometime soon!

Tracy

[jobob]

Don't get me wrong - it's a wonderful ride, and I'm really looking forward to doing it again. Although the profile I posted looks indimidating, for the most part the grade was so shallow I didn't realize we were actually climbing. The few steep sections were relatively short.

It's just I don't do well in the heat.

[SadieKate]

Wow, so Glen is gw_12 on bj? Huh.

I really did have a lot of fun meeting new people. Very nice to have BikeMomma along. That girl can climb. MP smoked everyone on the downhills.

Jo, I'm sorry I didn't realize you were having such crises. Such times seem to be extra horrible in the heat but I was so glad to see your perseverance. I'm going to stop being so "pleasantly surprised" (your words) when you ride better than you say you will. I know now that you're just setting the scene. Your game is up.

I am feeling ever so much better about my downhills. BikeMomma and I both live in the flatlands. If you can't ride up, you certainly can't practice your downs. At the WCC I felt like I was creeping down the hills, but I finally started to let it go. That road is a great downhill for honing up these skills.

As always, jobob, great pics and write up. I love going back to old threads and reading your commentary.

[slinkedog]

Thanks for the great write ups and photos! I'm glad you guys had a great time!!

[Veronica]

Well... I lost ANOTHER pound on yesterday's ride! A few more pounds off me and I'll need to start seriously thinking about lightening up Fluffy some more.

And - I sunburnt my back. SK, I hope you don't mind slathering sunscreen on me on Saturday.

V.

[SadieKate]

Nope, not a problem. You sure you aren't dehydrated today? I've been powering down the water. All other signs were good but I'm feeling dehydrated. That first hot ride and even the descent was hard work.

[Veronica]

Oh - I'm definitely dehydrated. Woke up at 3:30 with the classic headache. But that pound is staying away! I'm heading out now to meet Thom at BART.

V.

[maillotpois]

I drank 5 bottles total on the ride, and was pounding the water today. Reminder to drink a LOT this week to "pre-hydrate" before Davis...

[slinkedog]

Well... I lost ANOTHER pound on yesterday's ride! A few more pounds off me and I'll need to start seriously thinking about lightening up Fluffy some more.


V.

Will you QUIT sending those pounds to me????

[Bike Goddess]

MP- Great photos. You should send Robert his!