June 3 ride reports...

[DrBee]

Good morning! I'll be the one to start this thread today.

I made a new personal best - 28.2 miles with an average speed of 14.7 and 16 on straight sections. There was NO wind for most of the ride and the temp was in the mid to upper 60's with relatively low humidity! That's all quite unusual for here. Between the clif bar and sport beans and lots of water - I felt great. The Terry Zero X saddle is still wonderful! Even with the lousy $20 shorts from Nashbar.

Nearly had a dog encounter - mangy mutt (literally on both accounts) stopped and watched me. I chose to turn around and go the other way - wasn't feeling super brave today. This was a good thing because I found a better 5-mile loop that has fewer stopsigns than the other route I was riding.

I saw an older woman out riding on some sort of comfort bike - she gave me a big wave. I hollared hello back at her. She had a helmet on - which is unusual for cyclists here unless they're roadies. Also saw a man on a roadbike - no helmet and he didn't even acknowledge I existed. Go figure.

I hope everybody has great rides today!

[Brandy]

Lifted straight from my blog...

The 2.9 Mile Ride
Today was the day. I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. to get in my very first early morning ride. After one push of the snooze button, I dragged myself out of bed, put on my long sleeve jersey and knickers and wandered downstairs to eat half of a bagel. By the time I was ready to roll the sun was up, so I took off from home instead of driving down to the beach path. My goal was to ride the same route that I did yesterday...Magnolia to the end of the Newport beach path, turn around and ride north to the end of Bolsa Chica State Beach, then back to Magnolia. With six extra miles added in going to and from the beach from home, I was looking at getting a 32 mile ride before the crowds hit the paths.

Of course, the best laid plans...blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. **** happens and my **** just happened to go down right in front of Huntington Beach Fire Station Number Four. I'm riding down Magnolia feeling great and enjoying the cool morning air when my smooth ride starts to feel not so smooth anymore. Damn...I've flatted in the front. So I hop off of my bike, fairly confident...okay, truth be told, I wasn't confident at all because I'd only changed one flat and it was in my living room and it took me an hour. I figure that I don't have any choice but to change the thing, so I flip the bike over and get to work. Just as I'm getting started, the fire engine pulls into the station. One of the guys pops his head out and asks if I'm okay. I tell him that I think that I can handle it and he says "Okay, well if you need anything we're all awake and there are four of us that can come over, stand around and watch you." After struggling for several minutes I finally get the tire off of the rim and start checking for a leak. I found the hole in the tube pretty easily, but can't find anything in the tire that might have caused it, despite checking for a good five minutes. I put in the one spare tube that I had and put the tire back on the bike, wave goodbye to the fireman and I'm on my way. For a minute. Something isn't feeling or sounding right and let's face it...I'm a total newbie and I was just pretending that I knew what I was doing back there. I turn into the park behind the fire station and after riding there for a couple of minutes, the little voice inside of me tells me to call it a day and bag the ride. I decide to swallow my pride and go make friends with the firemen.

I explain the situation to the fireman who had been checking up on me while I was changing my tire and he asks me if I'd like a ride home. I accept and ask if one of them has a truck. He tells me that they can't break the crew up and that I'd have to ride home on the fire truck. Now who would turn down a ride like that? They load my bike into the hose bed on top of the truck, open the door and ask me to take a seat. We chatted about kids, their schedules, my husband's job and before I knew it we were pulling up in front of my house. As they're unloading my bike I hear them shouting across the road to the firemen at Fire Station Number Three which is about 300 feet from my front door. Good natured ribbing at 6:40 a.m. which I'm sure that my neighbors appreciated. What do I care though? I got to ride home in a firetruck. Yeehaw!

[Selkie]

Brandy, I'd say that was a flat worth having!

Got up early to get out before the Team in Training crowd started hogging the trail. The minute I opened the door it started raining. As I was setting up to do the Spinervals killer workout (Hillacious followed by Iron Girl), Divine Intervention: the rain slowed to a sputter, so I pulled out one of my beater bikes and got the spokes spinning by 5:30am. Wet pavement, humid and warm, some intermittent drizzle, but the trail was pretty much deserted. Didn't see the coyote but the rabbits were out.
Unfortunately, I noticed the Team in Training Trail Hogs assembling in their pre-run/walk circle. Since I'm battling a virus that's giving me a stuffed head/ears, I didn't want to deal with getting safely past their multiple squadrons of two abreast, especially since it's early days in their training and the most inconsiderate of them havent yet tossed in the towel [note: I don't mean to be so down on Team in Training, as I'm sure they are a great organization. However, my "share the trail" experience with these Team in Training folks--last year--was not positive because some, not all, of them seem hostile toward cyclists and more than once, they put my safety at risk by crowding the trail and/or acting in an unsafe manner]. So, I decided to bag it at 30 miles and head home.

[Aggie_Ama]

Finally got on the bike after a nasty stomach virus sidelined me all week. I don't even get stomach viruses like this, so I was down for the count. I got up early to see DH off for a little guys weekend. I then went on a nice 23.6 mile ride in cool weather, little wind and traffic. Even ventured out of where I would normally ride by myself. My stomach was still cramping a little, making me much slower than I would have been under those conditions normally. It felt nice to be back on the bike.

[mtkitchn]

I got up at 5am, opened the front door and felt 82 degree heat on my face. Closed the door and went to the gym.

[LL_Super_D]

It's official... I've turned into a real cyclist - ha ha ha. Yesterday I agreed to go on a ride that started at 6:45 am this morning so I readily called it a mellow Friday - went to bed at 10:30 on a Friday night and happily woke up at 5:45 . The last wake up call I've done before the crack of dawn was when I was in Peru in the Amazon rainforest going on a jungle expedition!

Anyway, I met up with one of my friends at the local Peet's Coffee and off we went. Rode 7 miles of flat/slight steady climb with one steep short hill for good measure to Tunnel Road (for those of you in the Bay area). I was able to ride up the hilly road one mph faster than last weekend! and went downhill one mph faster than last weekend as well. Woo hoo! Ended up riding 20 miles. From the Berkeley hills, it looked like it was gonna be a beautiful day!

[tprevost]

I managed to harrass Bikerchick68 long enough to get her to let me tag along for a ride and today was the day! We started in San Marcos at Restaurant Row (IHOP) and headed west to the beach.... Here are some pics en route:

Mac, Kathy (purepink), Bill, and Jennifer (BC68)

A view from the road

We stopped at this cute little coffee/bagel etc. place in Leucadia and sat down for a while... this is us getting back on the road



It was only 26+ miles but a little hard for me as they are a bit faster than I'm used to riding. I managed to keep up without holding them up too badly but it started getting pretty warm as we finished (coming out of the fog at the coast)... here's a picture of us before we left for home (btw, it was 103 when I got home today!)

That's Jennifer (bikerchick68), me (tprevost), and Kathy (purepink) on the right.

Thank you ladies (and Mac & Bill too!) for letting me tag along, what a great ride! AND, thank you SOOOOOOOO much Jen for the help w/decents!! YEAH!!!

Tracy

[caligurl]

hubby had to work OT.... so i was on my own for a ride.... took off later than i wanted to (6:21).... and knew i was going to head "up the hill" into the national park to get some hill riding in before next weekend....

when i was climbing the hill to the entrance kiosk... i was thinking to myself that i wasn't going to make it all the way to jumbo rocks (campground) or that it was going to take me a long time to get there.... but then somewhere along the way... my legs woke up and i felt much better! i got to jumbo rocks and decided to keep going... (it's rollers once you get to jumbo... at least for a while)..... well then i got to ryan (another usual turn around point) and decided to go just a little further... perhaps key's view turn off.... well i got there and turned.... so i'm thinking... hmmmmmm i should climb to key's view (highest point in the park)..... so i keep going..... then i realized i probably didn't have enough water to make it back out of the park... uh oh! but then.... it's mostly downhill... i should be ok! so i climb and climb to the top! now my brave/stupid comment comes from not having an cell phone signal in the part EXCEPT at the very top of key's view.... nothing else the whole way til i hit the kiosk/entrance again..... i had called and left a message for hubby that i was going into the park.. but he would have had no idea i would have gone up to key's view on my own! i did call from KV and told him "guess where i am!"

i did run out of water just before getting back to the entrance.... i had told hubby i would call him if i did (he had gotten off work just before i called from KV).... well DUH... remember i said no cell phone service! fortunately the ranger at the gate had water for me... plus.... as i was descending the hill from the gate on my way home... hubby was on his way to bring me water (awwwwwwwwwww)

so note to self: don't leave or deviate to a long ride in the desert in the summer without plenty of water or a camelback!

i ended up with 55.6 miles and 4226 feet of climbing!

[Nanci]

I rode 40 miles on a paved trail. Animal encounters included the hitchhiking anole, a deer who crossed at a leisurely pace about three feet ahead of the rider ahead of me (I resisted saying, Hey, Velvet, did you see that deer?) and a hatchling Gopher Tortoise (VERY EXTREMELY rare to see a hatchling) which I resisted, although I did have a short visit with him. Oh, lots of river cooter turtles- they must have been out looking for egg-laying spots. We then went to a restaurant for lunch, and it began thunderstorming the minute we were back in our cars on the way to lunch. Perfect timing!

Nanci

[betagirl]

Did 45 miles, 42 of which were with Fuji Girl and some other ladies that ride as a group up north of the city. There was 1 guy, so it was the complete opposite of what I'm normally used to with group/club rides We rode up through the affluent north shore suburbs, on a crappy road for part of the way. Once we got beyond the patchwork, it was great.