April 15th rides SUNDAY

[lauraelmore1033]

Most miserable ride ever! I had just received an email from the ride leader of a tour my husband and I are planning to do next month in which she explained that a good number of riders on the tour consider an AVERAGE speed of 14-15 mph on a hilly course to be a "leisurely" pace. (this was advertised as a "leisurely" tour at a "stop and smell the roses pace"! ) I had been feeling pretty confident about my riding skills and physical condition until then, but that e-mail destroyed my confidence. Hubby and I can manage 14-15 mph on rolling terrain, but that is nowhere near "leisurely" for us.

We decided to do a hilly ride from our house down to the Mukilteo ferry dock and back. The "down" part of the ride was terrifying for me. The feeling that I was "not good enough" really seemed to magnify my fear. I was holding onto the brakes for dear life and feeling very much out of control. I could tell hubby was trying not to get annoyed as he led me on some side streets which bypassed the scariest parts. The ride back up the hill started to go wrong when my chain fell off twice as I shifted into my granny gear. I was practically in tears as the @#$&^$#!!! chain fell off as I shifted UP and became so tangled up that hubby had to take off a chain ring to get it straightened out. My shifting was fine after that, but then hubby's chain started falling off! I think I've cursed him!

I felt like I was just such an idiot who had no business on a bike by then and the rest of the climb proceded at an agonizingly slow crawl. We did finally make it home after about a hundred years, averaging only 11 mph on a ride that was very hard, frustrating and demoralizing.

I guess it is better to experience these things now rather than on the tour so we can access our (my) weaknesses and work on them

[pastrypam]

Did my Sunday loop of 16 plus miles before work. It was slightly windy, sunny but with thunderstorms lingering over the mountains. I love going on a ride before work. It gets me through the day with lots of energy. My next ride will be Tuesday with Hubby and we will do 30+ miles.

Today I actually got some of the men out there to say good morning!!!

Lovin Life
Pam

[pooks]

Did a quick 2.4 mile roundtrip to the post office. I only mention it because this was my husband's first time on the bike this year, and it felt great! (I wanted to keep going but he still is working on taxes, ooops. I finished my part already.)

[jobob]

I did my East Bay loop today. It was cool and sunny and windy today.

I thought I'd take it kind of easy going up Palomares today, unlike last Sunday when I pushed it and felt like crap for a good part of the rest of the ride. Thing is, since I was taking it easy, and using my beloved granny gear a lot on the climb, I assumed my time to the top of Palomares would be a lot slower than last week. So, just for yuks I checked my time at the summit, and it was exactly the same as last week, 1 hour 20 minutes from my home. I got a kick out of that.

At the northern end of my loop I checked out a couple of bypass routes to see if I could find a better way around the higher-traffic areas of Lafayette and Walnut Creek. The Moraga-Lafayette bypass wasn't so great, narrow roads heavily populated with monster SUVs. The Walnut Creek bypass was pretty good though, that one's a keeper.

I had a really nice ride, up until the very end. I live near a multi-use path called the Alameda Creek Trail which I use at the start and finish of amny of my rides. Today it was the freakin' Alameda Creek Wind Tunnel, I was getting the brunt of the afternoon wind off the San Francisco Bay for eight wretched miles. I could barely get over 11 mph into the headwind, and I was starting to ache. But, that ended (none too soon) and I was finally home, where my sweetie had cornbread muffins waiting for me.

82.6 miles, 3660 ft of climbing, 6:10 ride time, 6:45 total time. I'm really happy with the total time because I'm trying to get into the habit of keeping my stops as short as possible. Err, except for the obligatory stop at the Peets in Danville ...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, I'm so impressed by everyone's rides today! You all RULE.

I did a lot of good hard hills yesterday. But today was and the next few days will be nonstop cold snow/rain, so I'll just have to sit here dreaming about bikes while catching up on work.

Mimi, I can feel you breathing down my neck on BikeJournal while I sit stuck inside here!

[run it, ride it]

Hmm, I guess this counts:

1am ride about 5km from my friend's house to the bar we were meeting up at. I told everyone driving there that I would beat them on my super-speedy 80s roadie. No one believed me.

So there I am furiously pedaling, the bar just metres away--when a car CUTS ME OFF! I swerved to avoid it, crashed, sprawled out on the pavement. My left brake hood was bent in, my front gears bit into my calf pretty hard, and a mighty black bruise showed up on my thigh today.

So there I am lying in the middle of the street, the offending car of course long-gone. Pulled my bike out of the traffic, bent back my brake hood, locked it up outside the bar--and everyone who took the car appeared just then! I DID beat them, crash and all!

[pooks]

Wow -- you rock! Way to show 'em.

I hope your leg and bike are okay, though.

[lesliejo]

I am trying to get ready for a local ride happening next weekend, so I took off for a three hour spin. I wanted to get some hills in just to test the thighs. Rode up a four mile grade that did the trick. Sure was fun coming back down. It was a beautiful day, started out at 44 degrees, but when I got back it was in the upper 50's. Saw lots of wildife, between the birds and coyotes. The wildflowers are in bloom along with the fruit trees. Rode through some beautiful orchards. Such a nice time of year.
I think I am ready for the ride! Ended up clocking 48 for today.

[RolliePollie]

I'm very excited so I'm posting here even though I already have a thread going elsewhere...I went clipless today for the very first time and it was AWESOME! No problems! Yahoo! Rode about 30 miles in the worst wind...Nat'l Weather Service says gusts up to 35 mph. There were little tree branches all over the bike trail and some really BIG oak tree branches were falling as well. I wouldn't want to get hit by one of those! I could've done without the wind, but other than that, a great ride. On the plus side, a nice steady 20 mph headwind does give you a better workout.

[lauraelmore1033]

I'm very excited so I'm posting here even though I already have a thread going elsewhere...I went clipless today for the very first time and it was AWESOME! No problems! Yahoo! Rode about 30 miles in the worst wind...Nat'l Weather Service says gusts up to 35 mph. There were little tree branches all over the bike trail and some really BIG oak tree branches were falling as well. I wouldn't want to get hit by one of those! I could've done without the wind, but other than that, a great ride. On the plus side, a nice steady 20 mph headwind does give you a better workout.

Good job on going clipless and surviving the wind. When the winds die down you might even find you've picked up a little speed from going clipless. I noticed a nice burst of speed when I did, since I went straight from flat pedals to clipless

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I had been feeling pretty confident about my riding skills and physical condition until then, but that e-mail destroyed my confidence....
I felt like I was just such an idiot who had no business on a bike by then and the rest of the climb proceded at an agonizingly slow crawl. We did finally make it home after about a hundred years, averaging only 11 mph on a ride that was very hard, frustrating and demoralizing.

I guess it is better to experience these things now rather than on the tour so we can access our (my) weaknesses and work on them

Lots of people would "rise to the challenge" of this and train HARD for that tour next month and they'd say "go for it!". But I think a little differently. If i were in your place I would try to cancel the tour based on what the email said about average speed.
I like a good workout and a challenge, and I like pushing myself to my next level...but when it becomes something that is demoralizing to me and just makes me feel BAD I might decide it is just not a positive situation for me to put myself in. Biking is supposed to be fun? There will always be plenty of rides and tours to go on in the future. Do you think your husband would support you in this decision if you explain to him how you feel about it? Many men would become annoyed and urge you should at least try, feeling they were encouraging you by doing that. Other men might be more sympathetic, adaptable, and supportive.
Myself, I consider a 9-13mph pace a "stop and smell the roses" speed. In fact that's my usual average range with hills, ...and I don't even stop to smell anything!
You should decide what is right for YOU and then go with it, whether that means giving it your best shot and working towrards it, or cancelling it.

[lauraelmore1033]

Myself, I consider a 9-13mph pace a "stop and smell the roses" speed. In fact that's my usual average range with hills, ...and I don't even stop to smell anything!
You should decide what is right for YOU and then go with it, whether that means giving it your best shot and working towrards it, or cancelling it.

That is the pace I would consider "stop and smell the roses" too. Actually, now that I've had a chance to reread the leader's response and look over other material about the tour, I think I misunderstood what she wrote. I had written to ask if she would advise against my husband riding his hybrid since we would be going at a "leisurely" pace (which I imagined to be 10-13 mph). She replied that "leisurely" meant something different--depending on your skill and fitness level. She then described these people on the tour who COULD ride a hilly course with an average speed of 14-15 mph. I think I put those two sentences together and skipped the middle bit. I now realize she wasn't saying that these amazing people thought this pace was leisurely, just that they could do it, and that leisurely does indeed mean different things to different people. She did advise against bringing a hybrid, which is probably a good idea.

I think the challenge to be overcome, for me, is a mental one. Low self-esteem has been a stumbling block for most of my life. When I lose my confidence about something....well, the effects are quite dramatic. I have noticed that my ability to climb hills, for instance, has a great deal to do with what's going in inside my head. If I'm relaxed and believe I can do it--by golly I can do it. If I'm feeling anxious about my ability to climb the hill--by golly, I can't do it. At least not without stopping.

With that in mind, I'm going to try the same course again this week and see how it goes before I decide what I want to do. I'm sure my husband would not like to go through a 9 day repeat of today's performance. I imagine he would support (with grumbles) any decision I would make about it. Especially, since I was the one who wanted to come on the tour in the first place.

[mimitabby]

LaurelMoore,
May I ask what tour you are talking about? Perhaps one of us has already done it and can calm your fears?


a lot of people had exciting and important rides today! I'm really impressed! I'm going to go read about the 400k next. My DH did a 300k yesterday and it went well too. Today he only rode 12 miles I rode more than twice that many myself today; so I'm ahead of him, right?

[cosc]

Today's 26 mile ride was my longest since nov. Temps were in the 70's, but I fought a crosswind 20-25mph the whole ride. Laurel, I feel for you having to put up with all those bike issues on your ride. I had strange sounds coming from my bike too, but with all the wind I couldn't even hear if I needed to trim my gears. Descending hills still makes my heart race. My bike seems to have a mind of it's own swooping down those hills.

[maillotpois]

I finished my ride today (at 1:45 a.m.) - does that count?

I did my 400k over the weekend: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...138#post190138