Sunday 04/22 ride up....ride down

[Trek420]

Hey Bay Area gals. Spazzdog and I plan a repeat of this ride, Piedmont Ave to Lafayette. Along the way we'll climb Old Tunnel Road and a just a smidge of Skyline.

Hey, I did it, how hard can it be?

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=14555

[spazzdog]

For anyone interested in joining up, the MacArthur BART is abt 1 mile away from the start and the finish will be the Lafayette BART.

So, if you want to ride along and will come via bART, PM me and I'll give you directions to the start from MaC BART. If you want to ride and will drive to the start, PM Trek420 for driving directions. (if I give those, there's no tellin' where you might end up).

spazz

[Trek420]

Spazz and all, my cuz Maury may join us.

[bikerz]

I'd like to do part of this ride with you guys! Anyone have a general start time? I might meet up with you at the Temescal parking lot as you ride by...

[jobob]

Z, you're back?

[jobob]

Sounds like a nice ride.

No can do tho, LB and I have volunteered to work the finish control for the San Francisco Randonneurs 600K brevet that afternoon to evening. So we'll be hanging out at the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Have fun, - Jo.

[bikerz]

Z, you're back?

I'm back! London was great (but oh, so expensive... it will be a sad day when my credit card statement arrives ). We lucked out and had fantastic weather the whole time. I took a few funny cycling-related photos which I will post one of these days.

We met up with DirtDiva for a couple of pints and dinner while we were there - she's as charming and funny in real life as she is online!

... and now that vacation is over, I have to get riding!

[Trek420]

So far the plan is meet at 10:30, ride out 11:00.

I can call when we start so you can head down to meet up.

[bikerz]

That sound great - it won't take us long to get to the parking lot there.

[Trek420]

Bikerz and all,

Weather report says heavy rain is forcast. But what do they know?

I don't mind a ride in the rain but that descent on wet pavement? So let's keep an eye on it and IF it rains we'll try this again in 2 weeks.

[Trek420]

What's that big yellow thing doing in the sky?

[bikerz]

we're still up for a ride - we could do a longer, flatter ride instead of hills, if that works out - (Bay trail with extensions, or ACT?)

[melissam]

Well, we're back. It was a lovely day for a ride -- not too hot, not too cold, but just right. (Yah, just call me Goldilocks.)

BikerZ and I cajoled her roommate Beth to come along for the ride, since she & her boyfriend will be doing the Wine Country Century in May. BikerZ, Beth, and I pacelined down Thornhill Road and met Trek and her cousin Maury at Temescal Park. After introductions were made, we started the ride.

It pretty much went uphill immediately, and stayed that way for the next 5ish miles. We all went at our own pace -- Beth was amazing, powering up her mountain bike with big knobby tires in her tennis shoes. Maury was singing -- apparently he hadn't hit his VO2-max, so he had breath to expend. BikerZ cruised up (she wants me to write "plodded" instead of "cruised" but I think that's just mean) with her much-coveted low gears. Trek's hill riding is paying off, she was moving that Mondonico up the hill. Me? Well, I was enjoying my new low gears and the gorgeous views of the SF Bay.

At the Fire Station, Beth went home, and we continued along Skyline with Trek & Maury. We bid them adieu at Pinehurst (Freudian typo = Pinehurts) -- we opted out of that one and continued on Skyline, where we rescued a charming roadie with a beautiful custom Serotta and a non-functional Silca frame pump. He'd run out of tubes, and wasn't able to get the patch to hold or the pump to pump air. BikerZ (the biking version of AAA Roadside Assistance) gave him a spare tube and demonstrated the genius that is the Road Morph pump. Our roadie was suitably impressed -- another convert! He was willing to add the extra weight to have a working pump. Smart man.

From there, it was all downhill back to the house. Downhills are nice, but I must admit that I white knuckled it on some of the descents. Oh well, my forearms needed a good workout.

All told, it was 14 miles for us -- a good portion of it was spent fighting the law of gravity. Well, as the song says, "I fought the law and the law won." No, I didn't fall, I'm just a wee bit tired.

Thanks, Trek for organizing a nice ride and getting us out of the house on a Sunday morning. It was a pleasure to meet Maury.

[Trek420]

I'm baaaack. And Mell it's not so much the hill riding as the weight lifting that Coach Spazz recomended I do.

Maury and I met up @ Spazzdogs place then headed out and up ... and up...and....we called you from Temescal and the 3 riders were right down. My hat's off to Beth who kept up with the roadies on:
a MTB
with knobby tires
and shocks
wearing running shoes
not even toe clips

get that gal some slicks and she will fly.

We continued to fight the laws of gravity and "I fought the law and the law won" may have been the only song we did not sing.

As we climbed we went through Beatles tunes, Randy Newman (just how many times will he be nominated for an Oscar? Has he ever won?) .... so while I was slower than molasses in January at least I had breath to sing.

Good way to keep track since I forgot my HRM. "I'm singing, I'm still alive".

Pinehurst was not bad, shaded and through Redwoods I'd been nervous because of the rain but it had dried out enough that there was no standing water, no "look ma, no brakes"

Though Maury who rides double centuries and has no subcutaneous fat was cold till we got to Moraga Drive I think was the hill we were on to BART. "Ah, hills! warmth!".

It was great to ride with my cuz 8-)

[Trek420]

....There's an ALC led training ride that does this route Sunday 05/05....as a round trip. 55 miles.

So remember the descent I said "man I'm glad I'm not going up that"?

I'm gonna do it. Watch this space