April 28 ride reports

[Mr. Bloom]

Mr. Silver, how old is Silver Son?

SilverSon is 13 1/2. Oh, the wind was fierce.

[cosc]

Whoa-hoo I finally went for a outside gorgeous ride after too long a lay off. I rode down the marina road but turned around because the traffic was too bad. I was surprised to meet my son who was walking. I talked a bit with him and started to ride and couldn't get my foot in my spd pedal. After 10 minutes cleaning around my cleat(had greasy dead bugs around it) I finally got back on the road. I rode 26 miles today.

[mimitabby]

Went for a little 10 mile ride with the DH. He was feeling pretty good after riding 50+ miles so I decided to challenge him to 10 more to wear him out.
He took me on a merry chase up and down hills, including a quick down and up which were too steep for me. At the top of the down, I had to gather my nerve... and went down the hill on my brakes with him yelling from way in front of me; YOU NEED YOUR MOMENTUM! (yeah, right)

at the bottom I had to go straight up. so I did. Fortunately, somehow i was in my lowest gear, and i slowly pedaled, slower, slower, slower. There were cars behind me and i was terrified because how slow can you go? afraid of falling, i couldn't unclip my feet, don't ask me why, so I moved closer to the curb and threw myself bike and all onto the freshly trimmed grass side strip.
no pain at all. I got up, and was shaking like a leaf.. DH was way way ahead of me, and of course, he missed the entire drama.

the rest of the ride was rather uneventful except for the fact that i was shook up. we rode behind our hill, and thus had to take the 14% grade switchbacks.. This time i was in the wrong gear, so I stood and took that hill
without falling. I guess the one i fell on was 15 or 16%, Believe me, i DID NOT LOOK.

[jobob]

I'm slowly getting over the head cold from hell so I went out today, not sure how far I would go. I headed towards Sunol and figured if I was feeling good I'd see how far up Calaveras Road I could make it without pushing myself too hard.

Yee gods, it was hot out today! I was wondering how the hardy souls riding the Devil Mountain Double were faring, it was our first really warm weekend and they were going thru Livermore and Mines Road up the backside of Mt. Hamilton without any chance to acclimate to the heat. Hope no-one had problems with the heat out there

Okay, back to me. I made it fine to Sunol and continued on across the warm valley leading to Calaveras Road. There was a light breeze blowing which kept it from getting uncomfortable. Happily, once I started up the relatively shallow climb, the road was reasonably well shaded.

I started playing little mind games with myself - if I made it up to the "false summit" (which is the bulk of the climbing in that direction) before I turned around, then not only would I have the full extent of the fun descent back into Sunol, but I would reward myself with a Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar.

Well, I started tiring a bit around the mile 5.5 road marker. I couldn't remember where the false summit was located - was it mile 7.8? Or was it 8.8? Ugh! I wasn't sure if I'd have the energy to go that far. I convinced myself to go on to mile 6.0, I could do that. Then, when I got to 6.0, well, maybe I can make it to 6.5. Once I got to 6.5 I was thinking, waitaminute, am I approaching the false summit already??? I turned a corner, and lo and behold and hallelujia, the false summit was at 6.8, not 7.8 or 8.8! Sweeeet!!

So, at the top I guzzled more water, blew my stuffy nose about 10 times (ewwww), turned around and had the lovely descent, and the tasty Haagen-Dazs bar at the little store in Sunol. Then, a slightly windy ride along Niles Canyon Road and a much more windy ride along the AC trail back to home. The last 8 miles or so into the afternoon headwind on the AC Trail was really taxing for me and I was starting to peeter out, so I just geared down and spun into it and took my dear sweet time.

47 miles, only about 1000 feet of climbing, 13.7 mph, and one Haagen-Dazs bar. Eh, not bad for my first head cold "recovery" ride.

In retrospect, I'm very glad I took a pass on the SLO Wildflower this weekend, I'm obviously lacking in stamina right now & I heard it was really hot down there.

[Starfish]

Jobob, glad to hear you are recovering!

It was SUNNY today!!! O my gosh I was grateful for a break in the rain!

Did two repeats of the lower part of the mountain today for 21.5 miles and 3110' climbing. Pretty happy with myself, but pretty hilarious...a lot of 4.5 mph today!

Still, sunshine, so all was well in my world today.

[ace]

Did a 28 mile ride with the local club (actually it was about 33 because I rode to the starting point and back), almost entirely flat. It was hot! Had to deal with the ride leader from last week (who substituted a 38 m. hilly ride for a 29 m. flat one without telling us), but he just treated me with an extra smidge of his jerky arrogance.

It does really piss me off that he's always saying how if we work, we'll be out of the light group in no time, and tells the people who are fast that they "have good attitudes," and basically just barks at the rest of us. It's demoralizing. Don't know how long I'm going to be able to ride with th3w3 people...my knee is probably going to keep me from doing much more than 40 flat miles this summer.

I continue to be surprised at how much water I have to drink- I went thru 133 oz while cycling, and had another 24 when I got home (I weigh over 200 lbs, so that's not a crazy amount). Plus I got some foot cramps during the ride. I think I need more calcium/potassium. Any advice about that?

[jobob]

Ace, are you drinking any kind of sports drink, or just plain water? You might want to consider carrying a bottle with Gatorade or Cytomax or some other sports drink w. electrolytes (i.e., salts) , in addition to a bottle of plain water, now that it's finally heating up. Many people cramp easily, especially when it gets hot and they lose more salts from sweating.

[Celeste]

Had our weekly Saturday training ride with our TNT group. Back out to Chappell Hill, TX. Last time we were there it was Easter weekend and it was freezing cold and sleeting. I broke a cleat and wound up driving as extra Sag wagon.

This time it was nice and warm, no wind hardly at all. Qutie nice. I did ride today but only made it 50 miles. Planned route was 65!

This is only my second week on hills due to broken cleat that one week. Grrr! The hills were kicking my butt today! I was doing ok for most of the ride. Coach was teaching me more about hill climbing and how to use the momentum and sling shot over the next.

Whew!! After about 100+ hills and 50 miles...My brain had had enough! It was fried! I just could not shift and deal with one more mentally. I was having to stop after each hill and psyche myself up for the next...That, and my body was sweating but I was getting chills....Don't know what that was about. DH said I was very red in the face.

So, 50 miles for second week on hills and this was a real challenge. I may not have made it the whole way, but still feel pretty good about it. Sort of.

[SadieKate]

In retrospect, I'm very glad I took a pass on the SLO Wildflower this weekend, I'm obviously lacking in stamina right now & I heard it was really hot down there.

YOu think so? Normal avg high of 77. A record 98 was hit. Many of us had temps of 100+ showing on our computers. Homey's heels were sinking into the asphault at stops.

Shades of the Chico Wildflower 3 years ago. Lesson learned - do not let SK and Bubba sign-up for any ride called a Wildflower ride. Good news is no one in our group hurled. I'll write up a report later.

http://www.weatherunderground.com/cg...KPRB&almanac=1

[Veronica]

We worked the Devil Mountain Double, two different rest stops. At least one rider got a helicopter ride out from the Junction with heat related problems. I don't know if he was with DMD or the Mount Hamilton Challenge.

We had a lot of DNFs on DMD because of the heat. At one point we had three SAG cars go by our rest stop on Hamilton, one right after the other, all filled with riders.

We took two riders who DNFed to Sunol to get their lights and then drove the rest of the course. There was a section of road that got torn up this week - Castro Valley Rd. I think. We were following a recumbent and he tipped over in front of us. I am so glad that we were behind him because he was REALLY hard to see in the dark and he could have so easily been run over at that point.

We stopped and checked on him. He said he was okay and I helped him check out his bike.

It was an interesting day.

V.

[7rider]

DH and I did 41 miles from the house to Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. and back at a 15.7 mph pace. Was a nice ride. Had a couple of guys latch onto our wheels, so DH had to push much harder than he intended (keeping his "race face" on, as he said. Not showing any effort at all), just to try to put the hurt on these guys. Alas, we couldn't shake 'em and they just got a free ride for his efforts. Uh...me, too!
I hit a max speed of 73 mph, according to my Garmin! Woo Hoo. Discovery?? Hello?? Where do I sign??
Silly computers......