April 29 Ride Reports

[HillSlugger]

I did the Bicycle place Sunday group ride with Regina and her DH. He did the A ride, we did the C ride. I think I was more a C-, just able to hang onto the back of the pack.

33.6 miles, 16.2 mph average.

[7rider]

You did awesome, Nicole (I apologize for calling you Erica so many times! I just get so used to having her as my only female riding partner on that ride, that I get all confused -- especially when chasing the group up some hill and the blood exits the brain to fuel the legs.) - A+ in my book!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I did the Bicycle place Sunday group ride with Regina and her DH. He did the A ride, we did the C ride. I think I was more a C-, just able to hang onto the back of the pack.

33.6 miles, 16.2 mph average.

33 miles at 16mph is a C- ???????? Geez....I need a bigger alphabet for me!!!!

[HillSlugger]

33 miles at 16mph is a C- ???????? Geez....I need a bigger alphabet for me!!!!

I was working so hard to hang on to the group that I have almost no clue what route we took or what the scenery was like.

[Kano]

I need more letters too, Lisa!

My ride today -- According to DH's computer, almost 22 miles. Mine had a spontaneous reset, I think when we stopped to fiddle with is bike for a while. I'd sure like to know why that happened!

We started from home and headed out to the quarries this morning. I lucked into waiting at the first stop light. DH just kept right on going, and at first I thought about catching up to him, but then I decided to just ride my own ride, and eventually he'd be going up that nasty invisible hill, and I'd catch up with him. (HAH! my legs had other ideas) In the mean time, a group got between us, and they were kinda road hogs, with no intention of moving when cars came by and all (I was thinking "share the road" goes both ways, doesn't it?)

We got to that invisible hill, and I realized that I was hurting today when I wound up using my granniest granny gear to get to the top of it. This thing isn't all that big, and we just rode it on Friday afternoon, and I didn't need to go out of the middle ring to do it at like 12 mph, and here this morning I was struggling up at 6.... Like I said before, legs had other ideas today!

Next was the rolling road, on the way to the quarries. Things got better, but my poor thighs were hollering the whole way. And that road has two of those cow stopper things, you know, the metal grates in the road. I hadn't ridden over any of those on the new bike yet, so was a little nervous approaching the first one (on a downhill run) Needn't have worried, just extra vibration, bigger than chipseal!

When I finally caught up to DH, he'd stopped at the corner just before the hill to wait for me, and taunt me about needing to go home. Perhaps he wanted to, but was hoping I would be his excuse. I made him wait -- I really needed to stretch after our three mile warm up before tackling the next hill.

That pause to stretch those screaming muscles made a WORLD of difference! Nothing better than a good stretch!

I did it!!! It's a mile and a quarter long, and only about a 250 foot rise, so from what it sounds like, for many of you that's barely a blip on the radar, but I haven't ever climbed the whole thing at once before! Now, I was in my granny granny for the whole hill, but maybe that helped? Usually I try to go in as big a gear as I can as long as I can, then keep shifting down til I run out, and when that happens, my lungs are screaming, my legs are complaining, and my heart rate is through the roof. I also went faster than I've ever been able to go in that gear, a whopping 6mph up hill. I was sure proud of me when I got to the top!!!!

Then there was the lovely long straight shot down hill, another up, and then one more down. We turned a corner and had a really long mostly down stretch, where it was easy to run at 20 or more -- what fun!!!

DH was a bit ahead of me again, and when I caught up to him, I noticed that his rear wheel was wobbly. Told him he needed to stop at the next corner -- he always AARGHS! at me when I say that, but when we stopped, I told him about his wheel. He fiddled some, then rode off, and at the next corner (about a mile) stopped to fiddle more. Cussing a bit, he decided we should head for home.

A few miles later, I noticed that suddenly, I'd only ridden three and a half miles -- no, that was somewhere around the corner where we headed up the real hill. I don't think I did the reset button -- you have to do it for each function on the computer I've got on this bike, and ride time was reset too, so it seemed really odd to me.

Once home -- I discovered his seat rail is bent (I wondered why he seemed to be leaning to the left all the time) -- told him he has to at least change to my old seat for my old bike like his, if not my newest seat (that I don't like) -- and then when he started playing around with that wobbly wheel, he discovered the broken spoke. Very sad DH.

This necessitated a trip to the bike shop cuz we don't know from changing out spokes, much less have any spares around, or the right tools. Hey, wait, we got a printed from the web site coupon, we can get some stuff while we're there! So, as he puts it, tomorrow DH will have a lovely new $200 spoke on his bike -- two pair of gloves, one jersey, one pair of shorts, and a saddle later, we were out of there!

And now Tater's recommending the new Sierra Trading Post as a fun place to shop....

It was a good ride, in spite of the need for repairs, and fun shopping -- makes for a pretty good day!

Karen in Boise