May 13th ride MOTHER's DAY

[makbike]

I set out this afternoon to ride the route I plan to use for Friday's club ride. I also took the opportunity to stop and mark the various turns along the way. However, I found myself fighting a head wind and my legs started talking to me very early in the ride. I rode 243 miles this week and I guess they, my legs, were simply trying to tell me they need a break. At the 15 mile mark I decided to turn back for home with the hopes that I would get to enjoy a nice tail wind. I did get most of the route marked and will drive the unmarked portion tomorrow after school. I think I'll stay off the bike for the next couple of days so that my legs can recover for I hope to ride a century on Sunday. In the end today I managed to complete 31 miles.

[jobob]

Today Lee & I went from home across the Dumbarton bridge, through Menlo Park & Atherton up to Woodside. We then took Whiskey Hill to Sand Hill & Portola Rd., then I turned right and went up Alpine Road & headed back. Lee opted out of the climb & headed down Alpine directly.

We met up at the Chain Reaction on Foothill in Los Altos a bit after 1, just in time to see Tracy walking into the Carvell Ice Cream shop with her boys. Mmmm, soft serve. We chatted for a bit while enjoying our ice cream, and soon a friend from bikeforums showed up whom we had yet to meet in person, so that was fun to finally meet him. We chatted some more, during which time five-one, and PABadger and her roomate, all showed up. Tracy was going to see her sister, the others were going to head out on their rides, and Lee and I were going to head for home, so we bid our goodbyes to everyone and set out.

Lee and I headed for home along Casto St. in Mtn View and thru Shorline Park. By then the bay wind had really whipped up! I was still feeling really good, but Lee's allergies were starting to wear him down, so I was able to pull him most of the way home. Since he used to have to pull me all the time, I'm glad to be able to return the favor once in a while ! It was about 68 miles.

I'm really happy with how good I felt today, & how I had no problem attacking the hills - OK, they weren't that steep, but still or riding into the wind. This is the best I've felt since before the headcold from hell.

Kind of makes my crazy Solvang Autumn Double idea on the weekend of my, um, 38th birthday yeah that's it seem a leetle less crazy.

[five one]

We ended up cutting our ride short at just under 20 miles. DH had ridden a hard one yesterday with lots of climbing. I had stayed in yesterday with allergies. The wind in our area was terrible Saturday.

We decided Tracy's route would have been too much for DH after yesterday's tough ride, so after briefly saying hello to her, Jobob, Leebob, PABadger and her friends, we took off north figuring to ride Foothill Blvd. to Alpine and do the Portola Loop. I got a flat about three miles out (stem came loose - a first for me), but I changed out the tube in record time. Crank Bros. Speed Lever rocks!! Even when DH is with me, I change my own flats. By the time we got close to Alpine, DH knew Portola Loop wasn't in the stars, so we just turned around and came back. Not the best ride, not the worst. We sometimes do this same out and back on Friday evenings after work through the summer. There's often a great tailwind on the return trip and it's fun to fly down the road. And with any luck, you don't hit too many red lights along the way.

Tracy, it's a shame things didn't turn out quite as planned, but thanks for organizing the ride. Maybe next time you're in the area we can all try again.

[DrBadger]

Well, after biking over to Chain Reaction from home (with a minor detour as we almost went to the wrong bike shop), my roommate Amie and I chatted with Jo, Lee, Tracy and Five one for a bit, then as everyone went their seperate ways Amie, Lindsey (another friend of ours) and I decided to do the loop that Tracy suggested. All was going well, and we really enjoyed Stevens Canyon and Mt. Eden road....then we missed a couple of turns and got a little lost, finding some additional hills and dead ends before finally finding McClellen Rd, and getting back home. All said and done it was 42 miles for Amie and I, a bit less for Lindsey since she drove from home, with ~2500ft. of climbing. A fun ride though, and I felt really good for the whole thing, so that was good!

Here is the link to the route info from my GPS, you can see our wrong turns We got a nice, unexpected downhill out of it, but of course we had to climb it first....
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2723036

Thanks for organizing Tracy, even if it didn't work out as expected... I probably never would have found this route otherwise, and there were some nice roads.