June 9 Rides - Great Weather Everywhere!

[Kalidurga]

Today I had a rollercoaster ride through fear, demoralization, and a small bit of exhilaration. I wanted to preview a route that I'll be riding with Regina & MdHillSlug next weekend. Started out late afternoon, about 4:00pm, with temps in the 80's. The beginning of the ride heads up a steep hill, then a lesser grade, a long downhill stretch, then up another curvy steep hill. 2.5 miles into the ride, coming up the second steep hill, I found myself actually sobbing for breath. Stopped at the top for a break and ended up with Elvis legs, a weak feeling and cold sweats through my upper body, and a very strange feeling around my heart. I didn't know if it was the heat, the hills, or both. I seriously wondered if I had pushed myself hard enough to have a heart attack, and considered walking the bike the 2.5 miles back to the car. After a break of at least 20 minutes, I finally got back on the bike and very slowly pedaled off with the intent of shortening the route. Within a mile or so I felt much better, but a breeze had kicked up and I continued to struggle on every uphill and a lot of the flats. In spite of flying down hills, my avg speed was around 12mph for the first half of the ride.

I took a lot of breaks. Around the middle of the ride, though, I must have gotten a tailwind because suddenly in between the hills was a flat stretch where I got the bike up to 28mph, which is the fastest I've done on a flat surface (that was the exhilarating part). But there were still other stretches of small hills and flats where I was in the small chainring and cussing up a storm at only 12mph or so.

Total miles= just shy of 25. Avg speed= embarassing, considering 30mph down hills and that super-fast flat stretch. On the positive side, the weather and scenery were gorgeous, no cars tried to drive me off the road, and my hootie-hoo had absolutely no discomfort. And, it was my very first road ride all by myself.

Nicole: Good luck on the diabetes ride tomorrow!

[Starfish]

And, it was my very first road ride all by myself.

Hey, that makes it a victory!

[Veronica]

I rode with friends and had a very nice time.

I also got to climb Welch Creek, a ride I've been wanting to do for a couple of months. It climbs 1800 feet in 3.8 miles. The average grade for the whole thing is 9%, but there are some quarter mile long sections of 16% I told the guy riding with me that I thought there was something wrong with me, because I thought it was fun.

The descent was all right. It's a very narrow, twisty road, with decent pavement. You had to keep the speed down because there were a lot of blind corners and loose cows.

After that we rode along Calaveras Reservoir and looked at the eagle's nest. I think the blob I saw may have been a baby eagle's head.

Lunch at Boscos was tasty - especially the chocolate mousse!

[five one]

I sat on the fence for several days trying to decide whether to join jobob and the gang on Calaveras. It's been four years since I've ridden it and though I am a better rider than I was in 2003, I haven't ridden many road miles lately, nor any hills, so I decided to wait until next time and do my own ride close to home.

I ended up with 55 miles in my neck of the woods. Rode to our local MUT about four miles from the house. After six miles on the trail as a warm up (not too many people at that time of the day), I got off and rode an out-and-back that I often do that includes one healthy climb (Willow Springs Rd.) and plenty of rollers (Uvas Rd.). I got more tired than I normally do on this ride, but at the only bail out point on the return, I decided to finish the longer ride figuring I could stop when I needed to and go at a slower pace. I was heading into the usual afternoon wind, so that in itself slowed me, but only had to make one quick stop to massage an aching hot foot. It was a beautiful day and it felt good to be out there, but I was really glad to get home.

In retrospect, the Calaveras ride might have been the easier of the two rides and certainly would have been more fun. Next time I won't be so wishy-washy

[Kalidurga]

Veronica, yer killin' me. Between the climbing you did and the chocolate mousse, I don't know which I'm more envioius of.

[Veronica]

Veronica, yer killin' me. Between the climbing you did and the chocolate mousse, I don't know which I'm more envious of.

Oh, I also had fried zucchini and a crab and shrimp sandwich.

five one join us next time. Jo always picks a good place to eat after a ride.

V.

[jobob]

Yes, five-one, definitely join us sometime ! Calaveras isn't a difficult climb, and since we do it as an out & back from Sunol, you can go at your own place. Some of the more adventurous sickos amongst us like to tack on side-trips like Welch Creek, but that was an up and back as well, and we all rode as far up it as as we felt up to doing.

I posted a short report mit foto on the end of the Calaveras thread ...

Oh yeah, and Lee and I do take great pride in our ability to find good places to eat. We had that reputation back in our kite-flying days as well.

[Starfish]

Veronica, yer killin' me. Between the climbing you did and the chocolate mousse, I don't know which I'm more envioius of.

Me too! Someday when I'm rich (and fit, LOL), I'm going to fly down and do my weekend rides with that crew!

[Kalidurga]

Thank you, Karen & Starfish, for reminding me to appeciate the good parts of yesterday's ride A string of good rides always leaves me unprepared for when a somewhat crappy one comes along. I should know better.

[Kano]

Thank you, Karen & Starfish, for reminding me to appeciate the good parts of yesterday's ride A string of good rides always leaves me unprepared for when a somewhat crappy one comes along. I should know better.

There can be the "somewhat crappy" kind of rides?

Well, maybe we can call it that when we have to abort the ride at the wrong end cuz of a flat -- pinhole kind that needs a bathtub to find the hole to repair it and the spares are gone cuz of the weird spare problems in the morning, but then again, that was more a WOO-HOO ride, followed by a pleasant walk with my bike!

The puncture happened on the about-to-start-the-up-hill end of the ride that followed a GREAT downhill to the post office, and the walk was under a mile. Starting to get dark out, though, so I was kind of wishing for some blinky lights on my back side! (early dark last night, clouds bringing today's rain rolling in)

Karen in Boise

[Kano]

[QUOTE=Kalidurga;211210] I took a lot of breaks. Around the middle of the ride, though, I must have gotten a tailwind because suddenly in between the hills was a flat stretch where I got the bike up to 28mph, which is the fastest I've done on a flat surface (that was the exhilarating part). But there were still other stretches of small hills and flats where I was in the small chainring and cussing up a storm at only 12mph or so. [QUOTE]

Don't you just LOVE tailwinds?

But, Kali -- do NOT cuss for 12mph if you're in the granny gears! You're allowed to cuss when you're under 5mph in those gears! If I could be doing 12mph when I'm geared down that low, I'd be cheering, I tell you!

[QUOTE=Kalidurga;211210] Total miles= just shy of 25. Avg speed= embarassing, considering 30mph down hills and that super-fast flat stretch.
[QUOTE]

Hill climbs will do that to our averages, and it sux! I had that same sort of speed situation yesterday (except for the 12mph in the granny gear thing) and my average was a little under 12. SUCH a bummer when you know you've been traveling at warp speeds!


Karen in Boise