Sat 1/12 ride reports

[Aggie_Ama]

I ahd many other things to day to day like sleep in since I put in 53 hours at work this week and then I met my cousins to take a portrait for my grandma's 90th birthday. After that I did finally give into my husbands pushing and went for a ride. I had a headache but 24.86 miles later I felt better. I am glad I went.

[OakLeaf]

Today was interval running day, so no real ride, but this evening DH and I rode our city bikes to a fundraiser tailgate party. Had a couple beers, watched most of the game (Go Pack Go!), noticed there was lightning flashing outside. A lot.

So we lit out of there just as the first drops started to fall. This being Florida, the skies opened before we'd gone three blocks. I discovered my brand new PI Vagabond jacket isn't a lot of use in a downpour (would be great in light rain though, and it's primo for visibility). Nothing like riding in lightning wearing soaking wet Levi's.

We came home laughing our heads off, hoping the garage door opener and our phones weren't waterlogged (they survived), singing that old Carly Simon song, you know, "Precipita-a-tion, is making me wet/Keeping me wa-a-a-a-ading..." This being Florida, the laundry room is in the garage, which for once was convenient.

8.5 miles and no one struck by lightning. Oh, plus 3.5 this morning to Pilates class and the natural food store. And I haven't been logging any of my city bike miles on BikeJournal... not that they amount to much, but every mile counts, right? Time for the calendar and batch entry.

[sundial]

Wanted to do 32 miles to finish with 100 for the week, but had to cut it short. Oh well, maybe if I'm lucky I'll finish by tomorrow. It was sunny, cool and little wind. I saw 100's of geese fly overhead.

[Fredwina]

127 miles
set a pr for 200K! woohoo!
More to come, of course

[Mr. Bloom]

Rode to the chiropractor and then for lunch with my parents.

Unplanned and in full cycling regalia, I rolled my dad from the nursing home to the assisted living for a spontaneous lunch with my mom. He got a kick out of that.

13 miles. about 40 degrees. Light breeze. SUNNY!

Saved a gallon of gas doing something I'd typically have driven to do...

[Mr. Bloom]

127 miles
set a pr for 200K! woohoo!
More to come, of course

woohoo! That's awesome!

BTW, don't forget to post your miles on BiJou.

[RoadRaven]

Well - our club raced the 2008 Nationals RR circuitt - it was between 30'C and 36'C.

We had about 30 visitors as our club hosted the Nationals (TT on Friday, RR on Sunday)

My grade raced it once... I didn't come last, and I did finish. This course is one I always view as an excellent, testing training ride and I am not good enough yet on hills to expect to placed.

It was a great workout and I felt shattered that evening

[jobob]

I have a 200K brevet in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to see if I would have a snowball's chance in hell of finishing it within the time limit.

So, I did a solo century ride yesterday.




There was a lot of climbing in the first half of the route, up Palomares Rd, then Redwood & Pinehurst Rds. I took them really slow, since I wasn't sure how hard I could push and get the 100 miles in. My previous long ride was about 63 miles two weekends ago. ( 10% rule? What 10% rule ??? )

I then headed thru Moraga, Orinda, dodged lots of traffic in Lafayette, and then followed a nice shortcut I found out about which let me avoid downtown Walnut Creek.

I tried to keep my stops as short as possible. Still, when I reached the Starbucks in Danville at the 55 mile point (where I was intending to only buy water and use the rest room), the siren song of the pumpkin bread was impossible to resist. Plus, of course I had to have a coffee with the pumpkin bread. So, I blew almost a half-hour there. Ah, but the pumpkin bread was gooood.

I had a lovely smooth moderately flat stretch after that where I made up a bit of time. But my uber-slow climbing, combined with my setting out over an hour later than I originally planned, got me into Sunol late afternoon. I had originally planned to go over Calaveras Rd., but by then it would be pretty dark up there (since the road is on the east side of the hills). Even though I had my lights with me I was questioning the wisdom of being by myself up there, in a rather remote area with no cell phone coverage and probably few if any other cyclists that time of day.

So instead I put on my lights & my yellow vest & headed towards home via Niles Canyon (which can also get fairly dark late in the afternoon). I then took the Alameda Creek trail to the bay end. By then the sun was setting, and it was really lovely out along the bay. I stopped for a few minutes to watch the changing scenery and listen to the chatter of birds that were tucking themselves in for the evening.

I then headed back and around Coyote Hills park. By that time it was actually dark so I got some nice night-riding practice in. Then I headed for home.

I felt really good, all in all. A few of the usual low points but they didn't last long. I ran on vanilla Spiz drink and payday bars (and pumpkin bread!) and that seems to work fine for me. The occasional creaky neck or back would go away after a vitamin I, and I had no saddle/seat issues.

I did develop an ache on the outside of my right knee about 8 miles from the end. I still have it a bit today, but I did a 16 mile slow recovery ride this morning and easy spinning seemed to help it a lot. So I'm not worried about it.

I completed about 101 miles & 4100 ft of climbing in 7:55 ride time (~12.8 mph), 9 hours total. I'm not too thrilled with how long I took, but so be it. I need to make sure to keep my stops to a minimum on the brevet. It's going to be a tougher ride than this one, with some sustained climbs and lots of rollers, plus a large part of it will be along the coast & out to the Pt. Reyes lighthouse so wind & weather will no doubt be a factor. But, after yesterday's ride I think I'll at least be able to finish it.