Saturday, March 22 Rides

[Aggie_Ama]

Today was an epic ride. We did the Jester ride from last weekend again. Started out my knickers were not clean, did a bad thing of washing in the sink and throwing in the dryer. The first part of the ride was good, weather was awesome. I hit Tumbleweed hill and set a personal best- 51.6 mph!!! Yes, I was scared.

After that it was time to face Jester. My goal was to make it further than last week. I rode harder but my legs were sore from the start of the ride. I bailed at the same point, slightly disappointed. We will be back to try next week.

After Jester DH got flat #1. He rarely flats and this was his third in two weeks! All back wheel of course. Fixed the flat, road the energy draining climb to the bagel shop. Conveniently the shop is next to the LBS, so we grabbed two more tubes and some CO2. Headed about a mile from the shop and DH got flat #2. Note these were different, puncture resistant tires from last weekend he was managing to puncture.

The next 15 miles were uneventful until I was stung by a bee. I have never been stung. I was trying to call DH but the wind was in our face, he noticed about 30 long seconds later I had pulled off. He rode back to find me crying (it hurt!!). I finally decided I had to ride the 10 miles home whether I hurt or not. Grinded it out home in a headwind.

I feel beat, but oddly enjoyed the ride very much. The weather was excellent, started at 50-ish and finished at a low wind 75. My leg is already better, a little sore at the sting site but I do not think I am allergic.

[Crankin]

I rode 25.7 miles today, testing our route for next week's ride we lead. The route is 30, but we just did the really pretty part. My husband led me out slowly, so I could follow the PT's orders. I had some pain at first, but it did calm down. It was 45 and very sunny, but still quite windy from the storm that came through yesterday. Some of the roads in Carlisle are still sandy and muddy, but nothing dangerous. We stopped at Great Brook Farm and I ate my Clif bar, which really did give me energy to continue.
I felt a lot stronger at the end, but I kept my speed at 6.5 climbing up my street and I did walk up my driveway, which felt stupid, but I know I have to listen to what the PT is telling me. She keeps saying the point is to keep riding; but while I am not competitive with others, I am competitive with myself!
I think I have 3 things going on here, with my body and believe me, one of them is I am in the worst shape I have been in at the start of the season in 3-4 years. I won't let that happen again!

[Bad JuJu]

I rode 44 miles in pleasant weather this morning. It nearly killed me--not because of the distance but because of my questionable "training" routine leading up to it.

I had thought that my riding buddy would be satisfied with doing 30, since yesterday we rode 16 at the beach. This sounds not too bad, until you know that the beach road still has gaps in it from a hurricane a few years ago, so occasionally you have to stop and push your bike through sand--in a couple of places the gaps were about a half-mile long. Throw in the 15 mph headwind coming back, and woo-hoo--what fun! No kidding, though, it was nice to do something different. But then the Chief and I played poker with friends until about 1 a.m., lubricated with some very nice wine. So a normally OK 8:30 start this morning was more of a challenge than usual.

But would dear riding buddy listen to reason? Noooooooooo. Guess I'm lucky she didn't make me do 48--today's her 48th birthday.

Anyway, it WAS a nice ride--just a bit longer than my bleary-eyed self was counting on.

[Geonz]

Gosh, and I was feeling sorry for myself because I had flurries to ride in! It was also a little windy and I had to get back for shopping, so I did a 15-miler with some almost-intervals before, and then snuck out for 9.5 more on the Dahon which is a little easier in the wind than the Xtracycle. (Right now it's H-396 but the day isn't over in Colorado.) Going to head over to church and back but that's only 3 miles.

You folks are tough

[mimitabby]

Today I rode about 22 miles. I say "about" because when we got to REI Raleighdon installed my new handlebar bag and while doing it, he cut the wire that goes to my computer.

the first half of the ride, I did alone, from my house through Downtown, to where I met DH. Then together we went to a Sushi bar and then to REI where he bought me two more pairs of smartwool sox and the aforementioned bag. (he bought himself things too, but I daresay that the bag is what netted the 20% discount.
Then we rode home. I was dragging, I felt tired. AUGH! my tire was rubbing AGAIN! why why why? I'd carefully checked it before I started the ride.
Lots of sun, hardly any cars downtown.

[motochick]

Rode 40 miles today nonstop. It was very sunny and warm. I have a farmers tan and it is driving me nuts. I feel really good right now, I think I will take a nap.

Brenda

[SouthernBelle]

I had a much better ride today than yesterday. Though it was much colder and windier. I picked a relatively level route to work on my cadence and lo and behold, my cadence sensor wasn't picking up. I had put in a new battery and forgot to pair it with the Garmin. Duh.

22.13 miles.

[emily_in_nc]

I think I win the prize for shortest ride today -- by a lot! I did just a little over 3 miles of singletrack on my mtb. It was my first time on a bike since before Christmas, though. I've been running instead, since I just don't care for cold-weather riding. Today was in the 70s and lovely! In just that little amount of time, my lower back was sore, along with the joint on each thumb, and by the end, my sit bones (a little). The sides of my neck will likely be a little sore tomorrow too. Have to ease back into it slowly. Still, it was fun, and I didn't fall!

Emily

[shootingstar]

So far 37 kms. fitness ride plus grocery shopping. Could have done more but had to get my teeth cleaned at dentist.

In 1/2 hr., will bike over to a restaurant tonight for soup with hand-pulled noodles....and gelato later on.
I can't be bothered to walk 4 kms. one way for this...so cycling it..

[Fredwina]

62 miles
Now the vent part
I did the club ride; things were going fine until we came to a place where we have to make a left turn on a light. it turned red and I stopped. everyone else blew it. they did agian near the end. However, I manged to close about a half mile gap, which I think I surprised some folks. was tempted to yell about riding in the middle of the street(You'd be surprised how fast you come up on people when your'e doing 35 miles an hour)
Decided not stick around for coffee hour:
Nice house:

Still some snow on Mt Baldy:

I then went to the bike shop and picked up this:

[Wahine]

I rode today with a total newbie to road riding. She bought a hybrid about 10 years ago to ride with her daughter. Well, she has a cyclist boyfriend now and she asked me to help her buy a road bike. That was easy enough. Then we went out for a ride today. She was a total trooper. I planned a 25 mile ride based on the fact that she said she had riden up to 20 miles on her hybrid. I think her mileage estimates must have been off a bit. We headed out on a gentle uphill route with a head wind, oops. But she stuck to it for 10 miles. Then I had to decide. Did I want to push through or would we turn around and go back. To push through the loop would've meant a bigger hill and an extra 5 miles in total. I decided she looked a little ragged and we turned back. We burned down the hill with the wind at our backs the whole way and she had a grin the size of Texas when we got back to the cars. She's totally pumped about going out again next weekend.

Meanwhile I feel like I didn't deserve the chocolate bar at the end of the ride. That's OK. It was all worth it to bring another rider into the fold.

[jobob]

After much tweaking I'm finally almost ready to submit my 200K permanent brevet route to RUSA. I went out today to ride the upper part of it to check on some control locations.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...ay-200K-ver-99

I started out from home and reached the route at about the mile 40 point of the brevet route. Lee accompanied me as far as Palomares Road, then he opted to ride out to Sunol and then head back home. I had no problem with that, I often enjoy riding on my own.

It was absolutely lovely out, sunny & clear, all the hills were a bright green after the past month's rains, and the orange poppies, purple lupine and yellow mustard flowers were blooming profusely.

There were tons of cyclists out today, esp on Redwood & Pinehurst Rds where there was a large TnT contingent. While on Redwood Road I passed by one group and I was surprised to see that there were a few people wearing Amici Veloci jerseys! As I was staring at them trying to figure out if I knew them, I heard Kim (who was not wearing an AV jersey, ahem!!!) yell out to me. She was out riding with a bunch of friends who happened to have the jerseys. Anyhow, Kim & I stopped and chatted a bit, it was a really nice surprise to see her.

As I was doing my usual slo-mo slog up Pinehurst Road, a guy in a Rock Racing kit passed by me going at a ridiculously fast pace. I didn't see his face but I figured it must have been Fred Rodriguez, who lives in nearby Emeryville part of the year. He must have only gone to the summit of Pinehurst and turned back, because while I was at the side of the road fixing a flat he came by again and I got a good look at his face, and yep, it was most definitely Fast Freddie.

This route has a goodly amount of climbing and the really steep climb, Pig Farm Hill, came at about the 55 mile point on my ride. Just for grins I left the % grade indicator showing on my computer as I starting crawling up that stinker. According to my computer the grade maxed at 16% but for the most part it was around 10-12%. Luckily it's not a very long climb...

I finally made it into Martinez & checked out a few possible control sites. I decided that the Starbucks was really the only viable location for a control in the downtown area.

After my Starbucks break, I continued down Pacheco Blvd, thru some urban mall sprawl on Castro Valley Blvd and finally turned onto the much nicer Taylor Blvd, which lead to Pleasant Hill Blvd into Livermore. I was not pleased to find that there was a long 6-10% grade to climb before reaching Livermore. I'm not sure I'll be about to re-route it over a less hilly area, so that might have to stay. Yech.

By the time I had ridden about 80 miles I was starting to feel a bit whupped so I stopped at the Starbucks in Danville for a bit, which helped. And I knew the next 20 miles were reasonably flat over mostly smooth fast roads so that cheered me up a lot.

Lee picked me up at Pleasanton Ridge Park, about 4 miles outside of Sunol. I felt pretty good by the end, though I was really glad to be done!



My permanent is going to be around 127 miles with about 6500 feet of climbing - basically what I did today plus the southernmost loop including the Calaveras Road climb.

I just hope I'll be capable of riding my own permanent!

[KathiCville]

I got in 26+ miles on a country road route that I've now done three times. Managed to up my average speed a little bit overall, hit my fastest speed ever (32.6 mph) on a great downhill, and made it up one of the ride's long hills without using my little ring for the first time.

I was pleasantly surprised that I had such a good ride because the previous night I pushed myself pretty hard on a 10mi ride and could feel that I was still tired when I set out on the 26-miler less than 24 hours later. I guess I'm *finally* starting to gain some *real* strength! Feels great!

[Tuckervill]

I got out with the "newbie" group at the outdoor store in the next town.

Will I ever be faster on hills!? What a disappointment, after getting up at 5:15 three times a week for six months to go to boot camp. But it was still a fun ride, a new route, with people who didn't mind waiting for me. I dropped my chain once, and got it back on in record time, with traffic whizzing by my helmet as I stood in the ditch bent over the bike.

About halfway through another gal asked me if I had a kit, because she noticed I had no seat bag. DOH! I left it on the mtb which was still in the car. The rest of the ride I thought maybe she jinxed me, but I didn't get a flat.

The first 5 were hilly with a headwind, and the rest was relatively flat. One thing I did notice from boot camp--my upper body strength is so much better. I had been hesitating to stand on the pedals to climb on my road bike. Always felt like I would pitch over the front, so I just didn't do it. But on this ride, I found myself standing like I did as a kid, without even thinking about it.

We did 28 miles.

Karen