Saturday, March 22 Rides

[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