august 8 rides

[HillSlugger]

My tri group had a "Brick-n-Pic", a run-bike-run followed by a picnic. Since I'm not supposed to run right now I skipped their warm up run and then headed out on the ride with them and then did another dose of riding while they ran. I think they think me "hard core" now

[Miranda]

Day 1 of my club's tour ride. Planned to do a metric century for 67mi. Total rain and mud fest. My ride company wanted to cut it short. So, 38mi instead.

But, still a great training ride imo. Lots of practice improving my skills riding in the rain and drafting (windy day as well & hot).

Learned some new bike maintenance skills about cleaning my drive-train post a muddy ride.

Going out tomorrow for day two. Forecast temp 96degree F and 21mph. Should be interesting!

Btw, greats ride pic from those posting above me. Wish I had pics of my mud to put up as well *sigh*.

[Pan Dulce]

Just a short ride this evening for me - around 8 miles. It was pretty cool, around 65 degrees. My ears got pretty achy and cold; but I don't know what to do about that - I want to be able to hear what's going on around me, too.

I'm getting faster, which is still nothing close to what you ladies can do. Averaged around 12 mph, with a top speed of 22 mph. I'm getting there.

[kenyonchris]

Out on the patrol bike today....Its amazing to ride the same roads I ride on my road bike on the patrol bike. It is like going from Man o War to Greasy the pack mule.
This shift, every officer on my shift is a bike officer, so we rotate days, which means I don't ride as often as I do on shifts with only one or two bike officers. And it is HOT, I mean DANG HOT. It got so that every time I took a breath in, I could feel cool (and when 100 degrees feels cool, you know you are hot) air as it flowed between my vest and my undershirt. I rode from 8am to 1pm....and did about 30 miles. I would do that in an hour and a half on my road bike, but I was patrolling around, talking to people, taking a call or two, making traffic stops, and, of course, nearly getting hit by cars as they backed out of their driveway. I always keep my head up, and enjoy giving the lecture that follows the look of dismay that comes when they realize that they nearly squashed a cop. I get a lot of "yes, ma'ams" after that lecture.
Pretty uneventful.

[owlice]

A short run for me today; I wasn't going to ride at all this weekend, to give .... ah... certain parts time to heal, but out I went for a 12-mile spin. I didn't push at all; just tootled around on the trails looking for deer and birds and all. I think I need to try different bike shorts, because certain parts were unhappy just a couple or three miles into it.

And I DID see deer! A doe at first near a turning-around point, and after I'd turned around and was heading back, she was nursing twins. Very cool! I'd seen a buck in velvet near the same spot not too long ago.

[Pip]

43km for me. It's the end of winter here in New Zealand and my friends and I are just starting to crank up the rides again as we start training for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, a 160km ride in November. My trainer invited me to ride with her this afternoon and I was a bit intimidated when I realised that I was going to be the slowest person in the pack by far. I was even more intimidated when they said they were going to be riding a popular local loop (Makara, if there are any Wellington readers), but from the opposite direction to usual. That meant riding up a very steep, very long hill. I nearly wimped out, but I've made it my goal this year to stop whining and making excuses and just go out there and do it, so I hardened up and went for it. Of course I kept getting dropped, but I dealt with it. Part of my problem is a lack of technical ability. I really need to work on my cornering and descents. In the end though it was a great ride. We had wonderful spring-like conditions and that big hill, the one I'd built up in my mind to be as huge as a Tour de France mountain stage? Yeah, actually it wasn't that bad at all. It was a huge confidence builder and I'm hopeful that I'll be in a good place to really amp up the training this year and cut a good chunk of time off this year's Taupo circuit.

[redrhodie]

I commuted to work, and after work, my best friend/boss and her bf rode with me. She's a new rider, and didn't want to go off the bike-path, which I had told her at the start of the ride I was probably going to do to get some extra bike time since it was so nice out. Well, when I was about to turn off, she said to her bf that he could go with me if he wanted to, and after saying he would stay with her, he ended up coming with me.

I felt uncomfortable with this. I think he should have stayed with her. I would have stayed with her had I known he was going to leave her. It all happened very spur of the moment. It was their decision, but it was not cool to leave her alone, IMO.

Then, once I left him for the remainder of my ride, it was crazy drunken beach traffic. 6pm on a beautiful Saturday, I knew what to expect. I had a guy in a truck with his right turn signal on driving in the bike lane. My instinct told me he was a loose cannon, so I slowed way down and stayed behind him, even though he was nearly stopped. Sure enough, still with his right signal flashing, he pulled out left and made an illegal left u-turn through 2 lanes of traffic. Could have been bad if I had tried to pass him.

I still had a great ride. My IT band felt fine, and the weather was perfect. The traffic is something I just have to deal with in the summer, so I don't have it so bad.

[jobob]

I could tell I was healing nicely from my crash when I could actually read about other peoples' rides without getting bummed out.

And now I can even start posting about my own rides again, yay!

Lee & I went on a ride with Laurie and Maggie, a couple of teammates on my former TNT Death Ride team (and who are now Five Pass Finishers of said ride, woo-woo). I've kept in touch with many of my TNT teammates, what an awesome group of people.

We started out from Fairfax in Marin County and rode up over White's Hill on Sir Francis Drake Blvd and up Nicasio Valley Road into Nicasio, hung out a bit and chatted, and headed back.

It was only about 20 miles, but it's the hilliest ride I've done so far. There were a few moderate climbs and descents along the way, adding up to around 1500 ft of climbing. Laurie and Maggie were joking that we did a six-pass ride. Yeah, right guys.

And I'm happy to say I had no trouble with the riding!! I'm still woefully out of shape when it comes to climbing, but I had no discomfort to speak of.

I'm not descending as fast as I used to but that has more to do with lack of practice than any fear of descending.

Afterwards we had a nice lunch at the Iron Springs pub (where I partook of some of their excellent Anne Marie's Amber, yumm).

While we were sitting at a table outside of the pub we had a couple of pleasant surprises ...

Will, my mentor on the Death Ride team, rode by. He first noticed Laurie's TNT/DR jersey and her long red hair, then he recognized the rest of us. It was so great seeing Wilma!

And then, as we were chatting with Will, along comes a couple who had just left the bike shop next door. The woman looked vaguely familiar ... it must have been the pink hair. Yep, I finally got to meet gnat!

All in all an excellent day. I'm so glad to be back.