Sunday 8/30/09 rides

[alpinerabbit]

Yesterday we climbed Passo dello Stelvio, see my other posts.

Today I seized the spotless blue sky (autumn temperatures and smells already in the air.... sadness....) and rode a flat 50K ... I faded fast after 25.

some ar$e shouted at me out of his window.
I tried to report him to the police, no luck.
I got his number. I am pondering calling him up as I now know who he is. From a payphone of course.

[nolemom]

Rode 63.2 miles before calling it quits today. I had a difficult ride yesterday due to the heat and humidity, but thought I had recovered sufficiently for today's assault on our "hills". I was only 10 miles from home, but I felt horrible and actually had goosebumps despite the temps being in the mid-90s.
I decided it wasn't worth it to keep my pride so I let my DH ride on and bring the car back for me. Luckily, one of our bike club members was kind enough to recently move to a home along our route. I waited in his shaded yard, took advantage of his waterhose and had pretty much recovered by the time my DH was back.

[KathiCville]

Rode just over 33 miles today on hilly roads, so got a good workout. A local club ride passed me doing the same loop in the opposite direction so I had plenty of opportunities to nod, wave or say hello.....I was wearing my TE "She Loves Hills" jersey, which seemed appropriate for the terrain/route... Boy, was I tired when I got home---the ragweed is in bloom and seems drag my energy level down by about half this time of year!

[Biciclista]

40 miles, no photos today; too bad.
We left right after lunch, rode over to Alki, which overlooks puget sound. the weather was incredible, about 70 degrees with a slight breeze. We could see fog on the water.
Next we headed south, overlooking Puget Sound, riding on nice roads and then a park -- like path to the Vashon Ferry Terminal near Lincoln park.
Next we headed a little further south, where Raleighdon was captivated by a table at a garage sale; fortunately (?) he had no money, so we couldn't buy it.A block later we came upon a bakery with a bathroom. Snack time he says; after this we have some climbing to do. So I take him very seriously and pick out a cookie. the man behind the counter said "I baked everything here this morning" I felt this incredible nostalgia; why is this so rare? The last hand baked cookie I had was done in someone's home, this guy was selling them; so we ordered a dozen chocolate chip cookies. he says "Let's make that a baker's dozen" I almost cried.
Then we started climbing. ooof up, up, up, and then down and then up and then down - who knows how many times; but you can't NOT find hills if you go east or west in the Seattle area.
We had a splendid ride, no traffic woes, no nasty drivers, lots of trails, dead ends and under driven roads.
We hoped to stop and pick blackberries, but alas, the crop is now too far gone.

[owlice]

I had a bifurcated ride. I started out on a trail I usually like, but today I was not feelin' the love, so stopped riding after 20 miles, got gas, got something to eat, stopped by my house for a few minutes, and then rode my usual trail for a little over 9 miles, so 29 miles for me today, making 50 for the weekend.

I didn't hit the second trail until almost sunset, and wow, was the sunset gorgeous!! The trees in the swamp were nicely silhouetted against the pink and blue of the sky, and a frog chorus was just getting underway. I just got lights, so tried them out tonight and was happy.

I saw a doe and her fawn at the park where I left my car; they were grazing in the open field there. While riding the first trail, I saw a Great Blue Heron in the creek; I cannot recall EVER seeing a Great Blue in that particular creek, and that creek and I go back decades! (I remember fish spawning in that creek when I was five years old; by the time I was ten, no more spawning fish. )

And I saw a Green Heron bebopping along the creek by the other trail. I see them in the swamp, but not usually along the creek.

Oh, and on average speed, I'd be THRILLED if mine were 12.anything! Today's average was 9.1 MPH. The first trail had a few little hills; I was going up one of them, and passed a mom pushing her daughter's little bike up the hill. As I passed the mom, I said, "I'm not having nearly the fun I thought I'd be having!" She felt the same! The 2 or 3 MPH I was doing up some of the hills ... yeah. At least I didn't start sliding backwards!!

[channlluv]

Owlice, where are you again? South Florida, yes? I just left my mom's house a couple of weeks ago. She's in Palm Coast, just north of Daytona. I rode through the swamp there, too, but never saw anything more interesting than an egret.

My ride report. First, it's Fire Season here, so all of you reporting a little Fall nip in the air, I'm jealous. It's hot and dry and a tad smoky at times because of fires up in the LA area.

I rode 30 miles today, my longest ride ever! Unfortunately it was in the middle of the day and even though the weather only predicted low 90s, I think it got a bit higher. I drank three bottles of water, one of those had 8oz of Concord grade juice added, and ate a chocolate chip Cliff Bar, but I really had to push to finish the last three miles. I was getting loopy.

By the time I reached my car, I had just enough in me to get the back door open (it's a Rav4), lean my bike against it, and collapse into the spot where I usually park the bike. Everything went yellow. I lay there for several minutes then sat up and drank the little bit of water I had left, but I have a gallon of water I keep in the back of the car for radiator emergencies, and I doused my legs, arms and head with it. It cooled me off quite a bit, but I still couldn't stand. My bike fell over and I just let it lay there for a minute before I got up and stood it back up, then fell back into the car because everything went yellow again. "Is this bonking?" I wondered.

After a few minutes, I tried to sit up and the motion knocked the bike over again. I tried to catch it and got hit in the face with the handlebars. I thought I'd broken my nose for a second. I leaned it up again, poured more water over my head, getting my torso wet, too, and lay back down. Thank God there was an occasional cool breeze.

Several minutes later I gathered the strength to take my front tire off and get the bike in the car. I practically fell into the driver's seat, though, so I sat there for a few more minutes with the air on high, listening to NPR.

I waited for my head to clear and then I drove home, stopping off at the Goodwill depository on the way to donate some bags of clothes. While I was waiting there in line (they've got guys who pick your stuff up out of the car for you), I called D*H and asked him to fix me some of his electrolyte drink. My words were a little slurry. I told him I'd ridden 30 miles in 3 hours and burned 152 calories. "I mean, 1152 cal..calries." Something like that. I sounded drunk.

I got home okay, although in retrospect I probably shouldn't have been driving myself. I could barely catch my breath, my skin was red and hot to the touch, and when I drank the electrolyte stuff, it made my stomach cramp.

I got a cool shower and lay down for a while, then took my blood pressure. My doctor has me monitoring it because I'm on medication for high blood pressure, so I have one of those digital cuffs to use at home. My left arm was 77/38, with a 98 heart rate. My right arm was 69/29, with a 100 heart rate. This was at 3:20 this afternoon, about 20 minutes after I'd gotten home.

I called my mom, a retired RN, and she fussed at me (as D*H had done) about going that far in the heat and why didn't I take some electrolyte drink with me and what was I thinking, that I could have killed myself all for a bit of exercise, it's just not worth it even though she knows I feel like I have a lot to prove here...it went on for several minutes. She finally told me to go eat something salty or get myself to the hospital for an IV drip, so D*H offered to take me to Red Lobster, since it is also air conditioned. (Our house isn't, and lying half-naked in front of a fan wasn't doing much to cool me off.)

So we went to Red Lobster and I got all-you-can-eat teriyaki shrimp with wild rice and those Cheddar Bay biscuits that I normally never eat because they're so darn salty. D*H said I probably negated any weight loss that might have resulted from the bike ride, but that my salt levels had to have been replenished. I sure felt better after the meal and my blood pressure is up to 98/56 now, with a 91 heart rate.

So, lesson learned. Get some electrolyte powder of my own and use it for all long rides, heat or not. I told him I'd never had anything like this happen to me before, and that I didn't think I needed that electrolyte powder because it's for real athletes. He said I needed it anytime I'm going to be sweating a lot. Okay, now I know.

But still, I went 30 miles today, and I'm pretty proud of that. My knees don't even hurt much.

Roxy

[bmccasland]

Got an update this morning on the rider that crashed in front of me yesterday, and she's hurt pretty bad:
"Babs, the bicyclist in the rear, went down and as I understand had multiple fractures of the pelvis, two broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a concussion."

She went down when her front tire hit the back tire of the rider in front of her in a pace line. Babs and the other rider are both experience riders too.