Daily ride thread 5/13

[Running Mommy]

Lucky # 13!!
Today is saturday, so hopefully lots of you ladies are able to get out for a spin, or whatever athletic endeavor is on the calendar...
Tell us about it...
Here is my ride:

Yesterday was my day off from everything, including eating a sensible diet. We went to cheesecake factory, and I had an appetizer sized salad (the size of a large salad everywhere else) so that I could have carrot cake. I was having a hankering. Well my body pretty much rejected the cake.
It really upset my tummy. Of course thats a good thing. It just reminds me that my body likes "clean" eating.. So back on the wagon I am. But a consequence to that is that I could not drag my butt out of bed early to ride. Summer is in full swing here in the desert, so afternoon riding is pretty much out. I hit the road at 8:38, and it was already warming up. Saw my neighbor Tommy. He's our resident bike racer- both mtn and road. He was in his road kit this am. Discovery channel. I can awlays pick out Tommy by his kit. Most riders up here go non descript w/ their gear. Not Tommy, he's always in a full kit- which makes me chuckle. Anyhoo... Chugged up the hill, feeling slower than usual, and the gps was confirming that. Oh well...
Getting up late means I missed most of the wildlife, which is a bummer. But I did enjoy the desert blooms. We have these things out here called "Ocotillo" which look like a bundle of sticks in the ground. They look dead most of the time, and only get little scale like leaves when it rains. Anyway, they are blooming right now, and I was thinking how cool it is that plants that get nearly no water can actually bloom. For as barren as the desert can be, it's also very cool.
Midway through the ride I saw two animal "paddy wagons" come by. Eventually one of them stopped me. I thought they were prolly looking for Elvis the resident mtn lion. He appears every once in awhile and the residents up here freak out. But he's really ok. He leaves (elvis has left the building) as soon as he appears..
But no. They were looking for a tan mama dog. She had been dumped in the desert along w/ her pups. They got the pups but she ran off. I hadn't seen her though..
It just angers me to no end to think that someone could take a dog- and esp. a mama w/ pups and dump them in the hot desert!! Unless they are rescued they have a zero chance of survival. I had never heard of such a thing until I moved out here. I just don't understand. And it makes me SICK!
There is a special place in HELL for those people... Right next to the people who throw things or swerve at cyclists!!!
Anyway, I told the officer I'd keep my eye out and try to get her or call them if I saw anything. I also thanked her for doing such a hard job. I said "thank you for standing up for these animals. I know you see some pretty bad things out there" and she said "you don't even know" and frowned...
With that I took off and shed some tears thinking of that poor lost scared doggie. I also said a prayer.
At this point it was heating up good, and I was at 20 miles, so I turned back for the 5 mile trip home. It was a good, hot, sweaty ride. Other than the dog thing- which is just sad. But now I have to go do a bazillion things to get ready for my friends wedding next weekend.
Hope y'all are having a FAB weekend!
Ciao!
Denise

[Running Mommy]

Oh yeah it's gonna be a hot one today.. Just checked the neighborhood weather station... It's 10:55 am here..

Wind from 191 degrees @ 6.0 MPH Temp 92F Humidity 11% Dewpoint 29F Pressure 1013.0 mb

[DrBee]

I didn't get to ride outside (no bike at my mom's), but I did find an old wind resistance exercise bike in the basement. The saddle is so big - it's bigger than my butt. That made me feel good I rode 5 miles on the old dinosaur this am while watching birds flying around out in the garden. I know that doesn't really count for an official ride, but it's as close as I can get right now.

Miss you ladies!

[BigRingB*tch]

Good morning ladies,

Today my whole family is racing, except me. Mom and dad in Phoenix, doing a crit (not my cup o' tea) and husband in Prescott doing a mountain bike race. Talk about inspiration to NOT be a slug!

Yes, it's a blazing out my way, Tucson, Arizona. 7:30 am, left the house sunscreen, two water bottles and sleeveless jersey. The first twenty minutes my legs didn't want to talk. There are always quite a few cyclist out and about. There are quite a few runners too! It's very motivating to see everyone!

I went up to Saddle Brook, which has beautiful bike lanes, hilly terrain (my favorite, yeah I'm sick like that) and mountainous scenery as well. I saw 3 deer, pretty awesome! I worked hard through the hills, but on my recovery took in the views. THEN it started! The wind!! UUGHHH!! I sucked some wheel briefly by a passer byer and made it home in time, as I had sucked down both my bottles, the wind rearing it's ugly head and the sun had risen to egg frying temperature! All and all thankful for a safe and great ride today.

[KnottedYet]

Did a little coffee cruise this morning. 18 miles. Longest ride so far on the new Speedplay Frogs.

Went down to the ocean and watched a kite-boarder. Lilacs were blooming everywhere I went and the smell was marvellous! Wandered through some funky neighborhoods where I would love to live. Saw some expensive ones where I probably wouldn't.

Managed to ride up some hills I was sure I'd have to walk up. (love that MegaGranny gear!)

Had a short latte and a mouthful of Clif Shot.

[bikerz]

I had a very pleasant 26 mile solo ride this morning - the test run for my newly refit bike.

My bike and I went up to Davis to visit Sadie Kate's LBS on Tuesday for a fitting and review - we ended up with new wider handlebars (everyone there got a chuckle out of my strange stock handle bars) that are lower and further forward, and a new higher seat post which allows the saddle to be further back. We ditched the cheater brakes that were on my handlebars, shimmed the regular brakes, and set up new Look pedals (Thanks SK and Bubba!) and now I'm using my road shoes instead of the SPD mountain shoes I've been using...

So by all rights I should have been reaching vainly for the missing brakes, and falling all over the place while trying to start up and unclip with these new cleats. But amazingly, I didn't fall at all (yet! There's always tomorrow!). I felt really comfortable in the new postition, and I think I was faster than usual (but I haven't checked the data yet). I sure felt faster, even on the way back into the ever-present "breeze" off the bay. I did reach for the nonexistant brakes a few times, but I think I'll get over that soon, especially since my newly shimmed brakes are much easier to reach now.

It was beautiful out there - white caps on the bay, blue sky, fresh air, minimal bikepath craziness.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's ride - either the Alamada Creek Trail with Trek420 (if we can get it organized), or maybe a hilly loop in my neighborhood...

Hope you all had great rides out there today - I'm so grateful for this wonderful weather FINALLY!

Edited to say that YES - I was faster than my last Bay Trail ride - yipeee!

(and I took the opportunity to catch up my measly April and May rides on BJ)

[jobob]

Lee had a bit of a sore throat today so I went out on my own on my "coffee ride" which is the Alameda Creek Trail out to the bay and back to Niles, then up Mission Blvd. to Mission Coffee, and back.

The weather was simply perfect. It was warm and sunny, warm enough for a sleeveless jersey and there was a light cool refreshing breeze so I was never hot. Lovely.

I went up my nemesis hill at a somewhat sprightly pace for me, and found, horror of horrors, that they have made the open space at the plateau 2/3 of the way up off to the side into a freakin' police shooting range . I don't know why this bugs me but it does. It doesn't interfere with my route or anything, but it's disconcerting to pass by the area with police cruisers parked inside the locked chain-link fence and police officers shooting the crap out of paper sillouettes of imaginary criminals, and the sounds of "pop-pop-pop". OK, granted, this area has a long association with death and destruction, back in the Korean War (or maybe it was WWII?) era it was the control center for the Nike Missile site which was over on the next hill. But geeze.

So after conquering nemesis I continued on around the the route that we TE gals took a few weeks ago, and proceeded towards the Niles Canyon end of the AC Trail.

Z and Dita, or anyone else who rides the trail over the next few weeks, keep an eye out for the families of geeze and goslings(?) in the water down towards the Niles end of the creek - right now the baby geese are tiny little blobs of fluff with beaks , generally swimming in a clump of 3-8 or so, sandwiched in between a proud mama and papa. Too adorable for words !!!

Todays Restorative Beverage at Mission Coffee was a raspberry/banana freeze with whipped cream. I also had a large choc chip cookie but I was getting sugared out (me? now that's unheard of) so I only finished half the cookie.

To reach the Niles Staging Area and the start of the AC trail, I took the same route I took the TE gals on, which was right from Mission onto Pickering , left onto Morrison Canyon, follow MC until the railroad tracks where I would hang a left and cross the tracks which woult get me to Old Canyon Road and the staging area.

Except - there was a train stopped at the railroad crossing. I waited for a little bit, then rode back half a block and parked the bike and sat on the curb under a shady tree. And waited. And waited. After a while I decided to use my wait time a leetle more productively and continued along Morrison Canyon Rd.

I remembered from the Fremont Freewheelers Cinderella training rides I did a couple of years ago that this road when up a really steep hill and looped around and back to the railroad tracks. So I figured I'd abuse myself a little and maybe by the time I got back the train will have started moving.

And hah, guess what, that really steep hill I remembered from a couple of years ago really wasn't steep anymore! I never needed to get out of my middle ring, how cool is that? Yep, I was pretty amused (and kind of jazzed).

Naturally, by the time I got back the train hadn't budged so I retraced my route back to Mission and got on the AC Trail the hard way, by negociating around a 6-inch gap between a fence and the rocky edge of the retaining wall. Luckily my moon wasn't in klutz at the moment.

And I tooodled back home, into a very mild headwind. A grand day out, for sure - very relaxing and enjoyable. And I really enjoy riding on my own from time to time (Lee doen't mind, he likes his "alone" rides too).

[bikerz]

Hey Jo - thanks for the heads up on the goslings! Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera with me if I ride down there tomorrow. Sounds like you had a great ride too (except the shooting range doesn't sound very cool...)

Hope Lee feels better soon,
-Z

[DirtDiva]

I headed into town to help a friend with some shoe shopping (but mostly because she promised to buy me a coffee ). I was trying to hop up over a curb - something I'm not very good at, hence the practice - but, alas, I mistimed it hideously and my back wheel came down on the corner/edge of the curb hard. Can anyone say "snakebite"? On the plus side, it turns out I do in fact know how to change a tube (seen it done but never done it myself - it's good to be a visual learner ) and I discovered I don't need the tyre levers I've been meaning to buy to get the the tyres off my bike after all. Did find a really good coffee too (easier said than done in the UK) and, of course, bought a new tube.

Next I rode up to my friends' flat because they were having a belated flatwarming. That was fairly uneventful, except for the bit where I turned the wrong way into a one-way street... (There were no cars coming, at least.)

On the way back I got rained on, big time. One or two spots of rain had me thinking it was just as well I'd packed my jacket, then the next thing I knew I was in a torrential downpour. No point getting the jacket out now, I was already saturated. It wasn't too cold to be out in for half an hour though, so I was wearing a humongous one of these: . By the time I got home, there was a tiny patch of dry on the bottom of the insole of my right shoe. That was it. Also, somewhere on the way home the cable part of my lock worked its way out of the helmet-holder bit of my pack, so now it is irretrievably lost. I've still got the D lock part, at least, but that cable was really handy and will have to be replaced.

Once I was showered I set about patching my tube. Given my luck so far, you won't be surprised to learn that the big patch wouldn't span the snakebite, so I had to use two little ones. But wait, there's more! I then discovered a third hole (I don't do things by halves ), which I sanded and smeared with vulcaniser before thinking "screw it" and tossing the tube.

I'm not superstitious, but maybe there's something in this 13 stuff after all...

[KSH]

My ride today was a lazy one.

I had a tri friend who wanted me to help him lead the Tri 101 group on their no drop ride.

So, I met him and the group at 7:30 AM and off we went. The pack took off and kept a really nice speed. There was one lady at the back and he and I hung out with her. It basically ended up being a 3 person no drop ride.

I was really tired and honestly thought they might drop me! HA!

We chatted and ended up going on a nice 18 mile ride with a 15.5 mph average. I think I warmed up around the 15 mile mark.

The ride was over at 8:45 AM, and instead of going out for more miles, I just decided to go home.

I went to the grocery store, and got home at 10:00 AM.

It was so nice to not have a ride take up half my day. It was also pleasant riding in a small group and taking it easy. After my 133 mile weekend last weekend, I was happy to chill.

[Bike Goddess]

Thanks for all the ride stories! I've read all of them up to here.

Biker Z- I have Look type pedals on my bike and I do love them! I know you will be faster, just wait! Now we'll want to know how you do on your next trip up the "Bears"!

[SadieKate]

Edited to say that YES - I was faster than my last Bay Trail ride - yipeee!

Yahooooooo!

So what about comfort, stability, pain, etc., etc., etc. Improvement? Too soon to tell?

[yellow]

I had a very pleasant 26 mile solo ride this morning - the test run for my newly refit bike.

Still switching stuff out...atta girl. I had some mechanical stuff done this week (new BB), but it still felt like I got a fancy "upgrade"! Did you get some new fancy handlebar tape too?

On to the topic at hand. I'm "training" (in quotes because I'm not really sure what it is) for my first double in August. I am riding with new (nice) people, all of whom are very strong riders, ride regular (not compact) doubles and still spin the same speed as or faster than me on my triple, and really like to ride hard (well, in my estimation, anyhow).

Today we did a ride of what I would once have considered moderate mileage (63+ mi) and with moderate climbing (probably only about 1500', though I may go gmap it to see what it really was). In order to keep up with my friends, I have to push bigger gears (if I spin in my happy place I can't keep up). Needless to say, after 40 miles of pushing too hard, my legs had had enough. I ended up slowing the group down...but for that, the average would have probably been over 19 mph (which is very fast for me). I feel fine now, but I just couldn't hang with them, as much as I'd like to be able to.

(note: same kind of thing happened last week.)

In summary:

(1) I'm feeling more puny than ever (in comparison to my past "ability"). Considering bon bon and couch potato lifestyle.
(2) I tried to say "You know, we're just not compatible riders...I need to go a little slower" but they won't hear it. They claim they will slow down. I like them a lot, but I don't believe them. So while they are riding their comfy pace, I am constantly having to work like mad to keep up. This makes me cranky and my legs gummy.
(3) I am not in as good of shape as I had believed. I know, at least I'm out there, but I thought I was tougher than that. What a wake up call.

I think I'll go have some wine now to make me feel a bit better. Thanks for listening to my hissy fit.

Edit: looks like the climbing was about 3000' total. Still, 3000' ain't much compared to the old days. I'm turning into a "Usta" as in "I usta go do X...".

[bikerz]

Still switching stuff out...atta girl. I had some mechanical stuff done this week (new BB), but it still felt like I got a fancy "upgrade"! Did you get some new fancy handlebar tape too?

Oh yeah - Theres' nothin' original left on that but the frame, the shifters, and the FD (which, sad to say, has been given a terminal diagnosis...) It's just money, right?

And RED handlebar tape! I honestly think that's why I felt faster!

So what about comfort, stability, pain, etc., etc., etc. Improvement? Too soon to tell?

In general, much more comfortable - I'm willing to bet what's left in the discomfort department can be chalked up to conditioning (or lack thereof)! So, ride ride ride - that's my mantra!

[Bike Goddess]

So Yellow- What might you be training for????? 200 Miles, 200 K?

(me thinks it must be the former as opposed to the latter! )