Daily ride 5/14, the mothers day edition..

[Brandy]

I got 24.5 miles in. A little less than I wanted, but I had technical difficulties, so it's okay. I decided to brave the streets and ride the mile or so from my house to the river bike path. I'd been to nervous to do it since it's a busy street and there are no marked bike paths. I saw several cyclists riding the wide sidewalk to get to the path the other day, so I went for it. Once I got to the path I followed the same route I took the other day...the Santa Ana River bike Trail to the beach and then the bike path up to the end of Bolsa Chica State Beach. The path was very crowded today, so I had to go much slower than I did on Thursday when there were fewer people out. I had to take a picture of Jack in the Box to show the kids I made it all the way there.

After a short break here I turned around with the expectation that I would just reverse my route.





As I passed the Huntington Beach pier I noticed that my back tire seemed to be losing air, so I unclipped and pulled over to check it out. Now, when I say check it out, I mean check it out in the sense that I was going to stare at it for awhile and beg the powers that be to spare me from having to call home for a ride. I used my new pump to inflate it and I didn't hear any hissing, so I went on my way, keeping an eye on it. In an attempt to play it safe I decided to take the streets home, cutting some mileage and time off of my ride. I wanted to do a longer ride today, but I turned my attitude around and decided that this would be a great opportunity to get over some of my fears of riding on the street. So I get to the second stoplight and unclip on my right side. I turn around to check on my rear tire and TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR! Over I go! First thought...Whew! My bike is okay! Second thought...Get yer butt up off the road! Third thought...COOL! You have your first road rash!


Lessons learned today...LEARN TO CHANGE A TIRE...PRONTO! Unclip both shoes at stoplights.

The kids were a little worried about my knee when I got home but it doesn't hurt and a lesson was learned in the process, so it's all good.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

[bikerz]

Trek420 and I met up for a fun ride on the Alameda Creek trail this morning (a replay of the ride with the TE gang a couple of weeks ago). It was a very nice day to ride - a tad on the warm side for me, but not too bad. We did 27.3 miles.

Big news - I made it 2/3 of the way up "Jo's Nemesis Hill" with out stopping! I did the part with a gradient of 8-12% followed by 3-5% followed by 10-14% and then I turned around before the final steep part because my legs felt like noodles! (Is that 2/3, Jo? I turned around at the big chain link fence area after the second climb...)

It was beautiful out there - we saw the geese and goslings, egrets, at least one great blue heron, some sort of very light colored hawk or other raptor, some skakeskin (sans snake, thank goodness!), lots of flowers, and many examples of happy family units out enjoying Mother's day!

Lot of fun - thanks Trek!

[Duck on Wheels]

Trek420 and I met up for a fun ride on the Alameda Creek trail this morning

And in case there's anybody out there checking up on how we treat our moms today, Trek visited our mom yesterday and I called. Today mom is going to a symphony concert and won't be available.

[im4smiley]

No rides for this Mom today...RAIN!!! It just won't stop!! My daughter called to wish me a happy day (maybe she will stop by later) and my son came by with laundry, and the new Paul Simon CD for me

[Trek420]

Thanks for getting me out there Bikerz. Family units? sounds like a type of sleeper sofa. Great ride, great company. Thanks for not mentioning that I barely made a dent in "Jobob Nemesis Hill" and clipped out and turned around when passed handily by a couple on their Roadmaster mountain bikes with kickstands and wearing Keds tennis shoes. My apologies to anyone here who rides with Keds Tennis shoes.

Yeah, it was the heat.

Hats off to Bikerz who rescued a family in distress, back at the parking lot we met a family unit who'd locked themselves out of the car. Bikerz gave them a Power bar (kid has diabetes and was getting low blood suger) and she gave the wife a ride to their home nearby to pick up the extra key. We figured it was faster than waiting for AAA.

[Brina]

once again rainy and cold here in Chicago. Went to spin class. I really want to ride outside on my Ruby.

[Tuckervill]

My ride was from a parking lot to the start/finish of the Joe Martin Stage Race Criterium. www.joemartinstagerace.com Then I pedaled slowly around the staging area avoiding racers and looking at the vendor booths and signing up for stuff. Between the pro men's and cat 3 race my son and I rode the course the downhill way and it was a lot of fun to ride on the street with it blocked off.

Then the Cat 3 riders came by and just around the corner from us someone slipped a few riders went down. eeek. Only one was slightly hurt--the rest kept going.

It was so exciting to watch them go by on the downhill part so fast around the 90 degree turns. woohoo!

Over the course of the day, I put 3 miles on my clock, but most of that was on tippy toes and stopping and starting on the sidewalk around the course.

Karen

[jobob]

Big news - I made it 2/3 of the way up "Jo's Nemesis Hill" with out stopping! I did the part with a gradient of 8-12% followed by 3-5% followed by 10-14% and then I turned around before the final steep part because my legs felt like noodles! (Is that 2/3, Jo? I turned around at the big chain link fence area after the second climb...)

That's correct, Z. Very well done!! It took me many, many attempts to make it up that far. I still remember the day I finally made it up there - I was simultanously thrilled and exhausted.

And then I found out there was more to it .... I didn't realize it until then. ack!

[KnottedYet]

As Salsa said, utterly beautiful day here! But no ride, cuz bike is in the shop for it's check-up. Walked around Greenlake, though. (3.2 miles)

[Running Mommy]

After all was said and done I had a FAB mothers day. Did a strong 4 miles on the t-mill this morning, and then took a sunset ride w/ the hubby. Averaged 16.16 mph! Very good for me. He hasn't ridden in awhile so I took the opportunity to put the hammer down on him a few times. I passed him at one point going 22.7 mph!!! Which might as well be warp speed for me. But where I really had him was the hills. He's out of condition thats for sure. But he wants to ride w/ me more, so it won't take long before I'm the one hanging on for dear life.
Anyway, it was a hot evening- still 100 when we went out at 6:00, and quite windy, so w/ the low humidity I felt like I was in a blow dryer.
Anyway, GREAT RIDE!!!

[Lise]

I was on-call, but didn't deliver any mother's day babies. The pregnant women seem to have worn themselves out with the extravaganza of birth we've been having the past week! Got off-call at 10AM, went by Performance Bike, bought stuff, came home, wanted to ride, but knew I had to run. (First tri in 7 days. The bike portion will not be the hard part!) Ran 3.5 miles, thought, "I can sneak in a ride", got ready to go out in just my long sleeved performance top and new bike shorts. By now the sweat had dried from the run. As I stepped outside with the bike, I said, "HOLY COW, I'm going to freeze!" Turned around, locked up the bike, took a nap. And that, ladies, is my ride report for Mother's Day 2006! Yes, I did call my Mom. We're having a belated M'sD next Sunday, because the family just couldn't get all the details together for celebration yesterday.

[Crankin]

I had a great Mother's Day, despite the fact that we are having a state of emergency because it's been raining for 5 days, with another day to go... so no riding here. My older son came over and surprise... he gave me a pair of earrings that were hand made by his girlfriend, who is an artist. Then the 3 of us went out for lunch at a really nice restaurant. Later that night my other son called from Spain, where he is posted.

So ladies, they do grow up and remember their mothers!