May 28 daily ride report

[Veronica]

Yay BikerZ! You've come a long way baby! Isn't it grand to see progress.

Today's ride was a 30 mile loop that I prefer to do only in non commute hours. It heads out Deer Valley, a gorgeous road through the farmland, out to Marsh Creek and comes back on the highway 4 bypass. It's really out in the country, horses and cows everywhere, lots of orchards too. Deer Valley has no shoulders however and gets a lot of commute traffic. There are two hills on it and when Thom and I first started riding the tandem, those hills seemed so hard. I still use my little ring on them - that's why I have a little ring. But I spin up them with a much higher cadence now. BTW, I'm becoming a cadence watcher. That seems to me to be the best way to get faster for the Mt. Tam Double (why do they HAVE to have time cutoffs?) and not blow out my knees. Today's average cadence over 30 fairly flat miles (1000 feet of climb) - 91 RPMs with a high of 122.

V.

[bikerz]

BTW, I'm becoming a cadence watcher. That seems to me to be the best way to get faster for the Mt. Tam Double (why do they HAVE to have time cutoffs?) and not blow out my knees. Today's average cadence over 30 fairly flat miles (1000 feet of climb) - 91 RPMs with a high of 122.
V.

Thanks! I think it was Yellow who told me all about the benefits of a cadence meter - I installed one at the end of last year, and I love it - I think it's has really helped me with keeping a constant speed and spinning better. Today I was working on SK's advice about keeping my upper body still, and I noticed that whenever I really paid attenton to my form, I felt more comfortable, and I went faster. Well, whaddya know. I guess there's something to all this!

Looking at Jo's photos of me, my first thought was "get those shoulders DOWN!" My second thought was "good thing those photos aren't time/date stamped" - it was a looooong time between the first and second pictures!