June 3 ride reports...

[Brandy]

Lifted straight from my blog...

The 2.9 Mile Ride
Today was the day. I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. to get in my very first early morning ride. After one push of the snooze button, I dragged myself out of bed, put on my long sleeve jersey and knickers and wandered downstairs to eat half of a bagel. By the time I was ready to roll the sun was up, so I took off from home instead of driving down to the beach path. My goal was to ride the same route that I did yesterday...Magnolia to the end of the Newport beach path, turn around and ride north to the end of Bolsa Chica State Beach, then back to Magnolia. With six extra miles added in going to and from the beach from home, I was looking at getting a 32 mile ride before the crowds hit the paths.

Of course, the best laid plans...blah, blah, blah. You get the picture. **** happens and my **** just happened to go down right in front of Huntington Beach Fire Station Number Four. I'm riding down Magnolia feeling great and enjoying the cool morning air when my smooth ride starts to feel not so smooth anymore. Damn...I've flatted in the front. So I hop off of my bike, fairly confident...okay, truth be told, I wasn't confident at all because I'd only changed one flat and it was in my living room and it took me an hour. I figure that I don't have any choice but to change the thing, so I flip the bike over and get to work. Just as I'm getting started, the fire engine pulls into the station. One of the guys pops his head out and asks if I'm okay. I tell him that I think that I can handle it and he says "Okay, well if you need anything we're all awake and there are four of us that can come over, stand around and watch you." After struggling for several minutes I finally get the tire off of the rim and start checking for a leak. I found the hole in the tube pretty easily, but can't find anything in the tire that might have caused it, despite checking for a good five minutes. I put in the one spare tube that I had and put the tire back on the bike, wave goodbye to the fireman and I'm on my way. For a minute. Something isn't feeling or sounding right and let's face it...I'm a total newbie and I was just pretending that I knew what I was doing back there. I turn into the park behind the fire station and after riding there for a couple of minutes, the little voice inside of me tells me to call it a day and bag the ride. I decide to swallow my pride and go make friends with the firemen.

I explain the situation to the fireman who had been checking up on me while I was changing my tire and he asks me if I'd like a ride home. I accept and ask if one of them has a truck. He tells me that they can't break the crew up and that I'd have to ride home on the fire truck. Now who would turn down a ride like that? They load my bike into the hose bed on top of the truck, open the door and ask me to take a seat. We chatted about kids, their schedules, my husband's job and before I knew it we were pulling up in front of my house. As they're unloading my bike I hear them shouting across the road to the firemen at Fire Station Number Three which is about 300 feet from my front door. Good natured ribbing at 6:40 a.m. which I'm sure that my neighbors appreciated. What do I care though? I got to ride home in a firetruck. Yeehaw!

[Selkie]

Brandy, I'd say that was a flat worth having!

Got up early to get out before the Team in Training crowd started hogging the trail. The minute I opened the door it started raining. As I was setting up to do the Spinervals killer workout (Hillacious followed by Iron Girl), Divine Intervention: the rain slowed to a sputter, so I pulled out one of my beater bikes and got the spokes spinning by 5:30am. Wet pavement, humid and warm, some intermittent drizzle, but the trail was pretty much deserted. Didn't see the coyote but the rabbits were out.
Unfortunately, I noticed the Team in Training Trail Hogs assembling in their pre-run/walk circle. Since I'm battling a virus that's giving me a stuffed head/ears, I didn't want to deal with getting safely past their multiple squadrons of two abreast, especially since it's early days in their training and the most inconsiderate of them havent yet tossed in the towel [note: I don't mean to be so down on Team in Training, as I'm sure they are a great organization. However, my "share the trail" experience with these Team in Training folks--last year--was not positive because some, not all, of them seem hostile toward cyclists and more than once, they put my safety at risk by crowding the trail and/or acting in an unsafe manner]. So, I decided to bag it at 30 miles and head home.

[Aggie_Ama]

Finally got on the bike after a nasty stomach virus sidelined me all week. I don't even get stomach viruses like this, so I was down for the count. I got up early to see DH off for a little guys weekend. I then went on a nice 23.6 mile ride in cool weather, little wind and traffic. Even ventured out of where I would normally ride by myself. My stomach was still cramping a little, making me much slower than I would have been under those conditions normally. It felt nice to be back on the bike.

[mtkitchn]

I got up at 5am, opened the front door and felt 82 degree heat on my face. Closed the door and went to the gym.

[LL_Super_D]

It's official... I've turned into a real cyclist - ha ha ha. Yesterday I agreed to go on a ride that started at 6:45 am this morning so I readily called it a mellow Friday - went to bed at 10:30 on a Friday night and happily woke up at 5:45 . The last wake up call I've done before the crack of dawn was when I was in Peru in the Amazon rainforest going on a jungle expedition!

Anyway, I met up with one of my friends at the local Peet's Coffee and off we went. Rode 7 miles of flat/slight steady climb with one steep short hill for good measure to Tunnel Road (for those of you in the Bay area). I was able to ride up the hilly road one mph faster than last weekend! and went downhill one mph faster than last weekend as well. Woo hoo! Ended up riding 20 miles. From the Berkeley hills, it looked like it was gonna be a beautiful day!

[im4smiley]

Rain...rain...and more rain..lots of rain..no bike ride

[Fredwina]

I would being a ride marshall for the Lytle Creek half Marathon in Fontana. I took my bike friday, I need to get a kickstand for it, since whenever I fold or unfold, I do the mega -chainring tattoo thing. We met at the half way point and road up to that start . This half marathon is all down hill. My hands are sore form all the breaking I had to do, and my headset loosened itself on the way down, which I think is beacuse I didn't get the stem in right. I'm highly tempted to do another quickie ride, since I did oput new tire on my Cannondale, and want to make sure everything is OK there.

[winddance]

bikerz called me a bit before 10 this morning, wanting to ride. We had kind of decided that a ride was unlikely this weekend due our bustling social lives. However, we both got to sleep in and decided that we needed to ride anyway, because we are shameless addicts.

We rode up the Bay Trail to Richmond. It was very nice on the trail, and not horribly windy. We stopped at the Richmond marina to grab a sandwich and sat outside and gabbed for a while. We saw a heron and a lot of geese of various ages in the water on the way back.

We rode 24 miles or so. Z may or may not have run over a lizard. I learned how to drink out of my water bottle while still moving. That's right, I did! I didn't run into anything or fall over! I felt like a rockstar.