Bay Area Weekend Rides?

[melissam]

Well alright! If I don't have to be civil until Richmond, I think I can manage.

BikerZ, I have PM'd you my cell phone number. Got the printout of the Chevy's overflow parking lot, and I can put the addr in my navi system. Road bike tires are pumped up!

See ya tomorrow!

-- Melissa

[bikerz]

Great - now get to sleep so you can wake up early!

I just spent the last half hour fussing with zip-ties, trying to get my computer mounted again - argh - definitely time to go to sleep!

[bikerz]

Thanks MelissaM and Dachshund for a great Bay Trail ride!

We had really good weather and a just a *little* wind (what would the Bay Trail be without wind??) for a nice 33 mile ride. We even got a few spints in (SMASH!), some good chats, and not too much bike path craziness.

A very nice ride - thanks again!

And tomorrow - 40 more miles!

[dachshund]

Well, thank you for inviting us! That's a really nice route. And it was even cold out there! Nice change from my side of the Caldecott.
-Amy

[melissam]

BikerZ & Dachsund,

It was great to meet both of you. Definitely worth getting out of bed on a Saturday morning!

Trip highlights:

* Seeing the celeste green dog leashes that match Amy's Bianchi. I still think you should get the leashes, even if you don't actually use them to walk your dachsunds.

* Getting scolded by the walkers who were walking slowly and then standing smack dab in the middle of the bike path. Um, you're scolding US? Ha!

* Heart Rate Hill by Golden Gate Fields. Great potential for hill repeats.

* The sprints. Wind sprints at that!

* Beautiful scenery. The Bay. The boats. The bridges. The fog rolling in. What's not to like?

* Great company!

Thanks, Ann, for organizing this and being our fearless leader.

-- Melissa

[Trek420]

Just got back from the ride. Cindysue tough factor has been increased 10 fold. She took a fall when she went over a stealth speed-bump, her shoulder hurts and she continued to lead the ride.

Just call her Tylersue from now on.

Note to self: there are no "flat" rides in the East Bay, none. We seemed to always be on false flats. And it's f'ing hot out there, felt like 100, who knows.

Any time I go through 4 water bottles ... and don't have to pee, it's hot.

Any time I go through 4 bottles and my jersey is dry...is hot.

We stopped often to regroup, take advantage of the shade and in Dublin there was a fountain..the smart gals dove right on in. I shoulda done it, looked like fun.

What I really should do is shoulda brought the camelback. Did I say that it's hot?

At Dublin 3 of us decided to abandon the tour and took BART in. I took a slightly longer route home and glad I did.

The idiot factor was high, I always think of myself as a cycling ambasador and try to be polite but maybe it was the heat and hill got to me. At a stop I was turning right, so I'm on the right hand side, trying to figure out how to get going uphill. SUV driving soccer Mom leaving gated community is turning left, she's on the left hand side, plenty of room even for her big fat ugly car (sorry TE SUV owning gals).

She pulls up behind us, lays on the horn and yells "get off the road!"

I think I called her a "lazy sumthin' sumthin' outa shape witch" sumthin like that.

Also riding home on the other end of the economic spectrum got the same from a beat up car in my neighborhood.

But then....two tow truck drivers, the first was doing a 3 point u-turn and waved me through, the other I was on the downhill side of the overpass where I have to merge to the right to get into the bike lane and he is exiting the freeway onto Industrial.

I got eye contact, signaled I was going right, saw him nod and a tiny wave, I put the pedal to the metal and sped right, and waved at him. As he passed me he lifted his hand above the cab and waved back.

that's the way it should be I just got off the phone, called the company and left a commendation for the driver.

I hope Cindys shoulder is ok. Bikerz, good job of hanging in there and...knowing when to call it quits. I take it Dachsund finished the ride? That's one tough Dachsund.

[bikerz]

BZ got sagged in from a ride - first time in 2000+ miles, I think! ETA - I did get sagged down Mt. Diablo for a broken spoke - but this is the furst time the rider, not the bike, couldn't continue!)

What Trek said about the heat! My car said 103 in Walnut Creek - I think it was hotter down in Dublin.

Coming up the slight grade out of Dublin on San Ramon Blvd, my HR went up, which wasn't entirely unexpected. Unfortunately I could not get it back down again, no matter how slow I rode. I was up over 190 for a while, pedaling gently along at 12 mph. Hmmm - my HR never got that high even going up Mt Diablo - what's going on here? Could it be the HEAT??

When I started to feel weird and chilled and goose-bumpy, I thought to myself, "Hey - maybe it's time to call it a day!" Thank goodness for my good friend Chip and his El Camino to the rescue! Thank also to Cindy for hanging back with me, and for the other gals (didn't catch everyone's names) checking in too.

Lessons from today:
1. BikerZ is to heat as oil is to water.
2. No one (and I mean NO ONE) is as tough as CindySue!

I got in about 31 miles, and burned a whopping 4500 calories!

Nice bunch of cyclists, and it was great to see Cindy again after her vacation. And it's always good to see Dachshund and Trek420.