June 3 ride reports...

[Duck on Wheels]

Today I walked. Was planning on doing the Farm Market and don't have a good way to tote stuff on the bike. So I walked 6 miles, which is decent exercize anyway. Got a present for UK Elephant (shhh, don't tell). Also found some cool T-shirts and buttons, including one (of each) for Trek420, but I'll have to go back and get those later. Got some flowers and some veggies for me. Then passed a ceramics club sale and saw a perfect cake plate for our neighbors. All in all a good thing I wasn't riding a bike. Would've been really adding insult to injury if I'd had my first FU fall with a $30 cake plate in the back pack.

But what I DID do was to stop at another bike shop and ask about flatbar road bikes/fitness bikes. Oh dear. Now I have more to choose from! In addition to the Trek 7.6 and the Specialized Sirrus I was planning on taking second test rides on tomorrow, I now have to test a Fuji and a Jamis too. Advice on choosing is most welcome!

Oh, and I found out where they sell Sport Beans here, but got there too late. They close early on Saturdays.

[Geonz]

I led my "saunter" ride and decided to start out in front... it worked much better than earlier when I've been starting in back. (I also didn't have a huge group because half of 'em went off to do a longer, faster route). When I'm in front, people stay behind me... I don't even think it's conscious (abject terror that I will snarl and bit if they go by !!) - but the group stayed togethera lot better.

We rode out to St. Joe ("Holy Joe") and dined at the Golden Mine, and went back and then some of us went out to the fairgrounds for the Playing It Safe stuff where we had a booth selling and fitting helmets for $10 ... we just about sold out this year! It helped 'cause one of our racer guys was there with the helmet he'd worn when he was hit by a car... the man has endless patience with small children, too!

Yes, I wore the pig snout helmet cover ... and brought the blender, but I need to work on getting the proportions right. I was a little too heavy on the yoghurd :-)

The weather was PERFFECT!!

Hugs to you poor souls with flat tires and rain....

My perfect-fit bike makes a perfect triangle balance with feet, butt and hands, so all I have to do is shift a little to totally shift weight. I like my Trek 7500FX, too, but when I got it, it was the new kid on the block and there weren't other flatbarred fast "city hybrids." I'm afraid it's got fewer than 500 miles on it 'cause Mr. Extra and I have been inseparable.

[Eagle-Eye]

I rode 100 miles today in the Trek 100! I am pretty proud of myself I surely wasn't the fastest out there, but who cares? It's not a race (and even if it was, I wouldn't care either). The course was fairly flat, with a few rolling hills. Nothing too dramatic. The one big hill everyone was talking about was taken off the course this year due to road construction.

Going the 100 miles was definitely a challenge for me both mentally and physically. I woke up this morning with a bit of stomach trouble. Fortunately, that went away by the time the ride started. I felt great all the way until mile 60 or so. Miles 60-80 were the toughest for me. That's when my legs really didn't want to keep peddling, and a nasty cough set in.

After the rest stop at mile 80, I got some renewed energy... probably because I knew it was going to be over soon. The finish was a little anticlimactic. I still don't think it has fully hit me what an accomplishment I made today.

Right now, I just need to get to bed early. I have another ride tomorrow. At least that one is "only" 25 miles

[Quillfred]

Congrats on a job well done, Eagle Eye!!!

I drove over to Vashon Island with my bike in tow as a reward for doing what would have been a monumental amount of brush cutting. Instead I find that someone has helped themselves to my Echo.

The good news is that the house hasn't been vandalized, the roof has done its job....and I get to ride instead of work.

I only rode about 15 miles or so but it was hilly, hilly, hilly. Humblingly hilly. My metric century (attempt) is next weekend.

It was overcast but a comfortable 70F. It was a good workout flying down each hill only to stuggle up the next. The Islanders were polite and gave me much room. I realized how much I miss spending time there. I also learned there are now mountain bike trails I will have to explore some time this summer.

Quillfred

[Duck on Wheels]

I rode 100 miles today in the Trek 100! I am pretty proud of myself

And well you should be. WooHoo!!! I am very impressed. Waytago EagleEye

[tprevost]

I managed to harrass Bikerchick68 long enough to get her to let me tag along for a ride and today was the day! We started in San Marcos at Restaurant Row (IHOP) and headed west to the beach.... Here are some pics en route:

Mac, Kathy (purepink), Bill, and Jennifer (BC68)

A view from the road

We stopped at this cute little coffee/bagel etc. place in Leucadia and sat down for a while... this is us getting back on the road



It was only 26+ miles but a little hard for me as they are a bit faster than I'm used to riding. I managed to keep up without holding them up too badly but it started getting pretty warm as we finished (coming out of the fog at the coast)... here's a picture of us before we left for home (btw, it was 103 when I got home today!)

That's Jennifer (bikerchick68), me (tprevost), and Kathy (purepink) on the right.

Thank you ladies (and Mac & Bill too!) for letting me tag along, what a great ride! AND, thank you SOOOOOOOO much Jen for the help w/decents!! YEAH!!!

Tracy

[caligurl]

hubby had to work OT.... so i was on my own for a ride.... took off later than i wanted to (6:21).... and knew i was going to head "up the hill" into the national park to get some hill riding in before next weekend....

when i was climbing the hill to the entrance kiosk... i was thinking to myself that i wasn't going to make it all the way to jumbo rocks (campground) or that it was going to take me a long time to get there.... but then somewhere along the way... my legs woke up and i felt much better! i got to jumbo rocks and decided to keep going... (it's rollers once you get to jumbo... at least for a while)..... well then i got to ryan (another usual turn around point) and decided to go just a little further... perhaps key's view turn off.... well i got there and turned.... so i'm thinking... hmmmmmm i should climb to key's view (highest point in the park)..... so i keep going..... then i realized i probably didn't have enough water to make it back out of the park... uh oh! but then.... it's mostly downhill... i should be ok! so i climb and climb to the top! now my brave/stupid comment comes from not having an cell phone signal in the part EXCEPT at the very top of key's view.... nothing else the whole way til i hit the kiosk/entrance again..... i had called and left a message for hubby that i was going into the park.. but he would have had no idea i would have gone up to key's view on my own! i did call from KV and told him "guess where i am!"

i did run out of water just before getting back to the entrance.... i had told hubby i would call him if i did (he had gotten off work just before i called from KV).... well DUH... remember i said no cell phone service! fortunately the ranger at the gate had water for me... plus.... as i was descending the hill from the gate on my way home... hubby was on his way to bring me water (awwwwwwwwwww)

so note to self: don't leave or deviate to a long ride in the desert in the summer without plenty of water or a camelback!

i ended up with 55.6 miles and 4226 feet of climbing!

[Nanci]

I rode 40 miles on a paved trail. Animal encounters included the hitchhiking anole, a deer who crossed at a leisurely pace about three feet ahead of the rider ahead of me (I resisted saying, Hey, Velvet, did you see that deer?) and a hatchling Gopher Tortoise (VERY EXTREMELY rare to see a hatchling) which I resisted, although I did have a short visit with him. Oh, lots of river cooter turtles- they must have been out looking for egg-laying spots. We then went to a restaurant for lunch, and it began thunderstorming the minute we were back in our cars on the way to lunch. Perfect timing!

Nanci

[betagirl]

Did 45 miles, 42 of which were with Fuji Girl and some other ladies that ride as a group up north of the city. There was 1 guy, so it was the complete opposite of what I'm normally used to with group/club rides We rode up through the affluent north shore suburbs, on a crappy road for part of the way. Once we got beyond the patchwork, it was great.

[alpinerabbit]

I am ready for the Engadin Radmarathon. (Note I am doing the 100 k, not the 182!)

July 15th, I am to ride 100 km in the Alps, 3 passes, 1200 m ascent within the first 50k. The scariest part is the Forcola di Livigno* with ~500 m ascent over 5 km.

Yesterday, we did a total of 92 km with 1375 m ascent, in 4 hills, the first one over 500 m, one 17% grade and the rest 10-12% on average, which is more than the Forcola.
Needless to say I stopped looking at my polar to avoid frustration. on the 17% it was 179, but that dropped and I think I was just over 170 most of that first ascent. The other 3 are not over 10%.

We got home happy, but utterly drained.
Subsided on water, dried fruit bars, more dried fruit, oat cookies and one hot chocolate (one small beer (!!!) for boyfriend).

Now for the real mountains (a mere 1000m higher altitude to do the same thing won't be a big deal )



(*useful link to check out many classical ascents of the pro races)

[uk elephant]

I had a looong ride yesterday (cycled all the way home from work, ~40miles including hills) so today I just went for a little leisurely "pootle" along the river with BF and a couple of friends. Glorious sunny day, so we took the bike path along the river down to a quaint little village with a nice pub right on the river. Had a pint, got tempted by the people eating fish and chips, then pedalled home again to fire up the grill. A total of 8 miles in glorious sunshine topped off with delicious food for dinner in the evening.

[SJCzar]

I also did the Trek 100. Perfect weather for a long ride. Miles 60-80 was probably the hilliest section but not terrible. I got inspired on the biggest hill when the guy ahead of me got off 3/4 of the way to walk it. I just had to stand up and grind past him.