Sunday March 30 Rides

[Aggie_Ama]

We had an epic ride today, the variations of this route have been bringing lots of adversity the past few weeks. This week we rolled out early in the morning for our 75 mile ride. About 1.5 headwind filled hours later the rain started falling- hard. I HATE riding in the rain and the weather forecast was only 20% which usually means unlikely here. We get to the bagel shop for breakfast and enjoy sitting outside in wet clothes. The good news is I looked at my phone and it showed the rain dispating. We rolled out after helping some guy with his flat and headed for the Austin pain-inducing Dam Loop, a 37 mile hilly torturefest. It isn't that the hills are that bad, there are just a lot of them and some of them are pretty long.

The ride was pretty uneventful after that, some impatient hag cut us off and then made a right turn as we were coming down a hill at 30 mph, otherwise good ride. The roads were wet much of the Dam loop meaning us and the bikes were filthy. By mile 60 the sun was shining, it was a sticky 80 degrees and I was dreading not wearing sleeveless. I also realized at this point the ride was going to be closer to 80 miles. Fortunately we had a tailwind home and both regretted not extending the ride to a century.

At the end of the day it was 85 miles. I also did all of those on a brand new saddle, feels just like my old one and DH installed it perfectly- not even off by a hair!

[Velobambina]

The ride was pretty uneventful after that, some impatient hag cut us off and then made a right turn as we were coming down a hill at 30 mph, otherwise good ride.

I'd have flashed her The New Jersey State Bird! [I admit to having a vulgarian streak when encountering jerks.] LOL.

Had a couple good, long rides this weekend, but it was COLD and windy. Dry conditions, for a change, so I was thankful for the lack of rain & mud/sand spatter. Stayed relatively comfortable during a 50 miler (saturday) and today's 43 miler.

Cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, magnolias all in bloom. It's lovely

[Geonz]

Grey here but it got to 54 and the house got noisy so I went out for a little cruise to the LBS to drop off the club ride schedule for the season. Big 14 miles

[makbike]

A slow 23 miles today. My legs are very tired and sore after yesterday's century. I'm glad the rain held off until I was in my car and on my way home!

[KnottedYet]

Did the ride the TE potluck went on yesterday.

I walked up The Neverending Hill.

[jesvetmed]

Knot: Glad to hear I missed the "neverending hill" yesterday!

Hit the trainer today due to not trusting the weather -- snow, sun, rain, hail, and sun. Hmmm... safer inside!

Coach Troy and I did the "Uphill Grind". Noticed that my sit bones were a little more sore -- Wahine and I "leveled" out my seat yesterday, and I did notice it a bit more. But concentrated on keeping my middle strong and my elbows soft! I'll get used to it.

Jes

[kelownagirl]

Well I went for a 37 km ride anyway. I decided to do an 'easy' ride downtown and then maybe take a look at the triathlon bike route (2 laps of a 10km route). I went medium to hard on the 10km loop and even with having to stop at lights and intersections, and slowing down to check out the street signs, I still managed 25 km/h. I'm sure I'll be able do a 29-30 km/h avg for the loop. Yeah. That makes me happy...

(Translation - 25 kmh = 15.5 mph and 29/30kmh = 18-18.5 mph.)

[jesvetmed]

KG: When is the race? Those times sound great! And that's not accounting for the adrenaline rush that will take you another 1-2 mph faster yet!

[KathiCville]

I got in just 10 miles today, but 10 that lifted my spirits! In another thread earlier in the week I fretted about knee pain that seemed to come from an otherwise fabulous fitting done last Sunday. Following the advice of a few who weighed in, I moved the saddle back to its original position (or darned close). Huge improvement in the knees, yay!!! I don't think I have it quite right yet, but now that I know how to finetune in tiny increments, I figure I'll fiddle till I get it just right.....I am amazed at the difference just a 1/4" or less can make, wow!....With today's ride, I'm now within 10 miles of hitting 500 for 2008!!

[kelownagirl]

KG: When is the race? Those times sound great! And that's not accounting for the adrenaline rush that will take you another 1-2 mph faster yet!

August 17th. It's a sprint tri. My first.

The bike loop is pretty good, lots of downhills and fast flats, but i has one ugly climb near the beginning that is a 10% grade (maybe .5 km long?). I couldn't stay above 11 kmh on that part today. Luckily, there is a bit of a gradual downhill after the climb so you can spin it out a bit before you hit the next hill... (The oly guys have to do that loop 4 times - ugh.)

I don't know if an adrenyline rush will help, but hopefully a new carbon bike will shave a bit of time off there...

[Crankin]

Well, we cancelled the ride we were supposed to lead because only 4 people signed up and they all cancelled except one. It was 25 degrees until about 10:30 this morning, and although it was beautiful (45) by the ride time, I think people were scared from all the horrible cold and bad weather we have had.
So we went out and rode the hilliest part of next week's ride, involving a few hills in Harvard, MA. At least now I know I can still do them, but my average still sucks. Although, I think I was actually faster than last week, since my average was about .5 of a mile faster, on a much harder ride. The exercises my PT is giving me are killing my hamstrings, but they are working!
16 whole miles...

[jobob]

LeeBob and I drove to the Orinda BART station and we rode the last 50-ish miles of the 200K permanent I'm (eventually) submitting to RUSA.

We headed from Orinda to Martinez, where I decided to change the checkpoint location (it'll now be the Martinez Amtrak station), and we test-rode the new part of the route along the Iron Horse Trail from Concord to Walnut Creek.

We then did the usual Danville Blvd - San Ramon Blvd to the Safeway in Dublin which will be the start/end point for the permanent, and then we headed over to the Dublin BART station and took BART back to Orinda.

Altogether about 53 miles and 1700 ft of climbing.

It was really lovely out, sunny and clear, with wildflowers blooming profusely, especially along Alhambra Valley Rd. But poor Lee, he's so allergic to spring!

Oh, and the perm route is shaping up nicely.

[RolliePollie]

Just a quick but hilly 12 miles for me today. The weather left a little to be desired but it was nice to get out for a ride. I rode 50 miles yesterday so I was a bit low in the energy department today.

So I was on a little country road grinding up a hill at about 5 mph and a car was coming up behind me. I saw him in my mirror but I didn't notice it was a Highway Patrol car. Not sure why there would be a CHP car on this tiny little County road. Anyway, as he came up behind me, he "chirped" his siren at me and I nearly swerved off the road into a ditch! It scared the living daylights out of me. I've never heard a car make that noise before so it was very unexpected. Maybe he thought he needed to let me know he was there? Just a good reminder that you never know what a car might do as it's going by.

[chicago]

didn't ride today, but I did run 6.5 miles. I have a 1/2 marathon in about 5 weeks that I'm really behind in getting ready for... but I'll be okay... I've done lots of them, I can just gut them out somewhat

but I did ride yesterday. My first ride of 2008 (I won't count two weeks ago when I got out for 5 miles and blew the tire)... but yesterday only got in 24 miles, it was freezing!!!

[F8th637]

10 easy miles indoors on the trainer for an hour. Didn't have a whole lot of time to get all geared up to take a spin outside since we're shopping for our first home. I figured quality was better than quantity. I have been doing rides lately indoors at lower heart rates to build me some base miles as I've been training in too high of a zone I think. This week I'm going to do a "club" ride with some people who work at my office. They are training for the MS 150. I'm still on the fence about joining but I seem to lean towards it more and more each day. I do have a BIT of a commitment problem.