11 December 2010

Tomorrow I'll whine

Ride # 21
Saturday, December 11th. 29 (not 27 - actually, almost 30!) miles on the American River Trail

I finally, finally got to meet up with the Recumbent Riders of Sacramento. Yay! Lovely people, cool bikes. Can't wait for next month to do it again.

It is fall, for sure, no fooling, yessiree bob, ya sure you betcha (I suppose Sacramento area natives would call it winter). Leaves all over the trails. I picked eight leaves out of various bits of my trike today. Some of the leaves were very large - the size of my hand. I expected to find them between the fender and the wheel, but most of them got picked up underneath my trike. One enterprising leaf made a semi permanent home in my rear derailluer. I evicted it. Out, damn'd leaf! out, I say!

I slathered up with sunscreen this morning at home but drove down through the low cloud layer to meet up with the other riders. So it was perfect (in my mind) 'cycling weather: calm, about 60 degrees F, overcast. The group left from William Pond and rode all the way to Old Sacramento, for lunch, and then back. My average speed was about 9.5: respectable for me (and a 1/2 mile off from shorter rides) but I was pretty tired at the end of the trip. Hoisting myself up the stairs to write this entry was quite an effort. I'd better stretch some more in a little bit.

28 miles in one day was my record on my old Trek bike, and that was after months and months of steady riding. I'm so glad I can go almost 30 miles on my trike and still move my arms and neck at the end of it!

I spent most of the time in the back of the group, although I did cave in and lead the group for a little while (my ego was averaging 13mph for that section). Lots of lovely conversation as folks filtered up and down the group. I collected some opinions about lights which will help me decide what to get when my front light battery no longer accepts a charge.

I had moved the switch for my front light lower on the steering mechanism, so needed to rescue the cable from scrubbing on the pavement. I'll add a few more turns to the cable and maybe move some of the velcro strips around. I'll also check for leftover leafs parts before I ride again. I had a local shop (not where I bought my ride, but good folks) true up my rear wheel a bit. No more scrubbing (the clearance between fender and rear wheel is tight tight tight). I had no shifting problems and my brakes were fine also (I adjusted them after the last ride).

I hope to get back on the horse that made my glutes really really tired tomorrow, but that depends on if my sweetheart can be persuaded to leave the computer! (I was ill most of the last two weeks, so that's why no post until now).

I've switched to ridewithgps.com to record my routes and, if there is a way to embed a button-link I have not found it, so here's the map. It is not quite accurate, but is generally OK.

No comments:

Post a Comment