Heartrate madness!

#393 / #186

Took my new heart rate monitor out for a spin today. Fun! It will be a wonderful motivational tool to get more fit.

We rode from Sunrise to William Pond and back. Red Leader and I stuck together on the way out. On the way back, I let it rip!

100 average on the way out, 123 avg on the way back. Both directions had a max HR over 140 (charging up hills).

The HRM I have (Mio Fuse) should talk to Strava, but so far it is not playing well.

Red Leader and I wore lots of layers, I ditched some for my return.

We are looking forward to sunnier weather later this week.

The Cat's Meow

#392 / #185

Red Leader and I, having sent our holiday guests on their way, slipped out for a lovely ride on Folsom's bicycle paths.
We had the paths mostly to ourselves for our 13 mile ride.

The rain has brought the wetlands back to life, with frogs and birds and soggy doggies.

My leg warmers refused to stay put, slithering down to just above my knees. Meow!

No riding for the next few days with the winter storms rolling through.

A Lil'l Bit of Ever'thin'

#391 / #184

Sun. Clouds. Rain drops!

Enthusiastic children ("Look at THAT bike!")

Lots and lots of horse droppings. What?!

Smart-arse comments, "Just checking to see if you have a battery on that thing."
Nope. All me and my legs!

No geese. I think they are staying somewhere warm.

About 13 miles on the American River Trail.

It was very good to get out. Red Leader reports no funny knee things.

54 degrees with overcast and no wind is the border between shorts and leg warmers for me. I wore shorts. I saw only two other riders with shorts. The few, the cool, the insane.

Red Leader wore a balaclava, his winter gloves, leg warmers, and his heavy jersey. And a windbreaker.
I wore my summer jersey, a windblocking jacket (Schoeller DrySkin - great stuff), summer socks, my Home Depot reflecting gloves (cut the wind, but not lined), and an ear warmer.

We elected to start from the parking garage in Folsom at about 1:30.
Bad idea.
Full of vendors loading their cars after the farmer's market. Utter chaos. We parked on the roof (only place with enough clear space to swing a couple of trikes) so we got to ride through the whole mess.
Not so bad coming up on the way back; it was mostly cleared out. One guy only decided to stop at the stop sign in the parking garage after he saw me crossing in front of him. I waved at him with a sickly sweet smile as an alternative to flying a birdie.
We both rode with front and rear lights, hi-viz clothing, and large reflective flags.

100% chance of rain tomorrow, but we rarely ride two days in a row. This winter, we are lucky for two WEEKS in a row!

CU

Pink jersey

#390 / #184

Lovely ride today around Lake Natoma.
Red Leader's knee was fine, although he did comment that his right leg (of the previously unhappy knee) was more tired than the left. So something is still needing some recovery.

The lake (Folsom, that we saw on our drive to our starting location) is so low. I've never seen it that low in 25 years of living here.
But the water in Lake Natoma, formed by the Nimbus Dam, was OK. Low, but not with scary swaths of bottom showing.

I'm looking forward to being rained out of rides this winter.

And I ask again: should I wear a pink jersey? Paint my bike pink? Fly a pink flag? I got "bro'ed" again. Yes, probably 90% of humans on trikes barreling down a hill at 24mph are guys. But I'm not. And I don't feel like painting my bike pink. Or trading my high viz jersey for pink. And I rarely fly a flag on the trails.

So there.

CU

The Weaselnut Ding-a-Ling

#389 / #183

Another lovely fall day, not that I'll complain when the rain comes again tomorrow.

Red Leader and I did a short ride today, in hopes that it would exercise his tender knee without aggravating it. All is good after the ride.

We went just under 10 miles, out and back on the south side of Lake Natoma.

Lots of other people out today, which leads to the Ding a Ling part of the title. Red Leader finds my insistence on ringing my bike bell (a LOUD Crane brass bell) bothersome. But, when there is a bunch of people clumped at the end of a bridge, and I can't tell what they are doing, or going to do, and the bridge is narrow. I will ring my bell.

I suppose I'll have to explain Weaselnuts too. Red Leader decided that I had said Weaselnuts, not hazelnuts, when discussing what I was eating for my pre-ride snack. Red Leader is a champion sleeper-in, and I'm an early bird. So, I get up and eat breakfast, then 3 hours later, we start getting ready to ride. By then, I'm hungry again! My current favorite pre-ride snack is a handful of hazelnuts and some raisins. The correct ratio for nuts to raisins is 1 nut and 2 raisins. Some would argue that Red Leader and I are 2 nuts. But never mind.
So the discussion in the car on the way down to our starting place started with weasel-nuts and quickly degenerated into off-color sillyness with which I will not bore you.

Now you understand Weaselnut Ding-a-ling.

I hope.

CU

Falling for Fall

Saturday, Nov 7th

#388 / #182

Red Leader and I drove down to Alphabent to get his Gekko, which has a new derailleur. His third! This is a better one so hopefully it is RL proof.

Trike retrieved, we rode over to Costco for a quick, greasy lunch (the Polish dog is still making itself known, 5 hours later). Then we rode down to Discovery Park, and back to Alphabent.  About 13 miles.

As soon as I've finished this post, I'm going to go write a couple reviews on Google and Yelp. Alphabent is a great place for recumbents, and if you agree, I encourage YOU to write a review!

It is supposed to rain for a couple of days. Don't know when we'll ride again. Hopefully soonish.

My Second Favorite Time of Day to Ride

Thursday, Oct 22nd
#387 / #181

This post is for Fran. Not that it makes up or anything, but ...

Evening rides are underratted. Sometimes you get to see wildlife, but not this ride. We did see a lighted up caterpiller of mountain bikers, head lights, tail lights, head lamps. One fellow had no lights at all. A dark 'piller segment.

A group of runners, very good about announcing "bike up". Various other bicyclists of differing levels of intensity.

I did want to yell once, "Think twice before assuming you'll stay ahead of the fat guy on the trike on the down hill. We may be old, but we are more aero than thou!"

My trike continues to behave nicely after last weeks thorough cleaning, but Red Leader's ride is going into the shop again.

His rear derailler got very cozy with the wheel.
Again.
I think one of the chain guides caught on a spoke for an instant, bending the derailluer mount.

He was in the small ring in front, heading up a hill, in a middlish ring in back, shifting to an even larger ring. It jammed right up.

I parked my ride and went to help (I wasn't much help because twist shifters baffle me). For those of you not used to the requirements of a 12 foot chain, the person in front turns the cranks and works the shifters, the person in back holds the rear off the ground and fools with the derailluer. Unless you are Mr. Fantastic, it really takes two people.

We got him in a gear that would work, I shoved from behind to get him going, then gave a rolling assist on the next steep section. We were only a few blocks from the car when this whole thing happened.

Probably no rides for a week or so. Depends.

Oh, my. Every 4 weeks or so, whether we need it or not

I owe you as many blog posts as I have fingers on one hand.

Here goes. Short and sweet because I can't remember much.

Sunday, August 2nd
#382 / #176

I left the title alone on Strava. So this is Morning Ride. I believe, casting my mind back, back, back into the past, that we went counterclockwise around Lake Natoma.
---------------------------------------------------
Saturday, August 29th
#383 / #177

Gosh. I don't even remember. But I was happy to get back on the trike, I do remember that.
-----------------------------------------------------
Thursday, October 8th
#384 / #179

Now, this one I do remember. Backwards (counter clockwise) around Lake Natoma. My lack of recent bicycling showed as I blew past Red Leader on little climbs, and then got passed by Mr. Tortoise on longer inclines. Gasp. Gasp. Pant.

Red Leader had had a ride on the 3rd, while I was off trying (and mostly failing) to sell things at a craft fair.
----------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, October 11th
#385 / #181

We rode around Folsom. I turned around because my shifting was really weird. Too hot, anyway.

-----------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 18th
#386 / #180

Having cleaned up and lubed my ride the day before, the shifting was perfect and the weather was nice and cool! I amused Red Leader (I frequently do) by putting on arm warmers, a jacket, and a head covering while unloading the bike, then frantically shedding them a minute later when a hot flash came to visit.
We rode from Sunrise to Wm. Pond and back. Red Leader's right knee was bugging him a little bit.
It looks like I won't ride my age in miles on November 5th, but I'll do as long a ride as I can. I do hope I ride again before then, but it does not look good given the past season's spotty performance.

Long time passing

#381 / #175

12 July
Sometime in the past few months, Red Leader went on a bike ride by himself, and had a pinch flat and TWO more flat tubes.

Today, we carefully checked his flat tire for sharp bits, found none, and put in a new tube.

We did the counterclockwise Lake Natoma loop. On the last hill I got a flat! So we are officially in need of new tubes. RL has no more and I have one patched tube and one new tube.
I ordered 6 more tubes. I shall also pick up a patch kit and patch the two tubes with tiny holes.

We really, truly plan on an early evening ride later this week.
Stay tuned and see if we keep our promise!

Triple Threat

IOU posts!

Here are posts!

Right here!

Ready???!!

Go!

Thursday May 14th
Ride to the Capitol
43 miles.
Joined a May is Bike Month event full of mayors and such like folk at Hagen Park. Rode to Discovery Park and got free spaghetti and listened to some speeches. Didn't ride to the Capitol, but rode to Alphabent where I had the following cam on my frame quickrelease replaced. Yay!

Sunday, May 17th
Rode 21.5 cool and comfortable miles with Red Leader on the American River Trail (huge surprise, yes? Ha ha) from Folsom on the north side of Lake Natoma past Sunrise, then back on the south side of the lake.

Saturday May 23rd
22.5 miles on the ARBT from Sunrise to Howe and back.

There. Three very terse reports.

CU

Headcold slog

11 May

My husband, Red Leader, brought back a lovely cold from Indiana. It manifested in him as a barking cough, and in me as a classic right side ear, nose, throat thing.
 

Both colds were on the way out by Sunday, so we decided to try an easy bike ride on the American River Parkway Trail.
 

We managed 12 miles.

So I've managed to log 40 miles this month for May is Bike Month.

If all goes well, I'll get another 40 on Thursday when I ride from Sunrise to Discovery Park as part of a 50 Corridor bike ride. I have heard that about 100 riders will be on this. Cool!

MiBM El Dorado County Kickoff

7 May 2015

2 whole miles. Whoooo.

 

Now this ride, I'm not surprised I forgot to blog about. Between the ride on the 3rd, and this ride on the 7th, I got a massive, horrible head cold.
 

Which I still had when I did this event.
 

It was raining, cold, and a little windy. So I only went 2 miles.
 

More people turned out then I expected, given the weather, but we El Dorado County folks are tough.
 

I didn't have my fenders on the trike, so I got liberally speckled with mud on my way back to the start, to collect my tasty lunch and May is Bike Month t-shirt.

BUT I GOT THE SHIRT and logged miles!

Great Scott 2015; Thoughts on driving in traffic

3 May 2015

25 miles

I can't believe I forgot to write this post!
 

The ride was fun - I decided to use the larger organized ride as a convenient excuse to run a group ride for the bicycle meetup group I belong to.

The Scott Road Ride makes use of several rural roads, closing them to most motor vehicle traffic so bicyclists and pedestrians can use the roads in greater comfort. 

Participants desiring to leave from Folsom have the Palladio shopping center as a suggested parking spot. More on this later.

Only two others showed up at the Palladio, my good friend M. Kay and her husband. We had a nice ride, enjoying the scenic rural countryside. We rode together the 12 miles to Latrobe Rd., then they had to get to another appointment, so we headed back separately.

I remembered that the ride back through the 'open to motor vehicle traffic area' would be tough with noontime weekend traffic. I elected to use the pedestrian crosswalks to make my left turn, although upon consideration, and consultation with the experienced folks on the FaceBook group Cyclists are Drivers, I decided that I could have safely used entirely traffic lanes and the left turn to make my way back to where I had parked.

Parking at the Palladio.

This is the note I posted to FB Cyclists are Drivers group.

"Today, I used two crosswalks instead of fighting my way across multiple lanes of noontime weekend traffic. I just could not see a way to do it as traffic. Folsom, California. E Bidwell and Iron Point Rd. Pinkish lines in the screenshots represent my direction of travel. How would you have handled this?"

 I got lots of good advice from the group, some of which I had to shoot down since I had not included all of my decision making in the initial post.

Here's a non-satellite view of the intersection in question, probably easier to look at.

It was suggested that I could have done a boulevard turn east on Iron Point. 

I replied: " I had considered a 'Michigan turn' on Iron Point (going rt to go left as you suggested) but discarded that option as Iron Point is busy with multiple lanes, starting up a famously long hill, and I am so slow on hills I think it would take phenomenal luck to find a break in traffic big enough for me to get across the 3 lanes to make a boulevard turn."

I also commented on the problems with parking at the Palladio: 

"I saw a lot of frustrating edge hugging and sidewalk riding today, which is probably why I disliked my own behavior so much. The county closes some sections of rural roads to motorized traffic one Sunday in May to mark May is Bike Month. Their suggested parking area for this particular entrance to the closed area is on the other side of this intersection, with some moderately hairy riding in motorized traffic to reach the closed area. I was pleased with my bicycle driving on the way out, as I used actual traffic lanes to get over the freeway overpass, while my friends hugged the right past two on ramps. The closed area is attractive to riders unaccustomed to riding with motorized traffic, but to get there they have to do all kinds of 'feel safe, actually not' things."

I'm going to digress here, and say that the bolded words are what I see as the root problem with bicycle specific infrastructure. If bicycle specific infrastructure is everywhere, then riders of all skill, experience, and 'guts' levels can ride where ever they want. But the reality is, between different regulatory entities, funding issues, and various levels of community support, we are never going to have 'complete streets' everywhere.

Anyway, the best advice I got was to go and practice that intersection. And to USE the traffic lanes already there. Yes, I'll get beeped at. I'll probably survive. No, don't "not believe" in the laws of physics, but I do believe that I can ride in traffic, as traffic, in most situations.

Bike Around the Buttes 2015

Saturday, April 18th

Generic picture

Red Leader and I had intended to do the 40 miles course this time, but we wimped out and did the 17 again instead. It was over in a flash, and we decided that the magic hill-levelers were at it again.

My trike was a little unstable on the downhill side of Pass Road, wanting to wiggle and wander from the combination of road camber and a slight wind. And a rough road. So I kept it down to 27mph and was relieved to reach the bottom rightside up.

Last year, I said I would count cows this year. And I did. About 150 cows on the 17 mile ride.

Butte Slough, I think. No cows here.

I considered naming this post "Cows and Culverts", or "Cows, Culverts, and Concrete", or "Teleporting Cows."

Whaaaaaat?

Red Leader decided that my efforts to count cows were in vain, since the cows were obviously teleporting around the course to stay ahead of us. All cows look the same to me. He might have something there.

We don't go very fast on our trikes, and we are positioned to look ahead and around, rather than staring at the pavement and a front wheel. So I noticed a dry rice field to our right. Well, first I noticed tiny little narrow culverts in long straight berms. Then I figured out it used to be a rice field.

I also noticed that many roadside culverts - where a driveway or farm road comes out - were constructed of bags filled with something. We decided it must be Quick Crete. So that's a twofer - Culverts AND Concrete.

A Concrete? Culvert

I'm looking forward to May is Bike Month - signed up for a 25 mile and a 60 mile ride already. Whee!

CU

Autopause. Sigh.

April 9th, Red Leader and I started from the Folsom parking garage on our (now) usual 20-something mile ride to somewhere past Sunrise and back.

I have got to remember that using any other app on my phone while Strava is running causes it to autopause. I don't want it to autopause, because then I have to find the app and poke it to get to to run again.

So my recorded ride was 7 miles. Phhhhhht.

That is all.

Low Ride R

#372 / #168

We tried to get to William Pond by 10am. We really did!

We decided to hop ('hop' get it? Tomorrow's Easter) on the trail at Sunrise and ride West, hoping to meet up with the Sacramento Recumbent Riders and their 1st Saturday ride.

The odds were in our favor, since the group ride was traveling East. We did a U turn and caught them up.

One rider was on a new to him 2 wheel 'bent, and another rider was coming off of knee surgery, so they were not interested in any land speed records. We were the only trikes on this ride, although we did see 3 other trikes and 1 two wheeled recumbent not associated with the group ride.

Red Leader got to set the pace for most of the time we were participating.

We stuck with it until Willow Creek boat launch, where we said our farewells and rode on our own back to Sunrise.

Red Leader and had stopped into Alphabent with our trikes on Wednesday. It was really strange to drive there!

My tires are near the end of their life, and the left had developed a proto-blowout during my Tuesday ride. And two of my chain tubes were in horrible shape!

Shop Dude fixed me up with a used-but-less-than-mine tire for my trike. This is my 2nd pair of Scorchers. I might try Kojacks next. And my trike is quieter with non-shredded chain tubes.

I'll be heading back to the shop sometime soon, as I noticed today that part of my quick release lever is falling apart. This is the lever for the hinging frame. Kind of important.

You can see here that the round bit the lever pivots against is in pieces! The flat bowl shaped cover has come in two pieces, but both pieces can be shoved back into place and used anyway.

CU

Itchy and b*tchy

#371 / #167

Thursday, April 2nd

Wooooo, boy. That was one miserable ride! Wind and dust and bugs and more pollen.

My eyeballs feel sandblasted. See, I have a pretty strong correction, glasses-wise. So it is not possible for me to have a pair of those fancy curved prescription shades. So I wear my regular glasses, that are photo chromatic, and do cut some if the UV. But they are by no means good at keeping wind, grit, or bugs out of my eyes.

So I do a lot of squinting and whinging.

I have tried a pair with inserts for my correction, but (and I have the same trouble with clip on sunglasses) looking through two pieces of plastic separated by an air gap bugs me. I get weird light shards bouncing around and distracting reflections and so on. My optometrist says it is not just me.

So the only thing left to try is a face shield.

Or I might just keep squinting and mumbling.

Pollen Promenade

#370

Tuesday, March 31st

Spring has sprung. Wildflowers everywhere. Pollen everywhere.
Today, I decided to breathe deep of all the stuff floating in the air, and do my 20 mile hill ride in Folsom.

I was very very slow today. But I got it done! And here's some pretty pictures of my ride.

A Splendid Alternative

#370

Sunday, March 28th

About 7 miles

Several years ago, I used to ride some segments of the El Dorado Trail fairly often. It had fallen off of my rotation of rides until today.

Today was the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new segment of the trail. Quite a crowd showed up at the intersection of Forni Road and Ray Lawyer Drive in Placerville. Roadies, cruisers, mountain-ish bikes, one recumbent trike (me), two police cyclists (cool!) and one equestrienne (super cool!)

In past years, I would exit the bike trail segment that ended at that intersection, and take Forni Road downhill to catch up with Placerville Drive. On the way back, not wanting to deal with my super slow pace up a hill, narrow road, no shoulders, I would beat my way through the intersection at PV drive and RL Drive, and then slog up Ray Lawyer - still a hill, but a fairly good shoulder and much better sight lines than uphill on Forni.

From now on, we have a much nicer alternative to these two roads: a lovely segment that runs basically between those two roads down to Placerville Drive.

I took pictures!! Wooo!

Poppies on the old segment

Turkey with a side of mosquito

#369 / #166

Friday, March 27th

A late afternoon ride this time, from the Folsom parking garage to the "porta johns past Sunrise" wherever that really is. About 20 miles.

We saw lots of turkeys today. One big tom was shaking his tail feathers and putting on a show for the (invisible) lady turkeys. In the middle of the trail. He moved eventually. I rang my bell (no effect) and some other rider hissed. That worked. Coincidence? Who knows?!

Another turkey sighting was a hen, running down the trail ahead of us, too rattled to head for the grassy verge. She eventually ran off to the side. We continued on.

Also mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in the shade of Willow Creek boat launch where we stopped to try and figure out Red Leader's shifting. His indexing is off, having 1 - 8 gears instead of through 9. I could not remember which way the derailluer moves, so we left it alone. I'm proud, though, that RL fixed his own idler this time. It was not turning as the chain went by. He took it apart, with me hovering, unnecessarily, and put it back together. We don't know what changed, but it was for the better.

More mosquitoes on the last forested hill coming back to the parking garage on the south side of the lake. Maybe if I went up that hill faster, I'd be bug-free. But I'm not that fast. So I pedaled and swatted. Pedaled and swatted. Sigh.

CU

This squirrel walks into a derailleur

#368 / #165

There was no actual squirrel /derailleur contact. Relax.

Red Leader had an adventure on his last ride (#164). His rear derailleur over shifted his chain into the wheel! He towed the trike a mile back to the car, loaded it up, and drove down to Alphabent, where he got a new hanger and his chain straightened out.

Today, since there was some question about the state of his chain tubes (deplorable), we rode together down to Alphabent, where Shop Minion G got the tubes all sorted out. In the process of doing this, G discovered that the limit screw on the derailluer (I think, anyway) was stripped. Or anyway, something was wrong, so Red Leader now has a new rear derailluer! Yay! Whatever it was is why the thing overshifted last weekend.

On the way back to our car (William Pond, as usual), having correctly identified the barrel adjusters for his twist shifters (I have inline adjusters), I indulged in a conversation bellow while wizzing down the trail at 12 mph, coaching Red Leader through adjusting things so he has the use of all 9 rear gears. His trike didn't want to shift to the largest ring in back. Now it does! Success!

We had three separate instances of Sam the Suicide Squirrel, trying to fling himself to his death or dismemberment under our trikes.

When will our next ride be? I have no clue, but I live in hope.

Sunny side up

This post was massively delayed! At least it is still March!!

 

Saturday, March 7th

Spring has sprung!
 

 #367/#163

The trail was chock full of other people enjoying the beautiful weather. We saw a recumbent in a parking lot off trail, then three recumbent bicycles and two more trikes.

We had a nice chat with Mr D, a Greenspeed Magnum owner - in custom white! He got his ride at Utah Trikes. We referred him to Alphabent for any necessary repairs. His friend rode the Greenspeed around the parking lot (we were at Nimbus boat launch), sprouting a huge trike-grin after just a few minutes.

That's about all I can remember (oh, 20 miles, from Folsom to 'the portajohns past Sunrise' (wherever that is))

CU

Alphabent soup

15 Feb 2015

 

#366/#162
 

Red Leader and I finally had a day together to ride!
 

We elected to start from William Pond and ride the 12 1/2 miles to the Alphabent recumbent bike shop in Sacramento.
 

It has been months since we'd been there and I speculated that there would be a new shop minion. And there was! Sweating like a one armed paper hanger, he still found time to take down our request for new chain tubes for the trikes.
 

There were plenty of people there, so we two introverts got to talk to new people! And some familiar ones. Yay!
 

On the way back we saw a very long freight train (3 engines) pulling flat cars loaded with an amazing variety of military vehicles. Some were green and some beige and that's about all I can tell you.
Red Leader got a rear flat (probably from the broken glass on C St that I managed to avoid). Fixed with no problems, although I'd like to hybridize our two mini pumps, taking the in line gauge from mine and the ability to stay clamped on the stinking stem from Red Leader's!
 

I need to buy more tubes. We like the Schwalbe with the longer stems. And I nerd a new helmet: looks like I dropped it on concrete one two many times. And I need a new sports bra. And new socks. Sheesh!

Rollin' Rollers

Saturday, January 31st

#365

I led a morning ride of two diamond frames on my little 21 mile hill-slog. My average speed was 9.7, while the fastest rider (I was the slowest, natch') averaged about 11. The other two waited for me at the top of the hills, but I was never very far behind.

I feel less toasted after this ride then the last time I did it, so my plan of getting stronger must be working.

It was a nice cool sunny day with a slight breeze. I was cold starting out, but warmed up after the first hill.

I did take a few minutes the other day and lube the chain and various other moving parts. Less noise, more fun now. I'll admit to 'repairing' one splitting chain tube with Gorilla tape. I need to just order a whole set of new tubes for both trikes and figure out how to put them on. Sigh.

It is supposed to rain sometime real soon, so I'm not sure when next I'll ride.
CU

BBQ heaven!

#363

Wednesday, January 28th

I had a couple of library books to return, and a woefully empty stomach, so I cruised on over to the library, then to a BBQ place for some delicious smoked chicken breast on a bun. The staff brings you a bewildering array of sauces. I went with the mustard-based bbq sauce. Yum!
Then home.
Once I got near the house, I wished I had reversed my stops, spending a half hour or so digesting at the library before going up many little hills. Or maybe a hour digesting.
No vomiting, so no worries!

Riding on Saturday with a small group. Yay!

Roadkill Rumba

#362 / #161

Red Leader and I left our sunny house to ride in (overcast and chilly!) Folsom today.

I was a bit underdressed (but it was SUNNY!!!) however, I soon warmed up enough to be perfectly comfortable. My arm warmers and BOTH pairs of leg warmers were rolled up neatly on the kitchen counter (in the place where the outgoing bike stuff resides) and there they stayed. So I was in an UnderArmour HeatGear long sleeved shirt under a polyester windbreaker, with shorts and wool socks. Fingerless gloves.

We went around Lake Natoma (with an interesting detour on a new bike path) so it was fairly hilly. On a flatter ride in these conditions (53 degress and no sunshine) I may have wanted tights, shoe covers (although the tights might have helped deliver warmer blood to my toes), arm warmers, and shoe covers (repeat my comment about leg warmers, subbing arms and toes). I did (thankfully) have my Buff with me (a wool one) which makes an admirable ear cover. My ears are very sensitive to cold air and I get earaches very easily.

I also had a flat! Sadly, it was the front right, which had already been swapped out for a Schwalbe tube. I like the Schwalbe tubes - they seem to lose less air just sitting, and are nice and skinny, making it very easy to keep the tube from between the rim and the tire. Why sadly? Because I'm too tightfisted to swap out perfectly good (Kenda) tubes for nicer Schwalbe, and was hoping to eventually get around to all three tires through the 'kind' offices of the Flat Fairy. Said Fairy is not keeping track of my plan, however.

Gosh, I almost forgot. Why the title? Because RL decided to ride on a road in traffic. On the shoulder, which was fine with me (Folsom Rd is 55 through the section we rode on.) One flat skunk, one grey squirrel, probably a bird (very flat, very dead, very hard to tell), and either a small red furry critter or part of a red squirrel. Lots of roadkill to dodge. I believe I may have gotten a tiny bit on skunk on a tire. We'll see next time I open the car. Ha ha ha.

CU

painful enough ...

Using Strava to figure out how many rides I have not blogged about is painful enough that I think my New Year's resolution is to blog in a timely fashion.
Yeah. That'll work.

4 Jan rode 12.9 miles with Red Leader (ride #358 / #159)
6 Jan rode 9.7 miles to and from the library solo (ride #359)
11 Jan rode 22.7 flat miles on the American River Trail with Red Leader (ride #360 / #160)
Today (15 Jan) rode 21 hilly miles solo (ride #361)

So. Strava says I burned about 900 calories on my ride, which is a good thing since I ate rather a lot of chicken salad after my ride. Yum!
1,300 feet of climbing. That's not much for many people, and I'm super slow. My average speed was 8.2 mph. So it took about  2 1/2 hours to do that ride. Which is fine by me. My top speed was 24.8mph. But I'm much more physically tired than after our usual ride, which means I have not been increasing in fitness riding just with Red Leader. He dislikes hills even more than I do!

UnderArmour finally got their act together and sells a long sleeved high-viz shirt in their Heat Gear line. It even has a zip neck! I wear a men's medium in this loose-fitting shirt. I stopped at Sports Authority this morning to buy one. It was somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees F on the ride, I started off with a windbreaker over the shirt, but soon ditched that. Climbing hills keeps me plenty warm.
I also tried out a pair of work gloves from Home Depot on this ride. They have reflective fingertips, and bright orange and yellow backs. I felt very visible with them. They got a bit sweaty by the end of the ride, but I have famously sweaty hands.

I took the time to adjust my brakes - much better stopping power now.

Here's a screen shot of my ride's map and elevation profile from Strava.

Ta ta for now