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