Clean shiny lungs

Ride #57
Saturday, April 2nd
30 miles with the usual suspects, from Folsom to William Pond and back again, American River Bike Trail and Nimbus trail.

Time once again for the 1st Saturday ride with the recumbent folks. I am getting faster although my average speed is up by just half a mile. BUT (and this is a big but - kind of like mine. Urk. Nevermind) today I managed an average speed for 8 miles of 13mph. Whoo! What does this mean? That I could see ahead of me the rest of the group. Like a carrot dangling ahead of me. AND that I was huffing and puffing like nobody's business. AND that I was pretty sure I'd die. But I did not. I do have well exercised lungs. Of course after that I was all tuckered out.

The turkeys were tuckered as well since all the toms were in display mode.

They did deign to move. Eventually.

Turkeys are about eye-level on a recumbent. Interesting and a little creepy. Do I want to know that much about turkeys? Maybe not.

Boaters out as well today.

Today's ride officially starts and ends at Wm. Pond (Discovery Park is still flooded from spring rains (a normal thing) so we've been going to Folsom the last few months. I decided today to START in Folsom and meet the group at Wm. Pond. It worked out OK since I was warmed up when the pack took off at about 15mph.
So this means I parked in Folsom. In the parking structure (yes, there is only one structure in Folsom). It was very full, as full as I've seen it yet, so I got to park at the very top level. And ride down down down and around around around to the exit. Going up was fun also. Normally I won't do that, but ... it was fun.

It turns out the Sacramento Fit folks were out in force today: they decided to come down to my neck of the woods to run/powerwalk around Lake Natomas, a nice 12 mile route. And that's why the structure was full! So there were packs of peds and aid stations and everything. They are a really nice and well organized bunch of people.

On Thursday I took off my chain, cleaned it, added a section to make it a little longer, and moved my boom out 1/2 an inch. My knees were happier than the last time I rode but still tired today. I'll take it easy for a few days and see how they do.

I had another incident of my chain dropping between the rings when shifting. Everybody tells me "that shouldn't happen, the chainrings should be close enough together to prevent that". Duh. Well, folks. It does. Comes of swapping out parts here and there. But it happens ONLY when I am not paying attention and this is ONLY the third time. The first time I had no clue how to fix it and had to spend 15 minutes scratching my head. Today it took longer to get my latex gloves on then it did to move the chain. So I ain't gonna worry 'bout it right now.

Look! I forgot to make a title!

Ride #41
Sunday, February 6th
11 or so miles on the American River Trail

Somewhere between 70 and 80 degrees today. Moderate breezes, and shockingly green grass. My nose is stuffed up and the dog is shedding like there's no tomorrow.
It is spring. I'm sure it will rain again and be cold and miserable before May, but right now that is very hard to imagine.

My sweetheart felt a little queasy (happens sometimes when he over-exerts himself) so we stopped for a while at a beautiful shady spot along the river to rest, drink some more water, and share a orange. Yes, the grass really is that green - unreal, isn't it? We saw a large raptor circling overhead, and heard plenty of birdsong. Not so many squirrels as yesterday. Several folks stopped to check that we were OK and that we were not too far from the car and so on. Lovely people, bicyclists are. Recovered, we finished our ride.

Today, we decided to go around Lake Natomas (something we have not done since they've been doing the Hazel Ave. improvement project, and something I'd not done on my trike). I'm sure it will be lovely when it is finished, but right now it is not stellar for a trike. There is a steep grade going up to Hazel from the "north" side of the lake, Granny handled that just fine (but I did wonder if Himself would have to push me up the last bit - there was some swearing as I powered up the steepest part. Yep. Me. Potty mouth). However the interface between the very wide concrete sidewalk on the upstream side of Hazel and the existing bike path needs some work. I only had to dodge one oncoming cyclist and travel against traffic for a little while. I'll be glad when the construction is done.

The other thing about the Lake Natomas loop is getting across the river at the Folsom end. There is a bike lane on Folsom-Auburn Rd., segregated from traffic by reassuring concrete walls, but that path is quite narrow for a trike, even my trike which can fit through most doorways. The other option is to take surface streets to the old wooden bridge across the American River, which is what we did today.

Something I forgot to note about yesterday's long ride - I added some gel forefoot inserts (marketed for women's high heels) to my yellow Superfeet insoles in my bike shoes. I was looking for something that would be a little cushy but not too squishy, since on the 30 mile ride a few months ago the balls of my feet felt a little pounded on. Much better with the gel inserts. Since I unstuck these from a pair of heels I don't wear very often, I needed to stick the edge down with some paper medical tape since the trailing edge of the insert tends to roll up and attach itself to my sock. I think some of the 'stick' remained in the other shoes.

And on today's ride, I again managed to drop my chain between the small and middle chain rings while shifting down. Himself held the back of my ride up and I wrestled the chain back into place. I think this happens when I am applying a little more force to the cranks then I might normally when shifting, and when I am in a smaller ring in back. Easy enough to fix, just annoying and greasy. I was worrying about my sweetheart and not paying attention to my shifting!

A couple of rides scheduled for next week: hope the weather holds!

I did my best to show how the Hazel interface worked today: no guarantees...

Apocalyptic Pinball

Ride #12, Saturday September 25th. About 8 miles.
So there I am, peacefully riding along, admiring the wildlife, coping pretty well with shifting up and down for hills, smiling and waving like some kind of parade float denizen, relaxed and having a dandy time.

weeeeeelllllllll ....

Maybe I was maintaining a deathgrip on my steering, derailling my chain, jamming my gears, sweating, zigging and zagging, all the while frantically dodging trash pickers, roadies, cruisers, dog walkers, and hordes of joggers. In packs! Like - pacelines of pedestrians! Weird.

Congested

The reality was somewhere in between the two. Yes, there were a lot of people out on this fine sunny morning enjoying the American River Parkway but for the most part folks are friendly and polite and really good at sharing the space. However, I did need to pay strict attention while riding along just because it was so busy.

I only encountered one group of oblivious walkers: I was able to squeeze by without having to come to a complete stop (which would have discommoded the fellow overtaking me), or without swerving into the opposite lane (which would have disturbed the handful of riders in that lane), or without clipping any of the walkers (which would have been bad cess for all).

Intrepid river cleanup volunteers!

Today is the annual Great American River Cleanup - when scores of volunteers tidy the river. So a big shout-out to anyone anywhere who has volunteered to clean, maintain, or otherwise take care of a swath of outdoor recreation area. You rock! (That explains the trashpickers).

And there were at least six groups of briskly walking or jogging folks - they slowed to a walk all together, picked up the pace all at once, and so on. Is it a hive-mind or just very organized? You decide. I think there were maybe eight or ten to a group. (So that's the pedestrian pacelines).

I actually passed someone today! On a bike! Ok, it was a cruiser type bike and he

Cruiser/hybrid bikes - comfortable but not fast

was mashing the pedals so was not going very fast. And later on he passed me. But I felt all powerful and shiny for a few moments. I was pleased to note a top speed of 18 mph - pedaling this time. My average is still around 10mph. I don't expect it to increase for quite some time.

I need to sort out the front dérailleur - I managed to drop my chain between the smallest and middle rings. I also need to carry some line and a bungie cord with me, so I have a way to hang the rear of the machine up off the ground so I can turn the cranks and fix the chain. The rope etc. might also come in handy when I need to fix a flat. Today I enlisted the help of a young man passing by to hold the wheel off the ground while I fixed the chain. We had a nice conversation about trikes. He thinks his mom should get one. I stayed in the middle ring for the rest of the ride - not tempting fate, I.

Monday or Tuesday for the next installment.

Backwards is the New Forwards

Ride #8. Thursday, September 16th. About 6 miles. I managed to go "backwards" around my 6.1 mile route through Folsom. I'm keeping 'backwards' from now on since there are fewer hairy left turns on the counterclockwise route then on the clockwise route.  This route uses relatively quiet neighborhood streets, some with bike lanes and some without.

There were several areas of MUP (multi use path - come on, I know you missed those TLAs) congestion this morning. Again, I utilised the wonderful stability of three wheels and just parked it until the congestion cleared, enjoying the wetlands and other biomes the paths travel though. The area with the most variety of trail-users had a set of three fitness walkers all abreast, two cyclists thinking about passing them, and a family with a toddler who really really wanted to see what was on the other side of the path. All that was missing was a dog or three. Then, just as the congestion cleared, a jogger overtook from behind. I saw the handtrike gentleman again, and a roller blader, and a grandma with her grandsons' razor scooters (Grandma walks them to school every morning and has scooter-toting duties also). I talked briefly to the gentleman with the mountain bike again (his name is Al). No jackrabbits today, but I did spot a fast moving vole or mouse - he got startled but not squashed.

I tend to speed, I admit it. There are so many tempting curves on the Folsom bike paths. There is a particularly nice little curve on my route that I really enjoy. This time I kept pedaling around it and leaned into the corner like some kind of speed freak. Only to emerge almost in the middle of another clot of trail users! I demonstrated the power of disc brakes and we all had a good laugh at my expense.

I have a mystery noise when on the largest chainring in front - it seems to me it might be one of the chain tubes (sleeves the very long chain runs through to help keep it clean). I'm not going to use that ring very much yet, so I won't worry about it at this point. Next time I have the trike in the garage I'll see if I can pin it down. My messing about with the barrel adjuster on the rear derailluer seems to have done the trick - shifting is back to the smooth side of things.

I've ordered an extra long visor for my helmet, since yellow face is out in the mornings still. Looking forward to some fog.