get out of the kitchen!

Ride #84
Sunday, June 19th

20 miles in Folsom

One of the other ride leaders for the casual biking meetup group decided to put together a 20 mile ride in Folsom, mostly on bicycle paths and mostly including hills.

Windy!

I've decided to call it K's Crazy Cure (for excess  energy).

It was hot. At the end of our ride the wunderground.com said it was 86 degrees. And the wind was roaring today. I was quite distressed at one point to have an uphill AND a headwind! Bah!

The section from the top of the Folsom Lake Crossing to the river (you can see the big divot on the elevation profile below) is something I've always wanted to try, wondering just how fast I can merely coast down. Well, with a straight on 20mph headwind, it was a lousy 30.3 mph. I will try it again on a day with no wind.

By coming up the Folsom Crossing, we sort of cheated the famous Beals climb, since the 7% grade is downstream from the crossing. We at least got to fly down that grade, although since it is so curvy (and I've not been on it in a loooooong time) I felt I should brake most of the way.

I applied sunscreen three times today (we were out from 10:30 to 3pm, prime sun exposure time) and I don't seem to be as pink as I might sometimes be. Next time I'll take some baby wipes and wipe off the old sunscreen first. My shins looked like they had some kind of horrible skin condition with the way road grit and sunscreen combined to pill up.

I lost track of how many bottles of water I drank. I had my usual plastic one handed bite valve with me, and I refilled it from some metal bottles that I had encased in soggy cotton socks (evaporative cooling) so I had at least cool water to drink. I've had one electrolyte drink since I've come home and I think I need another one. I sweated so much today that when I dumped water over my head at the end of the ride I got an eye full of sweaty water from the stuff running off my scalp.

We picnicked at Beal's Point: I had a lovely turkey club sandwich and a big bottle of chocolate milk. I also ate salty nut and raisin mix along the way, as well as handing some of it out to one of the other riders.

A ride Tuesday, Saturday, then Tuesday again.

Fried

Ride #83
about 20 miles in Placerville, and on the El Dorado Trail

Thursday, June 16th

Back for a June trip up the El Dorado Trail (and I'm not doing it again until maybe October. Too Darn Hot).
One paved section was in the sun, no shade, a steeper than usual grade for a rail-trail, and I felt like an egg on a griddle. A very slow egg. The hotter it gets the slower I go. It was hot. I was slow.

We set off at 8am (sunrise is about 5 so that was bad planning on our part), taking again the Forni road shortcut. More traffic than last time but we took the lane anyway.

Then into Placerville proper, eventually pedaling like madwomen up Main St., smack in the middle of the lane, with all cars behaving nicely.

Up the curly bridge, up Coleman (stupid freaking hill) then down. Is it strange to feel nervous when your triking pal disappears over the hill?

Like she was swallowed by the deeps or something.
All I could see was her flag getting lower and lower and finally, POP it was gone!
Roads should not drop off like infinity pools.






Then a quick rest stop at the P-ville bus station.

Through the tunnel and then up up up to the zone of frying eggs.

Today I finally got total and complete "hot foot". Hot foot is when a recumbent rider's feet get severe pins and needles and burning sensation on the bottom of the feet. Standing and walking around ends it nicely. I think hotfoot appeared because we did not stop nearly as often as we did the last two trips up this trail (April 5th and 14th).

I noticed a pretty creek at the hotfoot rest stop.

Past the zone of egg, we slogged through agricultural land, and saw an alpaca and a deer.
It took a while to get the deer picture since the deer positioned itself right behind the tree. I rolled backwards a few feet to get the shot.

It took us 2.5 hours (including rest stops) to get to our turnaround point at 10 miles. Coming back was only 1.5 hours and it seems like no time at all as we sped down the trail (exceeding, I must confess, the 15mph limit at times). We took the lane on Main Street again (much faster since it is ever so slightly down hill). The roads everywhere are in rotten shape. Going 20 mph on patched, potholed, lumpy, busted up asphalt is not great. My vertebrae rattled like a string of beads.

We slogged up Ray Lawyer drive, our bike lane totally full of cars parked for the County Fair. I had one beer-enhanced fellow decide it would be a good idea to push my trike up the hill. I asked him, nicely I'm pleased to say, to stop. And he did.
I can totally understand why he'd want to help, since I think I was going about 2mph at that time, frying like an egg again, sights set on the next patch of shade.

No broken chain episodes this time, and we were back at the Missouri Flat Road trailhead in no time.

Sunday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday rides upcoming. Stay tuned!

We did not go quite as far as this map indicates (we turned around at Los Trampas).