Breakfast. It's not just for breakfast anymore?

Ride #104

Thursday, September 8th
20 miles on the ARBT

Neither I nor my friend with the trailer full of kids were feeling like superwomen today. We dragged ourselves along the trail about 2mph slower than usual. Hey, but at least we got out. We decided that we had failed to eat our usual breakfasts and that was our problem. Yeah. That's it. For sure.

I got to Wm Pond ahead of her, as usual (but slower), and waited there in the early morning quiet, people-watching.

Imagine a quiet park, cool in the shade, not quite yet uncomfortably hot in the sun, well watered green grass, shady picnic tables, cyclists coming and going.

Sometimes you are the only person in sight, sometimes there are 3 or 4 groups of cyclists, some chatting quietly about food (salad with heirloom tomatoes, jalapenos, and peaches!), the best way to wipe off grease (baby wipes), sprains vs breaks. Conversations are quiet, languid, their tempo anticipating the heat of the day.

One group is fixing their third flat of the morning, another chatting under a tree: a reflexive seeking out of shade, born from the dry hot air.

Along the trail comes a group of cyclists, whirring along. Some stop, with a  clacking of road shoes on pavement, then the snapping of cleats and the clicking of the shift into a useable gear as they continue on.

Quiet again, except for an intermittent crow.

My friend caught up, we all ate a snack, then turned around and slogged back.

My glutes were KILLING me by the end of the ride. Do I need a different foam pad in the seat? Should I tighten up the straps on the mesh? What's up!? Are my muscles worn out from the Beals climb the other day?

My theory for complaining glutes goes like this: For me, at least, the glutes (for sure maximus, but maybe medius also?) are the muscles I most use to propel myself and my trike. Speeding and climbing hills uses them up faster. Also, these poor abused muscles are what I'm sitting on when pedaling. Sitting on them squashes them a bit, depriving them of the nice oxygen-filled blood that keeps them working well. Hardworking oppressed glutes will naturally complain. Gluteal Muscles of the World Unite!

I didn't get any pictures today, batteries were flat again. Sigh. Maybe I should go back to manual-everything film? No, no instant gratification then.
I found that swapping the positions of the two AAs that run my camera will give me another shot or two, since the two batteries are not equally drawn upon. However, the nice shot of a gentleman sitting contemplatively at a picnic table with his beautiful road bike became decomposed (the guy got up and left, the nerve!) by the time I got the batteries swapped out.

I'm taking a group around Lake Natoma this weekend, and hope to get out another day as well. Yes, I'll be refilling my rechargeable battery stash.

Rollin' with the Roadies

Ride #102

Sunday, August 28th
39 miles on the American River Bike Trail

A lovely group ride today with the 'big boys' - the Hammerin' Wheels bicycle group. Nearly all of their rides are outside my personal limits, usually for both speed and distance, but this one was just right. It pushed me but didn't kill me. And I'll bet I'm a little stronger for being pushed. Thank you, Herr Nietzsche.

Since I slow significantly on hills (not that I mind, since I get to see squirrels and turkeys up close) I would drop behind sometimes, and when we reached the flats I took off as fast as I could go since I was getting tired of the view of 27" wheels and logo-bedecked spandex rumps. I got to the turnaround point (yet another cafe - what would these places do without cyclists?) just a few minutes behind the group.

Finding a place to stash my trike within sight of the group was easy, and I sat on the outskirts of the table and listened in to the conversations. I had a huge cup of ice tea and a nice berry scone. I decided to take it easy on the way back, and told the leader not to wait for me. I cruised back at a 'tourist's pace' of 10mph - something I now feel like I could do all day. I'm glad I slowed down since my legs are pretty tired now.

I did not have any flat tires, but several folks in the group did, so I was passed repeatedly by folks catching up or turning back to assist. I've made it a policy to wave and say "Hey!" whenever anyone calls my name, since I have no hope of recognizing a road bike whipping past 15mph faster than I'm going, and my bike is the memorable one.
Ok.
The 15mph is a lame excuse, I'm memorably (har har) bad with names and faces.

The first part of the ride was the climb up to Beals Point. I'm glad I did it (it was actually easy, but I am slow). The last time I tried it from the bottom was years ago, too soon after getting my hybrid Trek. Totally not ready for it.
I don't care for hills, but it sure is fun screaming down them. I need to do more hills.
AND I do think that the hills in my neighborhood are steeper than anything going up to Beals. I know what I'm going to be doing on quiet dry winter weekday mornings: orbiting the subdivision until I can't orbit no more.

I tried out some new shorts I got from Aero Tech Designs. They are very well made (as always) but the material is slippery! And the trail down from Beals is curvy and bumpy. Every time I'd hit a bump, I'd slide down the seat. And the sitting part of my seat is pretty small. (Let me clarify. My butt is plenty big, but the target on the bike's seat is fairly small, as recumbent seats go).
And cornering! On tight curves going fast, I tend to hook my shoulderblade over the seat's edge when cornering. Imagine my distress when my butt started sliding the other way. So these shorts will go in the 'hiking' bucket. They'll be great for that.

These are the "Fitness Compression Shorts" made of "tricot knit microfiber". I have a pair of their "Men's Unpadded Cycling Skin Shorts" made from "7 1/2 oz, nylon/lycra, tricot knit" which is grippier than the super smooth shorts I wore today. The men's shorts have a longer leg then I'd like, but they are OK. I wonder what other shorts (unpadded) they make from that second fabric?

Things I forgot today.

• Drink enough water, darn it! Despite 3 bike bottles of water and 1 large ice tea, I came home and drank 64 ounces of electrolyte water. NOW I feel like I drank enough.
• Re-sunscreen after 2 hours. I was out for four and a half, and had gutted my bike bag to lighten my load for climbing a 7% grade, removing the bottle of sunscreen that is usually in there.
• Lip balm with sunscreen. I have it in my bike bag and I failed to put it on at the beginning of the ride. Forgot yesterday too. I put some on at our break, and then again later on.
• Stop and eat when you are hungry. Don't get all angsty about keeping up. Stop and take care of yourself.
• Lube your chain when you think about it. I had not done it as I said I would so my shifting was clunky and noisy. 

I'm not stuffing food in my face! (medium length gray hair, glasses, red shirt)

I'm probably taking the week off since I have big Labor Day stuff going on. But the houseguests will be mostly gone by Monday, so I'll ride then.

Not my map, but a good one anyway.

"... ran out of songs to play."

Ride #73
Saturday, May 14th

38ish miles in Lodi, CA

Today I saw:
     Hawks
        A Magpie
           Cows
              Sheep
                 Goats
                    Emu (!)
                       Llamas
                          Horses

Puffy clouds, vineyards. Lovely.

and some bikes:
                          Road
                       Mountain
                    Tandem
                 Tandem recumbent
              Recumbent, plain
           Recumbent, trike
        Recumbent, handtrike

Most of the vineyards have lovely roses. One I passed seemed to believe in my principle of "no rose unless it is a stinky rose". Like pedaling through perfume.

I was passed nicely by:
        Farm equipment
           Pickup trucks
              Sports cars
                 Motorcycles
                    Other bicyclists.
Not so nicely by a couple of sedans. Hrmph.

This was a ride organized by the Lodi Rotary to raise money for their charitable efforts. The 15th one!

I decided to do the shortest ride they offered, the 50 km.
I dithered about trying twice that distance for a moment, but decided that I am not ready for more than about 40 miles at a time right now. As it was, the seemingly endless stretch of Peltier Rd into a headwind on the return ride wore me out!
My average speed for the first half (no headwind) was just shy of 11mph (10.9 if you must know) but my overall for the whole ride was exact-ally 10. Which which I am pleas-ed.
And down to the Mokelumne River I attained a zippy 28.6 mph. It was soooooo nice to coast! I'm not sure I really am in love with the constant pedaling necessary for truly flat rides.

OK. That last statement was inserted by my evil twin, Skippy.

Moving on.

Row of palms on Acampo Road

The Acampo store was more interesting to look at but this building was easier to take a picture of.

This was a bit different from the Napa Cycle for Sight I did earlier this year: everyone checked into the Lodi event as they arrived, got a nice red t-shirt, a wrist band, and a route map, unloaded their bikes, and set off.
Some folks traveled in pairs or bunches, but there were other independently minded singletons like me. The Napa event was 3 separate mass starts.
The camaraderie of the large group was nice, but I really think I prefer riding by myself. So I guess that's OK for a solo-tourist-wanna-be.

Rest stop at Clements Fire Department.

Sorry, strawberries already eaten in this shot.

There was a lot of fresh fruit at the rest stop, so I pigged out. Despite that, the aforementioned headwind took enough out of me that I stopped for some dried fruit and nuts on the side of the road.
I had picked up some Kirkland (Costco) brand individually packaged fruit and nut mix (dried cranberries and cherries, almonds, walnuts, and dry-roasted pistachios). Convenient enough, but I would have liked salted nuts in there instead. Time to make my own!

This picture is for all the people who grew up with human-sized haybales. It was a Very Large hayfield.

Returning to Lodi High School (home of the Flames), I loaded my trike in the car, ate a nice tri-tip lunch provided by the organizers, and drove home.

I had no real problems mechanically (although I did regret my decision to re-install the left wheel reflector - it sang to me the entire ride).
I need new batteries in my Cherry Bomb rear light; my Serfas seat-stay light (I have it on my headrest) came apart in the parking lot at the end of the ride (I had not gotten the battery cover back on correctly when I changed the batteries); but my Cateye Opticube HL-EL450 worked just fine.

I like the Cateye light: it has a strobe mode which my larger brighter light does not, it is small and easy to attach to a smallish tube with an o-ring. "But wait," you say! "Doesn't that light have an attached nifty clamp-strap thingummy?" Yes, it does, but it broke on the third use and it was such a pain to use that I don't want another thingummy anyway. Hurrah for o-rings.

I think I need to take apart my right bicycling shoe and see if the metal plate and cleat screws have shifted around.

And, major triumph, I stuffed my trike into a Toyota Prius!

It does, after all, fold

T-storms in the forecast. Should I be a responsible ride leader and cancel tomorrow's ride? I've another hour to decide.

Snot-pocalypse

First, a note.  There is a benefit ride coming up in the Sacramento area: Ride4Matt. 
Check it out, participate if you can.

Ride #68
Thursday, May 5th

57 miles along most of the American River bike path

I think this is the longest I've ever ridden in one day in my life. I'm not dead so it is obviously survivable.

My triking pal and I left Folsom on a fine, bright Spring day. We returned later - much later - that day. And on my part at least, hot, tired, slightly sunburned, and ever-so-mildly crabby.

This was, I suppose, a little taste of touring in some ways:  it was a fair distance, it was a bit stressful, and I'm sitting here a day later composing this post in a coffee shop.
On my phone.

My left foot is bruised, my leg muscles are tired, and my allergies are in full swing. It is a good thing the coffee shop has lots of paper napkins. I'm thinking about what kind of small pump I want to buy, and trying recall the correct sequence for removing and replacing a rear tire. And thinking about the next loooooong ride!

Hey, I just noticed that my phone's keyboard has a voice recognition function. Here goes: I have no idea if this is good to work or not I have removed myself to the car so I don't sit in peets coffee house talking to my phone which would sound very very very strange.
Hey. I can 'speatype' a run-on sentence! Ok. Back to work.

When using clipless pedals (pedals-that-attach-to-your-shoe-with clips. Don't ask me, I didn't name them) on a recumbent, it is useful to push the foot away as well as pulling back on the return. Apparently, I cannot do that effectively for more than about 35 miles. I started loosing the "oomph" in my legs at that point and I suppose my left foot was repeatedly slamming into the bottom of my shoe: hence the bruise. I'm considering more cushy forefoot inserts for my shoes.

We took plenty of breaks on the way out and even more on the way back! I stopped and stretched about 3/4 of the way through the ride. I drank 24 x 6 ozs of water: still not enough, since I came home with a raging headache. Two packets of electrolyte replacement powder and several glasses of water put me to rights.
I've added some packets to my bike bag.

I ate two oranges and a handful of trail mix along the way. And some jerky. I was pretty hungry at the end of the ride, so I think more trail mix is in order.

About 4 miles from the end of our ride, my steering started getting squirrelly. My rear tire was losing air! So we stopped and pumped it up to see if I could get back without hassling with a tube change. It held enough air to do so, I did no damage to my rim, and I put a new tube in the next day. And here's the "tattoo" to prove it. Saturday's ride will tell if I did a good job.

Have you hugged your bike today?

My pump sucks. Yes, air pumps are supposed to blow (which in this case is a good thing), so we used my pal's pump. I LIKE that pump! It's a Topeak road morph. Very nice, especially the built in pressure gauge.

I experimented a little bit with tipping my seat all the way back. I seemed to have more power with less effort, and it uses slightly different muscles than my usual, more upright, posture. I've set up the seat and the mirrors for the new laid back position and I'll give it a try on Saturday's ride.

TTFN

Feeling charitable

Ride #64
Saturday, April 16th
25 miles in California's drop-dead-gorgous Napa valley.

Cycle for Sight event benefiting Enchanted Hills Camp (blind and visually impared) and the Pathway Home Project (California Veterans).


I camped overnight at a Solano county park (you can read about it in this thread on hammockforums.net) and then finished driving to Napa first thing Saturday morning.

A long time ago in my distant youth, I did the 50k Ride Through Hell in Michigan. This is my first large organized event since then and my very first ride for charity.

It was great! If you have never ridden/ran/swam/whatever for charity, I encourage you to do so.

The photos from today are on my Fotki page (here), but here is a sample anyway.

Nice directions and a well-organized event

View from the middle of the 25 mile route starting mob

Country Road

I did fine on the ride even though I don't think I drank quite enough water while I was actually rolling along. I ended up drinking a HUGE bottle of water on the way home plus the largest iced tea Popeye's sells.

My trike did great, but I seem to have picked up a vibration today. I did hit a miniature utility access port in the bike lane pretty hard with my rear wheel (there was nowhere to go to avoid it - I could have ridden off the road and flipped or swerved into the guy passing me) and there were two stretches of TERRIBLE gravel-on-asphalt. Like the dread chipseal on steroids. It felt like I was riding a giant circular sander. My suspension could not cope with that many little tiny bumps all together.

I have to figure out how to figure out what's up with the bad vibes, and I think it is time to learn all about disk brakes as well.

I might head out tomorrow for a short ride, but than I'll take a few days off!

And I think this is more or less the route we took. I just trailed along with the crowd.

Fiery Tails

Ride #61
Sunday April 10th
Big loop in Folsom

Today my sweetie and I went out on the Folsom bike paths. A genuine loop of 10 miles (although Himself (AKA "Mr. Literal")) pointed out the the very short ramp (20 feet?) from the parking would turn the loop into a lollipop.
Lollipop schmallipop

He took off in a good imitation of a rocket. I trailed along behind, bellowing directions and ringing my bell at blind corners. I did not ring it constantly, but there are a lot of twists and turns on the Folsom trails. We stopped for water a few times and snacks once. I think Himself is getting the hang of bicycling and nutrition. He still wants a donut* for breakfast, but he will eat some jerky before we set out and is always happy to eat some orange segments. Holy Cow! Actual Fresh Fruit!

I like my bell but I don't know how I feel about it. Is a polite "good morning" and "passing on the left" more or less or equally friendly than a ding or two of a bell?

• Pros of the Bell: pedestrians seem to have a well-trained Pavlovian response. They shift right over. Sometimes both feet at the same instant. Levitation's always fun to watch, an additional pro.
• Pros of the Voice: I'm taking the time to talk to the person rather than ring-a-ding-dinging at them.
• Cons of the Voice: an adult voice from hip-height seems to be a little startling sometimes. But there's that levitation potential again. Hmmm.
• Cons of the Bell: will not pierce the cloud of sound produced by firmly inserted ear-buds. But then sometimes even my outrageous bellowing won't either. I suppose I could re-deploy my cheerful pink flag as a lance. No, no. That'd be too much fun.

The jury will return a verdict later.

One photo. Too busy keeping up with Mr. Rocket today.

That's Mr. Rocket himself in the distance - dull red jacket, dark blue jeans, black helmet in the shade. You must work for your viewing! I believe squinting might yield a glimpse of a white sock.

Some random rides in the next couple of days, including a second try at almost-Diamond Springs to Camino Heights.

Helmet up, tires down. CU

*Blogger's spell checker insists that "donut" should be "donuts" and offers no non-plural solution. I like multiple donuts myself. Maybe the programmers do to? Or I could be all formal and old-fashionedy like and use "doughnut" Or get crazy and doughnaught (which it never has been, but I think it ought (get it? ought ... ha ha) to have been. Ah. I get it. It's that chain store of Dunkin' Donuts. Oh bother. Now it is complaining about "Dunkin'".
Phiffle.
I think I'll go have a sinker (Dad-speak for a plain cake doughnut, preferably slightly stale).

Almost exactly today's ride. But backwards.

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...