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threadwalkerSunday was a road-riding day for me.
Yay for public transportation. I rode to my Concord station and I took BART to Orinda. (Take THAT evil petroleum moguls!)
One small snafu at the Orinda BART station. My BART ticket was loopy; it let me in the Concord station, but not out at Orinda. The nice station agent and I chatted while she wrote it up and created the receipt so that I'd get reimbursed via mail in a month or 2. I wasn't bothered; the day was beautiful and I was about to ride my bike; what's a little train ticket red tape compared to that? So I joked that BART and I have a long relationship and that as long as we continue to respect each other and make time for open communcation, all will be well. I played on that theme while she worked up my receipt and after dying laughing, she gave me a free courtesy ticket. See, being nice DOES pay!
And then, to the sound of trumpets, I was off. (No real trumpets, all in my head). And .... I couldn't figure out how to get out of the BART parking lot. LOL. (Mental trumpets stumble and crash). I had to circle a few times to figure out (1) where I was wrt North-South-East-West (2) where the exits were and (3) which exit ramp I wanted.
Reboot trumpets and I was off again! Yay! The ride was awesome. The day was beautiful. The rolling country side was amazing. I saw other cyclists, circling red-tails, a deer, cows, horses, and some little brown bird with a crest on its head paced me for a bit, hop-flying along a length of fence and chirping at me. I figured it was using me to "hide" from winged predators.
It was a serene ride that was challenging and really emotionally centering. And I've named my bike Sally. She's earned it.
Ride Like the Wind, Bullseye
The ride was 2 hrs-20 min with 2 short breaks of less than 5 minutes (which had more to do with shedding a sweat jacket and asking for directions than anything. Down-hill riding is time enough for resting). The route took me from Orinda BART down San Pablo to Bear Creek to Alhambra and over the hill to Martinez, where I ended up on Taylor and down at Sunvalley Mall, which goes straight up to my place. This is now going to be my regular training route. It was challenging, beautiful, had bike lanes for lots of it, and didn't have a lot of traffic. Yay!
The whole ride was gorgeous until I got to Alhambra/Taylor, which is suburban sprawl, traffic lights, and teen drivers. But that was only the last 20-30 minutes. The first 2 hours were pure outdoor joy.
Altered Route There was a disconnect between what I saw when I drove it a week ago and what I felt when I rode it yesterday. When I drove it last week I severely underestimated the level of difficulty and length of the hills on Bear Creek Road. Hum-baby! I was probably distracted by the beautiful backdrop.
Bear Creek has long hills and I think the first one was probably close to a mile or more long... it never seemed to want to end. It's not that it was impossible, only that I'd soooo severely underestimated it. I found them pleasantly challenging without being overwhelming. When I got to the turn off to Happy Valley Road on the heals of over an hour of mostly uphill pedaling interspersed with down-hill speed-a-thons, I couldn't make myself take the turn-off. Since Car-driving self didn't think the ride was challenging until I got to Happy Valley hills, disillusioned bike-riding self was pretty sure the Happy Valley climb and its switchbacks would kill me.
Mental Image: death by switchback.
I could tumble off the road and no one would find me until the following Friday night when the teens are looking for somewhere to skulk and drink. Assuming they bothered to report my body and didn't just steal my bike to sell for pot.
Being a member of the estrogen team, I took advantage of some chance meetings to ask for directions and got more info on where Bear Creek went so that I didn't have to (a) deal with the Happy Valley Heart Attack Climb or (b) turn around to go back to Orinda. I lucked out. I now have a one-way loop that takes me home.
Alhambra, the road to Maritinez, had a steep hill that was shorter than the Bear Creek hills. My heart rate monitor pretty much stayed between 180-185 bpm for the top half and I had to get out of the saddle to keep going near the top quarter. But I made it. yay! Let's hear it for being a stubborn bitch with something to prove to herself!!!
Chance meetingsOther cyclists seemed nice. I'm not usually excited to meet strangers especially when I'm alone on a backroad and there are no witnesses; think "Hillside Strangler". However, I met a very nice female jogger, (who was also alone which seems totally crazy to me). And I met 2 male bikers who slowly caught up and passed me on one of the long Bear Creek stretches. They were very helpful with directions and I ended up going the same way they did.
The male bikers and I leap-frogged a bunch since I caught up to them everytime they took a break. This gave me the chance to admire and envy their biking calves... totally muscular and cut and defined... pretty droolsome. (hey, I'm married, not dead!) And, to be honest, I spent more mental energy wishing mine looked like that than having lascivious thoughts. But as we chugged along a hill, I got to hear their philosophy on bikes; we were passed by some tricked out bike and one of them commented that we were passed by a $10k bike (me: holy crap!). And then he continued to chat, which is a feat itself since all I can do is puff along. Mr Chatty observed that there was no point in spending that kind of money on a bike that doesn't have an engine. I would have said something to agree with him if I had spare breath, so I just nodded and puffed a little harder as they slowly pulled away, chatting. But on hearing Mr Chatty, clearly a veteran cyclist with an eye for equipment, it made me feel good that I had my 2nd-hand not-overly expensive road bike. One day I'll get the Trek WSD, but right now I'm pleased with my Trek 2000 which was built in 2000, is no longer cutting edge tech, and serves me just as well as any other would.
I shall name her Sally.
Also, regarding Mr Chatty and his companion, I did note that although they were faster and in awesome shape, of the two Mr Chatty, who was in his late 50s or early 60s, was so at ease with their pace that he was turning in his saddle to chat. His younger companion, probably my age, was working hard at keeping up and clearly less chatty. I got to percolating that although they were faster than me, it wasn't by so much that a season of training couldn't have had me up with them. I'm no "real" cyclist, but I've got guts and stubborness in spades.
Yeah.... hmm.... See you on the road next year, boys, and we'll see who's chatting, who's puffing and who's left behind on the uphill.
Yay for public transportation. I rode to my Concord station and I took BART to Orinda. (Take THAT evil petroleum moguls!)
One small snafu at the Orinda BART station. My BART ticket was loopy; it let me in the Concord station, but not out at Orinda. The nice station agent and I chatted while she wrote it up and created the receipt so that I'd get reimbursed via mail in a month or 2. I wasn't bothered; the day was beautiful and I was about to ride my bike; what's a little train ticket red tape compared to that? So I joked that BART and I have a long relationship and that as long as we continue to respect each other and make time for open communcation, all will be well. I played on that theme while she worked up my receipt and after dying laughing, she gave me a free courtesy ticket. See, being nice DOES pay!
And then, to the sound of trumpets, I was off. (No real trumpets, all in my head). And .... I couldn't figure out how to get out of the BART parking lot. LOL. (Mental trumpets stumble and crash). I had to circle a few times to figure out (1) where I was wrt North-South-East-West (2) where the exits were and (3) which exit ramp I wanted.
Reboot trumpets and I was off again! Yay! The ride was awesome. The day was beautiful. The rolling country side was amazing. I saw other cyclists, circling red-tails, a deer, cows, horses, and some little brown bird with a crest on its head paced me for a bit, hop-flying along a length of fence and chirping at me. I figured it was using me to "hide" from winged predators.
It was a serene ride that was challenging and really emotionally centering. And I've named my bike Sally. She's earned it.
Ride Like the Wind, Bullseye
The ride was 2 hrs-20 min with 2 short breaks of less than 5 minutes (which had more to do with shedding a sweat jacket and asking for directions than anything. Down-hill riding is time enough for resting). The route took me from Orinda BART down San Pablo to Bear Creek to Alhambra and over the hill to Martinez, where I ended up on Taylor and down at Sunvalley Mall, which goes straight up to my place. This is now going to be my regular training route. It was challenging, beautiful, had bike lanes for lots of it, and didn't have a lot of traffic. Yay!
The whole ride was gorgeous until I got to Alhambra/Taylor, which is suburban sprawl, traffic lights, and teen drivers. But that was only the last 20-30 minutes. The first 2 hours were pure outdoor joy.
Altered Route There was a disconnect between what I saw when I drove it a week ago and what I felt when I rode it yesterday. When I drove it last week I severely underestimated the level of difficulty and length of the hills on Bear Creek Road. Hum-baby! I was probably distracted by the beautiful backdrop.
Bear Creek has long hills and I think the first one was probably close to a mile or more long... it never seemed to want to end. It's not that it was impossible, only that I'd soooo severely underestimated it. I found them pleasantly challenging without being overwhelming. When I got to the turn off to Happy Valley Road on the heals of over an hour of mostly uphill pedaling interspersed with down-hill speed-a-thons, I couldn't make myself take the turn-off. Since Car-driving self didn't think the ride was challenging until I got to Happy Valley hills, disillusioned bike-riding self was pretty sure the Happy Valley climb and its switchbacks would kill me.
Mental Image: death by switchback.
I could tumble off the road and no one would find me until the following Friday night when the teens are looking for somewhere to skulk and drink. Assuming they bothered to report my body and didn't just steal my bike to sell for pot.
Being a member of the estrogen team, I took advantage of some chance meetings to ask for directions and got more info on where Bear Creek went so that I didn't have to (a) deal with the Happy Valley Heart Attack Climb or (b) turn around to go back to Orinda. I lucked out. I now have a one-way loop that takes me home.
Alhambra, the road to Maritinez, had a steep hill that was shorter than the Bear Creek hills. My heart rate monitor pretty much stayed between 180-185 bpm for the top half and I had to get out of the saddle to keep going near the top quarter. But I made it. yay! Let's hear it for being a stubborn bitch with something to prove to herself!!!
Chance meetingsOther cyclists seemed nice. I'm not usually excited to meet strangers especially when I'm alone on a backroad and there are no witnesses; think "Hillside Strangler". However, I met a very nice female jogger, (who was also alone which seems totally crazy to me). And I met 2 male bikers who slowly caught up and passed me on one of the long Bear Creek stretches. They were very helpful with directions and I ended up going the same way they did.
The male bikers and I leap-frogged a bunch since I caught up to them everytime they took a break. This gave me the chance to admire and envy their biking calves... totally muscular and cut and defined... pretty droolsome. (hey, I'm married, not dead!) And, to be honest, I spent more mental energy wishing mine looked like that than having lascivious thoughts. But as we chugged along a hill, I got to hear their philosophy on bikes; we were passed by some tricked out bike and one of them commented that we were passed by a $10k bike (me: holy crap!). And then he continued to chat, which is a feat itself since all I can do is puff along. Mr Chatty observed that there was no point in spending that kind of money on a bike that doesn't have an engine. I would have said something to agree with him if I had spare breath, so I just nodded and puffed a little harder as they slowly pulled away, chatting. But on hearing Mr Chatty, clearly a veteran cyclist with an eye for equipment, it made me feel good that I had my 2nd-hand not-overly expensive road bike. One day I'll get the Trek WSD, but right now I'm pleased with my Trek 2000 which was built in 2000, is no longer cutting edge tech, and serves me just as well as any other would.
I shall name her Sally.
Also, regarding Mr Chatty and his companion, I did note that although they were faster and in awesome shape, of the two Mr Chatty, who was in his late 50s or early 60s, was so at ease with their pace that he was turning in his saddle to chat. His younger companion, probably my age, was working hard at keeping up and clearly less chatty. I got to percolating that although they were faster than me, it wasn't by so much that a season of training couldn't have had me up with them. I'm no "real" cyclist, but I've got guts and stubborness in spades.
Yeah.... hmm.... See you on the road next year, boys, and we'll see who's chatting, who's puffing and who's left behind on the uphill.
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You go grrrl!
Date: 2008-06-09 08:50 pm (UTC)For me I don't really get my rhythm until after about 15 miles in, and then Im on it. And I need to warm up before really taking big hills, or my lungs burn too much. My road bikes named Camille. She says hi sally! Heh.
Go you! The more women bikers, the better the world!
>:}
Re: You go grrrl!
Date: 2008-06-09 11:22 pm (UTC)There certainly seemed to be that fraternity on the road. Everyone was nice. You don't get that with freeway driving, so I wasn't sure if I was tripping out or not.
When you're done becoming x-tra ed-you-kated (and presumably have more time) we should take a spin on our bikes!
San Pablo was a nice warm up. Probably 15 minutes or so of fairly level road followed by a down hill before the uphills.