Loggin' In Some Time in the Saddle

This is where we kicked off our ride.Pete, the crazy bike mechanic gave us a great demo.


Riding along the coast.


Can you guess?

I especially enjoy this picture of me ON my bike rather than on the ground.

Legion of Honor.

This is how TNT likes to torture us! Solvang here we come.

The bike gods sure blessed us this weekend. I got up at 6 AM on Saturday, packed up my car, and headed to S.F. As my luck would have it, I basically did the same exact drive while I was lost last weekend, so I got to the meet spot (The Presidio) w/o a hitch; we met at Sports Basement (love that place!)

Since I didn’t get lost, I was a little bit early and took advantage of the location. I am the proud new owner of a small bike pump (the "pocket rocket"), spare tube, patch kit, and booties for my toes which I fear losing to frost bite sometime in the near future. I know the necessity of the pinkie toe is debatable, but I’d like to keep it nonetheless.

We all gathered ‘round (I was waiting for naptime followed by graham crackers and apple juice) on the carpet to watch a wee (Lou, if you’re reading this, this is for you!) demonstration given by Pete- the bike mechanic / evangelical. This guy was a character. I wonder if he does birthday parties? Informative and entertaining- can’t beat that!

We split into groups and headed out, ready to enjoy the beautiful weather that California is so famously known for. We couldn’t have done more than 500 yards and were heading up a huge/long/steep hill. What had I gotten myself into? This is when I began to regret the Taco Bell dinner and Chardonnay I had on Friday night at Jed and Holly’s. Woopsy.

My bike has been riding pretty well, but I noticed that my back brake was scraping the entire time. I pulled over to "check it out"(a.k.a. to take a breather). I really think I was at my limit, huffing and puffing- my trusty heart-rate monitor said my heart was beating 137 times per minute! Aye madre! We had only just begun, and my legs were like spaghetti noodles.
Thank goodness for all of the support and encouragement from Sue, Steve, Carol, Peni, Richard, and Frank. The ride truly was spectacular with views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Pacific, GG Park, and more. Since there was a problem with my back brakes, we decided the best solution for this ride would be for me to not use them… um ok. I was a little leery of that particular approach (visions of myself flipping over my handlebars), but in the end, it worked out just fine. We all made it back as a group with all our body parts and no injuries- amazing, what, with all of the city traffic. I decided to leave my bike there for a tune-up.

All in all, we did a 23-mile ride that took 2 hours and 55 minutes. Thankfully, the first hill at the beginning was the worst though we did have a shorter steep one at the very end (see photo).

I raced home, took a quick bath to warm up and headed to Jed and Holly’s for his annual Birthday Crab-fest; Holly bought 39 pounds of crab!!! I can’t believe he’s 30. What an old man (o;

Sunday, true to its name, was a day of rest (at least until 11 AM when I finally woke up). I headed out to the barn for a ride on Pokey, determined to take advantage of the dry weather. It was really cold (59 degrees, according to the sign at the bottom of Calaveras Rd.). Kristi moved her gelding to another stables, so we lost our trail buddies. It was just Pokey and me. We spent 2 hours out in the hills. I tried to keep her at a walk b/c I didn’t want her to get so sweaty, and b/c I’ve let her run quite a bit the last few rides and didn’t want her to think it’s always going to be galloping around on trails. We came across one of the bridges and out of nowhere she decided to jump, landing just before the other side taking off at a gallop. So much for that thought. I can’t really discipline her, b/c I like to go fast too, but as she started down the descent at a full gallop, I thought it best to slow down a little. I don’t know how many more rides we’ll be able to do out in the hills; I guess it depends on when we get rain, but I’m going to take full advantage while we can.

Things I learned this week:

-Taco Bell is NOT an ideal pre-ride meal.
-Don’t drink a lot of wine the day before a challenging ride.
-Riding uphill with your breaks on is not fun.
-Alias is not nearly as good now that Michael Vartan’s character is killed off. Way to ruin a good thing Jennifer.
-Kitties can snore quite loudly.