Did You Ride Today?



25 miles with Gina, 16.0 average. She's been off almost a year and only a handful of short rides now so I'm good with it. Windy and she did a bit better this week but made it look easier so I see some improvement there.
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Good going Mr B. I am installing new flooring.myself Yeah , I could hired it done but it is just the way I ways raised. Mayby can do some cycling tomorrow tomorrow.
 
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No riding for me until January because work this time of year is crazy busy. Working 75-85 hours a week until Christmas is over then back to normal 40 hours and out at 2:30. But I did find some old footage I never uploaded and I can dream a little until I'm back on the bike. Although it will be a lot colder and I'm sure with plenty of white stuff, I can't wait to ride again.
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I did 16 easy road miles today @ 40F, I feel better for the day if I have the tired feeling of a ride in me, that is as long as I'm not at work.
It' been so cold here lately but I had a warm day and am keeping at it, mostly mtn biking. Piling on the miles and today topped 2017. Just a few more to go to >2200, which 2 mo.'s ago I didn't think I had a chance of hitting. But I got some righter clothes which are a big help, still having trouble with my feet.
 
No riding for me until January because work this time of year is crazy busy. Working 75-85 hours a week until Christmas is over then back to normal 40 hours and out at 2:30. But I did find some old footage I never uploaded and I can dream a little until I'm back on the bike. Although it will be a lot colder and I'm sure with plenty of white stuff, I can't wait to ride again.
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Ah, I see you decided to add scantly clad women in your videos as well! :D

Your town is way different from mine. It looks like Mayberry RFD out there vs my concrete jungles.
 
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Nasty, cold and wet so I didn't ride today. Besides my brother came over to do some electrical work for new appliances day after tomorrow. Broke a pipe under the sink and spent the better part of a day fixing the damn thing. I'm sure that CampyBob climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times though.
 
Ah, I see you decided to add scantly clad women in your videos as well! :D

Your town is way different from mine. It looks like Mayberry RFD out there vs my concrete jungles.

Hey these two towns are big compared to where I live. They have about 40,000 people each and my town has a tad over 5,000 people and way more woods than anything.
 
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They put our first traffic signal in 5 years ago, and for the longest time my street didn't have any street lights along the road until a couple years ago.


Wow! Funny how different it can be from town to town. We visited New Mexico about 3 years ago. Gina's uncle lived in a very small town near Santa Fe. Arriving in town, a post office, a Dairy Queen, a bar, a small market and one stop sign.

Leaving after a visit, he uncle told us to be careful on the return as the freeway was busy and fast traffic. I swear in a 50 mile stretch, I saw maybe 10 cars and passed them all using cruise control set at the speed limit of 75 not wanting to get any out of state tickets. :D

Here, it's full freeways and 85 mph traffic at 2 am.
 
Another shorter easier Pace Gina type of ride on Saturday. 32 miles, 16.5 average speed. Not bad, Gina went another 5 miles further and gained 1/2 mile an hour on the average speed over last week
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. 3 rides now after almost a year off the bike and improvements every week so I can't complain. :D
 
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Dreaming of riding. Been coughing to the point that I'm getting blood in my sputum. Went immediately to the doctor. He checked me over. Lungs normal, very slight temperature and heart rate 106 over 60 - normal for an athlete. He said I have bronchitis and prescribed an antibiotic to keep the broken alveoli from getting infected. Snivel, can't ride. But I can dream. I'll get you Mr. Beanz.
 
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My cough is on the way out and I'll take a very easy ride tomorrow. Then I'll be able to start training up to normal condition again. If you start coughing go immediately to the doctor. This stuff is apparently bacterial and the antibiotics can stop it. I think. I hope. Well, maybe. Two and a half weeks off the bike is pretty hard on someone that usually rides four days a week with three of them hard hills.
 
Well, yesterday I went to meet the group at a point they usually don't meet. It was cold and they were late so I left to the same destination figuring that they would get there. I haven't ridden as it turns out in 5 weeks with that damn Bronchitis and I still have a night cough. But while I was riding easily at 12-15 mph they never caught me and I even beat the two guys that normally drive over to the coffee shop and yet I was about on schedule. One thing that I was really impress with was unlike most of the first of this year I wasn't pedaling and then coasting but instead could continuously pedal. While I was going pretty slowly I still had a 10 mph headwind that Frosty must have ordered.

On the way back we entered a park where we pick up the Bay Trail. They stopped to use the facilities while I continued at 8 mph since the wind had of course now shifted to the south and dead on the nose and I didn't want to stop pedaling. Not only did they not catch up but in several areas where I could see back at least a half mile I never saw them. There were several areas where we have some steep but short climbs and up until the middle of this year I couldn't hold a steady pace up. Despite the time off the bike and only getting one hour of sleep the night before I held a perfectly steady speed.

Come-on old farts - you can do better than that. Of course there were riding antique bikes that they pulled from the back of the garage. One an OLD Raleigh and another a Legnano with Universal components on it. YUCK. My Basso was like the newest Colnago C64 in comparison. The other guy rides a fairly new steel bike but is limited with arthritis.

Got home with 26 miles at an 11 mph average. Slow but steady huh? And after 5 weeks I retained more fitness than I had over the last 6 years of recovering from my concussion. Then I would barely have been able to ride after a 5 week absence. Maybe there's hope after all of recovering my original fitness before that concussion.
 
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Saturday (couldn't access forum :mad:) 43 miles at 17.7 average speed with a buddy. Freakin' headwind!

Sunday 30 miles with Gina at 16.4 average speed. Not bad for being off the bike for nearly a year, she's coming back nicely! :)

Wore my Cranky Old ******* jersey today. Lots of compliments, comments and laughs from other riders.

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I decided to do a decent ride on Sunday. the very slow ride on Saturday after 5 weeks off the bike with illness must have wore me down more than I thought. After I started riding I could tell that I was weakened so I decided to take this ride as carefully as possible. The ride from San Leandro to Niles is flat and the route is a lot of broken road surface. I started out at 10 am because it was cold as hell outside. I had thermal tights, wool socks and Pearl Izumi's next to the top jacket over a long sleeve jersey. It was still cold immediately and for the entire ride.

From Niles I started up Niles Canyon. The road has a decent if not great shoulder up to Palomares Rd. Above that point Niles Canyon goes to Sunol. They have just opened a very nice new Café in that tiny town that caters to weddings and apparently there was going to be one there because lines of cars were coming past 17 cars or so deep. At this time of day on a Sunday the groups are generally only four or five at the most.

The road rises a little on the way up to Palomares Rd. so I was riding very easy since I didn't want to build up a sweat that would dissipate in the freezing wind on the downhill 3 miles up Palomares. For the Spanish impaired that is White Horse Rd. The road has an 11% kickup at the bottom for perhaps 25 yards. As I got to the top of this I stopped for a drink of water and to let my heart rate settle down after that sort of traffic with a 2' wide shoulder. For about a half mile the road is only about 5% so the climb is easy. But I could immediately recognize that on my heavy bike I was going to have a hell of a time climbing in my 34-24. So I decided to take it very slow and easy. To a certain extend the energy you use climbing can be reduced simply by riding slower. Of course if you slow too much you expend more energy because the pedals become so hard to turn over. I could drop down one or two cogs but the idea is to build strength. My low gear is a 34-28. That is the largest cog you can use with a Campy short arm rear derailleur. And though you can get a medium or long arm they don't work well in my experience.

After that flat section the road kicks up to perhaps 8% with a lot of what my present altimeter says is 11% but 3 previous ones have said is 12% sections. This continues for about a mile.The road then pretty much drops back to 5% for another mile and then kicks up to 8% again, for the last half mile. I was passed my a couple of riders going the same way I was. They went by pretty fast and they were pretty young. I was wondering where they would be going. There aren't many young riders in the areas around Castro Valley. Later I was to learn they were going up the easy side of Palomares and then turning around and going back down into Niles Canyon and then probably Fremont where they would be no surprise to me.

As I was on the upper flatish mile I was passed by what I would think are called "motor scooters". One was a bee buzzing sound and the other sounded like an old metal garbage can full of large rocks rolling down a hill. Shortly there after another one came by that sounded like a 25 cc two stroke - not loud and not slower but quite a way behind the others. I continued. Finally approaching the final kickup to the top there is a pullover on the left side and those three were stopped in there and they sounded like Jr. High kids bs-ing. I passed them and as I got about half way up the final climb I could hear them coming. I did NOT want them behind me on the 10% downhill on the other side so I stopped at the top. They all passed by with that piece of noisy junk hurting my hearing. After they had passed I waited perhaps 20 seconds and then kicked off. There were damp spots here and there so instead of hitting the "slow to 20" at 40, I slowed to 30. Then I let the bike go and rapidly saw the slow motor scooter ahead and he was braking to moderate his speed. With those 12" wheels he probably didn't feel comfortable letting it go. Sort of surprising in a young kid to have common sense. If you don't feel comfortable doing something it's stupid to do it anyway. Experience will teach you what is safe and what isn't.

I kept slowing down but even at 30 mph where I normally do 45 I was closing. As the slope moderated a little at the bottom and you could see further ahead I let off the brakes and passed him. I pulled out perhaps 500 yards on him and pulled over to the right where he had been riding. In a little way the road goes up some and he finally caught and passed me then. From there the road is up and down but mostly down but flatish. So he had the advantage. Going to the end I took a left after three miles of climbing and one mile of steep downhill and two miles of more or less flat road I turned left onto what pretty soon becomes Castro Valley Blvd. If you go the other way it becomes Dublin Grade.

I had been using a water bottle of Propel which seems to work but you can't tell any boost, it simply slows down the normal loss of energy. A can of Red Bull will give you a real boost but it is only short term and you're back to where you were. I passed a group of riders that turned out to be from my bike club. There is this short section of 10% and it is so short that I go over in the big chain ring. Well everyone else always shifts way down so I pulled out a pretty good lead. They caught up with me at the light and we exchanged pleasantries until it changed. I had intended on taking the short cut home but because they were going that way I didn't want to ride that way. I was so exhausted by this time that I would be pulling their happy mood down.

In any case I pulled into the driveway after only 36.5 miles and 1578 feet of climbing. I felt as if I had done a hard century so that 5 weeks off the bike surely reduced my capacity. My average speed was only 10.5 mph and the average upslope was 5%. Normally over this course I would have at least 2 mph faster. I stopped three times on the climb plus at the peak when I normally do the entire ride without stopping.

I had to sit down for a half hour after I got home before I could take a hot shower and unfreeze my frozen bones. Then I took my wife out to a local Mexican restaurant which was filled to the brim with real Mexicans. Yeah most of them are illegals but most of them also provide services for the town that Americans no longer do - upholstery, car repairs and bodywork and painting. Yardwork, maid service and baby sitting while Mommy works all day because she's divorced. Virtually every chef in every restaurant in the entire San Francisco bay area is a Mexican. Sort of humorous getting Greek or Middle Eastern food from a Mexican chef that is better than the Greeks or Middle Easterners can make. There are exceptions but mostly in the most costly restaurants that serve you a glass of really awful wine for $20 a glass. The wine in the Mexican restaurants is awful as well but it costs the same as a bottle of beer.

Today I'm tired but my muscles aren't sore. I slept like a log for 7 hours on the dot. Tomorrow is another ride if I feel like 47 miles and 3300 feet of climbing.
 
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Friend caught us on video last week, this is a still he sent to me. I touched it up a bit with the color editing. :D

Me, Gina, Aimee 32 miles at 16.5 average. Herb and Alyce at the back joined us for the last 12 miles.

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Friend caught us on video last week, this is a still he sent to me. I touched it up a bit with the color editing. :D

Me, Gina, Aimee 32 miles at 16.5 average. Herb and Alyce at the back joined us for the last 12 miles.

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How the hell do you maintain that sort of average. Surely you have stop signs and lights on your routes don't you? That knocks what would be a fairly high average down to like what I'm getting - 12-13.5 mph. I have one route where there are only 6 lights so that was one where I managed a 20+ mph on a day I felt really good and was accelerating away from the lights like a dragster. I do a lot of hills so I expect low averages, but on any flat course I'm normally pretty slow average. But on one 25 mile course with lots of lights I guess I do average almost exactly an hour and a half every time despite all of the stops. What's that - 16.66 mph. But all of your rides appear to be really fast averages. You must be really moving.
 
How the hell do you maintain that sort of average. Surely you have stop signs and lights on your routes don't you? That knocks what would be a fairly high average down to like what I'm getting - 12-13.5 mph.

16.5 is a low average for a 30 miler. I've done 100 at 17.5 solo. I did Palm Springs solo in 5:45. Solvang Century in 5:30

I did Ride Around the Bear in 7:10. Timed race climbing 10,000 ft over 100 miles at 13.8 average. Not bad for a Clydesdale. Streets, stops and all. I finished [HASHTAG]#123[/HASHTAG] out of 400 entries. Not bad for a 220 pound rider.

So 12 MPH for me on the streets would be really really slow.

On the trail is faster so I've averaged 19.2 over 43 miles with a couple of buddies. It is flat and non stop and the only obstacle is the wind.

But heck, I don't know man, I do short mid week night rides with stops and all at 17.2. That's taking selfies and all on the bike! :D

These are warm up cool down the legs type rides. Not pushing myself.

We recently moved from the foothills where my midweek rides were 11 miles with 1100 ft of gain averaging 12 or so. With stops and all but that is straight up the hills.

What is funny is that I have had a few forum members say I do nothing but easy rides. My hills are smaller, my wind is lesser, my course is easier but I have had them all come down, or I go there to ride with them only to kick their asses! :D

One guy came from AZ to ride with us. He said bring Gina and if needed, he would wait for her. She ended up kicking the snot out of him. She's strong and we have done 70 milers with forum groups where men have actually made it a deal to TRY not to get beat by Gina.

I dunno man, we ride hard when we ride hard and it pays off.

But the 16.5 is low for Gina. Her best on the 44 is 18.1.

100 miles on trail and road, she finished in 6:40. Stops and all! :p

This is a little faster for us. As you can see all the guys in the video that hopped on, were dropped other than 1 guy and the 3 riders we started with.

So on level playing ground, you can see we aren't slugs. ;-)

Oh, btw, none of the guys we picked up would take the front other than that 1 guy who only did about 5 miles with us. About 7 or 8 others who were cheeseballs trying to hang on.

This is a higher average on the flat non stop trail.

Ride starts at 1:20


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Also, I do 17.2 MPH averages at night just cruising around in the dark on local streets, stops signs and all midweek rides taking selfies.

Funny though, everyone says we do easy rides and that is why we have fast averages. Never that we are strong riders till they get their asses kicked! :D

17.2 midweek night ride cruising taking selfies. Not pushing myself. Though I do find riding on the streets faster than fighting wind on the trail or climbing Mt Baldy (21 mile 6% grade, almost 5,000 ft gain)

17.2 in the dark, stop involved. 12-13 would be really slow for me.

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