My Most Recent Ride 2008 (Part I of series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi Jon, I think you should get an award, working with cold hands, particularly on things that can “bite” is always such a fun thing. That is part of the reason why I hate messing with snow chains.

Thankfully, I do not normally ride when its very cold (cold to me is anything below 60). However my ride yesterday was a rather exciting one. Living in Southern California we have what are called Santa Ana winds, they can gust up to 70 or 80 mph below canyons and generally make driving “fun”. Yesterday at lunch I pulled my bike out of my truck and decided to ride instead of eating. So, off I go, when I leave my truck, I end up riding directly into the wind, and kind of think that it’s tough but not too bad. The “excitement” started when I made a right turn and headed east. First time I’ve ridden a bicycle in Santa Ana conditions, we had about 40 mph gusts, to go straight, I was having to lean into the traffic area of the street I was riding on. And, because there were some buildings to block the wind, I had to try and time my leaning with being upright when the winds stopped. If I had been in a car with a cop behind me, I would have been pulled over for DUI. I was all over the road, or at least 10 feet of it.

When I started to ride through a parking lot of the local convention center, I was actually having fun seeing how far to a side I could lean and still be going straight. Felt somewhat like tacking a sailboat, but with no soft water to cushion you if you should make a mistake.

Curtis

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Curtis, I can relate to those winds. We spent 5 winters out by the sand dunes. Though the winds would not switch directions like they do closer to the ocean, we certainly got some strong sustained winds and it seems this time of they year we would get them weekly. Sometimes they would last a day and sometimes 2 days. I did not try to ride bike in them though because the air was so full of sand. Nasty stuff.

Glad that was you riding and not me. I hate wind.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Well, B-S, I agree with you on that one. I hate wind too. Me
and Dave once rode in high winds and cold temps, but I guess
we have both grown out of it. But if Dave called from over there
in Morristown at the Ti-yota plant and wanted to ride, I'd go
just because this woman is about to drive me crazy. Two weeks
in a 12x12 box with her is above and beyond the call of duty.

Any way, I put the Redline Trainer with the RANS Wave attached
on the back north facing porch and the 33 degree 30 mph wind
is coming from the south, didn't feel it. Wish Al Gore was here.
I'd like to rub his face in this global warming.

Went to the grocery store, it was crowded. Guess the natives
got wind of the two day snow predicted for Monday and Tuesday.

Michigan this ain't. These people go nuts when the weather channal
says snow.

Stay warm Dennis. Wish I was there so we could go riding our
bicycles. I've lived in California Curtis, that's no Challenge. I have
driven a VW bus in those winds and that is a challenge.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Buddy, I can imagine. This reminded me and I looked. Sure enough, I had saved a news article (CNN) from January 20, 1995. It was about a surprise 1" snowfall in North Carolina. Here is just a small part of it:

A surprise 1-inch snow that turned to ice on frigid roads stunned North Carolina's capital, trapping motorists in epic traffic jams and stranding some 3,000 pupils overnight at schools. The governor urged people to stay home Thursday while crews clean things up.

Highways were clogged with desperate drivers whose commutes Wednesday stretched to as long as eight hours. Law officers tallied about 1,000 accidents in the Raleigh-Durham area, but there were no reports of fatalities.



A whole inch!!!! My God, we got that much in 15 minutes today and didn't think much of it. And we are over 5 feet of snow so far this winter with lots to go yet. Still, we are short of the 7 feet+ that we got last year.

But Buddy, I don't wish you were here to go riding, I wish we were both in Florida or Arizona to go riding together. Man, that sounds great right now. I've been working on some things for RAAM and that really gets me worked up. That and the thing with Tom Kingsbury. I had to stop and put 1 1/2 hours on the trainer!

You are also right about that bus being a challenge. It was a challenge in 15 mph winds!

Keep smiling!
Dennis

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

No snow here just 50 degrees and a wind that was crazy strong. I started out with the wind at my back knowing that sooner or later I would have to pay for that. So the first 6 miles I was easing along with an adverage speed of about 17.5. Stopped for nature and my adv dropped to 14.8 never to rise again.

From that point I hit some pretty good climbs, not long but with 4-8% inclines. I also crossed a wooden bridge that was loaded with sweet gum balls. They might as well have been ball bearings on that bridge. I was really glad to get past that. After a tough short climb with lots of traffic I took a detour down a residential street to catch my breath. It was time to face the music er wind.

10 miles of nothing but headwind. There were a couple of downhills where I edged into the upper teens but the rest of the ride I was fighting for 12-14 mph.

Glad when it was over 24.2 miles with an adv 14.04. Longest ride since the surgery 7 weeks ago and back felt pretty good. I might need to rethink this thin ventist seatpad. I added a layer of closed cell foam to the one on my Aero and like that alot. I was trying to avoid the extra weight but oh well.

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

When dressed well I can just barely tolerate the cold while pedaling. But I have a nagging fear of having to fix a flat in low temperatures. Jon, you were so diligent about getting Mileage Awards out to everybody that the least I could do was to give you an award. "Here's your sign." Since RRI chops the attachment to a small file size, I'll e-mail a higher res version to you, suitable for framing.
--- Dave, the K.of F.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Never ridden in 40mph wind. But last week was a typical ride to a local college to play tennis. My oversized racquet in its cover is strapped hanging diagonally and vertically under the RANS seat. From the side, and to a crosswind, it looks like a flat sail. On last week's ride, the 20 mph winds would catch me at odds on the road's shoulder and shove me toward the traffic lane. Scary! Even stopped at traffic lights I had to unclip both feet to keep vertical. Will probably pull the Burley trailer with racquet, water jug, shoes, etc. next time.

Dave

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Thank you Dave. I have a color laser printer at work. I plan to print off a copy and hang it on the inside of my closet door at work where I keep all my bike gear for riding!!!

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Yesterday was susposed to hit 66 (didn't happen). So I planned, plotted and schemed so I would be able to ride. It was overcase and pretty cool, about 50, when I left the house. The wind wasn't too bad probably about 3-5 mph.
I actually did some bike maint and lubed my chain well before I got out. I did this hoping that it would warm up just a bit more before I got started.

Anyway, I eased out planning on taking a few miles to warm the legs up. Almost immediately I saw a couple of riders coming up pretty fast behind me. My legs felt good and the road is mostly flat so I decided to see how long I could keep them off.

I picked up the pace and strolled along with an adverage of about 17.5 for the first 8 miles when I stopped to peel a layer off. The SUN had come out strong and with the increased effort I was pretty warm. While I was shucking along came those riders and they passed on by me. Great I thought, now I have someone to chase.

The next 5 miles have some pretty good hills. I didn't see the other riders until I hit the base of the biggest which is about .8 miles with a 4-6% grade. There about halfway up were the rabbits/err riders. I kept a pretty good pace on the hill but when I crested the top they were already out of signt.

I was pretty winded so I backed off the pace for a few minutes and then pushed the pace up into the upper teens. It wasn't long before I spotted them. We now had a slight headwind which was favoring me and the gap started closing. A short steep downhill then it was flat for the next three miles.

They made me work for it. I knew they saw me coming. I had to keep my speed up around 19 and slowly I reeled them in. There was a stop sign coming and I wanted to catch them before it. I made it but just barely and I was feeling the effects of my efforts.

They didn't even acknowledge my presence on their tail as they turned at the stop sign. I decided the distance was far enough and since I had caught them decided to turn around. Interestingly enough we took two opposite sides of a circle and met coming around the back end.

They were right in front of me having come out of a side street onto the street I was on. I had a good head of steam up and just rolled on by them. Around a curve and down the same hill I had followed them up earlier. This time I easily lost sight of them as I hit 38 mph on the way to the bottom.

I kept my cranks spinning and managed an adverage of 17.0 for 24 miles.

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Awesome, Ward! Hard to believe you're the same guy who was stuck in a wheel chair just before Christmas.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

I am soooo depressed. It is cold, windy, snowy (something we haven't seen in Tennessee in YEARS!!!) and generally nasty. I only rode only once last week.

This will tell it all. I asked my wife if I could ride her STATIONARY recumbent exercise bicycle. (She said I could.) I rode it and felt GREAT even though I didn't go anywhere.

This weather needs to get better soon before I join a gym and ride indoors all the time instead of outdoors!

Help me.....

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Jon, I feel your pain. Unfortunately I am a member of a gym and still can't ride. I have something wrong with my heart due to the chemo or else I am getting something wrong with my thyroid. I have NO energy...NO breath...10 min of exercise and i am done for. I am beginning to gain weight which is totally unacceptable! I am thinking of doing my own "Popsicle" ride. Or at least attempting to ride. I have one more test to take on the 9th before I know all the results. Lord knows I need to be active....so ya'll be praying for me.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Looks like you all are getting the weather we had last week. It does get better even though we still have places on the deck and in the yard with ice mounds

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

HB you are definately in my prayers. When I did chemo 15 years ago I can still remember how it zapped all of my energy. I felt like I was magnetized to the bed. Once a day I would make myself get out of bed and trudge around my back yard for one loop (maybe 150 feet). Basically with chemotherapy they come as close as they get to killing you so that they can kill the cancer cells.

The bounce back for me was rapid once they turned it off. May last therapy was the last week of July and I was water skiing by the last week of August.
Good luck

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

absolutely amazing isn't it. Four weeks ago tuesday my Doc gave me the greenlight to do anything that didn't hurt. That night I couldn't lie on the floor and raise my legs. Yesterday I did 15 knees to chest raises while hanging from a chin-up bar.

I am still stiff but once I get moving everything loosens up and feels better. Thanks again everyone for listening to me whine when I was immobilized.