Thursday I had a 20 mile ride planned out, thanks to www.mapmyride.com, when Brad (my coach) emailed stating to go “15 miles or so” on Saturday. I knew that e would be at America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride (in Tahoe), so I was planning a ride, just in case I couldn’t find someone to go with me. In that case, I wanted the ride to start and end at my house. With the ride that I had planned out, I decided I probably better go drive it, just to make sure that there weren’t dirt roads-and I just wanted to see what I would be riding on. Just before dark, I headed out and within the first 4 miles decided this ride was NOT for me-at least at this time. Maybe I’ll be ready by mid to end of July, but right now? Nope. During the drive, the first thing that turned me off to the ride was at a stop sign where I needed to turn right, I would be coming off of a flat stretch, stop, and then go up a rather steep hill. At the top of the hill, I felt like I was on a roller coaster because I couldn’t see the road, let alone, the bottom of the hill as I came over the top. Immediately at the bottom, an equally challenging hill taunted me. When I got to the top of that one, same thing, down and up and down and up. Finally, the hills leveled out a little bit (this would be a TERRIFIC ride on a motorcycle) with a few hills here and there. As I came down a hill, I saw a street sign that told me that would be where I would need to turn. I suspected that by the time I got to that intersection at the bottom of the hill, I might be going 25-30 mph on my bike and how would I make that turn? As I turned onto the road, it was a nice, fairly flat and curvy road. Pretty soon I came to the next intersection and turned left. Immediately, headed down hill, then up, then down, then back up and at the bottom of this hill, I found I would need to turn immediately again! I was thinking I’d have to overshoot the intersection and then turn around and come back. Finally got on the final stretch and found a “road closed to thru traffic” sign. If the first through sixth hills hadn’t convinced me, the road-closed sign did. Back to www.mapmyride .com
Friday, I mapped out my ride and Saturday morning, I decided to head out the door at 8:00 with dark grey clouds in the south, the sun trying to break through it in the east, clear blue sky in the west and north. On the ride, I went through two areas with mint fields, watched some cattle get fed, conquered the hill that kicked my butt last week (Those bruises and scrapes are healing). Got passed by another cyclist. When he passed, I looked at my speed (16 mph at that moment) and he passed me like I was standing still! That gave me a little challenge to push myself a little bit and kept on going. I finally made it home feeling a little jelly-ish, very hungry and ready for a shower.
Saturday’s ride: 19 miles in 1 hour 25 minutes. 13.3 Average speed. 23.8 Max speed. Total miles on my bike: 51.6
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