Riding with the big boys

Today was the SBB Guinea Pig ride #7. The route was 43 miles that took us from Sunnyvale down to Los Gatos and back. I attempted to use Strava to record my ride, but the app froze up after I went to pause it for lunch so I lost the data. Oh well. :( Here is the ridewithgps.com route map and elevation chart.

I did better than I expected to do on this ride. First of all, I thought that I might cut this ride short since I've only been doing 20 mile rides recently. I almost cut out the climb up Stevens Canyon but decided if I was going to cut it short, it was better to cut out some of the flat/small rolling miles as opposed to the bigger climbs. I made it to the lunch stop and figured that I would see how I felt after lunch and make the call then. Well, I ended up doing the entire route and I'm very glad I did.

Our group for today's ride was smaller and more or less, ended up slit into two groups. As the title implies, I rode with the big boys (AKA the faster guys in the group). I was able to keep up with them for the first 5 miles at a pace of about 17 mph (I think we hit 22 mph at one point). After that I fell back a little as we started to get into some hills. I wasn't too far behind on Stevens Canyon either, which was the longer incline of the day.  I was able to regroup with them at lunch and then kept up with them for the remaining 15-20 miles. All in all I averaged a speed of 13.5 mph, which isn't too bad since when it comes to hills I tend to drop down to 6 mph. The 30+mph downhills are a nice refresher after dragging but uphill.

It is crazy to think that when I started riding with the SBB in January, I averaged about 9 to 10 mph. Now, I can average about 13 to 14 mph. I'm amazed at the progress I've made in such a short time. The most obvious way I've realized how much stronger of a rider I've become are the times when I feel like a hill wasn't that bad, and then think back to a time not that long ago where I had to walk up it or stop multiple times. Today I had one of those realizations when I rode non stop up to the top of Stevens Canyon. Felt pretty good. Then I turned around and coasted to the bottom. I proceeded to ride, non stop up Mt Eden. Yet again, crazy awesome feeling, not needing to stop at all.

After the ride I had some homemade chocolate chip cookie bars for everyone. They were well received and I got many compliments.

Lunch excursion

I've been trying to get at least one ride in during the week so today I headed out for a 20 mile ride. It seems that 20 miles is a good ride to do by myself. It is enough of a distance to feel like i've actually done something, but yet short enough that I don't really have to worry about a water/food stop. I checked out some new roads today; some of them were not too bad, some were not too great. Its kind of a toss up around here; lots of farm/back country roads, which equals bumpy/pot-holes/no bike lanes. 

Here are some of the things that I saw on my ride today. The first is a cool old stone arch off of Pepper Road. I believe it said that it was from 1920 or 1923. The last number was hard to read. I love that a lot of the old buildings and structures around town have the dates on them. I really enjoy the architecture in Petaluma. 

I turned off of Pepper Road onto King Road. After a half of a mile I came across this road sign. It made me thing of the TV show King of Queens. The next photo is the same intersection, but you can see what I mean by back country roads. I do like the farm/country scenery that Petaluma has to offer, but I do miss those nicely paved Los Altos roads I'm used to riding on with the SBB.

As I was heading back into town on Bodega Ave I saw this Humpty Dumpty sculpture. This was outside of a furniture store (which makes no sense) but there was a middle school right across the street. Either way, it was weird. One of the eyes is a clock.

Once I got into town I stopped at Bici Sport, which is most likely going to be my choice for my local bike shop. The guys here seem to be very helpful. Hopefully they have some good mechanics in case I ever need it. I purchased some chain de-greaser for a project I have going on (i'll post more about that later). 

Here are some things that I learned from today's training ride:

1) Petaluma is a great place to train for riding with wind resistance. Man is it windy here! 

2) An unexpected dog bark from a moving vehicle is startling.

3) Being startled on a bike is not much fun.

4) Generally, drivers are nice and give you some space on the road. However, the UPS truck that zoomed past me today felt very close. Not cool, UPS! 

5) Watching for parked cars that may expectantly move is a good practice. Had to swerve around a truck that was backing up and didn't see me (either he just couldn't see me coming or he didn't even look). 

ALC Kickoff Ride

Today I joined the ALC Kickoff ride out of Sports Basement in the Presidio in San Francisco. I did the 22 mile ride that went up to Mill Valley. It was my first time riding out of San Francisco and the first time across the Golden Gate Bridge. I've been wanting to ride across the bridge for a while, so I was happy to be finally checking that off my to-do list.

I forgot to start up my Strava for this ride, so unfortunately I didn't get to see my stats on this ride. However, I know that I did pretty well because I managed to do the ride in under 2 hours and I didn't have to stop at all on the hills from Sausalito back up to the GG bridge. I felt good about how I did, and that is all that really matters.

It was such a beautiful day and I actually remembered to stop and take a few photos. I parked in the East Beach parking area and the view was beautiful. I loved how the fog was just sitting on the bridge.

After crossing the bridge, we dropped down into Sausalito and rode along Bridgeway road that follows along the bay and into downtown. I didn't realize how cute that area is. I also love seeing the SF skyline sandwiched between the blue water and clear blue sky.

We continued on the Mill Valley - Sausalito bicycle path which continued to provide beautiful views on this gorgeous day. I don't know if I could have asked for a nicer day (especially since it was raining yesterday morning).

Out to Pasture... just for a ride

Today's ride took me outside of downtown Petaluma and to the surrounding farmland. I only got in a 20 mile ride. When I originally set out, I planned on doing a 30 mile loop; obviously that is not what I ended up doing. I'm still happy with the ride I did get in, I just wasn't really prepared for what a ride in the farmland had in store. The roads were not in the greatest condition and there was some pretty strong winds today. I did come to the realization that this is what it would probably be like riding back in PA. Which, surprisingly, made me happy I am where I am and can pretty much ride my bike year round.

I did actually stop to take some photos today, which is not normal for me. I've been wanting to get in the habit of taking photos during my rides because I get to see some pretty nice landscapes. I usually just don't remember to stop and get my camera out.

My next ride will be my first official ALC ride this training season. I plan on doing the ALC kickoff ride in San Francisco this weekend. Should be fun. Also, I get to met my cyclist rep in person.

Exploring the new town on two wheels

Today I decided to take a lunch time ride through Petaluma. It was good to get on my bike during the week; It is definitely something I need to do more of.

The ride today was ok, not great, but not bad. Here are a couple things I learned today:

1. Less than 1 mile of Shollenberger Park is actually paved. This does not bode well when riding a road bike. Maybe I will have to revisit it on my mountain bike sometime.

2. The lower half of McDowell is good for riding, however after it crosses E. Washington Street, it gets pretty shady. There isn't a bike lane on the road, there is just a bike path on the other side of the sidewalk. A really crappy bike path. So, most likely won't be riding that portion of the road again.

3. I found out that Hogwarts Circle meets up with Liverpool Way.

4. I am capable of changing a flat tire on my own! As I was on my final stretch home, I looked at my rear wheel and noticed that it was going flat. I didn't see any major cuts or holes in my tire, so I'm not sure what happened. Anyway, I changed the tube and was on my way.

The Roasted Guinea Pig

I didn't forget about this blog..... I just haven't been on a ride in SO long! It has been a little crazy for me this past month. After my last ride, there wasn't a scheduled Guinea Pig ride so I took the weekend off and used it to get things organized and packed up. The following weekend (8/24) a bunch of our amazing friends came out to help us pack up our lives and move us to the North Bay. It was a very long day, but we were able to get almost everything we owned into one 17' Uhaul. The next weekend (8/29-9/2) we headed up to Seattle for PAX Prime. If you don't know what that is, well, simply put, it is a BIG nerd convention. So anyway, its been crazy and I've been off my bike for a while.

Yesterday I joined back up with my SBB teammates for a ride that would take us up Alpine hill. It was a HOT one yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was in the upper 90's. Which, when you are on your bike, in direct line of the blazing sun, feels more like 110+. It was so draining being in the sun. So, with the heat, lack of riding and my unfortunate hypoglycemia acting up, this did not turn out to be a great ride for me. I didn't make it up to the end of Alpine, but no worries, I'll get there next time, when we do this ride in the Winter Series next year. Usually my hypoglycemia doesn't cause me to many problems, but that was not the case yesterday. I think that I didn't get enough to eat for breakfast, because while on Elena, I had to stop twice. The first time I just sat and rested a little, thinking it was just the heat causing me problems. But then a little further up the road I realized it wasn't just the heat. I hat to get off my bike before I passed out. I felt to woozy and shaky. Not a fun feeling when you are trying to balance on two very thin tires. So, Cliff Bar to the rescue! After that, I tried to take it easy and walked up some of the hills I know I can normally ride without a problem. But health comes first and there is no shame in taking it easy for that sake.

All in all, I still got in a good 28 mile ride. Every mile counts and gets me one step closer to my goals!