Dead Weels A'rollin

I went out the door for a quick ride Thursday, noticing at the last moment how little time I had left before sundown. Intending to head off to Beal's Point, my bike kind of went right instead of left at the Sunrise 'Y' , so I ended up heading downstream to William Pond Park. It was a nice day with a 5-7 mph headwind and I picked up a trailer somewhere around Hagen Park.

I felt slow and sluggish, so when he passed me I let him go a bit and then realized he'd pretty much spent himself getting around me, so I bridged up and rode his wheel for awhile. We ended up riding up over the WBP bridge side by side carrying on a nice conversation.

I was feeling a lot better by then - all the rust was falling off and I had some snap in my legs - so I decided to head downstream to CSUS. Doug bailed about a mile down from WBP, but I put in a plug for HammerinWheels and hope to see him again on a club ride.

I picked up the pace, hunkered down in the aeorbars, and tried hard to slice through the the wind while keeping the sweat from dripping off the tip of my helmet and spattering all over my glasses. I was blowing hard as I rode up the long ramp to the Guy West Bridge at CSUS. Amazing how much of a lather I can work up in 60 degree weather at 20 mph.

Eager to trade in the headwind for a tailwind, I hit the Garmin's lap button and pushed off 5 minutes later. I set a pretty solid 22-23mph pace and passed a half-dozen riders along the way. As usual, I got no challenges along this section, so I had to focus on my Garmin and kept pushing myself till my HR monitor would alarm and then back off after a minute or two.

After passing a fast commuter with rear panniers filled, I put on a sprint to keep him off my wheel. No point pulling the kitchen sink. Just as my HR alarm settled back down I ran up onto the back of the mythical Park Ranger SUV (it exists, really, I swear!) doing a very proper 15 mph - the legal speed limit on the ARPT.

If anybody actually observed that speed limit the bike trail wouldn't be much use to anyone, but there he was, stuck in my face anyway. I should have peeled off the trail for surface streets at the edge of the WBP park, or at least hit the lap button, but as it was I ended up crawling along behind him and ruined my average.

Once home I found I had spent about 50% of the ride in Zone 5 - low Zone 5, fortunately. I often ride the hardest going downhill or with the wind at my back. Speed begets speed.

Last night I was cleaning and prepping my bike for a ride tomorrow from Auburn to Foresthill - a nice climbing route - and decided to finally Scotchbrite my rear wheel's braking surface clean to get the undulation out of the rear brake. I was shocked to discover a spoke breaking out through the rim, splitting it in the process.

This is not a welcome expense, with winter clothes and Christmas to budget for, but at least I didn't end up sprawled all over the road coming down a 10% grade at 50 mph. Besides, I have a zero-guilt reason now to finally put some good wheels on the bike. They have always been the weak link on my Roubaix.
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Le Sacre du Printemps

Being the first day of spring, Friday was an excellent choice of days to stretch my still sore legs after the High Noon Rescue ride last Saturday. I decided to just go slow and see how it went, setting no goals nor expectations of myself. I headed down California St towards William B Pond park to ride a nice, slow, flat, ride downstream to wherever I felt it was time to turn around and come home.


Jeffrey coaxed a good pic out of his camera. The guy's got some talent.

I barely got on the bike trail before I stumbled across some of my bike buddies out for a spring celebration ride of their own. I did a quick U-turn and snuck up on them grinning impishly. As is more and more the case these web 2.0 days, I had corresponded many times with Jeffrey and Sara, but we'd never met in person. Nevertheless, we recognized each other immediately from the many pictures taken and posted on our Meetup.com website.


Phred and Sharel having fun teasing each other. A pretty silly mood all around.

We chatted a bit and they invited me to ride along on what they admitted would be a slow ride with them all on mountain or cyclo-cross bikes, and Jeffrey with a single-speed mtb conversion. Not wanting to push the pace at all I was happy to ride along in back and get my legs loose while catching up with the group gossip - sort of whether I wanted to or not :D The lack of any plan or time pressure was pure pleasure for me, and I chatted happily as we meandered down the trail and caught up with each other's lives.


Taking it easy, bringing up the rear. These girls can talk!

Their planned turn-around point was the picnic area under the Guy West bridge at CSUS campus. We found a few tables and broke out the food and drink while everyone talked to everyone else all at the same time. Somehow it all worked - even as we stole glances at the flood of students pushing off or slowing to go up the ramp to the bridge.


I guess we talked a lot. I was just thrilled to be sharing such gorgeous weather.

We got curious about the pounding sound we kept hearing float across the river toward us and decided to take a little de'tour onto the campus to see what was going on. Of course, about that time the band had taken a break, so we saw the drum corp, but didn't actually hear them until we had concluded our little tour and were back on the bike trail. It was a beautiful day though, and the first time I had been on the campus for many years, so a really fun romp.


Matching gloves! Sara's bodybuilding has turned her into a total hottie!

Heading back we paired off a bit differently and I got to spend 20 minutes talking to Jeffrey, who is Mr. fitness around town with lots of TV, Radio and internet media contacts. He's also one super positive, energetic guy and always good for a big lift. He's been helping the TBF people organize and run a duatholon of running and mtn bike riding and I have been increasingly interested if I can get my back to withstand the pounding of running again.

Sharel peeled off at William B Pond and Phred just past the bridge to the other side of the river. Sara and Jeffrey and I headed back to Bannister and I REALLY tried to stay behind them. Really, I did. The sun was setting fast though, and I still had 12 miles to go to get home, so when they ran into Kevin, who had been riding with them earlier, I bid them adieu and slowly ramped up the power, testing my legs and seeing how they felt.

Within a couple of miles I was locked and hammering in my new favorite gear spinning 90 rpms at 21.5mph. I resisted pushing any tall gears, but was really happy this happy-go-lucky ride had done an excellent job of working out the kinks and now I could put down 300 watts right along with no problems. The scenery kept improving as the sun set, the crimson paint on the dark water was breathtaking. I came upon the Sunrise Y, flew through the park, across the bridge and stood and hammered right up that short little climb that had been all but impossible last Saturday.

Calling "SIDE" 3-4 times as I went, the short ride to Bannister flew past. What a difference 6 days had made! The Bannister Pk approach went by easily standing on 38/27 gears and in a few minutes I was flying down Fair Oaks racing the setting sun. The air was turning a bit brisk as the front bringing rain on Saturday began dropping temps rather dramatically. Brisk as it was, that thick air powered me through the long rollers home at a pace that put some serious perma-grin on my face.


Thank you Jeffrey for the great photography. I owe you bud!

When I pulled up to the gate I couldn't believe I had just ridden 28 miles. Even the average wasn't bad at about 17.5 mph - with that sprint home doing a yeoman's job of balancing out the slow start. It was a great way to welcome in the spring, put a huge smile on my face, and a spring in my step. Just another day in paradise. :D