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September 27, 2008 I know its been two weeks since I actually posted one of these, but two weeks ago I injured myself before I posted it and last week I was unable to attend, so this is my first ride since the injury. Today was the nice Autumn day I have ever seen, although it is also kind of depressing. I think that I'm getting Sun poisoning, I mean really when was the last time we had rain. My old wet weather gear is looking at me as if I have abdonded it, so it was perfect riding weather. The group was small, but energetic, no major problems or minor problems at all. The traffic was extremely light, but it usually is at 0800 in the morning. Once we were on Champlain some fellow cyclist from other groups were commenting on my coffee mug in my water bottle cage, which if we stop and think about this for a second caffine is extremely beneficial in maintaining rythm after being in the saddle for a while, now if you take that a step further and say after you find a starbucks on the route and get a mocha the natural healing and relaxing properties of cocoa, compounded with the protein, carbs and healthy fats of milk, then I say that my Double shot Venti mocha, would be no different than three gu gels, a power bar and water(Remember I work lab and a mountain biker at heart, so I'm a little off). All in all even the comments from the other groups it was a great ride, great company nice easy pace I think we may have topped out at 15 m.p.h. going down hill. I should have a decision on next weeks ride by Wed Morning at the latest. Hope everyone had a great weekend and hope that you have a great week. September 6, 2008 Good Morning Boys and Girls And sorry for the delay on the ride report for the Beginner Group. So what can I say. The weather was simply great when we departed out of Fresno Hearts Parking Lot. While going thru woodward park you could definitely tell that there were alot of people preparing for the Half and Full Marathon coming up in November. So we took it easy going thru Woodward. Once we got on the West side of the park it was wide open. We stayed together as a group and climbed hospital hill, started playing with gears and decided that I needed to be maxed out, I don't know why, but hey my legs cooperated with me, so to the top of the hill and onto Childrens BLVD, for a nice level remainder of the ride to Childrens Hospital. We did have stop momentarily due to my back wheel feeling mooshy(I know not a real word but work with me here). Real quick check of the bike and then the return trip to Fresno Heart, I think all total we were gone about 45 minutes, max cruise speed if I remember correctly was 22 m.p.h., which sounds like a lot but you would be amazed at what you can do................................... August 30, 2008 Good Morning Everyone,
Well the beginning group met up at 0800 at Fresno Heart, and we started out heading down Audubon to the Pine Trail, we did have a mishap at the intersection of the trail and Sheppard, we had stopped for traffic to pass and on the re-start one of the group hit the deck, so pop quiz how do you tell a true blue cyclist, answer they ensure that the bike lands on them and is protected from scratching, which she did, when asking if she was ok, she had stated that she saved the bike.....................................Ok. Which led me to repeat my initial question. Back on the trail I had the opportunity to talk with everyone in the group, they got to know me and I got to know a little bit more about them. Once we did the out and back we still had some gas left in the tank and decided to hit woodward park and climbed hospital hill, by this time we are starting to think that now would be the time to wind down and head back to the heart which is what we decided to do. The weather was beautiful not to hot, or cold, light traffic on the trail, with moderate traffic in woodward. I feel it was a great ride. Hope to see you next week. As always I should be posting the route no later than Thursday, although after speaking with the group I think I know where we are heading. It will be an out and back route.
Have a great week.
August 22, 2008 Good Morning, hoping everyone had a good weekend? So this weekend the beginners group went out for a ride this past Saturday. We met up at Fresno Heart at 0730 did some intro's and headed out. We stayed with the advanced group thru Woodward Park and then the two groups split. We headed west back down Friant to Fort Washington and stopped off at Starbucks to recharge a little, again the purpose of the beginners group is not to get you Race ready but to get acclimated to riding in steps, so that as your skills and abilities improve then your ability to hang with the Advanced Group if that is your goal or if your just looking for a new cardio excersize or just start one, then come on out, ok the commercial is over and back to the ride. So after the coffee break, we hit the road and the trail. It was great, there was little traffic on the trail think we average around 12-15 mph which is actually not verifiable because well no one had a cyclocomputer, so were just guessing. Well thats all for now. June 11, 2008 Well finally able to make a group ride with the Fresno Heart Hospital people, man was it a wake up call for me. The ride was attended by Mario, the groups leader, Mark a fellow mountain biker, Dale, I think Mark told me he was one of the doctors and John, we left out of Fresno Heart at 5:10 p.m. and this being the first time that I was on a complete Carbon Fiber bike, I started out fairly good for about the first half of the ride, then the heat I believe it was low nineties actually started taking its toll on me, that and I was silly enough to bring one bottle of water, note to self, next time when riding with a new group in a new area, be prepared, now back to ride. Mario pulled for a while, then he turned looked at me and said your turn, and up to the front I went, pulled for maybe a quarter of the time and then Mark I believe was the next one up, have you ever been on a bike and start doing a mental rewind of everything that you had done before the bike ride, when your not feeling a hunderd percent? I did. Woke up had a pot and a half of coffee and then after being awake for three hours had a bagel, followed by a frozen burrito, drank about 16 ounces of water and then went on a bike ride, not exactly a poster child of things to do before a bike ride. Note to self, do it right next time, so we are about a mile away from the half way point and I need to go into recovery mode, bottom chain ring and mid cassette, as I am watching the group pull away I'm actually still excited about being out with the guys and still having fun, seriously, then Mario drops from the back and holds up for me, which I am thinking is completely cool, so we team up and start chatting about Drafting techniques, which by the way I really need to master, take a drink of water and look at my bottle, half way point and down to less than a half but more than a quarter of water in the bottle. We regroup with the guys at the half way point, at this point I am realizing two things. One Carbon Fiber is light, but I'm still feeling every little thud and thumb in the road. Two I need to find some mountains to climb, because I have been out of the Pacific Northwest to long, because what I used to look at as rollers where kicking my butt today. I really wish I could remember what roads we took, because I would really love to ride that again. Total mileage for the day I believe was something like 25-27 miles. Any questions that I had for myself in respect to me acclimation process was answered today, and the answer was I need to spend a little more time in the heat on my days off. Mario, Dale, Jon and Mark were great today, I did feel bad because I was not able to completely hang with the group, but as Mario had stated they had been riding religously three times a week for a long time now, and they are either from the area or had been here a long time and well today's ride temp was hotter than the hottest day in Seattle last year and I should ease up off myself. The one thing that I still can't get over is the fact Mario stayed with me, even when I dropped down to about 12 m.p.h.. It was a good day and I am actually looking forward to next weeks ride. They have another ride scheduled for Saturday, but with the ol job, I'm not quite sure that I will be able to make it, so I am just going to aim for next Wed. Updated information for June 11, 2008 ride. I emailed Mario at FFH for the route, so here we go................"Cool report, just give yourself credit for being out there and riding, you are already one of the few that can accomplish what we did yesterday. The route was through the park out to E. Champlain 1/2m then
through Woodward lakes out to Fort Washington 1/2m and then right on Millbrook 1/2 m to Liberty hill road 1/2m. Left on E. Perrin 1/2m and then Left on Granville ave 1m. which then becomes Behymer road 5m. Left on Fowler 3/4m and right on International 1m. Left on Armstrong 1.5 m up to copper 1/8 m and right on Armstrong till it dead ends 2.5m(half way point). Back down Armstrong 1m and turn right on Appaloosa which turns into N. Fowler 2m. Copper go right all the way out 5m to Willow ave Right 2m. And go Left on Friant 1m. Go right onto old Friant road and after you pass the Hallowell house 2m enter the Woodward Park trial
on your left and back to the start 6m." So there you go, for a almost traffic free ride in Fresno, Co. Traffic was seriuously lighter than I was expecting
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