YES!! HELL!!!!
OMG!!! How do I get talked into such NON-SENSE!
Julie called yesterday when it was so BEAUTIFUL outside to see if I'd like to take the bikes out for a ride 'tomorrow'. Saturday. SURE!!! I explained to her that Meme was letting me borrow her bike and this would be an awesome test! FANTASTIC!!! I was READY.
Bill got home and told me, you know, it's suppose to get windy tonight and all day tomorrow.
Of course, with him being the 'weather spotter' expert, I ignored him. GOOD JOB ME!!!
I got up this morning, loaded the bike and off to Julie's I went. Boy, is it windy! I thought to myself. Hum, maybe Julie won't want to go? Oh no, that would have made TOO MUCH SENSE! She's all ready!! She uses her bike pump to pump up our tires and we're OUTTA there!!
Well, first we need to decide which route to take. She said we can either take the 'short' route, 8 miles, or the long route, 15 miles. I 'strategically' asked, which has less traffic? Julie said that the longer one has lighter traffic, 'probably', but the shorter one has a lot of bike traffic. Her reasoning here was that the drivers of the engine powered vehicles 'aka - the SMART PEOPLE', were used to watching for the 'Stupid bikers', aka "US". Thank Goodness! Okay, the SHORT route it was!! Score one for ME!
It's about 8 am and we're heading East from Newhall, to Atkins on a small county highway. I'm in the leading, pedaling and playing with the gears. Wow, THIS IS FUN!!! "How fast are we going?", I holler to Julie in back of me. "2o MPH.", she hollers back!! "Great job!! We're moving right along." She continues, "It looks like a side ways wind, so we won't have to ride into it on the way back!" Followed by "CAR"! She has these cool little mirrors on her bike handles. I on the other hand have a 'voice activated' rear view mirror....I call her "Julie". G She getting a LOT of practice, as she's now hollering it on a regular basis. Finally she states that there must be a soccer game in Atkins and every child under the age of 18 must be playing. GEEZ!!!!
Now, all this car traffic might not bother most people, but I'm on a borrowed bike. It's my first time riding it and I don't even know how the gears work yet! YIKES!! Now we have a semi coming the other way, the best news is that he's NOT going our way!! Good news, as he passes us he blocks the wind (NICE GUY!). Bad news, as he's by us the wind about pushes us the road. CRAP!! Screams of laughter .... Followed by Car, Car, Car....well, you get the idea.
We've plowed through the first 4.5 miles in about 10 minutes and we're ready to turn around. As we turn, the wind hits me straight in the chest and about knocks me over!!! OMG!!! 'JULIE!!! We're going to ride into the wind!!! You LIED TO ME!' She's now ahead of me and laughing. 'What will you do if it's windy the day of the race?', she asks. "I'm NOT GOING!! I'll swim, but I'll slash my own tires if I have too!!" I reply. (Sorry Meme, I'll buy you a new tire!)
To say riding into this 20+ MPH wind was UNPLEASANT is an understatement. The only good thing about heading West was we lost the traffic. Apparently the 50 cars that past us going East carried loving parents that stayed to watch the games, TG!! Now, Meme's bike is lovely! It's a little hybrid type, a cross between a road racer and cross country. It has slightly wider tires, which is really nice for those times you end up in the shoulder. The down side is you also sit more upright and you have a LOT of wind resistance. I might as well have been an 8' wide piece of plywood on top of this bike! OMG!! The only plus side to this is there was NOT a wrinkle on my face, they were all behind my ears!
Julie is ahead of me pedaling away, hunkered down on her little racing bike....did I mention it's ORANGE!!!! I was getting increasingly bitter by the minute. She was pulling away from me and my energy was starting to waver. Actually, I don't think it was strength as much as it was the mental knowledge of how far away I was. I couldn't see over the hill, but I could read the mile marker, which said "31st Street". I also knew that Julie's house was almost on 27th Street, so a little mental calculation told me I had over 3 miles left to go into the wind!!! God I wish I'd flunked MATH and I really wish I had a cell phone!! I could have called a CAB!!!! So, I just kept pedaling (what choice did I have?), and thinking to myself how incredibly 'screwed' I am for this race!! I also thought about John's comedy skit (I think of that a lot!!). Ravioli's and a Nap!
I kept pedaling, knowing that I'm not getting home until I get done, so just GO!!! Suddenly, there's a break in the wind. It's let up!!! What's that smell? HOGS?? I didn't notice it going the other way, but we went by much faster! I look up to the tree tops, my way of checking for wind. It looks windy still, then BLAST!!! I'm past the farm and the wind has kicked in FULL FORCE!! Dang, the farm was on the North side blocking my wind!! How rude of them NOT to follow me the rest of the way back. UGH!!!!
I obviously did finally make it back. Julie said she was about to jump in the truck and come looking for me, but she saw me top the hill. Gee, thanks Julie! Luckily, she's 14 years younger than me, so I can always blame it on my age!! LOL So I get off the bike and grab a bottle of water, which I'd forgotten to take with me. Not that I would have had a chance to drink it! As I'm drinking Julie says, "What I usually do now is run up to the top of the hill and back." I must have had a funny look on my face, because she says, "Um, we don't have to." I tell her, "That's okay, if that's what she usually does, we should do it." JL!!!!!! So, we did. Actually, we just ran up to the top of the hill and walked back. I think she was feeling sorry for me.
I 'think' I'm glad I went. I know I'm glad I have 4 more weeks to get ready.
I can't even imagine just going to this darn thing without any practice ahead of time.
The only thing I'd do differently is start in Atkins and ride into Newhall, then back. I think the ride to Newhall was mostly uphill or shallow inclines, it was tough. I don't think it was 100% wind. I'm sure the tail wind helped with the East ride, but I don't think that was everything.
Bottom line, I survived, Meme's bike survived.
I'll try it again Monday, maybe I get the pedals swamped out for cages by then?
That sure couldn't hurt.
10 am Monday morning....BE THERE!
OMG!!! How do I get talked into such NON-SENSE!
Julie called yesterday when it was so BEAUTIFUL outside to see if I'd like to take the bikes out for a ride 'tomorrow'. Saturday. SURE!!! I explained to her that Meme was letting me borrow her bike and this would be an awesome test! FANTASTIC!!! I was READY.
Bill got home and told me, you know, it's suppose to get windy tonight and all day tomorrow.
Of course, with him being the 'weather spotter' expert, I ignored him. GOOD JOB ME!!!
I got up this morning, loaded the bike and off to Julie's I went. Boy, is it windy! I thought to myself. Hum, maybe Julie won't want to go? Oh no, that would have made TOO MUCH SENSE! She's all ready!! She uses her bike pump to pump up our tires and we're OUTTA there!!
Well, first we need to decide which route to take. She said we can either take the 'short' route, 8 miles, or the long route, 15 miles. I 'strategically' asked, which has less traffic? Julie said that the longer one has lighter traffic, 'probably', but the shorter one has a lot of bike traffic. Her reasoning here was that the drivers of the engine powered vehicles 'aka - the SMART PEOPLE', were used to watching for the 'Stupid bikers', aka "US". Thank Goodness! Okay, the SHORT route it was!! Score one for ME!
It's about 8 am and we're heading East from Newhall, to Atkins on a small county highway. I'm in the leading, pedaling and playing with the gears. Wow, THIS IS FUN!!! "How fast are we going?", I holler to Julie in back of me. "2o MPH.", she hollers back!! "Great job!! We're moving right along." She continues, "It looks like a side ways wind, so we won't have to ride into it on the way back!" Followed by "CAR"! She has these cool little mirrors on her bike handles. I on the other hand have a 'voice activated' rear view mirror....I call her "Julie". G She getting a LOT of practice, as she's now hollering it on a regular basis. Finally she states that there must be a soccer game in Atkins and every child under the age of 18 must be playing. GEEZ!!!!
Now, all this car traffic might not bother most people, but I'm on a borrowed bike. It's my first time riding it and I don't even know how the gears work yet! YIKES!! Now we have a semi coming the other way, the best news is that he's NOT going our way!! Good news, as he passes us he blocks the wind (NICE GUY!). Bad news, as he's by us the wind about pushes us the road. CRAP!! Screams of laughter .... Followed by Car, Car, Car....well, you get the idea.
We've plowed through the first 4.5 miles in about 10 minutes and we're ready to turn around. As we turn, the wind hits me straight in the chest and about knocks me over!!! OMG!!! 'JULIE!!! We're going to ride into the wind!!! You LIED TO ME!' She's now ahead of me and laughing. 'What will you do if it's windy the day of the race?', she asks. "I'm NOT GOING!! I'll swim, but I'll slash my own tires if I have too!!" I reply. (Sorry Meme, I'll buy you a new tire!)
To say riding into this 20+ MPH wind was UNPLEASANT is an understatement. The only good thing about heading West was we lost the traffic. Apparently the 50 cars that past us going East carried loving parents that stayed to watch the games, TG!! Now, Meme's bike is lovely! It's a little hybrid type, a cross between a road racer and cross country. It has slightly wider tires, which is really nice for those times you end up in the shoulder. The down side is you also sit more upright and you have a LOT of wind resistance. I might as well have been an 8' wide piece of plywood on top of this bike! OMG!! The only plus side to this is there was NOT a wrinkle on my face, they were all behind my ears!
Julie is ahead of me pedaling away, hunkered down on her little racing bike....did I mention it's ORANGE!!!! I was getting increasingly bitter by the minute. She was pulling away from me and my energy was starting to waver. Actually, I don't think it was strength as much as it was the mental knowledge of how far away I was. I couldn't see over the hill, but I could read the mile marker, which said "31st Street". I also knew that Julie's house was almost on 27th Street, so a little mental calculation told me I had over 3 miles left to go into the wind!!! God I wish I'd flunked MATH and I really wish I had a cell phone!! I could have called a CAB!!!! So, I just kept pedaling (what choice did I have?), and thinking to myself how incredibly 'screwed' I am for this race!! I also thought about John's comedy skit (I think of that a lot!!). Ravioli's and a Nap!
I kept pedaling, knowing that I'm not getting home until I get done, so just GO!!! Suddenly, there's a break in the wind. It's let up!!! What's that smell? HOGS?? I didn't notice it going the other way, but we went by much faster! I look up to the tree tops, my way of checking for wind. It looks windy still, then BLAST!!! I'm past the farm and the wind has kicked in FULL FORCE!! Dang, the farm was on the North side blocking my wind!! How rude of them NOT to follow me the rest of the way back. UGH!!!!
I obviously did finally make it back. Julie said she was about to jump in the truck and come looking for me, but she saw me top the hill. Gee, thanks Julie! Luckily, she's 14 years younger than me, so I can always blame it on my age!! LOL So I get off the bike and grab a bottle of water, which I'd forgotten to take with me. Not that I would have had a chance to drink it! As I'm drinking Julie says, "What I usually do now is run up to the top of the hill and back." I must have had a funny look on my face, because she says, "Um, we don't have to." I tell her, "That's okay, if that's what she usually does, we should do it." JL!!!!!! So, we did. Actually, we just ran up to the top of the hill and walked back. I think she was feeling sorry for me.
I 'think' I'm glad I went. I know I'm glad I have 4 more weeks to get ready.
I can't even imagine just going to this darn thing without any practice ahead of time.
The only thing I'd do differently is start in Atkins and ride into Newhall, then back. I think the ride to Newhall was mostly uphill or shallow inclines, it was tough. I don't think it was 100% wind. I'm sure the tail wind helped with the East ride, but I don't think that was everything.
Bottom line, I survived, Meme's bike survived.
I'll try it again Monday, maybe I get the pedals swamped out for cages by then?
That sure couldn't hurt.
10 am Monday morning....BE THERE!
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3 comments:
I'm on furlough next week so will be available Monday morning . . . but I'm not coming anywhere near you! Woman with a heart condition, remember! OMG, that sounds insane. Can't you do that part on a pony instead?
You will be brilliant - keep pedaling!!!
If you had the cell phone you could have called the weather spotter to come get you out of the wind. But then you might have heard "I told you so"! And he did!!! You are crazy.
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