A Discombobulated Ride. And Ice Cream

Yesterday's 60 mile ride was, well, how shall we say, a little odd. Not that the ride was odd, but what happened even before we started kind of set the tone for the day.

This was a Seismic Challenge training ride. Deyon, who is a great leader, was in charge, and she and another ride leader took us through the route, exercises and the safety speech. Just as we were finishing, two riders showed up, clearly not ready to ride. They were too late to be "official," but that didn't stop them from getting Deyon to help them change a tire, and basically, get their bikes ready to ride. Now mind you, Seismic Challenge is in just a couple of weeks, and by now, these riders really should know how to change a tire.

Deyon, being who she is, stayed behind to get them ready to ride, despite them not really being officially on the ride due to their tardiness.

The rest of us rode out on the usual route to Fairfax. I'm happy to say that for the first time in weeks, I didn't get lightheaded and a little nauseated on the way up Camino Alto. It only proves that my head was ruling my sweat glands and stomach. We rode up at a pretty good pace and got to Fairfax and headed to Fat Angel for a bathroom and muffin break.

At Fairfax, Mary, another TRL reported that one of the tardy riders had almost crashed, and she wasn't sure if he was going to continue, and she was going to go back to see what was going on.

Turns out they didn't continue, but this was only part of the story. The troubled rider was riding very erratically, almost crashed, and on top of it all, he had a radio strapped to his handlebars and had it on. All very big no-nos for an official ride, and pretty much a no-no in general, particularly for a guy who is not a very good rider.

Deyon finally caught up to us and we continued on to Nicasio. White's Hill had its usual difficulties. We did make one stop to rest our behinds but got up it at a pretty good clip. We sailed down the other side hitting a top speed just over 40 mph. We do fly down those hills! I really dreaded climbing Nicasio Valley Road, but that, too was more mind than matter. It has its moments, but it really wasn't that bad. After a short Portapotty break at Rancho Nicasio, we headed to Pt. Reyes Station.

With the Underachiever Rider no longer with us, this leg of the ride was pretty good. We all got to Pt. Reyes at around the same time and had a nice lunch under some trees. We climbed back on the bikes to head back.

Temperatures had climbed significantly during the ride, so I did get a little concerned. I tend not to sweat very much and I can get really overheated, but many of my sweat glands seemed to be cooperating and did okay.

The route back takes us through Samuel Taylor Park, and the entrance is easy to miss, as is the turn to head to the park. If you go straight, you end up at Stinson Beach. Which is exactly what one rider, Dinesh, did. This caused Deyon more angst and kept her on her IPhone more than she would have liked. But she did get hold of Dinesh and he figured out how to get back to Sausalito.

I don't know the Stinson route, but one thing Dinesh missed was Olema Hill. Not a steep climb but a very loooong one. It did seem to go on forever and when we finally finished it, we got to do some coasting, which felt great.

When we got to Fairfax, Jerry and I both had sore bottoms and decided we needed a break. There's a little ice cream shop that makes a handful of flavors and they had two of my favorites-- coffee and rum raisin. It brought back some very old memories of my days in Helena, Montana. When they first started carrying Haagen Daz it was a big deal, and I'd buy two containers-- one coffee, one rum raising and would manage to finish them both in a matter of days. Fortunately I didn't do that too often.

We sat on a bench and I ate my coffee and rum raisin and Jerry had a dish of cookies and cream. Other riders went ahead because they were going to stop at Peets.

Ice cream finished, we got back on the tandem and headed back. The last climb, Camino Alto was more uncomfortable than difficult. Once again, I'm having saddle issues. I had hoped the Selle San Marino was the answer, but I think I'm going to go back to the Specialized Jett.

When we got back, we saw on the sign out sheet that Dinesh had returned, along with a couple of other riders. I'm sure Deyon was relieved to see Dinesh's signature on the sheet when she returned as well.

At home I took a tepid shower, then hit the quads with a roller to try to break up the lactic acid. I really felt my quads working on this ride.

Jerry whipped up a large pot of beans and rice with some chicken sausage tossed in. A good after ride recovery meal, I think, though it's an area I want to do more research in.

Next week is a very short ride and I'm kind of looking forward to fewer miles.