The Road Les Pedaled

Saturday
March 13, 2010

After a long hiatus, the Flamingos, the women's branch of the Florida Freewheelers, started conducting organized rides again.  This is a great group of women who love cycling and want to share their passion with other women of all skill levels and ages.  Today's ride was the renaissance. 

We met at Cady Way Park to embark on our social ride.  Here's the group.


It was a beautiful day.  I invited my fearless friend Candace (a/k/a Low Rider) to come out. 


Candace had just bought a new bike the night before and had some technical difficulties before we got started, but Cindy, the resident mechanical engineer, and Ed saved the day and gave her bike a tweak so we could hit the pavement.

We started out in Baldwin Park on our way to the trail.


We wound our way through Baldwin Park until we got to the Cady Way Trail. 

Sunday
February 28, 2010

Today was the annual Tour de Cure ride, raising money for the American Diabetes Association.  I did this ride last year as well and had a great time.  This year I entered as a part of the Florida Freewheelers team.


The day started off FREEZING!!!  Here's what I wore:
     two pairs of gloves
     ski band around my ears
     two pairs of socks
     two pairs of pants
     three shirts
     one jacket
And I was still FREEZING!!!

Since recuperating from my latest reherniation in November, 30 miles was the longest ride I had done.  Today my goal was to attempt the 61 miles.  Didn't know if I could go the distance, but the plan was to decide at the first SAG stop because the 30-milers split off from that spot.  At the beginning of the ride I hung out with my friend Martin the Fireman.


We sort of hung out at the back of the pack.  I'm still building pace and stamina and Martin hadn't been riding in a long time.  So we were the caboose!  After the first SAG stop, Martin decided not to do the 61 miles, but I was feeling pretty darn good and decided to Just Do It!  After he split off I tagged along with my FFW friends Sharon and Joanne.


We rode together until we got to the SAG stop where the split came where you had to decide if you were planning on 61 or 100 miles.  I knew 100 was way too many miles for me, but Joanne and Sharon decided to Just Do It!  At that point I started to ride with Elizabeth and Ray, two people that I kept encountering on the road that were going about the same pace as me.  The three of us were joined at the hip from that point forward.


Elizabeth and Ray live in Lake Mary, as do I.  The amazing thing is Ray two years ago had quadruple bypass surgery and here he was schlepping along on his heavy mountain bike for 61 miles.  He's amazing!

At one of the SAG stops I became bosom buddies with one of the volunteers.  See if you can figure out why.


Hook 'em Horns!

The funniest thing that happened during the ride was the route took us very close to where my friend Julie lives.  She had previously talked about meeting me at the finish line today, but I told her I had no idea when I would be getting in and there was really no need.  Anyway, I hadn't looked at the route before the ride, or I would have told her just come out when we pass by your house and cheer us on.  As we were riding near her house I heard someone calling my name.  I told Elizabeth, "I just heard my name."  She thought I was hallucinating.  So I convinced myself I was hallucinating.  Then about two miles down the road I see this woman on the side of the street taking pictures of me.  I figured it was just one of the Tour de Cure photographers that are posted around the course.  But it was Julie!!  She had been on a run with her husband and happened to be on the exact street I was on at the exact time I was riding by.  She had been running and screaming my name trying to catch my attention, but obviously I was oblivious.  She then ran back to her house, grabbed her camera, and drove past the riders until she was ahead of me and Elizabeth and Ray on the road.  Here are some of her photos she took (Elizabeth is behind me):







After visiting for a few minutes, we said goodbye to Julie and got back on the road.  The last 20 miles of the ride were really difficult for me.  It was VERY windy and I was tired, but we kept encouraging each other all the way back.  Here are the three of us crossing the finish line.



I had a blast today.  It felt like quite an accomplishment since it had been a long time since I've done a longer ride.  Plus I made two great new friends.  The three of us came, saw and conquered the course, the wind, the cold, and our own physical obstacles.  It was great coming over the final bridge, the final climb, and then racing toward the finish line where there were hundreds of supporters screaming for us and ringing bells and cheering!  It couldn't have been a better day.

Tuesday
February 23, 2010

It was 81 degrees this afternoon and I had so much fun just riding around near my house.  I have access to some pretty great back roads in the middle of nowhere, sort of near the Sanford Airport.  It's always quiet with long stretches of road.


My first stop was to see what was happening at Lake Jessup Park.  I pulled up near the boat ramp to check it out.


And not surprisingly, people had gone fishin'.


Because I started out after work, the sun was low on the horizon and I began to notice that Red and I made some really cool shadows. 


It was the first afternoon in a long time worth appreciating, and I cruised around until after sunset.


 Time to head home after a beautiful day's ride.

Saturday
February 13, 2010

It's funny how pretty much year-round I'm wishing I were in some other climate, yearning for seasons instead of just downright hot and humid every day.  Well, right now I'd pay some cash for some heat and humidity. 

I actually woke up early this morning.  I had decided not to set the alarm so I could get the amount of sleep my body was craving.  If I missed the organized ride, I'd just do a solo from the house.  I leaned over to look at the blue glow of the clock and it told me 4:45.  WHAT???  I normally get up at 5:00 so I guess my body clock was on auto pilot.  Needless to say, I had plenty of time to get to Lake Mills Park for the 8:00 FFW ride.

I've really only been riding once a week since starting back up, which isn't nearly enough, but it's what I can do right now with work schedule, weather, and physical limitations.  The only problem with that is I need to get to a point where I can do 60 miles, and FAST.  Tour de Cure is coming up in two weeks and my longest ride since my re-herniation has been 30 miles.

So two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two heavy-duty shirts, two pairs of gloves, a jacket, and a delicious pre-ride breakfast of Scottish oats, banana, walnuts and raisins later, I loaded up the truck and hit the road.  Remember the Michelin man?  You get the picture.

Upon arrival I was worried nobody else was going to show, but sure enough there were a few cars in the parking lot.  Joanne, friend and ride leader, was there with her husband Ron.  As I pulled up they were in debate over what they were going to do.  They both wanted to go home, but Joanne felt obligated to stay.  So Ron woosied out of the ride, claiming he'd just returned from snow country, and bailed, promising to pick up his wife upon her return.  Also in attendance were fellow Flamingo Elaine and newbie Scott.


As we were all standing there getting ready to go, I contemplated briefly just going out and grabbing a hot drink, but then I remembered the upcoming Tour.  I had driven all the way out to Chuluota, so I was riding.

In a nutshell, it was COLD and WINDY.  Because there were only four of us I had a chance to ride with Joanne and gab so we could catch up, but it was hard to talk because my face was frozen.  You've seen weathermen on TV in the midst of snowstorms and it's so freakin' cold that they can't articulate to report the weather?  That's exactly how I felt.  It sounded like I was slurving my speech.  My lips couldn't make contact to form B's and P's and M's.  Brrrrr!

At our rest stop halfway there were other diehards that braved the conditions to get a ride in.



Unfortunately the hardest of the work was on the way back.  Right before the rest stop I jinxed it by making the comment that it's not so cold anymore...that blood was actually starting to circulate in my feet.  Well, false sense of warmth, thy name is tailwind.  The party was over once we turned around.  Fortunately it was a short 25-miler and the self-dubbed Diehards Under Duress ended up making good time...probably because we were so frozen that the main objective was just finish.

Do you know there's no Starbucks between Lake Mills Park and my house?  All I wanted was HOT beverage on the way home, but I was SOL.  So instead I just plodded home and stood under a hot, hot shower for about 30 minutes until I had blood flowing into my hands and feet.  I know how that sounds being that I'm in Florida and this is probably one of the warmest places in the country, but I'm ready for spring!

Saturday,
February 6, 2010

I keep waiting for the weather conditions to improve for rides, but I can't wait forever!  So this morning I decided to brave the windy conditions and do my first touring ride with the FFW, a 30-miler stopping at Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux during the ride to have some breakfast.  This particular ride starts on the Little Econ Trail, then moves to the road and eventually connects up with the Cady Way Trail, and then off-trail once again to get to the restaurant.

The temperature was in the upper 40s and low 50s, but the WIND was ridiculous!  It was blowing in the 30s and probably had gusts higher than that.  The good thing was that we had most of our headwinds on the way out to B3, so we did most of our hard work at the beginning of the ride.

Here's the crew that turned up to slash through the wind.


I love going to B3.  I meant to take pictures, but once I got there it was all about the food and I totally spaced the pictures.  I had a delicious bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, throwing in there banana, walnuts, and raisins.  A lot of people had B3's famous zucchini bread, which comes highly recommended if you ever drop in.  I also couldn't help myself and bought a pair of B3 cycling socks.  Support your local cycling-related establishments!


The rest of the ride was pleasant and uneventful.  We had a nice tailwind, so we didn't have to work so hard.  The nice thing is my back survived even though I had to push and pull pretty hard to slice through the wind.  That makes me hopeful that I really am finally on the mend and can start looking forward to future events, which better not have this wicked wind!

Sunday
January 24, 2010

For my second comeback ride I decided to do a group ride with my buddy Martha.  She's always so supportive of me every time I have to start over.  She's patient with me when I'm going soooo slow and sacrifices great long rides to do shorter distances so I don't have to ride alone...even though I always tell her that she's welcome to fly on ahead, that if I can handle 350 miles solo on back roads in Georgia, I can certainly make my sluggish way back to my car and get my little self home.  What a sweetheart she is.

Saturday,
January 16, 2010

Well, it's time to get moving.  After a longer-than-usual recuperation period from another back episode, it was time to get back out on the road, time to start to build.  Not only was I waiting until my back was ready, but it's been COLD outside.  We've hit record lows here in Florida and had, for here, a drastic cold spell.

Today is really the first mild day, so I loaded up the bike and accoutrement into the truck and headed over to the Cross Seminole Trail, very close to my house, for my 2010 maiden voyage.

Here are a few looks at one of our lovely local trails:


I typically don't do trail rides too often anymore, but my first ride back was going to be limited mileage and I knew I'd be traveling pretty slowly, so it was a perfect choice of rides, with a couple of exceptions. 

There's one bridge that crosses over 434 which under normal circumstances wouldn't be too big of a deal.  But after a two-month hiatus and my back not having a lot of strength, climbing really shouldn't have been part of my agenda.



By the way, all these pictures were taken with my new Nikon Coolpix camera, a tiny little thing that takes pictures and videos that Steve got me for Christmas.  After shipping back my old digital camera to rid my bags of all possible extra weight on my tour, he knew I needed something different.  Now I have a wee camera to take on all future rides/trips, and that makes me so happy!

Anyway, over that bridge I did go, which was no picnic, but also no biggie.  And I had to cross it again on the way back! 

The other weird part about my ride was as I was on my way back and riding through Winter Springs, I passed through Central Winds Park where the annual Highland Games was going on.  There were thousands of people that were arriving and had parked in a soccer field next to the park and they were ALL walking to the park on the trail.  They were coming at me!  It was really dangerous.  The trail was obliterated by throngs of kilt-wearing tartan-clad revelers.  Seriously, no space whatsoever.  I've never experienced the sensation before, but I imagined this was just what it felt like when cyclists in the Tour de France are climbing and far enough from the finish line where the barricades aren't up and they're just swallowed up by specatators who are having to part like the Red Sea as the cyclists try to climb through.  So instead of getting upset by the intrusion, I just became...you guessed it...Lance (Lancelee?)!  I just planted myself smack dab in the middle of the trail and pedaled.  I can't imagine how strange that must have looked!  Here's this chick on this recumbent plowing through the crowds with her game face on using every last ounce of strength climbing eight miles at a 9% incline after putting 120 miles under her belt and all her spent teammates have dropped off and left her on her own to capture the stage victory.  And she does it!!  AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!

Well, back to reality.  The actual ride statistics were something like 12 flat miles at something like 12 miles per hour and limping home to put my back on ice.  Woo-hoo!  The really great thing about it all is I finally was able to get back on the bike and start anew.  Renaissance!