Cows, Goats and Curbs Oh My
I recently purchased my first bicycle. I am sure I have had bikes in the past but never one as an adult. I have always wanted to be a bike rider, be it road biker or mountain biker. I remember in college Deb was in a biking club and I thought that was so cool, I wanted to do it too. She almost talked me into doing a century ride (100 miles) once but not having a bike made it a little difficult. I remember trying to get a bicycle throughout the years but somehow it just never worked out. In Reno Elliott bought a pretty nice mountain bike and he would ride often sometimes a few days a week with his buddies.
I finally did buy a bike recently. That is because Deb and I are going to ride 50 miles in Solvang on March 8th. Because I have so much time off at work that I am going to lose it this year, I have decided to take a vacation, sad but not very common for me. So I am taking a week off to hang out with Deb near Santa Barbara. Elliott will be in charge of the office. At the end of the week I hope for two things, Elliott is still talking to me, and Deb and I finish the 50 mile ride near the beautiful Southern California coast.
So I finally bought a bike, a mountain bike so that Elliott and I can ride together. Some day we will buy road bikes too but for now the mountain bikes will do. I think one of the most important things preparing for 50 miles is to get used to being in a bike seat for that long, it’s a lot of pressure on a very sensitive area to sit on a hard rubber seat and pedal for hours.
For our first ride we went to ride the Pleasanton Ridge. It was a chance for me to practice using the clip less pedals. This is where you wear a shoe that mechanically snaps into a thing on your pedal so that you can both push and pull on the pedal, all the cool bikers have them so of course I do to. The only drawback is your foot is attached to the pedal, so when you want to stop you have to “un clip” by twisting your foot. You can adjust how tight the clip is, mine are pretty loose. I sat on the bike in the parking lot, Elliott held me steady as I got in and out of the clips a couple of times and off we went.
Unfortunately there is not much of a warm up, it’s out of the parking lot and straight up a hill. We quickly geared down into our littlest gears to get up the hill, having no idea how long it is you try to put your head down and just pedal. I can’t remember exactly what happened but at some point I decided to stop and I think Elliott might have been stopped and looking at me. So I stopped and tipped right over before my feet were free of the pedals. It didn’t hurt physically so much as it did my pride. I dusted myself off and clumsily tried to get back on the bike going uphill which is no easy feat. I finally pointed the bike perpendicular to the hill so I could get some momentum before finishing the hill, which was unfortunately only another 10′, if I had only kept going. The next few hills weren’t as bad and I even followed a little single track section which was a thrill because the section we were riding on was about 6″ wide with the slope going quickly away to the right, it was a rush for me. Then we went through a meadow area and there were 4 cows just hanging out, 1 only feet from the trail. When I told Deb how much this surprised me she laughed and called me a city girl, which I didn’t take offense to, but you don’t see many cows in Reno just hanging out. After the cows we went through a heavily tree’d section and at the end of it we went down this short but steep hill only to shoot right back up, kind of like a U shape and I think I caught air at the end. To our dismay we had followed a section of the trail that dramatically ended and we had to go back.
Elliott didn’t think we could get enough momentum to make it down and back up the U again so we walked that section. He continued through the wooded area of trail and when he got through it he was yelling back at me “ride out, ride out”. I couldn’t rationalize why he asking me to stop, try and get on my bike with the chance of falling over again to go 20 more feet. But from the panic in his voice I did feel like I was in danger so I ran my bike through the trees. At the end I asked what was the matter. He explained that something had “buzzed at him” when he went through the trees. I burst into laughter and exclaimed “ride out, ride out… something buzzed at me”. Elliott’s sensitivity to bugs is very low so he was offended at my finding humor in the situation at which point I believe he got on his bike and continued to ride. We passed by the cows again and I was a little winded and wanted to get off my bike and walk but I decided that the cow that insisted in standing next to the trail looked unpredictable and lord knows what he would do to me. So I stayed on my bike and pedaled by as friendly as I could.
We decided against going off another direction to keep riding and we called our first bike ride a success. We sped down the initial set of hills we had climbed, that is the pay back, the thrill of shooting down a hill is supposed to be worth the agony of grudging up it, I rode my breaks most of the way so my thrill was a little muted. At the bottom Elliott opened the gate. I clipped out and slowed down and finally decided to get off my bike and walk it through. Unfortunately my shoe had clipped back in which I didn’t realize so I tipped right over again… crash, right near the parking lot, again more worried if anyone saw my beginner mistakes.
Our next ride we decided to ride to Walnut Creek and back, 35 miles round trip. This was important to get used to sitting in the seat and pedaling for hours. I think it took us 4 hours total. There is a great regional trail from Pleasanton to Walnut Creek, so off we went to explore the back roads of what we have already explored by car. The trail boasts that it is handicap accessible, so that means no steep grades, so it was just a nice easy, but long ride. We started from our house so we wouldn’t have to drive anywhere put the bikes on the rack etc. We rode our bikes to the gate (which we have already determined I don’t like gates). Elliott clumsily opened it as he maneuvered the gate and his bike at the same time. At the last minute decided to get off my bike instead of ride it through… and you guessed it… I fell over. This time it was a bit different, I realized I was falling over long before the tipping motion had started so for some reason my reaction was to try and stand up and move my body away from where the bike was going. This led to after my bike hitting the ground with my feet attached to it my chest being slammed into the end of my handlebars. I rolled on the ground holding my chest and my calf, both of which were throbbing. After picking my bike up off me Elliott asked if I was ok and I explained, NO, I was not ok. What a way to start a 35 mile ride, not even out of the gate yet. I sat in the dirt awhile waiting for the pain to subside. I did eventually get back on my bike and off we went. Eventually I started to stretch and move as we rode, which Elliott laughed at, but I thought it was possible that I had broken a rib, which he also laughed at. Also what is now a 3″ x 5″ solid rectangular bruise on the inside of my lower leg, below my calf hurt like a mother. Either way off went down the paved path. We saw sporadic walkers, runners and even a guy in a wheel chair propelling himself along down the trail, makes you find your own feats rather small. At one point we saw a guy running with his shirt off that looked like he belonged on a billboard selling vitamins or protein powder and Elliott offered “I need to run more”, I agreed the same for myself.
Somewhere along the way, near San Ramon or Alamo the trail became much more crowded. Runners and bikers, one lady on a horse, kids, old people, everyone was out enjoying the day. We crossed paths with one lady pulling 2 kids in one of those strollers that you trail behind your bike. We didn’t notice her until she continued through a cross walk that was vehemently blinking a red hand but she decided to cross the 4-6 lane road anyway and when the light turned green she yelled no and waved her hands at the cars that were starting to go, she jammed by us, we had stopped and turned around to see what the commotion was and she explained you can’t stop with these things. I couldn’t stop thinking about what kind of mother tows her kids through a intersection knowing the light was going to change. We continued to see her in front of us, and to use an old saying she rode like a bat out of hell, she was nuts, and completely irresponsible, so we kept our distance.
The trail varied as it met other streets. One section bordered a little retail section including a coffee shop. Other areas were more park like. At one point as if the cows hadn’t been enough we saw 2 goats tied to stake on the side of the trail. Not every day you see a goat on a leash.
We made it to Walnut Creek where we rested at one of our fav coffee shops. I enjoyed my current drink of choice a soy white mocha and scarfed down a banana and granola bar I packed. Elliott and I had promised that if we were up to it would ride back. But we had a fallback position of taking the BART back if we our tanks were empty. We agreed we wanted to ride back. The ride back was interesting, seeing many of the same people we had passed on the way out still going, still running, walking, pedaling, and the man in the wheelchair was still going. We guessed at where he lived and where he was going but either way he had propelled himself as far as we had and that seemed amazing to me.
At about 30 miles we were both a little tired, I started to feel tingly needing a real meal, more than a banana and mocha. We did make it, walking a little funny, but with no more falls. We were very proud of 35 miles. We celebrated with a Jamba Juice - our favorite!
Lastly my curbs story. I’ll try to keep this short. In addition to riding our bikes we have also started a training program for a half marathon. The runs are still short 2-4 miles right now. We only missed one so far, actually our first long run, 4 miles is today, and as I look at the gloomy rainy day I wonder how we will make it work, but I know we will. Anyway, we fit our runs in whenever we can, and last week it was at night. We were doing a pace run, so running some sections faster which will help with improve our overall speed. As we were on a fast section I was day dreaming about something, I can’t even remember what now, probably something related to work. We were crossing a street and I ust plain out forgot to pick up my foot to get up on a side walk and I had a major spill. Skinned knees, skinned hip bone, skinned elbows, luckily I didn’t skid my face across the concrete. It happened so fast I didn’t even get my hands out to catch myself, I just slammed into the ground and skidded on whatever body parts landed first. I quickly sat up and then stood up to Elliott’s suggestion ”stay down, stay down”. I think he had his own motives, we were both too tired to be running. But I got up and we kept going. Similar to my bike accidents I could feel everything acutely, from my hands to my knees the burning feeling of skin that I left on the pavement. So basically I am a mess, I have bruises and scrapes from head to toe nearly and I hope that I can live through the rest of my training without many more bruises.