Me & Aimee..... No Gina Ride :-(

Gina sat out again, family medical problems again. Aimee and I set out for a ride to Imperial and the coast. Got in a good 42 miles with a 16.5 average. Man has it gotten windy or what? Last couple of weeks heading into the wind near the coat has been vicious! I even let Aimee take a pull at the front for about a mile and a half. Hey it was tough! :-P

http://app.strava.com/activities/159266996

SART 6/14/14

56.5 miles on SART. We had planned 60 but some stupid girl in the parking lot wasted our time as we suited up for the ride. We are just about ready to leave when Gina says she hears somebody screaming. So we listen for a bit then we see this girl running down the corridor of the little strip mall where we started on Imperial (lot behind In-N-Out near the river). She runs our way screaming her head off so Gina asks if she's OK. She is screaming hysterical but Gina finally calms her down. I thought she might have gotten robbed while working one of the small shops. But turns out she is having a fight with her boyfriend. He then walks up mumbling something but Gina is worried that maybe he was beating her. So I asked her if he had hit her and she said no. So he tries to walk up and I tell him get away, go stand over there away from us. Girl finally calms down enough to ask for a phone to call her mother, this girl is about 21. Sure, I give her my phone but all of a sudden, she can't remember anybody's pone number. So she changes her mind and asks if Gina could just walk her to her car, if she can just sit there for a minute, she will be OK. She had just ditched her car in the middle of a drive lane in the small strip mall. So all this takes about 20 minutes, the time time the dude is just standing off in the distance saying, "I didn't touch her!".

So Gina walks her to her car then she begins to leave so we mount our bikes. Just as we are getting to ride off, the stupid girl drives right  up to the dude, rolls down her window about 6 inches and starts yelling at the guy. WTF! So he starts shouting back then she drives up 5 feet slams on her brakes, starts shouting more, then repeats the cycle. Gina says it looks like he is bothering her again. Are you serious? She was clear and free to leave in her car, she chose to sit there and play games, quit wasting my time! Stupid girl!

So we left after our scheduled time which included Green River. So now pressed for time we turned around at Gypsum Cyn in order to meet Mark and Gail at the scheduled time. Once there Ron and Dixie rolled up on their tandem. They joined us for a short section of the trail then headed off on their own. We continued to the coast with Mark and Gail. Of course we hit the presidential detour which of course was not properly marked at the end of the detour so we got in a couple extra miles looking for a way to cross the riverbed. How much can you really expect from this president though ha ha!

At Edna Park we ran into Rick. Hadn't seen him much lately. Turns out he had some of the evil C and has been doing treatments. Hate to hear that but we wish him a complete recovery!

                                          Video includes Mark & Gail, Ron & Dixie

First few seconds crack me up! Gina points something out on the road so I watched over and over and over again. I could not see what she was pointing out so I asked her. She said she was giving a peace sign to the recorder. Oh OK ha ha! Funny cause a few seconds later Jose looks back like WTF did I miss something?! Ha ha ha ha!

After the ride, Mark and Gail treated Gina and I to a burger. Of course they offered more at the burger cafe joint near Gypsum but we are cheeseburger special type people. I had never eaten there before but they were darn good. Fries were good too and reasonable prices for the combo. Thanks Mark and Gail! :-)



                                             The cycling hubby and wife portrait ha ha!

                                                              Rick the Stranger! :-P

                                        Oh my gosh! Gina is eating something on a ride! :-O

                                                                       Smiling Alex

                                                                  Happy Jose?!

                                                   Mark and Gail riding with us today!

                                                                         Hi Mark!

                                  Gina wears my BA jersey for me at times. This 2XL is like
                        6 sizes too small for me so I have to beg her to wear it just so I can see it!

Euclid Avenue (MTB Up the Center)

Got in a short little ride today up the center of Euclid Ave. Crossed 13th to Euclid got about a mile flat warm up then headed up the center in the dirt. Just trying to get in some riding. Got in 530 ft in the 3 mile somewhat of a climb ride. 3-4% most of the way but it does kick up at the very top. I did see an 8% and 10% reading for a short time on the Garmin but I don't see the 10% on the Strava readouts. Either way my lungs felt it  ha ha! Garmin says average temp was 89 so it was warm. Not so sure I felt the heat much though. Not to mention I pumped iron the last couple of days and man does that zap your energy! But I am determined to get back into some kind of shape!

I did capture a little reminder in my video of why I don't care to take Gina out on the roads much anymore.  On the way down I see a car crossing Euclid at my left, she stops for a brief second then continues through my Southbound section of the divided avenue. As I approached I made eye contact with her so I thought she saw me but she took off anyway. She waved and somewhat apologized but I just had to shake my head. I didn't really give the finger as I stated with captions in the video :-P

But this is a reminder of why I keep Gina of the roads as much as possible. It's one thing to see these things and pick up on them but I have seen too many riders concentrating on their downhill speeds, records, and pace to see these things coming. A few have gotten hit and they swear it's unavoidable. I see it differently but I also know Gina will go into a deep concentration and miss these things so I keep her off as much as possible for her own protection. I don't take it as "mean drivers trying to hurt cyclists". I believe it's more that there are too many crappy careless drivers as well as cyclists. I admit Gina can be careless and this is the reason I keep her to a minimum as far as road riding.

So in short, I was on the paved road for maybe 5 miles today and this happens. Keep your eyes open and be careful out there. And don't be to proud to admit that all of us cyclists can never be too cautious or critical of our road skills.

SART Sunday 6/1/14

41 miles with Gina, 15.4 average. Not bad considering Gina got lost on the detour. OK, how does one get lost riding 5 feet behind ME, Gina did it ha ha ha! Also I had a migraine yesterday so today I was feeling too happy so anytime Gina needed to slow the pace a bit, I was more than willing he he he! Oh I Hate migraines!  Complete stories in the near future and a short video, maybe on the video, not much footage.

Well a few weeks back we brought you a picture of Alan giving his speech to Gina on the importance of nasal strips. This weekend, we brought you his wife Tammy giving her speech on the importance of disengaging from the pedals before one stops on the bike. Or even making an "attempt" to disengage before stopping ha ha ha! Strange things happen, story later but she's OK. It was a ZERO MPH fall, or roll, or whatever it was ha ha! We can laugh cause she's OK.

OK, so I had second thoughts about posting this story or video but you know what, let's do it! I get tired of playing Mr. Nice guy so here is the sucky side of a rider ha ha! Tammy has the guts to say what she thought about this guy, so hey, I might as well tell the story. So this guy passes us as we regroup at the end of the detour (heading South). No problem, go by, we're having our ride go have yours, enjoy! So we regroup after we courteously move tot he side so the guy can go around as we safely regroup.

So we head on our way and the guy in the blue jersey blows by. Anybody and everybody knows that if someone passes me, I kindly move aside and let them be on their way. I refuse to interfere with another rider's ride, especially uninvited. So the blue jersey takes off like a bat out of hell and we are quickly far behind. So we continue on our way. Maybe a mile later I see the guy has faded and we are gaining ground on him. Like many times while gaining on other riders, we continue our pace but we are still gaining. So we pretty much close a gap of maybe 100 yards since the guy has faded. About 20 yards back I see the guy look back then take off like a bat out of hell again. Still we just ride. This cycle repeats itself and this time, I wonder why the guy keeps looking back at us like he thinks we are racing him, we're not. 

So over a course of 8 miles he fades then shoots off, fades then shoots off, Ummm OK! Obviously the guy is outdoing himself trying to stay ahead of us ha ha! At this point, the three of us are looking at each other like, "what's up with this fool?". Finally the guy can't hold his own anymore so we roll by him on his left in a courteous manner. So now, the dude decides he is going to pedal his ass off to try to keep our pace but he can't. So he fades back a bit but still continues to hold a pace he obviously can't but in the process block Tammy out of her position. He stays on her side and forces her into oncoming traffic.

At this point Tammy gets a bit upset with the guy so she shoots up and sits on my side for a bit and says "Hi Fred."  This was her way of pulling away from the guy dropping him like a hot potato in a manner that says,"I could drop your ass at any time buddy!". So she drifts back to her position as the guy struggles to hold on and recuperate. I look back and see that  the guy is on our wheels. This is where I get attitude. I hate when you are riding around another rider that acts like you're racing and makes it clear they don't want you on their wheel. You let them ride away and they look back like "ha ha you can't hold my wheel". Uhh yeah OK! So once they fade again and you roll by once more, they want to be on your wheel sucking for a second , third, even fifth life.

Well  you know me. I got this guy who thinks he's a bad ass, Mr. Macho that just can't have a couple women pass him decide he needs to take our wheels cause he's not as strong as what he thought ha ha! So I reach back and turn on my rear recorder. Oh sure, that got him off our wheels ha ha! Now all of a sudden he has a second life and now he plans to sprint around us to show just how strong he really is (after fading several times he he he). So now he tries to shoot around us, well it was kind of a weak sprint but I believe that was his intention, to leave us far behind. So we just kicked it up a bit and watched him pedal like nobody's business to try to pull away. He even did that "turn the head slightly to see I am too strong for everybody else" look ha ha! Sorry buddy, we're still here. Pretty sure if we ran you down time after time for 8 miles, we'd run you down pretty much anytime we felt like it ha ha!

So anyway, we were doing a decent pace and Tammy who has been training for the Iron Man in November could have easily dropped you like a hot potato but was wise and stuck to her training plan like any well disciplined athlete.

I guess one of the main reasons why I decided to post this is because of the many times we have had a small group of women that have been, what's the word? Bullied? by male riders. If you see a group of riders passing you and you're like this really really big strong man, please don't force one of the female riders out of their position or it just may be you looking foolish in my next video ha ha!

I will end in saying, there are so many good riders out there but it's those sucky ones, too many sucky ones that make things dangerous for the rest of us. ;-)