I was pretty nervous about being clipped in. Scott put my new pedals on my bike and I put my shoes on. We started next to the truck so that I could hold on to that while I practiced clipping in and out. Scott made a few adjustments and then I felt like I had a pretty good handle on it. It wasn't that hard after all!
So we didn't really have a plan on where we were going to ride. Scott said "do you want to ride to town?" and I said ok.
Here I am right before we left. I'm feeling all "geared up" now. I picked up a cycling jersey last weekend on clearance for $25. (those things are seriously way too expensive, average prices is $75-$100)
So we took off towards town. We stopped at McDonald's when we got there so I could go to the bathroom and then we decided to ride to Livermore.
We were in the last intersection before the hills began where I learned a very valuable lesson. DO NOT use your dominate foot to "unclip" at a light. WHY? Because when the light changes you are trying to pedal with your lame other foot and you MAY fall over. In an intersection. With a car behind you.
DOH!
So embarrassing. Amazingly I didn't hurt myself though (or so I thought) and got up, gathered my water bottle that had fallen off, and we were on our way.
We rode along Midway like we have a couple times. Everything is super dry out there.
We rode along and then over to Altamont Pass Road. The wind started to pick up and we debated on turning around. I'm not going to lie, my motivator to keep going was lunch! I was thinking "but we're so close to Subway" haha. Nevermind it wasn't even 10:00 yet
That's cattle on top of the hill there.
Windmills! Some of those things are pretty noisy!
Eventually we made our way to flat ground and over to Subway. There is this one spot along that route where I can smell donuts EVERY.TIME. It's like torture I tell ya!
We stopped for lunch and I complained that my legs were really starting to hurt. The tops of my legs were super sore. That doesn't usually happen. We hung out for a while longer than we probably usually would to give them some time to relax.
Scott decided he wanted to ride over Tesla Road to get back since it drops us closer to home when we come out of the hills. I was just thinking that I was already tired and we didn't even do the hard part yet.
We were riding towards Tesla Rd and when we got to the intersection I told him my legs were REALLY REALLY hurting. They were like cramping up. We stopped under some trees and I took off my shoes, tried to walk around a bit, tried sitting on the ground. It all hurt.
Scott was thinking and he said maybe I needed to raise my seat up higher since I was now taller from the clips. That would affect the angle that my legs were bending and working. He raised up my seat and after a bit longer I tried it out and it was MUCH better. I had almost no pain in my legs now. Crazy!
We we traveled along some more. The road was getting steep so we took a few breaks along the way. Of course the steeper it gets the hotter it is out. Funny how that works. I'm glad we have two water bottles each now. A few extra squirts for on top of my head and down my back when I'm hot.
Finally we reached the top.
And then it was almost all downhill until we got out of the hills and into the valley.
I may have started doing some measured breathing exercises on the last part of that. My legs had started hurting again and I was just tired.
I'M TIRED!!
We were actually getting pretty close to home when I just stopped in a shady spot to take a break. Scott was up ahead of me but I didn't really care at that point. I figured eventually he'd notice I'd stopped and he did. I sat on a brick wall thing and contemplated thumbing a ride from every truck that went by. I told Scott he could just ride home and come back with the truck for me. He didn't really like that idea. HA!
While we were sitting there the guy that owns the little winery brought out two bottles of water for us (wine would have been better) and told us we looked like we could use some. I thought that was pretty nice!
We sat there for awhile and eventually the thoughts of curing up on the couch with some booze for the rest of the day got me motivated enough to get the rest of the way home.
I laid on the couch for a minute and then tried taking a cold bath to get my legs to calm down. That didn't seem to help much so I just switched to a shower and then lathered myself up in Biofreeze. The pain in my legs went from an 8 (out of 10) to about a 1. Amazing stuff!! I had to put it on a couple more times but my legs aren't feeling too sore today (the next day).
Well except for this spot. That would be from when I fell. I think my seat hit my leg. OUCH!!
I spent a few hours on the couch with dog and cat watching TV.
No dinner was made. Dinner was fetched from the corner store. I did manage to get myself up to go sit on my friend's dock to hang out and watch the sunset.
I drove. Scott rode his bike over later. Show off.
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