Chicks that count weeks

Did you know it's less than 6 weeks until the Amtrak Century?  Everyone has continued to consistently train and should be up to a 50 plus ride on the weekend.   It can be hard to commit to the time it takes to get a good conditioning ride in, but getting the hours on the saddle will really pay off come Century day.  Don't forget to refuel on your rides.  Eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty.

We will keep increasing the distances on the weekend and continue with hill and speed work during the week.   Jessy is getting a little concerned that the older women are going to drop her on the ride.  Being younger and with such an active social life, she can't get in the same kind of training that everyone else seems to be.  She is making plans to keep Pat up the whole night before and get Karen drinking, so they have to ride along with her in case her parents drop her.

It's time to start playing with your food and drink choices for the ride.   What can you eat for breakfast that stays in your system and you can stomach?  Do you prefer water for drinking or do you want an electrolyte replacement?  Remember the club rest stops will have water refills as well as an electrolyte drink.  They will also have plenty of easy to eat carbs plus a full meal at the lunch stop.   You will want to carry a few easy to eat snacks just in case you are delayed beyond normal rest stop time.

I just picked up a new Podium Camelbac water bottle.  The valve on it is wonderful - easy to squeeze, getting plenty of liquid.  Start thinking about the bottles you will carry and shorts and socks you will wear.

See you on the road.

Chicks in training

Lots of great summer rides.  We've continued to ride Monday and Wednesday evening and Saturday mornings. Our rides are getting faster and we are no longer afraid of the hills that we know will make us stronger.

Jessy has been joining us on our Monday evening and sometimes weekend rides.   Everyone wants to make sure they get enough saddle time for the Century in September. 

Although we tend to follow the same routes trying to vary, once in a while we do a different course and continue to check out the San Canyon trail waiting to see when it might open.  That's OK, we still find our own way around.

Chicks That Ride  has their very first sponsor - "Chicks That..." a t-shirt company owned by Jessy.  Shirts are retail priced at $20.00 and are available to Chicks that ride member's for a discounted price for $15.00 including tax.  T-shirts are white women's styles available in your choice of styles and ink color imprint.Place your order at the next ride.

On Sunday, July 15, Becky, Pat, Chris and Theresa did the Beach Babes Classic ride.  36 miles along the coast starting in Long Beach traveling through Seal Beach to Huntington Beach and back.  It was great to see so many women from all walks of life, all ages and backgrounds, riding all different kinds of bikes.   As we passed others on the out and back route, women would encourage the other riders.   We enjoyed some great fellowship and had a good lunch afterwards in Shoreline Village.  Thanks to Chris for driving us and our bikes to the start.

88 Bikes update

for those of us that attended the Rock 'n Road Diva night which was a fundraiser for 88 bikes, the bike's have arrived.  Check out the update on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.479887855359169.128033.100000138767344&type=1
It was a fun event.  We should plan to participate again this year!

Chicks that plan...

....or maybe we should say Chicks South of the Border. We've started training.  Almost everyone is signed up for the Amtrak Century ride - 100 miles Irvine to San Diego in September.  On Monday we decided we needed a planning meeting.  Since it was our regular Monday ride evening, we rode a little over 4 miles to Irvine Marketplace and decided to meet at "South of the Border" restaurant.  Since it was Happy Hour, we had to take advantage of the special priced margaritas and 1/2 priced appetizers.

We did talk about the Century ride, but we also did some chick bonding discussing moms, jobs and siblings.  There was a lot of laughing.

Theresa's sister, Kathryn came along for the ride, or maybe she was there for the drinks.   It was a musical bike trade around again tonight.

A short trip brought us back to the park.   Hopefully next week Jeri and Stacy will be able to join us. We only got about 8 miles in but we did get some good planning done.

Chicks that train...

Yes, we have begun training for the train.  Pat and Theresa have officially signed up for the Amtrak the second Saturday in September.  Karen, Chris and Becky have committed to riding as well.

This is a Century ride 100 miles from Irvine to San Diego.   We know a little short cut and for those who want an alternate route we can make it 87 miles.  Once we get to San Diego, if you want to add another 15 or so there will be opportunity to do so.

Try to get in 3 rides per week.  Short fast ones during the week and start lengthening weekend ride distances.   Try not to increase more than 20%.   Don't freak out if you miss a workout or don't quite get in enough miles, but get right back on the training schedule if life gets in the way for a couple of sessions. 

The ride to San Diego will take about 7 or 8 hours.   The biggest thing you need to do is get your petunia used to sitting on the bike seat for long hours as well as remembering to relax your shoulders, neck and hands.   We also want to learn to fuel your body.  That long of a ride you will be burning calories and you must continue to take in calories and hydrate.  There will be four well-stocked rest stops on the ride, but on our training weekend rides we need to remember to eat as the rides and mileage increases.

This ride is almost all on streets that are open to cars.  Keep your wits about you and remember you are responsible for yourself and you need to be constantly watching for traffic.   Stay safe, we need you in one piece.

Here is the training schedule.  Even if you don't plan to do the Amtrak, you may want to train along with us.
 

Week Monday Wednesday Weekend 1 12 15 30 June 17, 2012 2 15 12 35 June 21, 2012 3 12 15 40 July 1, 2012 4 15 12 50 July 15, 2012 5 12 15 55 July 22, 2012 6 15 12 60 July 29, 2012 7 12 15 65 August 5, 2012 8 15 12 70 August 12, 2012 9 12 15 75 August 19, 2012 10 15 12 40 August 26, 2012 11 10 10 87 AMTRAK 12 8 5 off

Chicks that ride in silence

The event was held on a normal Wednesday riding night and right next to our normal meeting spot.  So we elected to join the Orange County annual "Ride of Silence".  This was a free event for local area cyclists to meet and do a ride remembering riders that have been killed or injured while riding their bicycling and promote safe driving awareness.

Becky, Chris, Theresa, Pat, and men friends, Steve and Bill all showed up.  We donned black arm bands and rode the short distance to the flag pole at the civic center.   We joined about 120 other cyclists from different clubs in the area.  

The organizer, Pete Van Nuys welcomed everyone and described the ride.  We would be riding single and double file in complete silence for 9.4 miles.   It was important that people use hand signals and take the time to reflect upon riders that aren't as fortunate as us.  Then he "opened" up the mike to participants who may want to share.

Different people came to the Mike and describe why they are riding and perhaps who they are riding for.  One woman was there with her husband and friends and riding to remember her brother who was killed in an cycling accident the previous year.  Everyone in her group had a photo of her brother on the back of their shirt.   Others shared more stories.  One guy came to the Mike and said he rides because of his dad.  His dad inspired him to ride and that the reason he was a professional cyclist today was because of his dad and his love of the sport.   His dad was killed just in this past year while riding to a large event.   He wished he could ride again with his dad, but felt like doing this ride tonight would be like riding with his dad.

Then those of us who had them turned on our tail lights and we slowly moved out of the gathering area toward the San Diego Creek River Trail.   We headed East on Alton where two motorcycle cops joined us and leap frogged from traffic light to traffic light holding the cars so our long line of riders could continue through.  Our speed was about 10 miles per hour and we didn't need to put our foot down for the full 9.4 miles, nor did we speak.  Really, Theresa's husband even bet $20 that there was no way she could do the whole ride without speaking.  It was kind of weird as you would look around at your riding companions and watching the astonished faces of the people we passed on the sidewalks and crosswalks and through the park area.

Some cars were annoyed at first and then in awe at the long line of riders stretching over one and 1/2 miles.  We eventually joined the Barranca river trail back to our starting point.  I think the thing that left an impression on me the most was all the different type of cyclists that met together to do this ride.  There were race clubs, recreation clubs, women's groups, mountain bike clubs, guys on fixes and even the casual bike commuter or two.  All different types already with something in common, coming together for purpose.  It makes you realize how small the world already is.   Plan to join us next year, it will be an event you will remember for a long time.

Chicks riding Dana Point to Camp Pendleton

It was time.....the weather has been great.   We've been working on hills and have built up some distance.  It's such a pretty ride.   Karen last rode it on her knobby tire mountain bike.  We had good intentions of changing out the tires to slicks that day, but the morning of our ride, we found out there was a slight problem.  (ask Karen about it).

 It would be Jeri's first ride on her new road bike an Italian design, Canadian made Cramerati with Shimano Dura Ace.  It's suppose to be a 40 mile ride.   Well. we can figure out a way for Jeri and anyone else to cut it short if need be.

The day started out overcast but we were sure in true Southern California fashion, the sun would soon burn through our June gloom that started in April.  We met about 9:30, so we could not have to be up so early and make the driving trek to Doheny State Park in Dana Point.  Jeri picked up Theresa and Karen and we met Pat and Stacy in the parking lot.   Tires pumped and off we went.

We elected to take the bike route through the neighborhood instead of the more direct route on Camino Real with car traffic.   It was a beautiful ride up and down the hills through gorgeous neighborhoods.  Jeri immediately learned how her new shift levers worked and spent the first five miles of our ride, shifting up and down her rear cogs.  She did a fabulous job, no one would be able to tell that it was her first ride on a road bike.

The cloud cover never did clear and the marine layer was so thick that we wished we had windshield wipers on our sun glasses as we rode along the gently breaking waves along the beach route.  We traveled South paralleling the train track and could wave to the metro riders as they passed by.

Soon we were on Old Highway 1 that was the main car route to San Diego prior to the completion of the 5 fwy.   As we rode through San Clemente old surf town we joined the bike/surfer access trail separated from the freeway.   Watch out for the surfers with their boards running to catch the trail down to the beach.  We joined back up with the highway and rode through San Onofre.  I didn't feel any hairs raise on my arms, but I heard there was some excitement there recently.   We finally came upon the San Onofre campground after a few fairly decent hills.  Jeri decided to take a break and enjoy the scenery as Karen, Pat, Stacy and Theresa headed on to the end.  

It was a fast  ride through the campground and it was great to see so many other road cyclists out getting a work out and enjoying being on the road.   Karen said it was certainly easier than her last attempt at this ride.

We exited the chain link fence at the end of the Campground and again picked up Old Highway one (Pacific Highway) continuing to make our way toward the Marine Base.   As we traveled through the tunnel, you could see the scrapes from tanks that had made their way through previously on their way to maneuvers.  There was a mock marine battle camp set up, that look like it was part of a movie set.  

We finally made it to Las Pulgas road where Stacy shared her cashew-pistachio crunch bits.  Pat described the Amtrak rest stop that would be set up here in September and we began our trip back toward the campground to pick up Jeri.

The heavy mist never really did let up, but we did not overheat.   As we made it back to Doheny State beach we noticed more and more beach goers decided to brave the overcast and enjoy a day at the beach.  Now on to find Wahoos tacos for lunch and plan our next ride.

If you weren't able to make this ride, you missed a great one.  See you on the road!