Because I wanted to photograph the sunrise, I got up this morning earlier than usual.
The air was so cool and clean. I enjoyed it so much.
That feeling stimulated me, so I talked him in to it and after breakfast and other chores we went for a morning ride. That was the usual short ride, but it was much more comfortable than late afternoon.
Mr. WhP hates to get up early in the morning, but I want to ride much earlier next morning.
To shape up our bicycle skills we went to take a Bicycling Class the second time last Saturday. We took the class the first time last year.
This time three teachers who are certified by the county bicycle coalition were working hard to teach us.
We really thank all those teachers, Sara, Michelle and David.
The photo was taken by our bike camera when I had just arrived at the community center.
All the students learned many kinds of important skills this parking lot. The teachers showed us how to do, and we all tried.
We still need to practice some of the skills which we couldn't quite get. But we know how we should do it.
After the drill, we all went to out to the city road to learn the street skills. Dealing with busy traffic while riding made me tense.
Because this was the first experience for me to ride in a group, I got really nervous riding on the street. But at least I could get the feeling a little bit of group riding. It's more fun and felt safer. But I need to adjust myself to go with them.
I've seen this mark on the street many times, but I didn't know what it means before.
The mark is called "Sharow" which means share the road and arrow, showing the safe range from parked cars. The class taught me!
Before taking the class I was heading toward the community center for the class. Slightly out of the mark, because I was afraid of the car door. Next time I will be right.
Yes, we biked all the way from our house to the community center in the city, and came back home. That was thrilling and exciting!
Yesterday we rode the paved path at Sonoma Valley Regional Park.
A year ago we went there to ride the first time, but I couldn't ride through the path. That was sad memory.
I could repaint the memory into a happy memory yesterday.
I was enjoying riding so much though, and I was wondering how come I was so afraid of riding here before.
That was psychological fear dragging me down. And I had not much experience to build up my confidence yet at that time.
And the park definitely has been repaved much smoother since then.
Only one problem I had was the very steep and short up slope at the other end. I got off and walked my bicycle the first time.
But we returned to starting point and I tried again.
I remembered what Mr. WhP said. "Just psychological fear, you can do it." So I turned to smallest gear just before the slope, and screamed to focus myself like, "just pedal, just pedal.."
It worked, I didn't get heart pain or breathing trouble in the middle of the up slope at all. I felt soooooo good!
Although Mr WhP had a little trouble on his bike.
His bike was making noise for a while, and finally he found that the spring popped loose on the brake. Luckily it was easy to stick back on.
While he was working, I found this huge Madrone.
We enjoyed riding, relaxing, and seeing beautiful nature.
We decided and did ride every day for short time Sunset Bike last week except Friday. Because we had a time, we rode last Friday afternoon almost for an hour. But we got really tired, and we needed to recover for days.
Today we did sunset Bike again for a short time. And enjoyed the view also and took some photos.
Mr. Wh.P and gorgeous sky.
It seems this is the right pace for us.
May riding:
May02, 10.74 mi., ave. 9.0 mph, max. 17.4 mph, 1:11:18
May03, 8.05 mi., ave. 8.2 mph, max. 18.5 mph, 0:58:29
May05, 9.10 mi., ave. 8.7 mph, max. 18.4 mph, 1:02:25
May07, 10.45 mi., ave. 8.8 mph, max. 16.8 mph, 1:10:51
May11, 5.83 mi., ave. 8.5 mph, max. 16.3 mph, 0:40:42
May13, 4.00 mi., ave. 8.4 mph, max. 19.1 mph, 0:28:45
May14, 6.70 mi., ave. 7.8 mph, max. 17.7 mph, 0:51:21
May16, 2.23 mi., ave. 8.3 mph, max. 18.2 mph, 0:15:56
May17, 6.90 mi., ave. 9.4 mph, max. 16.8 mph, 0:44:14
May18, 8.50 mi., ave. 9.0 mph, max. 18.3 mph, 0:56:51
May19, 7.90 mi., ave. 8.7 mph, max. 20.3 mph, 0:54:45
May21, 9.10 mi., ave. N/A , max. N/A , 1:08:02
May22, 10.00 mi., ave. 7.6 mph, max. 19.0 mph, 1:18:36
May28, 5.50 mi., ave. 8.9 mph, max. 15.6 mph, 0:37:02
May31, 8.50 mi., ave. 8.2 mph, max. 17.0 mph, 1:02:25
May Monthly Total: 113.50 miles, 13 hours 21 minutes 42
It has been so hot in daytime. We decided to bike between 8 pm and 9 pm. Because it's still bright enough at 8 pm. And it's kind of fun riding with sunlight fading away and the community roads are quite quiet.
Today's sunset sketched a crab in the sky.
The wind was amazingly cool. As if the hot temperature a few hours ago was untrue.
