Napa Valley Vine Trail

Finally I found the trail on which we don't need to worry about speedy cars too much for our bicycling; we drove up to Napa yesterday.   When we left our home, the temperature was going up higher and higher.  But the trail riding was quite comfortable with pretty strong wind blowing.

We started biking from Park and Ride at Redwood Ave, the vine trail is just over there.

 We started riding here towards Yountville.

The Napa Valley Vine Trail from here to Yountville has interesting parts.
Nice straight part.

  
Curvy and bumpy part.

Quite a narrow bridge for me, but it was OK yesterday because no opposite direction cyclist came.)

Double bridge, we love them.

Beautiful single bridge.

But the trail was cut by local roads here and there, so you have to watch out. Luckily an experienced looking cyclist came after us, and we could just follow him at the first crossing road.

Gradually we got used to it.

There is a long crossing.

 There is a nice bench and an outhouse.  "Honey! I need to stop here!"

 This is the Yountville fire station.  Our goal will come soon.

Yes, we reached it.  There is a parking lot. 

 And we U-turned to go back.  (Next time we will figure out how to go farther to get some yummy food. )

 Two cyclists passed us, so I enjoyed following for a while.  They were fast.

 We haven't ridden more than 10 miles for a long time, so we were pleased.


Next day today we noticed our fatigue in the morning.  We will take it easy tomorrow.  And will have another fun ride soon.

Always could learn something

We got a sunny beautiful Christmas Eve morning, so we went riding bicycles.  The sunlight was warm, but the air was freezing cold so much that my ears started hurting.  I went back home to put a crochet hat under my helmet.

The hat covered my ears nicely for a while, then my body was getting hotter and hotter.  Finally I had to take off the hat and the vest too.  Too cold I can't ride,  and  too hot I can't ride either.

The other day when I played our bike ride recording, I noticed that my right foot pointed out strangely while I was riding.  So I tried putting my right food straight, and my right knee inward which helps very well to keep my right foot straight.  Then I realized that way I could ride up slope easier and straight almost.
Then I wondered maybe that bad habit was the reason I couldn't start faster, because I couldn't go ahead smoothly by waving sideways too much wasting the power.

When I tried to position my right foot inward slightly to start pedaling, I could start much faster than before.

That just a small wrongness affects so much is very amazing.  A bad habit shouldn't be ignored so easily, and it's better to fix or adjust as much as possible.

Then we could ride more than 10 miles today!

Bicycling on park trails and bike lanes

The climax of this trip was riding on trails in Corvallis.  Because my sister-in law and her husband are experienced cyclists and living there.  

She led us kindly and carefully so that I enjoyed riding very much without worrying about anything!  Big thanks to my Sis!!

We rode through on a trail in Willamette park, Crystal Lake Sports  Area, on bike lanes, and sidewalks to Avery Park.  When my Sis asked if we want to ride more or return, we had already ridden 5 miles, so we U-turned.

The air was clean and moist, which was very comfortable for me.  Along the freeway bike path was great.  Even bike lane riding was comfortable. 

During the short visit to Corvallis we had quite a bit of rain, but luckily we could ride some.  We hope to go back in the future and ride more in Corvallis.

Bicycling Class the 2nd

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!

After admitting who I was ...

Because pushing myself never worked well any more.  I just accepted who I was.  I'm old, not 40s, not even 50s.
Just quit pushing myself.

Since Mr. Whp. complains about his front thigh pain, we both started riding very slow.  And for up slope, I used very low gear which I've never used before.  I couldn't use it before, but I can nowadays.  So it worked very well for saving my energy.

When I came back and checked my record, I was so surprised.  Average Speed was slower than before of course, but I could ride over 10 miles without any pain and fatigue!

What a surprise!! 

OK.  The key is:  I should know who I am.

Enjoyed riding side by side

It's getting hot again, better to go for a ride right away!

It was not hot yet at beginning so we rode at a comfortable speed for a while.  What a big pleasure to ride side by side with my husband through our neighborhood which I wished long time ago!  As soon as I see/hear a vehicle coming I can move to the right freely now so I don't need to worry about anything nowadays.

Since we started with comfortable speed for a while, we didn't get too tired.  That's good, and even average speed was not lowered either!

But after I finished riding my body started hurting here and there, so I did some stretching which calmed down the pain.
 

After long rain feels so good!

Finally we could ride under the sunlight today.  Everybody's garden looked so beautiful with healthy trees and flowers.

Further view was great too.

I still need to get used to the folding bike.  But at least I found 6th gear  is quite comfortable to use.  I just need to train my legs to keep up on any up slopes around here.

At least I could ride over 10 miles on the folding bike.  ... nothing is good and comfortable as my lovely NovJ.
 

Sunny after rain, hail & rainbow

Yesterday we got quite a good amount of rain, then loud thunder, then hail, and we saw an amazingly thick rainbow over our garden fence.  Believed it might have been a good sign!

The hail

and the rainbow. 

Would you like to sing?  Somewhere over the rainbow



Today it was a sunny day so that mini rose came back to bloom happily.

And we had a good ride happily too!

I felt like lifting up my saddle more, so did.  And practiced stopping and starting again with the new height so that I wouldn't fall accidentally.  It took some time to get used to it, but I finally could do well.

Including two kinds of practice

When I remembered yesterday's trip, I was scared about my unstable starts on a steep bridge, and a steep intersection.  Also my slow speed turning at the intersection even though finally I succeeded to get in the shared left turn lane, because the signal changed to yellow just before I got to the bike lane on the other side.

So I practiced starting on slopes, and crossing intersection over and over.  I counted 5 seconds.

At the beginning we were both tired, especially our legs, but after 6 miles riding our feeling got better.  So we could ride 10 miles, that made us feel good.

 

We hit slump.

We need to find the way to ride not to get tired too much. I can't get faster, or ride longer any more.  
 
When you are young, practice will bring a result that you are getting stronger, better, faster.. etc.  I can't see such a wonderful result any more.  Recently the more practice, the more getting tired, slower, and easier to get pain for me.
Maybe because I'm having a harder time to sleep.  I wonder ....

Anyway we rode at least on our community roads to keep up with yesterday.  Sep. 30th.

At least  the temperature got much more comfortable nowadays.  And it was fun to use my homemade rear seat trunk, no pouch around my waist was very comfortable!

So I decided to make his rear seat trunk too.  Fortunately we have an ice chest with a color just right for his bicycle.  
Voila!

He is happy with that.
So we had a good ride together today.

We were going to ride just 5 miles, but we noticed that we were fine if we pedal slowly.
 

Riding with small number on rear

Folding bike has smaller wheels so that the weight is closer to the ground.  That makes handling easier, I found.  If I balanced well, ...

After practiced riding our garden trail, I got a little better for balance.  So the riding the folding bike this morning was easier than ever.  I purposely pedaled with small number on rear wheel.  That's very comfortable riding, and we both liked it. 

We don't care about speed any more.  We want to ride comfortably and not getting too much fatigue afterwards.  Physically we seemed not to fit road bike, trail riding will fit us nowadays.  Especially me.
We did cool down at the end, and did TV stretch.

I was so anxious to try riding in our garden again that I did it this afternoon.  I was OK on the east side, but when I tried the new part with big round tiles, I lost balance and fell....  This time both my feet and legs couldn't move flexibly to support my body.
I shouldn't have pushed myself to ride after 10 miles long road ride. I just didn't realize it.  

This is yummy, just pour coconut milk on the top of ice cream.

 I hope this heat will not come back any more.

Made a plan for trip, but ...

Found the easiest way to go grocery shopping.  If we can do it, I will feel more useful.  But... felt tired to try riding a road without bike lane and some traffic.

A comfortable easy morning ride.

In addition I tried our garden bike in the afternoon.  And I succeeded in riding through, only once out of 10 times.  Afterwards I watched the video to study.
If I don't swing the handle too much, and pedal more strongly not depending on arms so much, I might be able to succeed more in the future.  Which means if I don't get too nervous in my arms and legs, I will do better. It is always the same trouble I have! agrrr...

65F was very comfortable!

Another chance we got today.  It was nice and cool with breeze this morning.
Pulled out our folding bike to try, because I haven't ridden it for a while now.  That was much more comfortable to ride than before, because my body learned a lot.

As I wrote before that we purchased a new replacement for the seat of this folding bike, because it was uncomfortably hard for my butt. And I was happy at that time.

Today I noticed the seat was too thick and in the way for pedaling.  

And surprisingly the cushion didn't absorb the shock of hitting bumps.  So I asked him to change the seat back to the original. 

I've just ridden on it for a while- about .4 mile, I was much happier which I couldn't feel long time ago.  
I'm looking for the next ride on this folding bike.  Because Mr. Whp fixed the handle post too which was crooked a little bit and I didn't care about before, but do now.

And I'm getting annoyed about my lovely regular bike HANDLE which is curving around in front of me.  I liked it before, but now it's in the way and feel heavy and clumsy.  If I'm just relaxed and take time to enjoy some scenery, it will be just fun and graceful.
And when I climb steeper slopes, I can be secure with this lovely bike not folding bike.  Because the folding bike doesn't have a front gear choice.  

So I'm thinking that I should train my body to be able to climb a much steeper slope with that folding bike someday.  I'm not sure if I can though.

Distance:  9.7 miles + .4 miles (with the original seat)= 10.1 miles




 

The whole sky was covered by mackerel clouds!

That was a good sign?!  I wondered when I got up and saw the sky in this morning.  Yes, it turned out to be a merciful gift for us.  We had such a nice cool morning that we could ride a few hours later.
Clouds were starting to bloom out a little bit. 

I was humming away while riding.  People with their dogs seemed happy and cheerful this morning.

So were those geese.

Finally we could ride over 10 miles, but we got tired suddenly, so we stopped.

Time, Distance, and Average&Max Speeds.

Yes, I remembered that we got into a main road and sprinted for a few minutes.  That sprint was a necessity to finish before the cars came.  Watmaugh road is always scary! 

Wasn't the best condition, anyway rode.

Somehow I got this weird symptom,  right side of my head skin is very sensitive and untouchable literally, and also right side of my head hurts when I swing or shake sometimes.  Last night the back of my right eye felt weird and hurt.  I guessed that I just got tired.

Last night I had a hard time to get sleep.  My shoulders, back, and legs were hurting.  And my neck got really stiff with tonsil pain.

This morning the most of symptoms had gone, except head and tonsil, but a little bit calmer than yesterday.
So we rode.  We both know that 10 miles is just right distance for us, so no more than that we thought.

When bike computer show the distance 9.45 miles, we started cool down riding.  It seemed good for us.
 


 

Saddle down and just fine!

Practiced to stop and to restart again.  Also tried to tilt bicycle to stand on one foot.  My left foot could stand, but right foot was weak and useless.  Seems the saddle was too high for me to come down and land on one foot sometimes.  So with the saddle height changed down to 3.5'' it seemed much better than before.  Physically comfortable is very important too, I thought.

I really felt the necessity of walking and exercising for feet strengthening, butt moving flexibly and quickly--maybe abdominal muscle strengthening.

At beginning I was tired but kept riding, then after adjusting the saddle down and riding a couple of miles I felt much better.

Time, distance, average speed, and max speed.
 

The body hasn't gotten it yet.

Today I was going to ride 12 miles or 15 miles.  And tried pedaling steady on the long slope.

I thought I got it very well.  Stop and restart with lifted up saddle.  I was fine until ....

After continuously pedaling steady on the long slope a couple of times, I came to the top and I was going to stop for drinking water.  But I was tired more than I thought, then my right foot, which supposed be down and hold me up, didn't do its job, and both my legs were hanging down, of course neither of them could reach the ground, so I fell, but I didn't want to bash my right upper arm, so I used my right elbow to support, which was totally no good.  Anyway I checked my elbow, but the skin was just lightly scraped.  So I kept riding until it started hurting.

At home I was icing my right elbow on and off.  Now it's OK.  The swelling was reduced to almost nothing. 
I need to go to bed soon.  Hope I will be OK tomorrow morning.

As I always think that any accidents must be a voice from the sky, so I should think about it.  

 Time, Distance, average speed, and max speed.

Not only bicycling but also gardening!??

Yesterday I was still tired in the morning.  So we didn't ride at all, but Mr. WhP was cleaning and lubricating chains and parts of our bicycles, and Mrs. WhP did some kitchen chores and crepe myrtle tree trimming.
We found a good movie and enjoyed it very much.   He was so cute! 

Well, next morning which is today.  My shoulder and neck were very stiff, and my right heel got pain!!  I know why, because of too much looking up for tree trimming and a little bit using a hoe in our garden.

I figured out that any activity make my body hurts by my age, so just deal with it.

I tried cycling 10 miles with the same cadence whether flat or slope.  Oh, I lifted up my saddle to 4 inches, and that was the best so far.
Drank a glass of juice immediately when I got home.  And had easy lunch immediately, yes! these are TV dinners.  

And we had this simple Dessert each. Canned yellow peach and yogurt.

So we feel quite good now.

Rode 10.66 miles in an hour and 8 minutes.  average 9.3 mph, and max 17.8 mph.