Laura's Cycling Blog: Back in the Saddle

Hello Blog Friends,

First of all, allow me to express my deepest apologies for not keeping this blog up to date over the past few months. I have been extremely busy with the new house and the job hunt. Blogging and even cycling has taken a distant backseat to all else lately.

But all of that has recently and rapidly changed. MAD and I had to become cyclists again in order to prepare for RAGBRAI, which starts on Sunday, July 19th. Experts say you should have 600 miles of training under your belt (or should I say butt?) before attempting RAGBRAI (a 500-mile weeklong ride across Iowa). MAD and I started training two weeks ago and we have about 120 miles in (oh dear...).

Here are photos from some of our training rides.

Here I am in my 2008 RAGBRAI jersey. Love the water tower and cornfields! I ordered a 2009 RAGBRAI jersey, but it is waiting for me in Iowa.

Here's an action shot (taken while pedaling) of the view from the Guy West Bridge at Sac State (CSU Sacramento). Our favorite 15-mile training ride starts from our house and accesses the American River bike path from the Sac State campus (less than 2 miles from the house). We roll through the campus and cross the bridge and voila! We are on the bike path.

The first day of training, we were lucky enough to encounter a group of 4 cyclists whizzing by. We followed them for many miles at their speed of 18 mph. We didn't draft off them - we just kept up with them. I fear if we did not have them for inspiration, we would have dragged ourselves along at 15 mph.

Here's MAD on her very favorite part of the bike path. It is near Discovery Park. The sun shines down on this section - so beautiful.

Then we exit the bike path in Old Town Sacramento and wend our way through downtown. I have a love-hate attitude towards this part of the ride. I love the charm of Old Town and the cool vibe of downtown Sacramento. And seeing the Capitol building always gives me a thrill. But I hate sharing the road with all those cars. It is very dangerous and unpleasant... Here's a shot of MAD stopped at a downtown traffic signal.

We cruise through downtown (hitting lots of traffic and stop lights), then through midtown, and arrive at MAD's work location on 28th and Q. Then I head east of Folsom Blvd straight home to walk Max the dog. 15 miles in one hour and our training for the day is done!

On the weekends, we try to get in some longer rides. Here's a shot with our favorite riding crew:

Steve, Mark, Dave, Debbie, Jeffrey, and MAD. I am behind the camera, of course. We were stopped for a potty break at William Pond park on the American River bike path

And not long after that break, we were lucky to get another break - Dave had a puncture and took quite a long while to install a new tube. Then he over-inflated the tube and blew it up! No matter, after heckling him a bit for his tire-changing skills, we continued to talk and laugh while he changed his second tube. Mary Ann had us going over a discourse about "bromances" and "dude-vorces."

Here's our happy girl, doing one of her favorite things in the universe - cycling with her pals...