Saturday, July 26, 2008

Blueberry Derby

229.4 on the OD; 16.4 miles, and I've officially ridden 101 miles since I started riding again (seems like more, frankly). 95 degrees outside--if I don't lose some of this flab, I am going to give up and start eating chocolate ice cream exclusively.

The blueberry farm is here:


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It's about a 6.5 mile ride from Sebastopol, 1.7 from Forestville, according to my trusty odometer. They have blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and those flavors of ice cream and sorbet. It is a nearly perfect stop on the 16.4-mile bike ride from Sebastopol to Forestville and back (they could provide more chairs and more shade).

The blueberries aren't particularly cheap ($5 for a pint, which I devoured in one sitting), but they are good, and you can see where they came from. (To see where the raspberries came from, go to our back yard.)

Aren't these bike shorts supposed to be comfortable? A somewhat delicate matter: I have . . . issues . . . with getting everything situated properly so it doesn't move inside the shorts in a very uncomfortable manner. I was actually wondering if I was putting them on backwards; i.e. the padding is supposed to go in the FRONT? The only reason I wear them, really, is for the padding in the REAR, though. So I don't know. This is true of all of the bike shorts I've worn.

OK, ROAD BIKERS. When you come up behind someone and overtake them, especially if you are going enough faster than them to startle them, do you simply not have the spare breath to call out "On your left" or something like that? If you can't muster that, how about "pbbt pbbt pbbt"--the sound of wind from an asshole. Otherwise, one of these times, I am going to be startled sufficiently to veer inadvertently (after all "advertently" isn't a word, right?) directly into your path. I realize you want to seem as much like an android and/or Frenchman as possible, and it's hard to make a noise above the sound of your legume-sized testicles rattling about in your calcified scrotum, but c'mon, show some human consideration and maybe someone will watch your dumb-ass sport on television, 'mkay?

I really pushed it (for me at least) today, and maintained continuous speed and sweat (and almost constant high gear) through the entire 16-mile round trip, with no stops on the way out to F'ville, and only a rest at the turnaround (Zen Center), the aforementioned blueberry stop, and one other stop for water and crotch adjustment at Occidental/Gravenstein on the way back. It feels good. It feels like I'm stronger than last time. I like having the leg power, I think that could make the wind ultimately less annoying--though it's a different thing pushing the pedals with two miles to go, from pushing 'em with 15 and two big hills still to go!

My morning blood sugar readings have been great since I started riding again. Predictable, but surprising how immediate and how major the effect is: all readings pre-layoff were in the mid-hundreds. Seven of 12 days since, under a hundred (as low as 76). I think there's a certain "ricochet" effect, where high number s stress me out and cause generally higher numbers, and low numbers tend to be calming.

Yesterday, magnificent Frida Kahlo show at the SF Museum of Modern Art. (Get reservations and) Go!

1 comment:

Terrie said...

I believe you should get two pairs of shorts, then you could put one on each way and protect everything we hold dear.