Dale Trimm's AIDS/LifeCycle Blog

Off we go!!!

Thu, 29 May 2008 15:44:00 PST

Well... It's finally here. It's thursday, my last day of work before the ride. Everyone is asking me "Are you Ready?".. (don't I look ready?) ha! It is sinking in that we are actually doing this again. Ride #3. A big part of me is very excited while another part of me is very anxious about the journey / adventure to Los Angeles. Friday I'll spend the day gathering the last minute things I need to survive for 7 days on the road. I say "survive" like I'm biking into the wilderness. ha! With 2 hot meals and hot showers each day, it's not exactly a survival kind of journey. But I do need to be smart about my biking along the roads, avoid those pot holes and bumps and ditches. :-)

Here's a picture of 3 other people doing the ride with me. I have the pleasure to work with these people and I'm looking forward to seeing them along the route.

Take care and have a great week....

Remember to keep up with the Ride by visiting this link: Experience

Hugs all around!!

Dale

Lucas Valley & Big Rock

Sun, 18 May 2008 16:31:00 PST

What a slacker I've been with my blog this year!! SHAME on me!!! Maybe a nice picture will make up for it???

So after fighting bronchitis and strep throat... this was my first (are you sitting down) 27 mile ride... WHOO HOO!! ha ha... But even thought my lungs were 100% of capacity, My legs were doing great... And it was such a warm day, wow.. it felt awesome outside!!!

Day On The Ride!!!

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:35:00 PST

Well.... I did it!! My first 91 mile ride... Sure Day On The Ride (DOTR) is only 82 miles... but when you ride your bike to the event and back home, it's 91!!! YIPPEE... We had a great day... It was so good to see so many ALCers out riding and getting ready for the big Ride to Los Angeles!

The day started out a tad chilly but quickly warmed up... It was so nice to ride with just regular biking clothes, Jersey, shorts, etc... no warming anything... arm warmers, leg warmers, head warmer... ugh..

It was a tough day none the less.... Had to ride across the bridge, into Sausalito, up and over the Camino Alto Hill... (But I did ride at a nice pace all the way up... Thanks Albie for the laughs and chat as we climbed... Remember... O-re-o.... O-reee o. (think of the flying monkeys on the Wizard of Oz)... Then the towns of Ross, San Anselmo (Rest stop 1), Fairfax.. I call this the trail with a thousand stop signs!! ugh...

Then we make our way up Whites Hill... (at 4mph!) it was HOT HOT HOT.... sweat running down my face into my eyes.. ouch... then the beautiful downhill... ahhhh.. on our way to Cheese Factory for lunch!!

Then we turned around and headed back... Back to Golden Gate Park... 91 miles later and 7hrs 30 minutes later... ugh... Time to eat again... A great spaghetti Dinner!! yummy!!!

More soon... Next week the Wine Country Century!! 100 miles

Dale

Tierra Bella - GREAT Ride

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:05:00 PST

In February we signed up to ride the Tierra Bella ride in Gilroy. It's a fully supported and well organized ride in Gilroy CA. We drove down Friday night so we could be fresh and ready (well as fresh as we get) for the early morning ride out. We choose the 100k (63 miles approx) option. The morning started our very cold and windy! YIKES... did I pack enough clothes to keep me warm? It was very questionable as we're standing at the car getting ready... We did the best we could... let's just say that. Our new friend Steve Rossi (Rider 2547) was able to join us at the the last minute. We all stuck together and off we go... It was a beautiful ride, great scenery everywhere... Click for Pictures The weather turned out much better than forecasted, which was fine by us! There was one spot on the ride where I kept getting slower and slower... I actually stopped to see if something was stuck in my wheel or my brake was stuck on... but no... it was actually an UPHILL!! WEIRD...

If you ever want to do a well supported organized ride, I highly recommend this one... for our 65 mile ride, we had 4 rest stops and 2 extra water and pottie breaks... great signage to make sure we didn't get lost... and GOOD snacks along the way!!

Thanks for reading... Enjoy the pictures!!

Dale

SF to Lagunitas!

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:55:00 PST

It started out as a cold/misty morning.... and then just COLD... But after taking a 4 week break.. it felt good to ride again.... There are only 8 training weekends to go before we head to LA!

Nothing exciting happened... It was just a good ride...

Miles today: 55

Riding time: 4hr 35 mins

Max Speed: 33

Average Speed: 12

Odometer: 3179.4

More tomorrow (Sunday)!

Orinda to San Ramon and back!

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:44:00 PST

Hi... Here's the latest entry for the old blog. Sunday March 2nd, we hopped on BART to go to Orinda to meet Mark T. (or Grizzly Adams as we called him today) for a ride from Orinda through Danville to San Ramon. It was a beautiful day, we started out the first half of the ride on what seemed like a lot of hills. And I think we were right. But we kept going and going... Along the way we got to see a few Ostrich and 1 zebra.. Didn't expect that! But what a nice surprise. Finally made it to the half way point (23 miles) and relaxed for a short while. Back on the bikes we go and man I was going fast! Like 23 mph on average! That was awesome! Flew right past the ostrich and zebra didn't even seem them... but I needed some speed to make me feel better about the first half of this ride.

We left Orinda around 9:40am and got to the half way point around 12:00! You can see I was riding rather slow. So having the 2nd half go by quickly was a needed change. There were a few spots where we took it slow again (5 mph) up a few hills... The last hill was tough! But we did it.. Rode every mile.

Here are the stats for the day:

Total Miles: 49

Riding time: 4hr 9 minutes

Max Speed: 30.6

Average 11.7 (UGH!)

Odometer: 3124.7

Thanks for reading

Faster and Faster!!!!

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:24:00 PST

Still riding!!! This time we drove to Sausalito and parked at Mike's Bikes... Hopped on the bike and did the Tib Loop in reverse again... Kind of a test to see if we've made any progress from the previous week. And we DID!! This Riding faster than the week prior, so that felt good... and our head winds were back!! oiy!

The weather was beautiful just a little chilly in the shade..

Kind of a short blog entry.... hopefully the next one will be longer..

Stats:

Miles today: 28

Riding Time: 2hr 7 min

Max Speed: 28.7

Average Speed: 13

Odometer: 3075.7

On the Road again!

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:55:00 PST

I wanted the rain to stop and it did!! Check out my blog

Dale's Blog

Training Tales... or tails.. ha!

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:57:00 PST

Keeping a blog here:

http://dalealc7.blogspot.com/