Joaquin-Miller Ride

Yesterday we went on a very mild ride into the Oakland Hills that over look the 24 and 13 freeways. It was a beautiful day and we didn't set out until 5 due to the heat.

We also had a few new characters join us on our ride. Kindly, Erica's brother, Brian, came along so that we didn't get lost on this new ride and my new co-worker, Laryssa, also joined. It was nice to ride with a group of new people. Brian is training for triathlon nationals and it was great to have him around to bounce questions off of. At this point any and all tid-bits are useful! He was a very good sport going slow and being patient with us :)

The Joaquin Miller Route is a 30 -40 minute mild up hill climb. It really was quite mild after doing the 3 bears a few weeks before! I think that Brian was worried that if he took us on to difficult of a ride we wouldn't make it all the way! :) But it think that it was a good ride to test out my new bike and use my new clip-less shoes.

But on the way we ran into the goats again and of course to Brian's chagrin we HAD to get off and feed the goats a bit. He also kept telling us that the wired fence was probably electric- even though it appeared to be made of plastic. None of us however believed him until Erica kindly tested the theory by accidently getting shocked while feeding one!

Erica and Laryssa feeding the goats and testing the theory of conductivity

From there we emerged on Skyline which gave us some amazing views of the whole bay area. Too bad it was a bit foggy that day or else we would have been able to see all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Not bad guns huh?! ** On a side note YAY new bike and new shoes!**

So after we got to the top it was a very nice ride down the backside of the mountain. Luckily for me it was a mild ride that day since many a thing went wrong! First on the way up my contact decided to take a little trip around to the back side of my eyeball.. now for those of you who don't know I have really bad eye sight. And if I would have managed to loose my contact I would have not been able to see much on the ride back. Okay, fixed that eventually, but then on the way back going up a minor hill I accidently unclipped my right shoe. Which was not good cause then I couldn't clip back in while going up the hill.... uggg. Luckily I was almost at the top so I sorta had to just scoot up the hill with one foot clipped and the other pushing along. A very sad sight to see indeed. Lastly, you remember how when I was practicing with my shoes and pedals for the first time and I had only fallen once? Well my second time came on this ride. Happily we were on a bikes-only part of the ride so no fear from cars when I fell. Some how my chain became derailed and as I was looking down at it and unclipping my right foot my bike just sorta started a slow descend to the left. I was able to sorta get my left foot unclipped, but not in time and I just fell to the floor. Really more embarrassing than anything else. Erica of course was right there with the video camera to capture it all on film. What great friends I have! Ha!

Well at least all of those calamities are out of the way! Good riddance!

After that the ride finished uneventfully- sadly however somewhere earlier in the week in a moment of total insanity I suggested to Erica that we should run after the bike ride. We tried to go for a 3 mile run- which I just couldn't bring myself to do. Not that I was too tired to do it- I just don't have the drive to run and push myself through the uncomfortable part of running. I need to really work on that- so more running this week. The only way I can get over it is by just forcing myself to do it right? ::sigh:: I STILL hate you running!