I haven’t had many chances to go for a good training ride in a while, but Mary and I managed to sneak one in Sunday afternoon, despite growing wind (SW, 15 mph) and threatening clouds. We started at the Bicycle Kitchen, running up I Street into West Sacramento across the harrowing I Street Bridge.  Then we jogged down to West Capitol Avenue for a few miles to the entrance to the bike trail running across the Yolo Causeway.  After four miles on the loud and dusty causeway, three miles on the frontage road and three miles along a mostly separated bike path, we ended up right in downtown Davis.

While there, we cooled off by taking a quick tour of two bike shops and warmed up with some drinks at Peet’s.  When a few drops of rain hit, we decided to head back.  We got to follow a lovely bit of rainbow for the entire ride from the causeway.  Though my cell phone camera didn’t grab the best picture, it’s barely visible arching over the second telephone pole from the left.

And while I’m at it, here’s Mary, just a few feet away from the I-80 traffic:

The dust and noise aside, it was rather fun to get a closer look at what I’m usually passing by at 70 mph – the eucalyptus groves, birds, ponds, and trains.  About halfway across the causeway, we inadvertantly played tag with a flock of birds.  They’d perched on the railing, and when we got too close, they’d fly ahead and perch on another section of railing.  We approach, they move, and on again until they eventually circled around and flew right back to their starting point, perhaps to play with some other biyclists.

Fortunately, the wind that had worked against us heading in was a real boon on the way back, and we made pretty good time for the leisurely ride.  Unfortunately, I caught a particularly nasty flat on West Capitol about a mile from the Tower Bridge.  I had a pump with me, but the schrader-presta valve adapter I had bent the valve stem and I couldn’t remove the adapter, preventing me from inflating or removing the tube.  Stuck on the roadside, we walked the last couple of miles back to the Bike Kitchen, where I clipped the whole valve stem off, replaced the tube, and headed home.

Overall, I felt pretty good; the route to Davis is pretty long, flat, and straight, but it’s a good 15 miles and I handled it rather well. I’ve only got to do this five times a day for seven days in a row…

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Miles/hours this trip:       32/3
Total training miles/hours:  62/5