October 29 Rides

[HillSlugger]

Wow, it was windy!

Woke up to 40 degrees and bright sunlight. Woo hoo! Loaded the bike onto the car and went off to ride. I had a 30 miler in mind. When I stopped to unload the bike I discovered how windy it really was. I immediately dropped my plans for the 30 mile ride with the hill that kicked my butt 6 weeks ago in favor of two 11.5 mile laps. I was beat after only one lap (felt like a 20 mile ride!) and called it quits. I couldn't hold a straight line and was afraid of being blown sideways when there was a car coming by. :(

Hoping for better weather next week!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

The wind in NY state here today was incredible as well- biking would have been impossible in the huge gusts. Also, there was fluffy icy HAIL several times!
We had guests, so we all bundled up really well and went for a 3 mile hike in a beautiful conservation reserve, with pond and hills. The views were wonderful, and the winds and big sky clouds made it more dramatic.
Tomorrow says sunny, in the 50's and not windy....BIKE TIME!

[bcipam]

OK I have to preference this by saying please don't tell my doctor but...

well the weather here in So California has been so gorgeous lately I could not go ride my bike. Yesterday, around noon, while I was eating left over tuna casserole, my buddy Richard called and asked if I wanted to do an easy MTB through Chino Hills. Not wanting to sit on the couch any longer feeling sorry for myself, I agreed. Well, yesterday was not a good day for me. Let's just say riding on a stomach full of tuna casserole is not a good thing. We barely did 8 miles if that.

Today I wanted to do it again. Again another beautoful day. About 75 degrees, warm and sunny. Richard and I (after eating an appropriate breakfast - no tuna!) took off for Aliso/Wood Canyon. The trail was in incredibly good shape. I felt really good and we made it up to Cholla Trail in good time.

Instead of climbing Cholla (which the doctor would really be angry about) we went back down the main trail and found another trail to explore. Wow! What an awesome singetrack! Little bridges over stream crossing, beautiful Oak Woodlands, fun little stair step climbs. I was in heaven. I did know to take it easy and not risk a fall. It was just a nice day to be out cruising on a beautiful trail. Probably only did about 10 miles but I was pooped after. Hopefully in a few months I'll be back to riding like before surgery.

[mtkitchn]

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j264/mtkitchn/cycling003-1.jpg

Palo Verde Century. I met mimitabby's husband Don and JulieB from bikejournal. It was a nice cool morning and I rode about 25 miles with those two before we split up (I planned to do the 50 mile option and they were heading out for the full 100). Around mile 37 I had a blowout through my rear tire's sidewall and I was done. SAG'd back in, ate lunch and came home. Dropped the bike off at the LBS for a tune-up and an Armadillo for the rear (didn't have one on it).
Really windy on the eastbound leg back toward the start point. Hope Raleighdon and JulieB finished well and had a good ride! It was great to meet them!:D
Also met PinkBike before we left but somehow never saw her on the ride!

[Fredwina]

Pam , it's interesting you went to Chino Hills, as I went to The Chino Airport out and back via Ontario Airport. I call it the plane loop. I did go through the City of Chino Hills as well, but didn't get close to the state park. It was a gorgeous day.
Hill Slug, Don't blame you for turning around. I almost did so yesterday when I rounded a couple of Corners in Lytle Creek Canyon and get hit with a 30+ gust.

[Triskeliongirl]

I had a blast today. Our regular club ride was a bit further out of the city than usual to take advantage of the clocks changing. Rode from Kendalia to Blanco Texas, up a road with killer hills called Crabapple Road. It was so pretty I wished I had a camera. Sunny in the 70s, just a georgeous day.

[GLC1968]

We had crazy wind here as well! Yesterday was super windy so we postponed our long ride until today. We headed out with 60F weather at about 10 am for our favorite 60 mile ride.

We got to about mile 15 and we were exhausted already! The wind was EVERYWHERE... and it was extremely difficult maintaining control. The traffic seemed worse than usual as well, so we opted for a shorter 30 mile ride. The bad luck was that we only had the wind at our back for the shortest leg of our ride. It was a beautiful day though and even though we were challenged, it was a great ride. :D

Ending stats: 30.9 miles, 15.5 mph average (surprising...thought it would be MUCH slower)

[BeeLady]

DH and I decided to ride about 15 miles to a small community that was selling turkey dinners for a fund raiser. We were able to find a map on map quest to take a slightly longer, but back route.:rolleyes:

Two miles from the house I told me husband that the wind was BAD, and he said its just a nice breeze. I figured we'd have a head wind for an hour or so til we reached our destination and then it would push us back home, so I went along (DH has never ridden 10 or 20 miles with a severe head wind, I have).

Two hours later we were no where near our destination and DH was having a heck of time keeping up. The wind had increased! And then he gets worried about what if he gets a phone call and has to rush back home? My anxiety level ratchets up.

One rest stop I had combined water/drink from my two bottles into one bottle and when I bent over to pick up my bike spilled half on the ground!

Anyway, we finally make it to our destination. I drink my last water a mile from Meyersville. We have finally turned off onto another road and have the wind to our backs. We make it past the only store on the entire route, started in 1877, which has never been open on a Sunday and wasn't open today either!

I call ahead to make sure there is food left as we are late. I'm told they'll save us two plates. DH says he won't eat, just wants to get home. I get my food and gobble it down, and he finally eats a bit. A local tells us of a better route home (thank goodness it really WAS a better route home!). We head off and I am miserable -- mainly gastric distress.

I had filled my two water bottles up with water and its well water, which I cannot tolerate. Every sip I take almost makes me sick. (Our water out here is softened and I drink only RO water.) Pedaling on a flat rode, easy gear, wind to my back my HR is over 160!!!!! DH is doing great now but he stops and stays with me. Says I should be on an IV by the way I appear to him.

I ask him to flag down a pick-up truck for a ride but he is hesitant. About five miles further we see a truck on a dirt road getting onto our road and heading our direction. We ask for a ride and the young driver, who had been feeding his cattle, nicely helped us load our bikes and gives us a two- or three-mile lift to the highway. :D Only seven miles to go! Only four or five big hills left! Cross wind, no head wind!

We made it home; I did a few stretches, drank some sport drink and rested for an hour till I could shower.

Anyway we made it. Errors were not respecting the wind, underestimating the lenght of the route, spilling out my sports drink and eating too much too fast. Other than that saw some beautiful country, had picture perfect sunny day and in a few years will have a funny story to tell.

When I have time I think I'll drive that route to get the milage. We were on the road over four hours -- maybe I did my first half-century!

[Kalidurga]

I've gotten so into the bike this year that I can tell transitioning to winter is gonna be tough. Today was my first ride in 10 days and I was going into serious withdrawal.

After checking out the new exhibit at the American Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, I drove up to Monkton in Hereford County to do just over 25 milles on the North Central Rail-Trail (http://bikewashington.org/trails/ncr/ncr.htm). From Monkton up past the PA line it's a 2% grade uphill. The last time I rode that grade, it made me crazy to only be able to do 10mph while spinning my guts out on what looks like a perfectly flat trail. Today I intended to control my pace to prevent myself from getting fatigued, so I focused on choosing a gear that would allow a steady, smooth pedal stroke and keep me between 11-13mph. The cross- and headwinds blowing today still left me a bit out of breath, but not as much as if I had been spinning as high a cadence as I usually do.

Coming back down that slight grade was a blast. I shifted up into the big ring, leaned down into the drops, and did a consistent 17-19mph almost the entire way back, which for me is a high speed to maintain. On this part of the ride, I focused more on form and bike handling and really noticed a difference in the way I use the bars now. Back in March, I went from a hybrid with flat bars to a 'cross bike with chicken levers on the flats. For most of this year, I've used the flats and chicken levers a lot, probably because it was such a similar position to the old bike. Now, I'm finding with my new Salsa Poco bars that I feel much more control of the bike on the hoods and in the drops, and less on the flats. I still feel more I get more braking power from the chicken levers, so I'm wondering if next spring I should look for shift/brake levers that are easier to reach.

It's been fun getting more serious about my riding this year. Every single ride is an opportunity to work on improving my form and skills, or to consider more ways to customize my pony. And, I hit 900 miles on the odometer today, which is way more than I expected to do this year. Only a few more rides, and I could easily hit 1000 miles :D

[xeney]

I'm sorry your ride was so rough, Lauren! I've had days like that.

Today we did a 37-mile loop in beautiful weather. It was a little windy but it sure could have been worse. I was a little tired -- I've been exhausted for the last week and I had hoped the ride would perk me up, but it just made me sleepier. Heh. We stopped for lunch, and I stupidly drank some of the Coke my husband bought, even though Coke + exercise = queasy for me.

I made it home fine, and tomorrow I go back to the same dorky ride I've been doing all weekend: around the back yard on my mountain bike! Very exciting, but I just put Speedplay Frogs on it and I'm practicing. It's good practice, too, because there is a lot of mud (so much that a couple of times I haven't been able to unclip), and a lot of obstacles, including the four-legged kind that don't get out of the way when you say shoo, or even when you nudge them with your front tire.

The funniest obstacle, though, is the tennis ball, which one of the four-legged obstacles likes to stick directly under my front wheel, just in case I didn't get the hint the first seven hundred times.

(I look very silly out there, because I go about 2 miles an hour but I do wear a helmet. There are rocks all over my back yard, and I would feel really stupid if I bashed my head in on a rock in my own back yard.)

[tygab]

I did 11 miles as part of a duathlon in the crazy wind also (gusts to 50, yikes). It was quite a challenge. the full description's in the race results board.

[salsabike]

The weatherman LIED. He said it was going to clear up this aft, so we waited till about 10 am and left for our 50-mile north Lake Washington loop. Somewhere around mile 20, we got violently hailed on (and rained on, but that we do regularly). Hail can really sting when it hits, say, your lower lip.

Stopped at a rock/gem show that was right there, so we could put on the rest of the rain gear. Went on. Got a rear flat. Took a long time to fix it. Froze our butts (I forgot to say the wind turned and came blowing from the north--read, Canada and cold wind--about 25-30 knots, and temp was 40-something). Went on. Got another rear flat. Arggh. Froze our butts while we were fixing that too. Got home almost in the dark. On the way home, went to visit our beloved Siamese cat Beeper who's in the critical care animal hospital. Cold, wet, dark out.

Glad we did the ride, though! And got to pet the Beeper. And now really glad to be home, clean, and warm.

Pam!!! Glad you had a good ride.

[Aggie_Ama]

DH and set out to do the 52 mile Castle ride again. At the beginning I realized my sinuses were not going to tolerate a long ride. We consulted the map and decided to ride the 29 mile loop. It was windy and hilly. With my sinus problems and tired body, I felt like it was a lot longer than 29 miles. Came home to a warm shower and flannel pjs. I should have just stayed in. :rolleyes:

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, sounds like all our members all across the country had windy weird tough rides today! :eek:
And Beelady, I got upset stomache while biking too last week, but was alone doing 20 miles and had to keep stopping and sitting on the ground by the side of the road every couple of miles before moving on again.... stomache pain and green around the gills and shaky. thought I'd never make it home, slowly walking up every little hill, but i did, and just had to collapse on the bed to recover for an hour before even taking my shoes off or anything. I know how awful you felt! :( :(

[uk elephant]

Windy around here too. Headed out on a short 16mi loop before BF woke up this morning so we could spend our Sunday puttering around together. Had a granola bar before heading off and had a fry-up to look forward to when I got home. Heading out I was cruizing feeling great, then I turned and headed for home and hit the headwinds. Still did ok and had a very nice ride and a very good breakfast when I got home.

[Crankin]

Well, the 50 mph gusts were just a bit too much for me. I really wanted to ride yesterday, but my last experience in high winds, on my tour in Canada was not pleasant. I don't like being pushed out into the traffic! We also went for a hike. We did 5.5 miles in one of the Acton conservation lands (actually 2, we crossed a road to make the hike longer). There were a couple of tricky stream crossings and it was slippery from Saturday's rain, but it was fun. I took one of my snowshoe poles to help me cross the streams and it really helped. There were 2 ponds on the hike, one with a beautiful overlook and benches to sit on. I am hurting a little bit today!
It's supposed to be 68 tomorrow, so I already brought my cycling gear to school. I will go on a ride right when the students leave and be able to get in at least 15 miles before I have to worry about darkness.
Today, I'm going to the gym. :(

[PinkBike]

we didnt have killer winds at the palo verde nuclear century in southwest phoenix, but enough that our outbound avg speed was 18.5 and our inbound was 14.5. but what a blast DH and i had! sorry mtkitchen about your blowout, but it was great to meet other TEers, really cool. guess i need a TE window sticker now

[bikerchick68]

I rode 18.5 miles on my new Brooks saddle... so far it's like riding a brick :eek: :rolleyes:

we considered going farther but still have the smoke blown in from the fires in Palm Springs so air quality wasn't great... decided to play it safe and keep it short... I figure I'm gonna need these lungs for a few more years...