Labor Day ride report

[SouthernBelle]

With apologies to all the non-U.S. riders.

Ever have rides that are just fun? Don't entirely know why, they just are??

Mine today. Didn't want to take a long ride, but picked a pleasant route. I missed a planned turn, my mind was somewhere else. So I ended up doing a little more climbing than originally planned. But the route was picked so I could try out a particular descent. It's almost a one-way hill, you either climb it or go down it. Sort of goes to a plateau. I climbed it Saturday, so today was the fun one.

It's about 4 miles long. I didn't ride it hard as it's curvy and blind in spots and I wanted to check road condition, line etc. But even then it was fun.

Good time. 25.39 miles.

[Crankin]

This is the second year we've done a ride on Labor Day. The weekend has been beautiful, but today is a lot warmer than Sunday or Saturday. We (myself, Jean (Newfsmith), Tasha (Tygab), Andrea (Jolt), Deb W. and my friend Janine) met at 9 AM at the airport (it's teeny!) in Stow and did a 28 mile loop through Boxborough, Bolton, Hudson, Sudbury, and back. We stopped at the Grist Mill near Longfellow's Wayside Inn and the Little Red Schoolhouse that is described in the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and had a snack and chatted.
Most of this ride is on country roads, in apple country. There was a short stretch with a lot of broken glass, but there was a pretty wide bike lane here, so we avoided any trouble.
I did an almost 50 mile ride yesterday with about 3100 feet of climbing, so my quads were a bit toasted by the end of today's ride. I didn't feel bad at all about letting everyone pass me on the one bigger climb today! A very pleasant ride for everyone. We are planning to ride again during the last half of October.
No pictures, Jean's camera ran out of batteries :(

Robyn

[Aggie_Ama]

Dh and I got the nutty idea to do a self-supported climbing century today. We set out a little before 8:00 in 83% humidity. The ride started with some rollers taking us out of Liberty Hill. The route got steeper as we went through Oatmeal, TX on the way to Burnet. In Burnet we headed out of town to Park Road 4 and took on a ride we have done before (the Castle Ride). This portion included a mile long decent where my sustained speeds were in the upper 30's to lower 40's. After that you get onto road that is a complete grind, including a long section where 6 mph is fast. After passing back through Burnet we passed through Bertram, Mahomet and onward to Liberty Hill. We had to ride a little circuit around our neighborhood to get the ride to be 100 instead of 98.6!

The 50 mile castle portion (mile 25-75) is over 1,300 feet of climbing when done the way it is suggested, but we came through Oatmeal which is hillier and then took an alternate route to Bertram. Hard to say what how that changed.

DH and I agreed this was nutty and probably only once a year! The self-supported part meant we had to look for potties, didn't get free cookies or fluids. We didn't have anyone running SAG for us either. Both of us are drained but feeling accomplished!

100.02 miles
15.2 mph average

[Grog]

I had volunteered for the Vancouver Triathlon last week. Last night I learned that basically I was going to oversee the whole bike course.

I had a blast though, setting up the course at pre-dawn, driving the volunteers around and then riding the course on my bike four times (same distance as the olympic racers), making sure everything was okay, cheering on riders, attending a light medical case while waiting for an ambulance (dislocated shoulder, we thought), sprinting up the big hill in the middle with all my safety gear on. Not an easy way to do 40 km, but certainly a useful one.

[michelem]

No riding for me today as I forced myself to take a rest day after the last two days of riding. Saturday, 56 relatively flat miles on the American River Trail at an average 16mph speed (yes, I know that is over the 15mph legal limit, but I will blame it on the group) and 27 VERY hilly miles yesterday (2,700 ft of climbing, of which, 2,300 ft of climbing were completed in the first 17 miles). Need to get back to running during the week, so figured that even though I'd much rather take advantage of another day off work with which to be on my bike, I'd better take a day off. :(

[RolliePollie]

No ride for me today :(

Like michelem, forced myself to take a day off. My legs have been complaining a lot on my last few rides. Not sure why...maybe riding too much, maybe the heat. Even though I really, really, really want to go out and ride, I think a rest day will do me good.

[Meg McKilty]

PR on speed today: 40.6 mph!!

I did some of the biggest hills in mass amount today I have done since I began riding 10 months ago. I went to an access road for a nearby lake and the hill grade could not have been less than 20+%. My legs are thoroughly worn out.

Good workout overall since my bike broke down 4.5 weeks ago.
17.13 miles.

[Shiraz]

Yeah,
First ride in many weeks due to my half marathon training. My friend and I road 34 miles at 15-16 mph pace and enjoyed the ride. Our legs felt pretty good after our race on saturday. It felt sooooooooo good to ride. We road to my parents house 17 miles away and had a snack and back home. The roads will get very busy and dangerous with farm trucks halling potatoes and beets soon so we made the best of it. We had almost zero wind and the temperature was in the 70 this morning. Perfect day to ride.

[tab123]

I set a personal distance record on Labor Day - 61 miles and averaging a bit over 16 mph on the rolling hills of SW Michigan. Not too bad for a 44 year old who has not been able to ride this summer as much as she would like (work, family, you know).

I got back into cycling about 2 years ago; I started with a hybrid, then a cross bike (the wider tires made me comfortable), and now have a road bike. Cycling has enabled me to enjoy sports in a way I have not felt since I was a teenage jock.

The ride was great. The last 10 miles were not my proudest moments on a bike but I did it. And then I ate a ton - yet another benefit of cycling!