Feb 17th Rides

[makbike]

I started the day off with a ride. I decided since I could not sleep (thinking of my dad) I decided I would squeeze a ride in before the rain moved in for the day. I kept my ride short to avoid being caught out in the storms heading my way. I stuck to a route I knew was for the most part flat and where I knew a few people along the way just in case I needed a ride home. I got in 14 miles in just under 53 minutes. According to the radar I made it home just in time for the rain is about 20 miles west of here. I think it is time to curl up on the couch.

[solobiker]

No ride here today, well at lest no ride outside. It is cold, windy, and snowing. Next week it is supposed to be in the 60s. YEA!!

[Crankin]

7.42 cold (37), windy miles to the town center and back on the Coda. We had nothing to really do there and the coffee shop was full of tourists, so we walked up and down Main St. and rode back. Saw tons of riders, despite the gloomy weather, which was OK except for my face being cold. I can't hear with my balaclava, and I thought it was too warm for my neck gaiter. I was wrong.

[sundial]

We're still experiencing crazy, erratic weather patterns so I haven't been riding. Yesterday we had wind, rain, lightning and chance of snow. Today we have wind, rain, wind, some sun, clouds, more wind.......:rolleyes:

[IFjane]

mak - it must be raining at your house now because it has already gotten here. We went out with the same goal - to beat the rain. We managed to get in 27 chilly, hilly miles and the drizzle started just as we got back. Perfect timing! The weather report said it would start around 1 p.m. - we pulled in at 1:03 and it started. Score 1 for the National Weather Service. :rolleyes:

[SouthernBelle]

Yep, the rains hit here early. Plus we are getting some big winds. So I popped the bike on the trainer and popped a Spinervals into the DVD player. It was 20, "The Sprinting Machine" I actually enjoyed doing it. :eek: I continued to spin for a few minutes after it was done so I would have over an hour.

I rewarded myself with some chocolate milk.

[IFjane]

Yep, the rains hit here early. Plus we are getting some big winds. So I popped the bike on the trainer and popped a Spinervals into the DVD player. It was 20, "The Sprinting Machine" I actually enjoyed doing it. :eek: I continued to spin for a few minutes after it was done so I was have over an hour.

I rewarded myself with some chocolate milk.

No wind here yet but the forecast is for it to hit at some point. We didn't have chocolate milk, but we did stop at a country store mid-ride and they made hot chocolate for us (homemade - not out of a machine!). yum.....

[Triskeliongirl]

Finally got out for a decent ride. Started in the 40s and ended in the 70s, and I was overdressed. Oh well, still a great ride, 32 miles with the club, sunny, windy, and very pretty. Its nice to be back in south texas...........

[Ticia]

22 miles today. There was a strange color in the sky today (BLUE):p. It was a beautiful morning up here in Washingtonland.

[Geonz]

Church and back with the weather behaving for me and the little hailstorm waiting 'til I got hojme. I"ll be tooling out tonight for the bike club meeting and hope the winds die down a *little* from their "29 mph, gusts to 41." Or a lot.
Got inspired by Marie over at the women who ride site... she did a purty long stint on ye olde trainer on Valentine's day. I meant to... okay, THIS WEEK I'll get in a long ride, somehow.
http://womenwhoride.typepad.com/marie/2008/02/st-valentines-d.html

[SouthernBelle]

Oddly, it's now sunny and warm here. Really warm. Still got big winds though.

[crazycanuck]

Yesterday afternoon I went on my first short ride along the bike path i normally ride to work/the city.

Ian came with me as he knows how much i want to get out there. Also, i need to reinforce the idea of doing it slowly at first and building up.

The ride felt not bad. I will really need to think about shifting gears etc when i back into the swing of things. I noticed that i still lack quite a bit of power in the right leg but that's why i do the strengthening exercises & pilates..

The only part of my knee that felt a bit odd was the front but otherwise ok.

We'll do another short ride on Wed night :)

[Susan126]

Joe and I got 47 miles in today! We started our ride around 10:00 AM (the outside temperature was 38 degrees!) The first 10 miles were the hardest. I was ready to call it quits. My face was numb and I was freezing. But the sun was out and I swear each minute the temperature must have gone up a degree. But more likely my muscles were producing some massive heat. Finally around the tenth mile I started to feel warm and toasty. The blood was moving! I was sweating! And from there on in I was fine! We rode on back country roads. There was practically zero traffic. And there were magnificient views! I forgot my camera but I did have my cell phone! And so I took a few shots with it. Here are two of the pictures:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d167/Howler247/rainier.jpg
Mount Rainier

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d167/Howler247/joe.jpg
My hubby Joe

We finished our ride around 1:30. On our drive back home we stopped at Starbucks and ordered our usual, a nice hot grande non-fat 2 pump white mocha, 1 pump mocha with whip dirnks! Mmmmmmm they sure hit the spot! :D

[auntiebobo]

22 Miles for me today. Same gorgeous view as Susan but a bit warmer since I started out later. Perfect day for a ride.

On my commute Thursday morning had a beautiful sunrise and saw a coyote! I'm not sure which of us was more startled.

Yesterday's ride (23 miles) was interrupted by a freight train stalled on the tracks so I got to explore some back roads in the area. Quite an adventure.

It's been a great few days for riding in the Seattle area. I'm sure it will start raining again soon, so I'm enjoying every minute of it while I can.

[salsabike]

Three in a row in Seattle, and I'm glad Susan had pics because it was GORGEOUS. 30 mile tandem ride, and boy, were we happy! Lots of folks crawled out of their winter dens, cyclists, walkers, runners, families with little kids. It was a great day for a ride!

[sgtiger]

D'accord! Gorgeous spring-like weather. I rode 15 somewhat hilly miles 'round here. Took it slow and steady 'cause it's been a while (too long!) since I've ridden.

[Eden]

mmmm and warm too - first time for a long time I've been out without tights (just leg warmers). Don't ask me how far we went... I put a new computer on and I just transfered the wheel circumference from my old computer - well they must do it a bit differently cause it's rather off now.... If I remember right its not straight wheel circumference on the old computer, its divided by 2 or something and the new one is the same brand so I figured they'd do it the same, guess not.

We were in the South Center area so we stopped off to check out the new Smart car dealership. They are totally cute and they even have a bike rack that you can mount on the rear - but they don't have the same engine as the ones they sell in Europe. The diesel model over there gets 60mpg I think - the regular gas one here only gets 31 city and 41 hwy, which hardly seems worth it....

[Wahine]

I went out for 25 miles between Hood River and The Dalles. We had beautiful weather, views of Hood and Adams. Fabulous beer and pizza at Double Mountain Brewery. Aaaaaah, it's (false) spring here in The Gorge.:D

[mimitabby]

today i didn't ride much, went to the store twice. 4 miles total. What a gorgeous day!

[jobob]

BikerZ, aka_kim, LeeBob and I rode from our house in Union City across the Dumbarton Bridge and thru lovely East Palo to Palo Alto to watch the ToC prologue.

We parked our bikes at the secure parking area and moseyed around a bit, checking out the vans & busses of the various teams and occasionally spotting a cycling star. :)

Then we stationed ourselves behind the start ramp where we got to see the racers up close & personal. :D BikerZ took some amazing pics - alas she has a social engagement tonight so we won't get to see them until sometime tomorrow.

It was unbelievably cool to see Mario Cippolini. He was very tanned and very fit.

We'll tell you more once we get the photos. :)

We had a fabulous day but it nearly ended very badly for us. As the four of us were riding on University Ave in Palo Alto heading for home, an older woman in a Jaguar made a left hand turn and very nearly mowed into us. It seems as though she never saw us coming and she turned left immediately in front of us. I was leading and had enough time to yell "Hey!" as I hit my brakes as she passed right in front of me. Kim likewise narrowly avoided running into her. But the most spectacular avoidance maneuver was accomplished by BikerZ, who made a 90 degree right turn and wound up parallel to and within inches of the side of the car, and remained upright & in control throughout. Pretty amazing instinctual move on her part! Lee was able to avoid the fracas. It all happened so fast I didn't have time to be terrified and it was soon clear we were all OK - and meanwhile the @#$% jerk in the Jag just continued down the road. :mad: It's just as well that we needed to be on our way, otherwise I think we all might have been more inclined to chase her down and give her a good talking to - and it might not have been pretty. Instead we took a few minutes to collect our wits, and continued on the rest of the way without incident. Major kudos to Z for her quick thinking!

[kelownagirl]

Easy spin on the trainer tonight. Spin ups, high cadence spinning, and one leg drills. Only 30 minutes though.

[shootingstar]

Yes, well only 18 kms....sacrifices for a 3-hr. morning art course. So I rode to and from the course, seriously heavy with paint tubes and other supplies.

Yes, weather was great...but I was too jacked up from my course... the artistic Muse was competing and winning against cycling..

I had to hurry to review some photos to print off..to start something on canvass..

[Xrayted]

We had a beautiful day in Portland. The temps hit around 68F so I finally headed out for a short, leasurely ride. I haven't ridden outside all year so this was a treat. I have been heading down the road to depression for a few weeks, with the unending rain here. (my first winter in PNW, I'm not used to this much rain) I snapped right out of it today and couldn't get the smile off of my face the entire time. My bike computer needs a new battery but I'm thinking I did around 6 miles or so. It's not much but it was enough for today. I had to go much slower than I wanted to because of all the people and pets on the trail, but I believe in sharing and being safe, so all is good. :)

Happy trails to y'all and be safe. :D

[bikerz]

:eek: :eek: What Jo said! That was my closest call ever.

Other than that it was a really fun day - I'd never been to a real bike race before, and I'd never been over the Dunbarton on a bike - it's pretty cool (and windy!).

I'll post a link to the photos on the Tour de CA thread (after Jo and Kim complete/correct the captioning - it's too embarrassing to show them with their current labels ("some CSC guy1", "some CSC guy 2", etc. :o)

[NJBikeGal]

Thought I was heading out for 2 hours...ended up with 3:45 in the saddle and 60 miles on my new bike! That means he almost hit 100 miles in his first weekend! What a good boy!

[bikerz]

Tour of CA Prologue photos are now posted on the Tour de CA (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=21362) thread...