Saturday, March 15 Rides

[SheFly]

I was supposed to go out and ride with the team today, but woke up to about a 1/4 inch of snow on the ground, and snow falling. Roads were wet, and temps were hovering at 32. Needless to say, our team ride was off.

Determined NOT to get on the trainer, I connected with one other teammate who was crazy enough to head out with me in the snow! We rode together for awhile (she needed to go into Cambridge to get her car from work), and then I headed home. Ooph! I was surprised to find that we had a tailwind the entire ride in towards the city, and I had to battle a pretty stiff headwind home. Got to the end of the path with not quite enough time in the saddle, so did a bonus loop to finish with a 2 hour ride, and about 30 miles.

Biggest mileage week of the year for me to date - 145.5 and only 10 miles of it on the trainer - WOOHOO!

Anyone else get out to ride? And if it was in shorts and 70s, I'm REALLY jealous.

SheFly

[SouthernBelle]

We had shorts weather earlier this week while I was sick, but not so much today.

I did get a few short miles in between rain and thunder storms. 11.47 to be exact.

I celebrated by having a kahlua cocoa.

[KathiCville]

Well, I rode in shorts today and the temp was probably right around 70, until the last 45 minutes of my ride when the sky clouded over...............26+ miles. Route today was a loop I did three weeks ago. Bettered my mph average by .3 miles an hour for a whopping 11.3mph av, LOL! I could tell that I was moving just a little faster, and doing just a little better going up the hills. Nice to feel even a bit of progress........:D

[Zen]

Oh what a beautiful spring day! too bad I spent it cleaning out my moms house. Oh well, there will be others...

[HillSlugger]

My ride today turned into a minor adventure. I found a new route on Bikely.com that was the right distance and went into an area I hadn't ridden before. So, I'm cruising along looking for a left turn at 11.5 miles. I get there and there is no left turn. I could see where it used to be before the construction took it away and there was now no way to get to where I needed to be. Since I didn't know the area I decided to go back to the main road and ride on a bit further and then turn around for an out and back ride. It was a bit weird to be riding along knowing how to get back home the way I came but not actually knowing where I was.

Before my ride I did a short run with my daughter. When we got done I got ready for my ride. I figured my running tights were perfect for the ride weather, so off I go. It wasn't until I was back home getting ready for my shower that I realized I had not put on bike shorts. Since I didn't really notice, I guess that means my saddle is pretty good for me.

[Starfish]

Well, I have been resting and nursing an ITB issue for over a week now.

But, oddly enough, I got in a 3 hour workout on the gym spin bike by myself today. I didn't intend to. I went over there because I didn't seem to have as much soreness on that bike, and I just thought I'd do an easy spin and see what happened.

I took ibuprofen first, and although I felt twinges throughout the workout, nothing awful. I stopped and did more ITB stretches each hour. My quads are super toasty right now. I purposely held off on angles and so forth that would stress the hams and glutes, or the bottom of the pedal stroke, or seated high tension, as that seems to make the ITB sorer.

Anyhow, I got in a pretty hard workout, including some almost-maximum intervals, and lots of standing work. We will see how it feels later, and tomorrow.

It felt like a lopsided workout...really purposely ignoring a full pedal stroke and ignoring whole muscle groups. But, it let me get in a good workout, and that has improved my mood immensely.

[BarbaraAlys]

I don't post much, but I have been reading this board for about six months now, so I thought maybe I should.

I had a GREAT ride today. It was a 'training' ride for the Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS, the actual ride is in Sept and is 150 miles over two days. They put together these 'training' rides to keep people enthused and to train the support teams.

The weather here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is almost perfect for riding today (shorts weather, sorry to all you up in the great white north), though it did get a little windy, downtown especially (put tall buildings on a prairie and you end up with wind tunnels, who'd a-thunk it!) The ride was hilly, by central Texas standards, so it was a bit challenging for me, but it felt great to be out riding in a group on the streets again.

Last fall was my first time doing the Lone Star Ride. I only did 47 miles on Saturday and 51 on Sunday (30 of those were AFTER I had a truck door slammed on my right hand, so I feel pretty good about that). I am a relatively new rider, and the 47 miles were the most I had ever done on the road in one day. To be able to do even more the following day was astounding to me. My goal this year is to do the whole thing...and to raise a ton of money, of course :)

Ride safely,

Barbara

[IFjane]

Welcome Barbara! Great to have you posting here - please keep it up and let us get to know you.

Michael & I headed out on what we had originally planned to be a 50 mile ride. The weather was incredible - see KathiCvill's post above - except up just a bit north of her (and quite a bit closer to the mountains) the temps topped out at about 63 degrees. Wind was out of the north at about 11 mph. but it was an amazingly beautiful day!

We felt so good on the bikes that we added some miles to the route as well as a few climbs. We met up with friends for part of the ride - no one wanted to ride as far as we did today :rolleyes: but we had a wonderful time anyway. 65 miles total, covering three counties - Culpeper, Rappahannock and Madison. I will have to look at my journal, but I don't think I have done a road ride that long this early in the season before. yay for me!

[Aggie_Ama]

I will duck after saying gorgeous weather in central Texas today- I went sleeveless. <<<Running for cover now.>>>

We did a route I am not particularly fond of, but it has been a long time. The ride is across mostly prairie land of the Jollyville Plateau and virtually no scenery miles 10-35, unless you like the occassional mobile home. You climb the beginning, fight prairie lands in the middle (windy) and then more steep to rolling hills at the end. There is a beast of a climb in the first 10 miles and I was surprised to be quite strong. That would change when we went to spend the next 20 miles mostly straight into the wind. I felt like I was pedaling so hard and only able to go about 12 mph. We were rewarded with a tailwind for the back 20. :D

Only bad part of today? The drivers on this ride are always hostile. I don't know if it is because the live in one the ugliest part of the area or just jerks. We had a three long drawn out honks (one by the same truck twice 20 minutes apart, guess they were bored) and a swerve. Stupid rude drivers.

Daily total of 47.67 miles.

[Trek420]

Welcome Barbara! Great to have you posting here - please keep it up and let us get to know you.

Welcome Barbara! And we want photos and ride reports from the ride. You're in good company, there are a lot of TE'ers on AIDS rides. Thanks for riding :D

My non-ride report. I went to the dojo today and was shocked, shocked I tell ya. My teacher almost had to call my name twice to the front to be her uke (partner - aka crash test dummy) on a technique.

She never has me do that. For one thing we're so top heavy with high ranking students that you have to be 3rd degree black belt for her to call you up. I be a humble 2nd degree.

For another thing my falls are shall we say not great, she's got much better, more graceful folks to use. I have lots of joint issues and booboos.

I felt very stiff going into the class, by the end much more loose, getting some flexibility. I've got a long way to go to get my range-of motion back but it's good to be on the way.

Then went to the Farm Market, got some "chocolate mint" plants (yes, it's a plant). I've dug an area in front where I think they'll be happy, worked compost in and planted them. Hope they do well.

[RolliePollie]

I'm still nursing an injury, so I just did an easy and slow 20 miles on the bike trail in Sacramento. The thing that was extremely cool about my ride is that there is a big air show in Sac this weekend. During part of my ride, fighter jets were flying right over head. They were really low and really close...and REALLY LOUD! I had to stop and watch for a little bit because I was having a hard time keeping my eyes on the trail!

[Jo-n-NY]

My first time my tires hit the road for 2008. It had to be a quick ride because of running errands. When the clouds cleared to sun and mid 50's temps, I left the grocery bags on the kitchen counter and headed out the door for a quick ride. I call it my break the ice ride, only 12 miles, but it was better than 12 trainer miles. I had to get home to get ready for guests coming over tonight.

As they say something better than nothing and with the north wind, I did get in some kind of workout.

~ JoAnn

Blustery and cold temps tomorrow, so I am glad I got out today :)

[smilingcat]

jsut working on my base miles... Was planning on doing about 40+ miles. Ended up with just shy of 39 miles. The morning was beautiful when we went to the farmers market. It was still wonderful when we went to Trader Joe's for grocery. Then the wind started up.

I still went out anyway in the awful wind. Cross wind, swirlling wind. So strong, I nearly lost it few times. Blowing from one side one second then from the other side the next second. I didn't dare go over 20 mph because I was getting blown all over the road.

When I rode by King Harbor (redondo beach), I could see the water spray 20 feet or more above the jetty. I could smell the clean smell of the ocean. White caps out to the horizon... And at Point Vicente I could see through the haze/fog and make out Catalina Island. Pretty sight.

well I only climbed 2450 feet over 39 miles. right now my legs feel fine so maybe I'll try to do 40+ tomorrow.

chilly but fun ride. Oh one more thing. I ended up tapping the rear bumper of a car in front of me. I really do need to swap out a vintage brake caliper with a new one. This is my second incident with tapping a car. Two in a row. Not good.

smilingcat

[deedolce]

Spent most of the day trying to out race the rain clouds. Luckily, the wind blew them a bit South and left me in mostly sunshine, although I chilled when the sun got hidden. 62 miles. And a breakfast panini with sausage. Yum!

[shootingstar]

Did 42 kms. Some cherry trees have started to bloom!

Then went to several cycling /sporting good shops..for several hrs. :eek: This is rare for me. And put down around $250.00 in total ..for myself and some b-gifts for my partner's upcoming birthday in a few months. Yea, I shop way in advance!

[KSH]

I had the oddest day of riding ever.

Started out on the trainer for 2 hours. I knew I wouldn't get in enough time outside to meet my scheduled 4.5 hours. Logged 32 miles.

Boyfriend picked me up and we went to meet a group for a ride. Rode 1.5 hours outside. Terrified the whole time. The wind was blowing really strong. After being blown off my bike 2 weeks ago, I'm not too keen on strong crosswinds these days. Only logged 18 miles as I was too scared to ride over 12 mph the whole time.

We ate lunch, chatted... drove home... and I napped in the car.

Once home I got on the trainer for another hour. Logged 17 miles.

Total miles- 67 across 3 different rides. :)

[KSH]

Determined NOT to get on the trainer, I connected with one other teammate who was crazy enough to head out with me in the snow! We rode together for awhile (she needed to go into Cambridge to get her car from work), and then I headed home.

Biggest mileage week of the year for me to date - 145.5 and only 10 miles of it on the trainer - WOOHOO!

SheFly

Snow? Riding in snow? Nuts. I won't even ride in a strong wind. Yes, it was warm-ish here... but the wind was miserable.

Great job this week!

[Crankin]

Well, I've only been out on my road bike once this year and it wasn't yesterday. We did have snow in the morning as per SheFly's report, but it turned to rain and cleared up by noon. I was sick all week and ended up staying home Friday and going to the doctor because when I came home Thursday I had a 101 fever and I never get fevers. I couldn't get the fever down Thursday night, even with Advil. Got an antibiotic and was feeling better by late Friday night, but I have decided to play it safe and not over do it. I did my yoga for cyclists dvd yesterday and my PT mandated stretches. Today is 38 degrees for the high and we are going on a hike. I know if I sucked the cold air in on my bike, I would be sick again. My goal is to ride on Tuesday.
I just decided that I want to do a spring century on May 18th. It's mostly flat and rolling, but this is the least prepared I have ever been for the season.
At least I have a goal.