August 18th rides

[amy]

Well, I finally did it! I woke up at 5:00 this morning, jumped on my bike by 5:30 and rode the 15 miles to work. I had plenty of time to shower, eat breakfast, and relax before my 8:00 meeting.

It was dark and foggy for the first half of the ride, but overall a whole lot of fun! And it is so cool to walk into the back room and see my bike there waiting for me!

[Blueberry]

We're at the beach on vacation - so we rode from one end of the island to the other and back. 26.4 miles - and it was close to 90 when we got back. As always at the beach, a head wind one direction, and a tail wind the other:)

CA

[Becky]

The usual commute today. Having stayed up way too late last night, I was not in the clearest mindset when we rolled out. We were halfway to work today when I realized that I didn't have a water bottle with me. Good thing that I keep my Team Estrogen bottle amongst the commuting stash at the office! I'll be sharing the TE love on the way home :D

[squirrell]

I rode my 21.5 mile loop this morning on the roads around my place.

[mudmucker]

Well. It was back to work today after vacation. I made sure I commuted by bike today so that I could take the edge off grumpy - it was hard to go back.

However, I achieved another personal best on the commute. I broke the 16's and rode 17.1 mph for the 20 miles or so. I certainly don't have the same giddiup on the way home though. That work thing in between. I'm weary by end of day and I just feel like taking it down a notch, plus there's always those southerly convective headwinds by afternoons end.

My hill rides during vacation paid off. I tried to do the longest and steepest hills I could find last week and did those 4 days in a row. I knew it was about my last shot for that in terms of frequency...there are no challenging hills on the commute and right now it is already getting too dark to go out on a ride after work as I get home by 7-7:15. Especially along the heavily wooded roads I'm on that get much darker earlier. It's that time of year already. Sigh. :( Now riding hills or distance is relegated to weekends for me.

Tonight on the way home I was very hungry. Probably the hardest part of the commute was passing by all these good smells from Chinese restaurants, and the grills of those people who were already home.

[fastdogs]

I couldn't ride during lunch today, so stopped by castlewood park on the way home. I only had about 45 minutes to ride, so did quick loop of river scene. I should have done a second and third time around, but instead I foolishly went on grotpeter trail. I took a different entrance, and it was pleasant dirt singletrack for a while. Then I came to the very steep hill on the left, and a longer route with switchbacks on the right. I took the switchbacks. Since I ended up walking most of it, I should have walked the steep part and got it over with faster (maybe, I've never been on this part of the trail before). Steep terrain + loose rocks = me walking my bike. I'll ride down loose rocks, but simply cannot get up them. So it sent me the fastest trail out of there with my tail between my legs. I won't get much chance to ride the rest of this week, but next time maybe I'll try stinging nettle if we can get at least a week with no rain.
vickie