Labor Day Weekend Rides

[Catrin]

Had a great 23 mile ride this morning with a friend! She was really tired/sore from running last night so we cut it short at 23 miles. Best ride I've had for a week or so, and nothing hurt anywhere :) Did SOME hill work, but not as much as I had hoped for. With this storm looming and a 75% chance of thunderstorms we really didn't want to venture out of the Park we were in.

Thunderstorms/high winds scare me. I've been pushed over into the next lane by 22mph crosswinds winds...I do NOT know how you ladies ride in crosswinds stronger than that and I know you do.

[Giulianna23]

8 miles early this morning with my son at Washington Township Park Trails. Pretty good ride with nice temp. How nice it feels to have a lot of water available :) we both use our hydration packs for the first time today. It was good not having to stop riding to go to the car and get something to drink.

[Crankin]

22 miles, just locally, but in a direction I rarely ride, except as part of a longer ride, group ride, or starting from somewhere else. I am keeping this one, as I just realized, that apart from my street, this ride is actually flat! We mostly rode in Sudbury; and back through parts of west Concord. It started looking quite ominous out toward the west after we had gone about 6 miles, but although it cooled and got a little windy, it didn't rain. I was a little worried, but now the sun is out.
Long ride tomorrow and something Monday, too.
Felt good today, I guess that's what a rest day does for you.

[Fredwina]

I went down to Poughkeepsie and did The walkway over the Hudson: (http://walkway.org)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-CO0CWApejrA/UEJa620wURI/AAAAAAAAS9U/hbLWXd3EuWg/s640/100_1409.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uBXAavutdio/UEJbAbkLLPI/AAAAAAAAS9s/sycaYajVlJw/s640/100_1412.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mjymx597IG4/UEJbBv6K7VI/AAAAAAAAS-0/9Tr1qeIPNx0/s640/100_1413.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-uNUMp21F59M/UEJbFK6RpLI/AAAAAAAAS-A/rBklXuJgfS8/s640/100_1415.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lVtQDlGOm_I/UEJbQGxQQcI/AAAAAAAAS-w/RXcf7WFtsfs/s640/100_1421.JPG
Also did the Dutchess Rail trail. twice. wound up with 44 miles for the day.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-sdcP29CAoSM/UEJbd8yIMjI/AAAAAAAAS_c/-K4K_vKjp0c/s640/100_1426.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-26OKm0UL_ME/UEJboOiJ0-I/AAAAAAAAS_0/4q-ghB8OOo8/s640/100_1429.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_UwXVNIKOE8/UEJbp3xcWCI/AAAAAAAAS_8/tEvzmKwu7gc/s640/100_1430.JPG

[murielalex]

Did 31 miles this morning as part of the three day Tour of Sebring in Sebring, Fl. Hoping to do 63 tomorrow, but I'm paying attention to the heat before i decide. It's in the 90s and humid today. If it's the same tomorrow, I'm afraid the longer ride might wipe me out for the whole day and that doesn't sound like fun. This morning was a really nice ride, and it's really nice to be riding in a different place than my usual. Per the organizers, there are about 400 riders here, and I'd say at least a third, if not more, are women. Any one else from this forum doing the ride?

[velo]

Like others, we're getting a little of the remnants of Isaac this weekend. I had a very nice recovery ride/day off ride this morning in a light rain. I had forgotten how enjoyable riding in the rain is until this delightful 23 miles this morning.

[thekarens]

My partner and I did 17.5 miles on our new mountain bikes in a local park. It was pavement riding, but very pleasant. We waited until 6 to start riding when it was a bit cooler.

Got our first crash out of the way. A bug flew into her eye, which resulted in her grabbing the front break and flipping over. I was following too closely so my choices were to run her over or lay down my bike. Thankfully neither of us got more than a sore finger and scrape on the leg. I tried the front brake trick on a motorcycle once and broke my ankle, so this experience was pretty pleasant.

On the plus side we got to see lots of birds.

[Trek420]

My sister, Duck on Wheels and her DH head back to Norway today. We got up early'ish and rode to their hotel to say goodbye. Now we're up, out, need more coffee and hungry so off to breakfast. Afterwards we ran a few errands interspersed with stops along the lake to watch the boats, Fremont drawbridge silently raising and lowering and the parade of SUPs. I don't know the mileage but all in all a nice ride.

[Owlie]

I was hoping to ride tomorrow, but the shop still has my bike and is closed tomorrow, so no hope of getting it back until Tuesday. Wahhh!

(Clearly, I need a second bike.)

[pll]

(Clearly, I need a second bike.)

Hear, hear!

[Catrin]

I was hoping to ride tomorrow, but the shop still has my bike and is closed tomorrow, so no hope of getting it back until Tuesday. Wahhh!

(Clearly, I need a second bike.)

Most certainly!

:D

[Cycling Sister]

Almost 40 miles on the MUT with a coffee stop. The treat of rain made for a less crowded trail. Rained for about 18 miles on the way back. Left my jacket in the car since I trusted AOL's hourly forecast. lol First time riding in the rain since I was a child. Very fun, but no good for drafting. Cleaned and lubed the chain before soaking in a nice, warm tub.

Owlie, Yes! A perfect reason for a second bike!

[Crankin]

51 miles; a new variation on an already hilly ride. Rode with our friends up Oak Hill, through Harvard and into Bolton, where we went up a hill I haven't done in about 5 years. Last time I took a group up this road I had 2 men say that they wanted to kill me :).
From there, we proceeded into Berlin and up a very steep hill, where there was an orchard at the top. We spotted their porta-potty, bought a peach, and ate our sandwiches at their picnic tables. Then, we went down a bit, through some unusual looking areas, and into Hudson, where I used to teach. We turned off on a road that would take us back to our usual route, but, surprise, there was a 20% grade in one spot, with several other steep, short rises along the way. I actually felt really good today, despite allergy stuff since I got over my sinus infection. For some reason, I always feel better when I do a harder ride on my Guru. I don't know if it's the titanium, the geometry, or the 2 extra granny cogs. Maybe it's in my head.
We split off from our friends, and went back a different way, so we could get our 50 miles. We stopped and had coffee and split a blueberry muffin in Concord center, as I was feeling sleepy. It was just mobbed there, both with cyclists and tourists. A man (who was sitting with his wife and a tiny dog... she was on her phone the whole time we were there), asked me how far we had gone when DH was buying the coffee. He almost fainted when I told him.
Well, I guess we seem like freaks to most people. A very good day. I will get my 2,000 miles tomorrow.

[Wahine]

103 miles, 7500 feet of up, more than half of that in one climb about 22 miles long. Stomach went sour about half way through the ride and I could hardly eat anything so I got pretty bonky a couple of times. Ugh. I need another beer.:D

[warneral]

My family went to the Sparta- Elroy trail yesterday I rode my new soma double cross. My son rode 20 miles on his own and we were so proud of him (he is a tiny 10 year old).

Today I took my new bike for a spin and ended up in Madison and around the lake and did 42mi on my new bike. The wider tires, hammered fenders, different geometry surprised me. I really like riding it!

I passed a family and the mom was riding a sweet bike. Bleriot with fenders, and the works. I asked her what it was (I now know it is a olderRivendell model) and she had no clue. She said her husband got it. THUNK! Man!

[Bethany1]

Met up with a lady from the MTBR forum who also has a fat bike and did 8 miles of single track today. Lincoln is pretty flat so the trail wasn't technically difficult but perfect for a fat bike. It was great to just cruise around the twists and turns at any speed you felt like. Now that I have a better layout of the trail, I can go back with my Fargo and turn on the speed. Hopefully we can meet up again. It's amazing the people you meet via the internet and forums.

[salsabike]

103 miles, 7500 feet of up, more than half of that in one climb about 22 miles long. Stomach went sour about half way through the ride and I could hardly eat anything so I got pretty bonky a couple of times. Ugh. I need another beer.:D

:D:D:D, Wahine. Hope you're happily resting now.



Did our 10th consecutive monthly 100k on the new Seven tandem today. 67.5 miles, 3400 feet of climbing, on a totally unfamiliar saddle that I did not end up loving (fizik arione, for anyone wondering). OW. But it sure was a glorious day for a ride here! Saw Eden on the road and got to catch up with her a little (figuratively speaking :)). And fell a bit in love with this inquisitive little fellow:

14967

[lauraelmore1033]

We've been learning to ride our new tandem, so our rides have been pretty easy trail rides of increasing length. Sunday we parked in lowell with the aim of seeing how fast we could ride the river road into Snohomish and then continued on to the end of the centenial trail in Arlington and back. It was such a beautiful sunny day and there were lots of antiquers out and about in snohomish and a lot of happy families and youth groups out on the trail. This was a terrifying prospect on our earlier outings, with all the stopping and starting and shakey steering maneuvers, but we're getting a lot more comfortable on the tandem and it was pretty fun. We put in almost 50 miles, so I'm feeling a lot more confident about the decision to do the Chuckanut Century on the tandem in a couple of weeks.

[Crankin]

Rode 26 miles, with breakfast in the middle. A route designed to get my miles I needed to make 2K for the year so far. I am way behind my mileage compared to the past 2 years, but I'll definitely be able to do 2500. Not too sure about 3K, though. All the weather reports I've seen say warm fall right up until January 1, then good snow in January and February, which is my idea of perfect ( x-country skiing).

[azfiddle]

Can't quite match Wahine's ride, but Saturday I did 48 miles with over 5000 feet of climbing. My riding group planned to go somewhere between 10 and 14 miles up Mt. Lemmon. After the worst part, one gal and I had enough water and energy to continue to make it up to Palisades, refill the bottles and head down. 3 1/2 hours up and 1 hr 15 min down. I'm pretty slow.

Sunday I went out with a new group - just women, being sponsored by the local Kia dealer. We just went 26 miles, and managed 15 mph.

Monday? Too tired to ride!

[Wahine]

Sounds like there's been a lot of tandem riding going on. Fun!:D:cool:

Salsa - I've never quite understood what fizik is trying to do with their saddles. They all look like torture devices to me.:eek:

[Veronica]

Took the mountain bikes out - climbed 1,000 feet in 2.2 miles. My HRM was beeping pretty much the entire time, telling me I was in the red zone. :D

Explored a little on the descent and took a different route. It was slightly longer and a little more gradual, sweeping sort of descent. The trail was really beat up though, so I'd still rather do the harder climb.

Veronica

[Catrin]

It sounds like all had great rides who were able to get out there and do so! After my lovely ride Saturday morning that was pretty much it for the weekend. Sunday I needed to rest, and Monday I had a quite "laborious" Labor Day special workout with my training group. Probably the hardest workout I've ever had. Period, it was fun! It was drizzling rain anyway, and I don't ride in the rain deliberately so it was the perfect day for it.

Saturday evening I was without power for 7 hours, but as that is only the second time in my adult life that has happened I am NOT complaining. I have lots of candles :)

[lovelygamer]

I rode near 20 miles this weekend, on two rides. I was recovering from minor surgery last week and not able to ride for a week so it was good to be back on the bike.:D

[Sky King]

103 miles, 7500 feet of up, more than half of that in one climb about 22 miles long. Stomach went sour about half way through the ride and I could hardly eat anything so I got pretty bonky a couple of times. Ugh. I need another beer.:D

Wow, I am so not worthy! No rides Sat and Sun as we moved my Dad to a smaller apartment so Monday the DH and I did a climb ride as well, but only ten miles of climbing with 1800 feet of elevation gain. On the return, after about five miles of descending there is a short section of climbing and I just about had to stop as my legs had major lactic acid issues - oops. Overall was nice to get out and work off some family stress though

[missjean]

I had planned on riding the 50 miles from my house to Rye Harbor State Park to join the extended family for our annual family picnic, but I over slept. So, instead I did a fast hour ride down into Pepperell MA, then up into Hollis NH (climbing the hill that goes past the Kimball Farm stand with the great view of Mt. Monadnock which Crankin would recognize) through Hollis and then back home. It's a good thing I did a ride because, boy, was the food good at our picnic!

[Norse]

It was a beautiful weekend here, though the temp and dew point started climbing yesterday. I got in a couple of shorter, leisurely rides, mostly on bike trails: 20 miles Sunday and 23 yesterday. Looking forward to the St. Paul Bike Classic next weekend. :)

[Raindrop]

After a week in Alaska, where the first days were amazingly beautiful..which was perfect since I was spreading my dad and my brother's ashes on Mt. Susitna (aka Sleeping Lady), I got home and found the weather was great and I still was sad so I went out for a shortish ride and felt much better.

There's a lot to be said about endorphins.....