Weekend rides October 27/28

[azfiddle]

It's finally getting into the cooler weather that lets us do more long rides in Arizona.

My group was training for El Tour de Tucson today - planning for 85-90 miles. Our ride followed the El Tour route about 70% of the time. We stayed together for about 10 miles, but then the fast group took off, and 4 or 5 of us stayed together and met up with the others at various stops. Ugh- head winds of 18-22 for quite a while! My small slower group of 4-5 skipped one leg of the ride to for a diabetic rider to get some food, and then one of the other guys started feeling like his legs were "done" at about 60 miles. So we cut our ride short, and I split from them eventually at about 68 miles and rode home in a slightly circuitous route to get 83 miles and about 2500 feet of climbing. It was pretty nice except for the wind.... My legs felt good at the end and I could have done another 20 or 25 (El Tour is 111 miles) but not if there was much more climbing. Passed 5000 miles for the year- last year I only had 4900 on Jan 31.

Tomorrow I'll probably skip riding in favor of grading papers....

[murielalex]

Sounds like a nice ride, minus the winds.

The wind was too strong here today along the ocean (where I ride), which was sad because it's also getting cooler here (low 80s) and was gorgeous out. I ended up doing a 90-minute "power" workout on a Computrainer, just to get some mileage in as I'm doing a charity ride in a couple weeks from Miami to Key West and am feeling undertrained. Tomorrow, the winds are supposed to be down to under 20 mph in the morning, though looking like those nasty cross winds I hate. At least I'll be outside again.

[gocard]

@azfiddle, I was in Arizona for work this week - Flagstaff, to be exact. The weather was gorgeous every day and I would have given nearly anything to play hooky for a day, rent a bike and go riding there. The guys told me that Arizona has some amazing trails so I'll definitely be returning to visit someday. Sounds like you had a good workout!

[Crankin]

I went on a ride with my friends; DH is away. It was 48 when we started and since we started at 10, I dressed for the cooler temperatures predicted until noon-ish. I was fine until we ran into a road block, where they were working on the tracks in Littleton, as we were getting ready to climb Oak Hill. So, we set off on a detour to get us into Harvard center. This detour involved going up Pinnacle Hill, a hill I have not climbed before. All I knew was that my son used to train for racing on this hill. OK, well, it was a difficult climb and I started overheating. I should have stopped right after the climb and changed to my short fingered gloves and a lighter head cover, but I just wanted to get to Harvard center. When I did, i felt kind of shaky, in a way that happens when I am having heat related issues. Usually, this never happens when I am riding, more like if I am in the overheated gym or running inside. I drank lots of water, changed my gloves and head cover and then set off to do another, gradual climb very slowly. I felt like crap and it dawned on me I was drinking only water, no electrolytes. Finally, I got to the next stop at a soccer field/park, where I ate half a Luna Bar and put some Nuun in one of my bottles. Finally started feeling better and felt fine for the rest of the ride. 34 miles.
When I got home, I had to rake leaves, since I won't use the leaf blower and I needed to get rid of them before the storm. I had more exercise from that!

[Sky King]

Waited until 2ish for it to warm up only get about a mile down the road before the rain started, kept going but it only got worse. Decided to be a weenie and turned around. :( A whopping 6 mile ride.

[Catrin]

I wanted to ride this afternoon, but I've the sniffles...which will get far worse if I head out in 48 degree temps with 18-20 mph winds. My body isn't ready for colder temps yet, where is the 80 degrees we had on Thursday? wahhhhhhhh I guess it is time to bring my thermal stuff out of storage.

Whining mode off, and am enjoying reading what others have done this weekend :) Crankin - glad you figured out what was going on and you enjoyed the rest of the ride.

[Aromig]

I did a 20 mile ride to/on our multiuse trail. I'd hoped to do more but it was barely fifty degrees and super windy and I couldn't figure out my layers to stay comfortable. I am still getting used to my first road bike so I figure any riding is useful. I always felt like my comfort bike was too slow. My road bike feels too fast and twitchy to me (I've only got about 150 miles on it, but I'm sure I will get more comfortable soon). It was lots of fun crunching through leaves and despite the chill, the day was gorgeously sunny!

[ZenBiker]

We're having a nearly perfect fall day, low 50s, sunny, very light breeze. I split my exercise time between a hike with the dogs and a lazy 10.5 mile ride around the neighborhood. We had a pretty good snowstorm last Wed and it was odd to see patches of snow mixed with piles of leaves, while riding comfortably with a light wind jacket. Just a reminder that there won't be too many more days like this!

[Giulianna23]

Trying to take advantage of every single non rainy day that I can get before it starts getting too cold. I am still dealing pretty well with the chills and 40-50 degrees temperatures with propper clothing of course. Did 25 windy road miles yesterday with head winds of maybe 15mph, at times we had the tailwinds and it felt sweet. An average of 14mph and a Max speed of 25MPH. I also did 7 windy Mountain bike miles today as well at a new to me trail park with bunch of drops and leg killing hills. I average 7.5mph on this trail. Had a great workout on both rides..but especially today..... and really had a good time with some new people I have met.

It looks like next weekend the weather its going to be sweet...hopefully.