June 4 ride reports...

[DrBee]

Happy Sunday to everyone!

I took a quick ride this morning at a slower than normal pace. I killed my knees doing a mess of gardening work yesterday, so I figured I'd take it easy today. I think I saw a total of maybe 8 cars and 4 people. Clear skies and a light breeze. My knees feel much better today. They didn't hurt on the bike, but are still a bit creeky now that I'm off.

Enjoy the day :)

[Brandi]

Started out early myself! Every thing was great moving along when I hit this strange warm wind? Then a cold wind following right behind? Then a head wind! Slowed down to 6 mph after going at about 18 mph! Man and it was starting out to be a good ride.
My thighs are killing me too from pulling weeds all week in my yard. One weed was so big I had to put my whole body into it. Pulled it out and went flying backwards right on my butt dirt all over me, but I got the little bugger out ha!:D

[betagirl]

Oak Park, IL
Current Conditions:

Fair
Temperature: 72°F
Feels Like: 72°F
Dew Point: 47°F
Humidity: 40%
Wind: ENE 11 mph
Visibility: 10.0 miles
Barometer: 30.03 inches and falling
UV Index: 7 High
Today's High: 76°F

OH MY GOD today is so gorgeous, and I'm sitting here in business attire getting ready to leave to give a presentation at a patient education conference on depression. There's a century today that I did last year also that my friend is currently riding.

My commitment to the conference is making me depressed :) I don't think I'll get in a ride today, since I'll be gone all afternoon. Then taking the b/f out tonight for his birthday.

*sigh. I know I'm doing a good thing for others, but this is torture.

Is this how a drug addict feels when they can't get their fix? :rolleyes:

[Selkie]

It was chilly here (61 degrees) when I rode at dawn, but the pavement was dry & the skies clear. I was aboard my Lovely Pink Luna (Mary, named after my late mom), so even though I had a killer earache/sore throat, I could ride effortlessly. The bike is just that wonderful. Anyway, I encountered a jerk near the end of my ride. He tried the old "let's try to intimidate the girl" by taking more than his half out of the middle of the trail and glaring at me when I was trying to pass a jogger in my lane (Mr. Nasty was headed south, I was headed north). I knew he was trouble when I saw him in a regular t-shirt, tucked into his lycra shorts, and his knees were flapping out from the pedals (Coach Troy would've shuddered). Anyway, I encountered him at just north of an intersection with a busy road--the point where I turn around and head back toward home. I had a bad feeling he was doing the same, so I tried to put some distance between us. He ended up catching up after about a mile and drafting, uninvited, so I said in a not-so-pleasant croak (sore throat Demi Moore voice), "get around me." He did. Well, he was ahead of me for maybe 500 years because there was a hill coming up. Up he goes out of the saddle. The hill isn't THAT steep, so I easily dropped him. He never caught up. Mr. Wonderful got dropped by a under-the-weather chick wearing pink (team terry) arm warmers and riding a PINK bike. How's the for the final indignity? Because he was such a jerk, I didn't feel the least guilty in being so smug about leaving him in my dust. This summer cold/flu bug is making me surly!!

[uk elephant]

Another glorious day and I had all intentions of getting a nice ride in. Had a leisurely day with BF first, though: fry-up for breakfast, then wandered into town for an ice cream (Thornton's Mmmmmmm!!!) and to watch the bagpipe-band-competition going on in the park. My ears are still ringing! Then wandered home to get ready for a ride. I get all kitted up and take the bike outside. Get the pump to top up the front tire after fixing a flat on Friday (which happened just as I was heading in to work and made me an hour late for work) and the tire goes flat again. Inner tube had torn right at the valve. So no bike ride today and tomorrow I have to go out to the LBS again (second time this week!) to get another tube (and pick up a spare one this time). Very frustrating, but at least it happened today and not next week-end when I'm doing my big 40 mile charity ride. And to cheer myself up, I'm having a very Norwegian dinner tonight. Smoked cod with eggy butter and boiled potatoes. Mmmmmm!!!!!!

[DrBee]

What's eggy butter?

[mtkitchn]

I'm in St. Louis because of work, so I rented a bike at the Gateway arch and rode up the Mississippi river trail. Didn't eat before I left, and didn't realize that there are no businesses on or near that trail! Rode about 8 miles north, turned around and went back to the arch area to find some food. Ate the worst sub in history at the Gateway arch cafe, then headed south. That direction is on auto roads so it wasn't as nice and I didn't go as far.
But it was still a great way to spend a morning....lotsa bikes on that river trail heading north and a nice cool breeze blowing!

[Duck on Wheels]

What's eggy butter?

Diced hard cooked egg in melted salty butter. Mmmmm. Great on cod!

[Duck on Wheels]

Didn't go far today. Nor did I test the bikes as planned. Tummy was acting up. Reminder to self: NO MORE COLESLAW! Never ever!

Did ride a few miles, though, in hopes that it would help settle my stomach. Turned in an overdue library book. Took a picture of a cardinal. Had a strawberry waffle at the Memorial Union. Bought that T-shirt and button for Trek420. :cool: Now I'll just relax a bit until it's time to show my car to a buyer. Tummy is finally in recovery mode.

[DrBee]

Eggy butter sounds interesting. Mr. Fish says he saw that on an episode of "the deadliest catch" on the Discovery channel (I think) - they had the eggy butter, cod, and potatoes for the last cod they caught. :cool:

[mtkitchn]

OOO, I love "deadliest catch"! Yes, it's on discovery. I'm hot for capt Sig....;) . Must have missed the "eggy butter" thing but will try it at home! Sounds interesting!

[Triskeliongirl]

Today I did a club ride, 37 miles. Pretty hot, mid-90s, so we rode as fast as we could and skipped the rest stop to get in before it got too hot. I felt strong, did a long hilly ride yesterday and wasn't sure if it would make me feel loose or tired today, but fortunatly it was loose! Pretty day, sun was shining (almost too much), pretty scenery, and great company. Too many dogs, but no harm done. I made a new friend on the ride today. Isn't it great when you find you are going the same pace as somebody and then really 'click' with them? She had lost 50 lbs and had a really inspirational story to tell. Got me motivated to get back to working on my weight.

[wannaduacentury]

Well I got appx 3 miles in on trails around my house. I was practicing w/ my clipless pedals and going pretty good. My daughter zoomed past me and said Whoa! and down I went. Oh well, I now have one skinned elbow and knee. Haven't had skinned knees since I was like 10, feels like a kid again. Glad my tumble came near the end of my ride instead of the beginning :) weather, sunny 80 degrees, lt breeze.

[im4smiley]

Kind of a rainy day today, only three of us showed up for our Sunday ride. We ended up doing about 30 miles, we did a route that we normally do but did it backwards. It is always weird to do routes backwards. It rained on us off and on but it wasn't too cold so we continued on, this was an easy ride not too many big hills. It is just so nice to ride :)

[Brandy]

No ride today...my girlfriends planned a belated birthday bash for me last night and took me camping without the kids! After my flat yesterday I've decided to put either some Armadillos or Gatorskins on my bike, so I'm holding off on riding until then. Ride related though...I did take cookies and chocolate to the firemen who gave me a ride home yesterday. They were so sweet, they invited all of us in and let the kids play on the truck for almost an hour. They made their rookie babysit them...lol!

[Geonz]

Just a few sneak-out-and-ride miles (I think 20) before I had to run and do some errands and stuff that I'm STILL AVOIDING and going to stop RIGHT NOW almost (because there's still a tiny bit of daylight left) (tho' of course the errands were via cycle)

And yes, this *is* how an addict feels without the fix... no matter what I'm doing, "I want to be riding! I want to be riding!"

Suzanne, good job on motivating the fellow! (Frame it all positively :-)...)

[Trek420]

Really just a sneak out ride.

I was on the way to drop by to see if I could fit in a haircut when Spazzdog called. Seems Theresa, her neigbor and handily for me my best friend wanted to go out to breakfast and did I wanna go?

Of course I said yes but first I'd drop by my LBS and pick up these. New Mavic wheels for my trusty commuter.

Thanks Mom and Bikeless.

Itching to try them out as we went to Lois the Pie Queen (yum) where Spazzdog charmed the socks off the owners son who now runs the place. He gave us delicious extra desert.

We're still doing "introduce Spazzdog tour of the Bay Area" next we went to Berekeley stopped and the White Horse. You history buffs may know this is the oldest Gay bar in the country (that's continualy been in business as a Gay bar)

Well fed, visited and rested I dropped them off and headed home, let Mae in and then to her confusion almost imediately back out while I took a very short ride. I don't live in the most scenic part of the Bay Area although with a little effort can get to the Bay Trail. I just tooled around for a half hour aimlessly and they are great.

They just look sooooooo cool and sharp. I now have to paint the bike this winter.

Doesn't make my GT into a racer, nothing will but wonderful ride feel and noticebly better acceleration.

[KnottedYet]

Trek - is that the wheel that chicks dig?

Rode 27 miles today, on the Burke Gilman and on the Lake Sammamish trail. Met up with a coworker for part of it, and she graciously slowed down to my pace. The trail was gorgeous, sunny and breezy, very few riders/walkers out. The lake was beautiful. Saw lots of chickens (!) along the trail. Had a picnic at a park (Wilmont Gateway or something like that) in Woodinville.

I can hardly wait to ride that way again, and go all the way to Marymoor this time.

And sometime I want to do the vineyards by bike.

[Fredwina]

Should have woken up earlier and doen a ride before church. I did about 3 hours up into canyon. It was 91 when I started and 95 at the end. Was debating doing more, but decided to play it safe. The best thing was i when I got home, I got ready to out the bike in the rack, I noticed something stick out of the rear tire. Turns out is was staple, I took itout, but did'nt appear to have affected anythinh , as the tire is still holding air. after a having aflat a ride for the past two weeks, all I can say is Yippie!

[Trek420]

KnottedYet

"Trek - is that the wheel that chicks dig?"

yeah right.

TE, the inside joke is when I got Rolf wheels on my road bike Chris (owns LBS) told me "chicks dig the wheels".

I should have been more specific. Straight chicks dig 'em, chicks-who-bat-for-the-other-team-and-are-in-relationships dig 'em.

Knotted, dayuhm I hope so, but I was in a hurry for biscuits, coffee, omlette, grits and sweet potato pie and forgot to ask him.

If not I'll have to rely on capris to change my life....and personality and charm. :rolleyes:

But this chick digs 'em and that's what matters.

[Aggie_Ama]

DH and I went for a nice 31 mile ride tonight. It was hot! We also managed to hit every stop light on our ride, pretty annoying. He is about to leave for a work trip and I am sure going to miss my riding buddy the rest of the week. :(

[caligurl]

another national park ride for me... but this time instead of stying straight and going to jumbo rocks or beyond like we usually do... this time i wanted to explore more of the road heading down toward the lower desert.. and more specifically... i wanted to ride to the cholla garden!

again i had lead for legs on the first part of the climb up to the entrance.. but musta warmed up... did better on the part until the turn off.... had a few miles of slight climbing (and some gorgeous views) until we hit the downhill to the lower desert.... we kept going.... and going.... and going... and thinking "we have to climb back out of this hole we descending into!") after about 6 miles of descending... i told hubby it was ok with me to turn around anytime... we didn't HAVE to go all the way to cholla garden.... but alas... we kept going.... the asent ended up being 8 miles (that means i had 8 miles of climbing to do to get out of the hole!)

unfortunately... with the lower elevation came more heat.... so we didn't hang around the garden too long... took a few pics (which i will add to this post later... i was too lazy to upload them last night!)

the descent wasn't that bad.... mostly 4% til the upper part which got up to 7-8% for a short time... but that was near the top.... then the descent back out of the park!

ended up with 44.43 miles and 3916 fee of climbing!

[Kimmyt]

Did a nice ride with the Boy, our longest yet at 65.5 miles. We rode from his house through some small/medium hills and then to the bike trail, where we rode down to the Art Museum and back. It was nice and cool, overcast, so really the ride was perfect. The Boy was recovering from a hangover from his friend's wedding the night before, so I got to be the hardman and let his poor widdle hungover self draft of me much of the time. I was having an Ace day, I'll tell you, much of the ride spent pulling him along at my fastage speeds so far this year! Had some more hills in the middle of the ride, then of course at the end with two grueling uphills, and I felt sooo good! I don't even feel tired today! Sometimes it's nice to have a good day to remind me why I don't do 'normal people things' like shopping or watching tv or whathaveyou.

K.

[Nanci]

I rode about 25 miles with my bike club group. I stopped to help a turtle across the road, and momentarily thought I had found a cool species of box turtle, since the occupant had a hinged shell. He was very "wet" though and was shaped like what I thought was a mud or musk turtle. He refused to stick out any anatomy to help me ID him, though. Finally I got a glimpse of one webbed foot, and decided he was a water turtle, so not a future pet for me, and I released him safely across the road. Found him on the Internet when I got home.

http://www.empireoftheturtle.com/Florida/kinosternon_baurii.htm