June 8 Ride Reports

[hibiscus09]

Good morning everyone!! :)

I don't know if a certain group of you were doing these threads or not -- so, I hope it's okay for me to start today's thread.

I'm excited because I did my first road bike ride today to train for the MS 150. I had to wait for my bike to come home from the shop. It's been quite a while since I've been on my road bike (a year and half or two) and it felt like a stranger right at first and a little scary. :eek: I figure facing fear is the best way to handle it, so I just kept on going.

I rode 12 miles this morning. I rode before breakfast and hope that's okay on shorter rides. I think prebreakfast cardio is okay as long as it's under an hour. Anyway, I was riding on an island and rode about half the distance on bike trails and half on the road. There was only one little girl (around 3 or 4 years old) who tried to take me out. :D That was good practice for clipping out.

My pace was turtlesque -- 13mph average pace, but hey -- I'll take it.

Fun, fun!! I'm excited to be back at it!

[Geonz]

If it works for you, it's okay!
12 miles is good for getting that relationship going... 13 mph also a good "how does this thing work again?" speed especially if you've been riding something else so you have to get back those motor habits. (And especially in Columbia, unless you know some routes I didn't when I lived there a few years back!)

For me, 12 miles without breakfast is fine. On supported rides I often do the first leg before I really eat anything, though I generally ahve tea and a little something like half a bagel or a couple of handfuls of dry cereal.

I cruised out to work this a.m., recovering a little from yesterday's hard ride, but it was much easier because (DUH!) um... I inflated the tires. Prob'ly can't go *too* long on the ride home, but who knows, I might take a few personal hours and leave early.

Yea, sometimes you need to learn the same lesson again and again and again. 70 psi front and 60 psi back are not going to want to go more than 13 mph into the wind PERIOD. I'm just lucky I didn't get pinch flats, since we were on some nasty roads.

[Fredwina]

hibiscus09,
I think anyone can start these. Usually if no has started a thread when I read ir in the AM, I'll start it.
I usuually ride early in the morning, and I don't have breakfast before I ride, so I would also think you're ok there.
my ride today:
13 miles - more fog, I tried to take to take easy, as I have a century on saturday that invlovles 8000 feet of climbing (Orange County Wheelmen's Ride Around The Bear). Noticed a lot more cars the usual.

[MomOnBike]

Now that summer has arrived and I'm in severe danger of melting if I ride during the day, I bit the bullet & got up tfor a ride when DH's alarm clock went off.

It was a lovely ride. I saw two herons in flight. The hills were not too bad, considering I was doing my thing without breakfast, and the humidity monster hadn't quite awakened yet. Not bad.

Got home, took a shower, then before I was dry Younger Daughter called because she needed me to go (on bike, she had the car) back UP part of my route, 'cause we had forgotten that the doc needs money when you go. (So much for the shower)

It wasn't all bad, I hit 30 mph on my way home. :D <--notice bugs in teeth.

I think I'll do the morning ride thing again soon, but without the add-on at the end.

[caligurl]

hibiscus09,
I think anyone can start these. Usually if no has started a thread when I read ir in the AM, I'll start it.
I usuually ride early in the morning, and I don't have breakfast before I ride, so I would also think you're ok there.
my ride today:
13 miles - more fog, I tried to take to take easy, as I have a century on saturday that invlovles 8000 feet of climbing (Orange County Wheelmen's Ride Around The Bear). Noticed a lot more cars the usual.

i'm doing the bear, too! 2nd year! hope it's nice in the morning (not too cold) so that i don't have have wear leg warmers for the start! but then.... unless it's already in the 70's.... i'll be in leg warmers! that's just me!

[wabisabi]

Big yellow thing up in sky....which is itself a strange shade of ...blue....happy I rode bike to work today, might venture out into this strange world. I think I can even get away with shorts!

Also, I must share that I am so happy that I just found out that one of my favorite colleagues here used to be an editor at Bike World! Loves Rivendells, knows bikes; we talked serious bike geek this morning "before" our real meeting.

[Fredwina]

well, since I am the secertary of the Cycling Connection, I will be in thier His-viz Yellow/Green and blue (see www.cyclingconection.org. and we asssume no responsibilty for temporary blindness:) ) on a silver and red Cannondale

[JoyfulGirl]

no ride today. it is grey, drizzly and semi chilly out. i have cramps. they are finally letting up at least. called my boyfriend and told him my outlook on the world. sometimes he is a very wise man. he is bringing me icecream. hopefully tomorrow i'll post saying i was actually on my bike.

[betagirl]

No ride today, I have a cold. How cruel are summer colds? It was such a nice day today, but I doubt my throat or runny nose would have allowed me to go very far.

Tomorrow is another day...

[im4smiley]

hibiscus, sounds like you are off to a good start. I can't do anything without eating a little something, just doesn't work for me. I just got back from a 21mile ride, avg speed was 15 mph. Last 7 miles was in the pouring rain, :( blah, but we had a good ride, more hills than we really wanted to do but we just kept plugging along. We have gotten rained on 3 of the last 4 rides we have done. I'd be happy to send the rain to anyone who needs some :rolleyes:

[makbike]

Started the morning off marking my route for the club ride tomorrow. It is a very scenic route, passing many farms. We should see lots of horses, cows, goats, etc as we travel the back roads of Shelby County. I'm betting we see more tractors than we do cars/trucks tomorrow. I'm taking the club through the small town of Pleasureville and the fringes of Cropper tomorrow. It should be a great day for a ride (35 miles).

I participated in the club ride this evening, a fast paced 30 mile route. I was able to pass some of the areas I spent time collecting specimens (herps, insects, plants, etc) while in undergrad and grad school - oh those were the days. Sadly, many of these areas have now been developed and the original beauty lost to large homes and developments.

[hirakukibou]

It rained most of the day, but wasn't raining when my friend called to say that she wanted to escape her crabby husband for a spin. I joined her for a very slow paced 15 miler. It was nice to get out and escape my crabby partner, although I was freezing. (It's hard to believe it's June!) Hope to go out tomorrow or this weekend for a longer ride. Perhaps a club ride on Sat or Sun. I have a bit over a 100 miles so far this week, it would be nice to get 150. We'll see.

[AuntieK]

I'm jealous of all of you who were able to get rides in today!
I was planning on going out for a ride early this morning, but I woke up this morning with an elevated heart rate...so I decided I better take the day off. :(
Went for a swim lesson instead. My tri-friends think I should learn to swim. :rolleyes:

[melissam]

I thought I was going to take today off, since I had plans for tonight. However, the plans changed, so I got to go for a ride! An unexpected joy. I even got to try out the new bike computer and gloves I bought during lunch.

After work, I rode a trail and discovered that it dead-ended at the junction of Highways 101 and 87. So I turned around and came back. All in all, it was almost 11 miles and took me about an hour. I know, I'm not exactly a speed demon.

The most exciting part of the route was going down a path of loose stones to get under an overpass. My bike got a little squirrely and the sun was in my eyes. But we made it!

-- Melissa