Sept. 2 rides

[Duck on Wheels]

Well, not a big one, but at least I'm back on a bike. Dusted off my old bike and rode to work (3 mi uphill here, downhill home). Noticed I've quickly become addicted to clipless pedals. Don't have'em on this bike (yet) and when I downshifted to spin my way up the first hill my feet went flying off the pedals. Darn! There went all my momentum. Oh well. I made it up anyway, then cross-trained the next one, powered up the third, and walked the last again. Goal for today is to get the rest of my lectures prepared for the coming week. Goal for tomorrow is to finish an article. Maybe, just maybe, I'll also be able to put in a round around Litj-Jonsvannet lake and Estenstadmarka forest on my way home, although it's clouding over now and looks like rain soon.

Could also mention that when I was in Lausanne last week there was a big triathlon competition. I didn't get to see it due to conference duties, but wound up on the same train as the Japanese team on my way home. Sat across from a kid who'd got a bronze medal, and heard that their team had won the gold.

[Selkie]

Duck -- When I ride clipped out, the same thing happens to me. Once you get used to being clipped in, you don't want to go back to riding on just platforms!
My ride this morning was a Ernesto Soak Fest. The worst of the storm came through yesterday, so I didn't ride outside (Spineravals!). Therefore, I was determined to get out today. Before I left the house this morning, the weatherman promised that the rain was tapering off. Not exactly correct. It was a steady, soaking, soft rain the entire time, but I managed to get in 33 miles. The trail had patches where there was some potentially "wipe out" areas -- tree branches and such -- almost took a spill in such a spot. I was amazed that I recovered and didn't wreck -- somehow I was able to get my balance back and kept the bike upright. There were a couple downed trees that blocked one lane of the path in separate spots. A section under a bridge was under water but not deep, so I rode through. Not bad at all--at that point, both me and the bike were drenched, so neither of us cared! Aside from having to be careful about the debris, it was an ok ride after I adjusted to being wet. Luckily, it was warm enough that I didn't get cold. Wore my orange goretex xeon jacket, which I love. The rain was so steady that I ended up soaked --shoes had water sloshing in them and I had to wring out my shorts, jacket, and gloves! Hardly anyone else on the trail, either :-) The rain should be gone by noon, so tomorrow I'm hoping to get in a good road/trail ride in the am and in the afternoon, take my 'cross bike out for some "dirt" riding.

[Duck on Wheels]

IM-report from UK Elephant on her self-supported solo metric near-century:
Made 26 miles before lunch. Now (3pm) at 44 miles. Strong headwinds slowing her down, but she still expects to finish.

[Duck on Wheels]

Duck -- When I ride clipped out, the same thing happens to me. Once you get used to being clipped in, you don't want to go back to riding on just platforms!
My ride this morning was a Ernesto Soak Fest. The worst of the storm came through yesterday, so I didn't ride outside (Spineravals!). Therefore, I was determined to get out today. Before I left the house this morning, the weatherman promised that the rain was tapering off. Not exactly correct. It was a steady, soaking, soft rain the entire time, but I managed to get in 33 miles. The trail had patches where there was some potentially "wipe out" areas -- tree branches and such -- almost took a spill in such a spot. I was amazed that I recovered and didn't wreck -- somehow I was able to get my balance back and kept the bike upright. There were a couple downed trees that blocked one lane of the path in separate spots. A section under a bridge was under water but not deep, so I rode through. Not bad at all--at that point, both me and the bike were drenched, so neither of us cared! Aside from having to be careful about the debris, it was an ok ride after I adjusted to being wet. Luckily, it was warm enough that I didn't get cold. Wore my orange goretex xeon jacket, which I love. The rain was so steady that I ended up soaked --shoes had water sloshing in them and I had to wring out my shorts, jacket, and gloves! Hardly anyone else on the trail, either :-) The rain should be gone by noon, so tomorrow I'm hoping to get in a good road/trail ride in the am and in the afternoon, take my 'cross bike out for some "dirt" riding.

A triathlon trip all-in-one. Swimming WITH bike. You seem to have skipped the running bits though -- no "cross-training"? ;) I'm impressed. I can't really get myself out on a bike in that kind of weather. Yet.

[SouthernBelle]

had a most excellent ride this morning. Could've used a jersey with a little sleeve early on. Tackled some big hills which I need to do more of.

When I stopped for a break in Watertown on the square I wondered over to look in the window of an antique store, some other cyclists stopped to admire my bike. :D

When I stopped for coffee, I left my handlebar bag behind. I didn't miss it until I was WAY down the road. I wasn't actually sure if I had left it at the store or lost it on the road. So when I missed it I had to decide whether to turn around then or go home and drive back. I decided on the latter as I was a good ways down the road. Fortunately it was still sitting on the table when I got back there.

It's funny what an object of curiosity I am when I'm out on my bike.

35 miles

[btchance]

Went out with two of my friends, for one, it was her first time riding clipless. She did really well, only one tip over, and she got better as she went along. Had fun, did about 16miles in an hour, a few small hills. Good times for all, especially since it has started to cool down some.

[Crankin]

Today I went and tested out the ride we are doing on 9/17 (again). We got lost last Sat. and now we have the cue sheet right. But... this is a hill ride. We added a couple of (6) miles to keep the group off of a main road and now there are 3 more climbs, one being pretty challenging. It was weird weather, with Ernesto, or what's left of him, coming toward New England. I was cold, then hot, then cold about every 15 minutes and the wind picked up considerably near the end. So... last week I felt great on this ride. Today, everything hurt and I am thinking I'm crazy to be doing a century in 3 weeks. But, the century is flat and this ride had about 3,000 feet of climbing, coming after a day when I rode one of my fastest speeds ever. Near the end, I was really losing it, I had to slow down a lot. We had ridden to our friend's house where the start is and when we got back there, I was wishing we had driven. But, I ate 2 shot blocks and made last 4.5 miles.

Total 53 miles in 3 hours 48 minutes.

[AuntieK]

Repeated the ride I tried last time because last time I rode it I got so sick to my stomach. I haven't felt well since, but had to go try it again to see if I could do better. I felt so much better today! :D
The leaves are starting to turn yellow, orange, and red, and it made for some pretty scenery. Wish I would have left a little earlier because the traffic was terrible. But otherwise had a great ride.

[Kano]

IM-report from UK Elephant on her self-supported solo metric near-century:
Made 26 miles before lunch. Now (3pm) at 44 miles. Strong headwinds slowing her down, but she still expects to finish.


Good to hear! And good for her!!!

Maybe she'll do like I did when I rode 60 one day, and was back to my car, supposed to go home cuz the family was calling me pestering when are you coming home: just decide, well, if I go this little bit farther, then come back, I'll have done this cool "metric century" thing that the ladies keep talking about, and then I'll be cool too!

That wasn't today though -- it was a few weeks back when DH wanted to do a wicked hilly thing and my head was killing me, and then I decided to go off by myself and ride a bit when I was awake and the ibuprofen kicked in! He still whines about that day a bit: his ride was only 40....

Karen in Boise

[Kano]

And now for today's ride, and a few thoughts....

This morning, I woke up later than he did, sat around being up-right a while, had some breakfast, put on my bike shorts and a shirt, then sat on the floor in his office to put on my socks and asked "wanna go for a ride?" I was having an allergy morning and needed to distract myself while drugs kicked in. It wasn't working to try to accomplish anything "of value."

I still think it's pretty amazing how many miles we can ride in an "amble" through the various subdivisions that are popping up in our area. Today, riding to the grocery store that's about 3.5 miles away from us, we managed to meander about 23 miles! There's relatively little traffic, nice roads, and they're LONG roads too -- so we were able to "amble" at around 16mph a lot of the time. (comfort bikes, leaning toward mountain style, remember!) A few little hills, and I'm celebrating how much my hill climbing ability is beginning to improve. These are WEE things that I call hills, but for me, anything that's not flat or a downgrade is still a hill. Today was lots of fun. I felt some nostalgia, cruising along on some of our "old stand by" stretches (that we haven't ridden in a while because of chipsealing) -- I was remembering how I'd go up this wee hill at 5mph earlier this summer, and how top speed on that stretch used to be 12mph, and now 12 feels slow...

Besides this nostalgia thing going on today (like, you know, way back in the day, six weeks or so ago....) today's ride had this other element of fun going on: He likes to challenge me to push myself a bit, which is good for me (some days it annoys me greatly) but today he's pretty well shot after the ride: he had to work pretty hard today! There were a few times he'd mention things like "we're riding harder than you meant to, I know," and "just a little farther and we'll take a break." There were no breaks, and I think he was about to suggest going the short way home at one point when I said, let's go see what they've built over there since we were that way last!

Weather here in Boise is beautiful lately, but the air is very smokey. We live by mountains -- well, okay, foot-hills, since the mountains are just past those -- and lately, the smoke here in the valley is obstructing our view of those hills/mountains. Normally, I can see the ski-area where we spend many weekends during our winters playing from my bathroom window, but not today! As Tater says, our area could use a decent rain, to put some of these fires out! (and clean our air!) I worry about her commuting every morning in our stinky air: my daughter, the silly one who smokes, says this is very economical air, because she doesn't have to light up, just breathe deeply! (That said, I'm out riding in it myself today, and kicking DH out of his chair to ride too!)

Usually we make a pretty good team: I push him out of his chair and onto the bike (which he needs), then he pushes me to work hard out there (which I need!). Between a hectic schedule in August, and his resistance, he got by with slacking off, and coaxing me to slack off with him a LOT in August.

Ain't gonna happen in September. My goal was 300 miles in August, I was 106 short. Now I'm trying to decide if my goal for September should be the 300 that I haven't made in a month yet, or if it needs to be 406! When we got home, cleaned up, had lunch, and went out to REI, the big "SNIAGRAB" sale at Sports Authority, and Costco. I asked him "Where are we going to ride tomorrow, dear?" in the car. He said, "who said we're riding tomorrow?"

So I told him, I didn't ask IF we were riding tomorrow, I asked WHERE!

Oh yeah, almost forgot: While we were in REI, looking for bargains, and he wouldn't buy himself the better pair of shorts that were on sale (PI Short Attack are on sale for about $50 this weekend) he initiated looking at the road bikes, pricing them! Even talked to a sales person a bit about them! He did preface the conversation with "we're NOT buying any of these," but he looked, and that's a start!

Karen in Boise

[Tiffanie]

I finally had a ride today after just over two weeks off the bike! Yay!!! I dragged my sister out with me. She rode her dh's mtn bike so we didn't ride fast or far but it felt great to get back out. :) Just over 10 miles along the coast and SA River Trail.

[Triskeliongirl]

Did a hot 50 mile club ride. Most, including hubby were doing 75 (same ride with an extra loop at the top) but I still wasn't acclimated to the heat after being in Cape Cod all summer. I did better than I had been doing though, perhaps since the temps dropped from the triple digits to the high 90s. Very pretty scenary, interesting people to chat with. They say the heat wave is ending, but I'll believe it when I see it. The worse was having to stay outside while waiting for hubby to finish, and dying for a cold drink. I should have just filled my bottles with ice instead of liquid at the last stop!

[Cindyloo]

I decided to join the LBS crew for a group ride on the paths around here. The weather was great and the temp was probably mid seventies. I rode my bike to the shop then went with them on an 11 mile ride then rode home. In all I logged almost 21 miles. I was on my beater mountain bike so it was a little more effort than the road bike!

We had to pass under the road through tunnels several times. In one of the tunnels we caught a little chipmunk by surprise. He had nowhere to go but started to run along side us to the end of the tunnel. That little joker was going about 14 mph!

[emily_in_nc]

Rode to the farmer's market, Performance, and food co-op, both hubby and me with four panniers and Tailrider (which weren't all full after our shopping, but some stuff we bought was heavy!). Gorgeous post-Ernesto day here in NC (62 at start, 76 at finish, sunshine, breeze, blue sky, low humidity). MANY cyclists out, all in good spirits and friendly on such a pretty day after three rainy days. Total of 31.6 miles - our longest of the year. Since we had so many stops, we were away from home for a long time. Fun!

Emily

[alpinerabbit]

I climbed passo dello Stelvio - I did that with 5000 other bikers - 1800 meters pure climb over 25 km. 3 hours of unadulterated suffering.


http://nakole.jizdy.cz/grafika/stelvio.jpg


all your roads are belong to us!!
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/3011/untitled1copycr0.jpg

[emily_in_nc]

I climbed passo dello Stelvio - I did that with 5000 other bikers - 1800 meters pure climb over 25 km. 3 hours of unadulterated suffering.

Wow, I am in awe.

Great photos - thanks for posting them.

Congratulations! You truly are an alpine rabbit. I guess that makes me a yep, hill slug. :D

Emily

[uk elephant]

So Saturday morning I headed off on my long solo ride adventure that BF and my dad were so worried about. First stop was the bike shop. Friday some idiot professor stepped into the road right in front of me and got himself tangled up in my front wheel. Luckily there seemed to be no serious damage neither to me or my bike (nor to him for that matter although it was his fault). The only thing I could find was that the wheels were slightly buckled which worried me. So I stopped at the bike shop and they assured me the bike was perfectly safe to ride and not to worry. And they scheduled me in to get the wheels trued on Thursday. I called the guy who caused the crash and he was happy to pay for the repairs. So feeling relieved and ready for some pedalling I headed off. The weather forecast was for pouring rain all day. Turned out to be light drizzle in the morning, then dry most of the day. Not enough to get me wet or cold. But the strong headwinds all afternoon got me somewhat frustrated. But I kept pedalling away. I figured as long as I kept moving forward, I was still making progress and I was in no hurry. By the time I got to the hotel dad had booked I had done 55 miles in 7 hours (including the stop at the bike shope, so really it was 6 and a half hours). I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't longer because I had mentally prepared for a 60 mile ride so I considered making a few laps of the town where the hotel was to get up to a metric century, but decided a hot shower and a bit of stretching was more tempting. It is still 15 miles more than I have ever done in one day before so I figured I could be proud enough of that acheivement.