October 18 Rides

Spooky commute this morning. It was pitch black at 5:30 am, heavily overcast, foggy, no street lights, and the middle of the woods. At first I was really enjoying the solitude and quiet, with nothing visible except what my headlight lit up. Then I passed what looked like someone crouched on the side of the path. Although I'm sure it was just shadows, that's all I needed for my imagination to kick in. I start feeling like someone is chasing me (it doesn't help that I'm in the middle of a scary book) so I'm haulin' a$$ away from that area... of course, right there is a short but steep hill. That's the fastest I've gone up a hill so far :p .

It took me about a mile to calm down and remind myself that it was all in my head. The rest of the ride was great. Perfect temp, perfect choice of clothing, full of energy, and very few people out. Lots of bunnies running amuck though.

Well, the ride in this morning was less evenful than the ride home yesterday afternoon! I had the dreaded f-word on the rear tire, of course. Got it off, found the offending (or so I thought) goatheads, patched, pumped and was on my way. Nine miles down the road, sure 'nuff, low again. This time I just put air in enough to get me the last two and a half miles home. When I took off the tire, I ran a cotton pad around the inside of the tire and found a goathead that had broken off, but was juuuust long enough to puncture the tube. Well, that put me over my three patch limit on that tube, so I just replaced the whole tube, pumped 'er up and hoped goathead season will soon be over.

Looking at a nice 55 degree commute on the way home.

Had a very nice 21 mile ride this morning , a pleasant mix of country highways and backroads. I changed my route to avoid a certain dirt road I like because yesterday it rained all day so I figured that might be muddy. I decided I like this new route better!
I didn't ride yesterday because of the rain, and the forecast shows more rain coming, so I was glad to get this ride in today. Hope to ride in between raining tomorrow.
Felt really good and stronger this week than ever before.
It was wonderful weather- 60 degrees and cloudy, slight breeze, no rain. I peeled off two additional thin layers I had started with, and wound up with just my one thin longsleeve merino T-neck and my long tights, and still that was more than I really needed.

With apologies to Charles Shultz and Snoopy, "It was a dark and foggy morning."
And even tho' I was lit up and flashing like a Christmas tree - front and back - I still had 2 people pull out of side streets and nearly hit me. One came within a foot or so of t-boning me (I told DH it was about 3 feet so he wouldn't worry. Does that make me a bad person??). I guess it's time to put the reflective tires on...I need every little drop of visibility I can get.
I, too, scattered bunnies on the bike path. I had visions of getting clocked by a running deer, but fortunately, that didn't happen.
The ride home was much less eventful. Lots of people out walking and on bikes, enjoying one of the remaining good days of the year.
15 miles in a leisurely 1:10:00, and only my second ride since the Century on the 7th (and my arm STILL hurts!).

In spite of totally unpredictable weather, I did 23 miles on the Allegheny Passage trail yesterday, from Ohiopyle to Confluence in PA. For most of the ride, the sky looked as if it was going to open up and pour, but for brief moments the sun would shine and enough blue would peek through the clouds to taunt me. Gorgeous section of trail, though.

I talked with MdHillSlug and divingbiker during our ride on Sunday about my problems with pacing myself and yesterday's ride was a perfect example. Riding alone, I could not keep my rpm/mph at an easy pace. For some reason, my legs want to go fast even though my cardiovascular system has trouble keeping up. Definitely something I need to work on if I'm going to continue to increase my mileage.