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I got a new camera yesterday. I can take self photos now. :p
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So. I decided to go t MT Baldy before church:
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time to turn around:
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We did a 32 mile "not knowing where we are going" ride. In other words, out the door and just ride. Thunderstorms, possibly bad were predicted for after 2 PM, so we kept an eye on the sky, because we left later than I wanted to. It was quite humid and felt hotter than it was (78) when we left. We ambled into Acton and into Littleton, where we thought we would climb Oak Hill and take a new route into Bolton that doesn't involve climbing a very steep hill that we do quite a bit. First, I had to stop after 5 miles, because something was clicking. It wasn't my bike, and discovered there's a screw rattling around inside my cleat. After making sure it wouldn't fly off while riding, we continued. Except that my husband turned left where he should have gone straight, so I thought he had decided not to climb Oak Hill. Then he decided to turn on the next street, which is a shorter, but steep climb that I haven't done this year. He thought he was going up Oak Hill! I can't understand how you cannot know what street you are on, since we ride up Oak Hill at least twice a month. But, once on this road, we stayed on it, as it was shady. We took it slowly and then had to make a choice. If we did our planned route, we would be heading further west, the direction the storms were coming in from. It was getting cloudier, and I wanted to avoid any chance of being caught in lightening, which has happened twice to me this summer. So we continued straight and looped back around through Stow and Boxborough, stopping by a fishing pond to eat a bit. We headed through our old neighborhood and then picked up the pace, since it was getting darker out and the cars had headlights on. We cut off another 5-6 miles and got back about an hour before the rain.
After lunch, we headed to the bike store where the owner has agreed to give me a new frame that fits better, after 2 years of basically riding a very expensive mistake of which I should have known better. It's a newer smaller version of a Kuota (same brand) with a sloping top tube that I can actually stand over. I am going to switch out my bars to something better for me, after tweaking with stems and shims which did nothing. I will keep the rest of my components, though, which are fine. He put the bike away for me and we will do the switch over the first week of September. I am very happy!
I got up early and drove to Wesport, Kentucky to join the MadDogs for a century. This route is wonderful- low traffic, good roads and beautiful scenery - really can't ask for much more. The weather on top of it was perfect. We started out in the upper 60's and by the time we reached our cars just before 4 it had just broke 80. Humidity was very low as well. Unbelievable weather for August in the Ohio Valley.
We logged 101.3 miles today and most of those were on pretty flat roads. I rode with a friend and we set a nice pace and maintained it from start to finish (except for the section where I really dropped off for a bit). I ended the ride with an average cadence of 79 and an average speed of 16.5 mph. I am pretty happy! Once again it was a great day to ride!
I am training for the MS 150, which is 5 weeks away. I did 64.1 miles on a beautiful, cool(ish) low humidity day here in NC. This is my longest ride to date. I was exhausted at the end of it, bu tvery proud I could do it at all!
Next week, we will do the same ride but I am sure the weather will be a bit warmer.
Today I did a very difficult and extremely scenic ride. I joined up with a bike club out of Sacramento and rode Iron Mountain Rd./Mormon Emigrant Trail from Sky Park Dam (Pollock Pines) to Hwy. 88. The ride went all the way to Silver Lake but I decided to turn around at Hwy. 88 as I've never done this much climbing and I wanted to be able to enjoy the ride back down. It was really clear today so the views were fabulous. I wish I had a smaller camera that I could take along. There are views of the Crystal Range of the Sierra Nevadas that are just unbelievably gorgeous. When you can't see the view, it's because you're in a beautiful forest. This road even has good pavement.
It ended up being 48.6 miles with 5,400+ feet of climbing. It's an out-and-back ride...took 3 hours at 8.2 mph to get to the top. Then about one hour to get back down. My max speed on the way down was 43.7 but I could've gone faster...I was braking because it was windy and I was scared I was going to get blown off the road.
Here's an elevation profile I took from beautifulvista.com ...but we started down at Sly Park Dam which adds some miles and another significant climb:
22 miles on the Bike Friday, visited a fellow TEer. Nice ride; I needed to get out!
DH and I rode with our new friend N. She's just getting back on the bike after a break from triathalons, and she and her hubby just moved here from Texas last year. So we took her out, showed her some routes from her house, and had a great time. Our anticipated 25 miles turned into 40 miles, most of which was flat. We've been riding the hills in the northern parts of DE, MD, and SE PA lately, so I'd forgotten how nice flat could be :) N. did great, in spite of the fact that her only bike is a tri bike with high gearing (a 42/54? crankset!). With some lower gearing- many folks here run compact doubles or even triples- she'll be an animal on the hills! I think she's going to borrow DH's second bike for the time being, for the gears and for more hand positions.
I'm trying to convince her to do the Wild Goose Chase with me. It would be great to have someone there to ride with!
All in all, a perfectly lovely day on the bike- much better than last Sunday :)
I got in a repeat ride of Friday's route, except this time I had rain/mist the whole time. 50 miles of a decent mix of hills and flat, but I took it slower b/c of the rain. 14.5mph (snail-like?)
Spent an hour last night cleaning up BabyBlue. ;)
I took the ferry over to the Block on Saturday with a friend and we circled the island, about 10 miles. It was a beautiful day. Leisurely pace. Amazing the amount of cyclists over there and even more amazing, the lack of helmets. As if being on an island makes it any safer to ride your bike. It's still asphalt, with cars, and hills, and other cyclists and mopeds. I don't get it.
Sunday DH and I rode a figure eight ride near our house - 35 miles. He is hard to keep up with. I had a sore back from the day previous (took a backpack to Block Island and it hurt my lower back.) So we took it slower than normal, but still averaged 16 mph. Usually when I ride with him it's about 17/18 so I was still happy, because alone it would have been 15.
Got a flat. Glad he was with me. He makes these things so much less panicky. I always feel like I'm doing something wrong and I'm going to put something on wrong or puncture the tire putting it back on the rim.
We had house guests that didn't leave until it was well over 100. I just looked longingly at my bike and then cleaned. Tomorrow I plan to commute home, I am itching to get some miles.
Love your self-portrait Fredwina.
We may well have been twins separated at birth :D
I rode my regular 24 mile route before traffic got crazy (it was Jazzfest weekend!). Saw lots of other riders. My average speed was ridiculously slow even though I was pushing harder than I usually do because there was a roadie couple threatening to pass me. They didn't, but it was an all out effort on my part, knowing they were getting close when I could hear there voices. Finally I turned and they went straight.
I try to suppress my competitive nature, but it always pops it's head out when I get passed. I want to not care. I want to just ride and not care about how fast I am, too. Really, it doesn't matter to anyone in the world. There's no reason I need to be faster than I am. Still, I come home and "mapmyride" and then calculate my speed, exactly the things I took my 'puter off for. Someone has a problem. I need a 12 step program.
I rode 20 miles with BF more less at his pace except when I could not restrain the brand new Madone 5.1 from pulling me up the hills and zooming down them. I hit 37.5mph on a downhill that I maxed previously at 33 the first time I rode in my new shoes and speedplay pedals. Weeeeeeeeeeee! That was freaking awesome and I started yelling but BF was too far behind me to hear it. I had a sh!t eating grin for the rest of the ride.