March 18th Rides

I went on a 37.5 mile ride with the "Wednesday Wheelers," i.e. social and "mature." Since we had beautiful weather predicted, my husband took the day off to come with me. I obsessed over what to wear; it was 38 when we left the house, but 48 when we drove into the lot of the meeting place, which was not that far away. We did lots of back roads from the border of Waltham/Weston, into Sudbury and Wayland. Most are place I've been, but a few new spots. It warmed up quickly; I was quite comfortable with knickers, a Craft LS base and a regular LS jersey, with a vest. I did change from full to regular gloves after about 15 miles. It was about 62 at the finish.
We had 2 stops; one at the Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge, which is quite near where I live, but I had never actually been inside the interpretive center. From there, we headed back to Waltham, where we had lunch at the Faculty Club at Brandeis University. It was really good, healthy salad bar with everything imaginable, plus an entree if you wanted. My husband proceeded to have an argument with a real azzhole who was sitting at our table, about riding etiquette. He (the other guy)actually got a ticket in Carlisle, MA for impeding traffic a couple of weeks ago. Well, there was no winning with him, he thinks he can do whatever... I know he won't be coming on any rides we lead (with another club that has much stricter rules, which I enforce!).
We had a small climb after lunch, with about 4 miles to go and some city type traffic for a couple of miles. But overall, a good ride. Going to go stretch. Running is doing bad things to my lower back.

The wind is back, but that's okay. I rode for around 2 hours, easier pace. Not a lot of riders out today, in fact, not a single other road bike.

Pretty, sunny day. Life is good.

Intended to take the new road bike out for her maiden spin but the front derailleur was maladjusted so we ended up at the shop instead.

I also decided it needs a shorter stem.

If it's not fixed by the time the next nice day rolls around I suppose I'll be riding the towpath.On the towpath bike. Which is fine too, I just want my new bike to be ride-ready.

I biked in this morning - 20 miles. It was nice - dry - and even though my legs were tired, I made pretty good time. But it's beautiful and sunny out now and I'm stuck at work. I wanna ride in the sun!!

On a positive note, the new wheels I got for my birthday back in Feb are just great. Riding them on familiar roads for the first time yesterday and today have confirmed that they really do improve the quality of my ride! :)

26 sunny miles for me today. I felt pretty strong considering this is only my seventh ride of the season. It was around 55-60 degrees which felt really nice.

Best part of my ride was a winery I pass on my favorite route had a whole bunch of nice oak half wine barrels out in their parking lot for sale at only $15 each. I stopped and told the guy I'd love to buy some but I needed to ride home and get my car. He said "what, you can't haul them on that fancy bike?" Anyway, I had an hour and a half to make it back with the car before he left. Well this was great motivation for me to high-tail it home. Unfortunately, home was uphill so it took me a good hour and ten minutes to get there. I put the bike away, threw on some sweats, flew back down to the winery and made it just as he was getting ready to leave. Got me three nice wine barrels and I'm a happy camper!

Spring is in the air here in Kentucky - a simply beautiful, sunny afternoon - perfect for riding. I squeezed 12 miles in before the sun started its exit. It was 72 F with a 15 mph wind out of the south. The ride out was challenging given the hills and the headwind but I knew the ride home would be awesome and it was - what a tailwind. The pastures are starting to turn green and the farmers are busy turning their fields in preparation for their crops. The baby calves were busy playing in the fields and the birds were singing - it was a wonderful reminder of what awaits us on a daily basis in a few weeks.

It felt so good to be outside but boy am I out of shape. It is very evident I took too much time off this past winter (which explains the nasty weight gain). Time to get focused and back on the bike - lots of riding awaits me this season.

16 glorious miles on the Great Dismal Swamp Canal Trail. We got there about 6 and finished just as the sun set. It was a beautiful evening :D