April 16 Rides

I did a beach ride today with my friend. We rode from Yorba Linda to Huntington Beach and back. It was a training ride for me, for a race I might do next month, my first ever. The fastest I've ever done this ride was 18.1 with two girlfriends last Fall, all taking turns drafting. Today, with just my one friend, I got an 18.9! I was SO excited! My goal was 19, but I'm thrilled with the 18.9, especially in light of the fact that my friend bonked near the end of the ride, wasn't pulling as fast as she had been, told me to go on without her and then I rode the last 5-ish miles by myself, in a head wind. We would have had the 19 if we could have kept our pace together. We'll do it another time, though. I'm so proud of us!!! :D That's my fastest time on any ride ever, other than on the tandem.

Good for you Jiffer! That's awesome :D

I just a did a short 16 miles through the Great Dismal Swamp Canal Trail after work. We averaged 19.5 on the first 8 miles (great tail wind) and then only 13.6 on the way back. The wind was so bad on the way back that at one point we couldn't get over 12 mph :eek:

Good ride all in all.

It has been cloudy and grey all day today. We had a 50-50 chance of rain and you could feel it in the air.......

I made it my first 6 mile loop.......and just as I was nearing my house the sprinkles started....

I wimped out!LOL

I did make it running an average of 16mph or so (that even includes....don't laugh.... the 5 mph up my favorite hill - the one I finally made it up on Tues and thankfully again tonight).

Tina

First ride in two weeks today having been sidelined by a stupid headcold/sinus infection:mad:

I'm trying to break my 300m hill into short sections before attempting the whole thing in one go again. Today I did the bottom part, which is almost half the altitude gain but doesn't include the steepest sections. And that was enough! Sitting at about 60-something cadence in my lowest gear for most of it, and standing in the same gear on the nastier bits. Any steeper and the only option left would have been grinding to a standstill and hoping for a soft landing:o. I really should get lower gears but that would be like admitting defeat:p. So I went up and down that section twice, having started from the car parked at the bottom. About 10k (6 miles) total.

Almost at the bottom for the second time I ran over a small stone and got my first flat :mad: Could have walked the last couple of hundred metres but decided I could use the practice of changing the tube. Hardest part was working out how the skinny valve works :mad:. I didn't realise, until I'd tried everything else, that I needed to unscew the little cylinder thingy. Once I got that sorted it was easy :) Took bike into the shop later on to buy another tube and asked the guy to check what I'd done just in case. All was fine - he just put a bit more air in with a foot pump and explained how the valve works :) He also told me about the local Sunday morning rides which I would love to be able to do when my fitness improves, so that was good too. Will investigate repairing the punctured tube later. I'm glad it happened now because I know I'll be OK next time :D

I did 10 miles today, average 10.6 mph. I would have gone farther but I had to get to work :( It was a nice, flat trail (I'm working towards a 31 mile ride in June as my goal). Unfortunately, there were many flies on the trail since it was about the nicest day we've had yet this spring. I think I inhaled a bunch. Gross. :eek:

How are you guys figuring out your cadence? Do you actually do a count or do you have a computer that figures for you somehow?

My computer tells me cadence. No way my brain could cope with counting, watching the clock and pushing the damn pedals all at the same time LOL.

For me it's by far the most useful function the computer has and was the only 'must have' on my list when I bought the thing. The various speed functions are nice to know but don't help me improve technique, whereas cadence does.

Your flies sound yuck!

Participated in my first group ride last evening. It was a blast! Everyone was so nice to me and encouraged regular participation :). We started at the LBS and wound our way 17 miles through suburban (and hilly) Atlanta. I've been on longer rides and some just-as-hilly rides around my house, but the pace was kicked up a notch. I couldn't hang with the lead group, but I made it back just a few minutes behind. Even though I was having some gearing issues (new bike, needs some fine tuning) and I have a chest cold and I was at least 15 years older than the next youngest woman, I feel very proud. :D

35 miles with my new once-a-week cycling friend. After three years of riding alone or trying to hang with DH and his friend, it's sooooo nice to ride with someone and have the miles seem to fly by! I love the whole solitary thing, but the occasional change is invigorating. Plus, I always tack on an additional 5 miles from her house to mine -- five miles of hill after hill after hill -- so it's a great workout!

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Originally Posted by hilldweller

Your flies sound yuck!

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They were yuck! And I'm sure they will be out there again today :( Good luck on your hill. I'm working on getting some stamina on just flat rides right now...I'm sure in a few weeks I will want to do some hills. Oh, and "hills" to me are probably what most here call "bumps" :D :D :D