May 10th Mother's Day Rides!

Hey all! Didn't see a thread for today...

Well since I wasn't going home to see my mom, I ended up joining the Northshore Cyclists for their annual mother's day ride.

Most the way I rode with a lady I met who was doing the short route, and I'm going to ride with her again since she's close by.

Mileage for the day 28.3 :) Longest ride of the year...and man do my legs feel like they're going to fall off. Already stretched and such though, so I should be good.

Pics from today while riding :)

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Needless to say we found horse country.

I too had the longest ride of the year so far, 134k and 1700m gain. Phew. I'm beat. Never done this much this early in the year.

Just got back from a 39 mile ride, which is a good part of the route of the one and only charity ride I do each year. The total ride is 50 miles, but since the lunch stop is about 4 miles from home, we just go home from there sometimes.
And today was one of those days. We rode 8 miles to meet our friends. The forecast was for winds 15-25 mph out of the west, with gusts to 40. We were riding west for those first 8 miles and went very slow out of necessity, since it was on a main road and I was being blown all over the road. Otherwise, it's gorgeous and sunny out, after a few days of rain and humidity. Part of the ride goes through Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge, which is always nice. Tons of cyclists through there, too. We rode from our house, to Acton, Sudbury, Wayland, Weston, a bit into Waltham, and into Lincoln, and back to Concord. After climbing the biggest hill of the ride and going down it, on the worst road surface ever, we ride through Hanscom AFB. There's a hill that I usually love going down on this road, because it's straight and wide. Well, by this time, we had turned back to the west and the wind was gusting so high, I actually started going slower as I was descending! Then, I was struggling to maintain 11 mph on a road where I am usually going 18-20. I was pretty glad to turn off of that road and stop for lunch. We sat by the Visitor's Center and watched all of the tourists who had descended on my town for Mother's Day. I actually was ready to do 15 more miles, but everyone else was "done." so we headed home. After a nice relaxing soak in a bath of Epson salts I have revived.
We did Mother's Day yesterday, so we could ride today!

52 kms. on a sunny, slightly cool day. I rode out to a cove in the northeast end of city. (I wore long tights, then changed to shorts :p) It was probably around 55 degrees F or abit more. Saw people in short-sleeved T-shirts or tank tops. Really?

Meanwhile I was dressed in long sleeve jersey, light fleecy vest and shell cycling jacket.

Ahhh, dry pavement for a change. I got in a windy but warmish 44 mile ride, starting in the predawn.

Unfortunately, the first warm nights bring out the revelers. Heading down the MUC (it was still dark), I saw a tail light a ways ahead of me. Thought it was another cyclist, but it was moving fairly fast. About a half mile later, I see four teenagers boys -- one on a motorbike/scooter that he was having problems driving --- and two or three on skateboards with ropes attached to the bike rider. I guess they thought I was a cop, thanks to my bright headlight, because they screamed and started off down the trail. The kids on the skateboards being pulled by the knucklehead on the bike. I didn't want to take the chance of catching up to them, so I turned around (I think the bike was stolen and I'm pretty sure they were wasted). I went down that way later, thinking they'd wised up and gone home, but no such luck. An exact repeat of the earlier encounter. I ended up changing my plans and rode my extra hilly route, a real challenge w/the wind, to avoid meeting up w/them again.

Hopefully, none of them got injured and that they didn't hurt anyone. There are joggers and walkers who are early morning "regulars" whom they might have come upon suddenly.

Longest ride of the year for me too today. Really didn't fancy climbing big hills, so I stayed close to the coast today instead doing a tour of the Dovey Estuary. Weather started out gray and gloomy, but didn't rain and it slowly cleared up through the day. Ended the ride at some friend's house to meet up with BF. Then we had a surprise call from a couple of friends who live in Switzerland saying they were about to stop by. Gave them a tour of the town and dinner at a Chinese restaurant before they headed off again and I could finally have a shower. Definitely feeling it in my legs now: 51.6 miles and according to the gps I did 4800ft of climbing on what is the flattest route I could think of.

65 miles with our good buddy Indysteel.

After a week and a half off the bike, it was great! Plus the weather was perfect!

Once again--food is the theme. An early morning 20 mile ride, with an ice cream break! Also spotted a bluebird. Sister and BIL like the new trailhead close to my house--which means we should see them more! Looks like I'm in good enough shape for the 50 mile tour next weekend.

We did the Mystic Metric with the NBW club... very scenic and Connecticut roads are just the best. We cross back into Rhode Island and it's like one huge pothole. ;) I am tired. A good tired.

What can make this Mother's Day so special? A wonderful bike ride with my two beautiful kids and my husband!

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Went for a nice long solo loop yesterday, ride started out well.

Ride was going well, I was about 44 miles in and had about 0.5 mile left of a steep climb when I heard that awful hissing from my rear wheel. Stopped, plopped down in the dirt to change it, discovered my pump was not all that good but I was able to get something rideable (this was actually my first flat on this bike, not bad after about 2700 miles). I didn't see anything obvious for the cause, no thorns, etc.

Oddly enough, one of my Ducati friends was riding by as I was finishing up and stopped to check on me, but I assured him I was doing fine.

Made it another 12 miles, was 56 miles into the ride and heading down a descent, just before a pretty steep part when I got the second flat. A very nice local cyclist stopped and helped me out with a spare tube and some CO2. At this point we discovered the cause of my flats - my rim tape had developed a hole. We attempted to cover it up with an energy bar wrapper.

Made it down the big descent (thankfully) although I ended up losing my pump somewhere on the way down. I wasn't going back for it.

At mile 65 I got my 3rd flat. I had absolutely no way to fix it at this point. Also there was no cell phone signal so I started walking.

2 miles into the walk a couple of cyclists stopped by, offered a tube but I told them it would probably just flat again. One of them took my home number and told me he would call as soon as he got somewhere with a decent signal. After 5 miles of walking my husband finally showed up - he had gotten the call from the guy.

Got in 65 miles, about 7800' before I had to throw in the towel. What a frustrating day.

Big thanks to the people who stopped and helped me out. It would have been a very long walk home.

... so, I promise not to kavetch about how sore my rear is after 60 miles anymore... nice ride, MsIncredible (except fer the flats part.)

Forgot to mention that we tried out a small road that ended up getting steeper and steeper until we stalled. I've never walked on my roadie (or should I say with roadie in hand? :() - but this was at least 150m of 20, 21% and we were already pooped. I can do maybe 100 of that but this incline did not end.