Saturday, June 12 rides

The weather predicted rain, starting later today, so I actually slept in until 8 AM. It started looking a bit dark out, so we decided that today would not be the day for a long "wherever we end up" ride. Just as I was sitting down to put on my cycling shoes, the doorbell rang. It was my son, decked out in his cycling clothes. He was headed to a group ride, got lost, and missed the start, so he figured we would be heading out. It started sprinkling as we set off, so we ended up just doing the short, 15 mile loop around Concord. I was most happy that he commented on how fit I seemed compared to our last ride together. He thought it was from riding in Spain, but I explained that the last time we rode together, it was the beginning of April and I was sweeping a club ride with a bunch of very fast people... which didn't put me in a happy place. Except for the place where DH decided to see if DS could keep up with him on a hill sprint (where DH realized DS is now stronger than he is, and yes, he is 27 years old), I kept up with them. The skies opened up about 5 minutes after we got home, making me feel badly for the charity riders I saw, going in the other direction.

We rode in a drizzle to the opening day of the downtown farmers market. It is newly expanded, so way more spread out than last year, because the fire department didn't like the crowd.

Not crowded at all; maybe all the babies and dogs were at real estate open houses.

DH and I did the Oxon Hill Bike Club's annual Patuxent River Rural Legacy Ride.
The name is quite a mouthful, but it's a nice ride....a metric century (shorter routes are available) that starts at a wildlife sanctuary and hits several nice areas in a sort of Figure-8 route along the Patuxent River. A nice rolling course...this year they changed it up some due to road construction and it was - we think - a big improvement over previous years.
This ride also serves as the sole remaining "date ride" for DH and me...a ride we can do together, alone, without the crew from the bike shop (who I love dearly, but I don't want to do EVERY ride EVERY weekend with them!). DH has to go slow for me - but he does sprint up hills and wait for me at the top - it's the one cross he still bears for me! :rolleyes::p
We did run into TE's NYBiker at the 3rd rest stop, and again at the end. Was nice to chat, NY (but...see paragraph above for why we didn't linger!).

I am traveling in Ireland and borrowed a Dahon folding bike for the afternoon for a ride through green, rolling hills of County Clare. Not sure how far- maybe 15 miles? I misread directions and it's hard to figure out the roads here... anyway, it was beautiful. I also rented a bike in Dingle earlier in the week and rode 27 miles around the tip of the Dingle Peninsula- gorgeous, breathtaking scenery.

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Originally Posted by azfiddle

I am traveling in Ireland and borrowed a Dahon folding bike for the afternoon for a ride through green, rolling hills of County Clare. Not sure how far- maybe 15 miles? I misread directions and it's hard to figure out the roads here... anyway, it was beautiful. I also rented a bike in Dingle earlier in the week and rode 27 miles around the tip of the Dingle Peninsula- gorgeous, breathtaking scenery.

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How lucky, it sounds beautiful!

Did my first century today... I'm extremely proud of myself. There was almost 4,000 feet of climbing. The weather was perfect sunny and mid-70's!!

I commuted to work. In the morning, a little girl on a bike rode right into me on the bike path. Neither of us fell since I stopped before she hit, but I was really annoyed. I was afraid my frame or fork had been scratched, but it turns out it was only the brake/shifters. I glared at her and said nothing when she said she was sorry. She was just little, and so for the rest of the day, I felt guilty for not telling her it was okay. I think her mother laughing made me angry, but in hindsight I can even understand that. It was nervous laughter.

I guess it's time to avoid the bike path again. I get spoiled by riding all winter.

Road ride, been on the MTB too much so grabbed the Ruby and went to Camarillo to ride as it's cooler than the San Fernando Valley. Went with my brother- who is also a cycling nut. It was cool-I had to wear my light lycra leggings. And it was also very windy. Not too gusty, but a constant blow right in from the Pacific, right in our faces. When it did gust, it was from the front right, and sometimes at a right angle, blowing sand and dirt from the fields of strawberries and grapes onto us. We trudged along at like 14 to 13 mph, it was a workout all the way from the freeway down to the ocean. As we rode, cyclists on the other side of the road (this is a popular local ride) waved at us; they had already been on the 'suffer side' and were very happy to be going the other way for sure!

Once on PCH, riding was great, it was cool and breezy but it was more a side wind, and did not feel as strong as the headwind on Los Poses. The ride back was great; we road like superman with that wind behind us. I kept thinking, we earned this push and it's our time to wave on the on-coming cyclists on the 'suffer side'.

Ds was on a playdate from 9am so dh and I took off for one of our rare rides together - took the Estacade (a car-free ice breaker bridge that leads to an 11 km car-free cycling route) which I had never tried before. The day turned out to be beautiful. Could not take our planned bridge back, it was closed, so we had to take a bridge that put us right into the crowd returning from the Formula One Grand Prix qualifications. The bike path was absolutely packed with Ferrari t-shirts (not hard to tell who the majority is rooting for). Got past the crowd, had a nice return home, just in time to pick up our son. Did about 70 km total, steady riding, not much resting - wish we could have had a little coffee break, but with that bridge closed, we needed to make it home on time.

Gorgeous day today, but this is a recovery day from yesterday, a week of commuting, and some heavy yoga sessions. Time to regroup. Going to the library, going to Lulu Lemon, relax and watch the race on tv (dh is a big fan, he used to be a flagger on that track in his younger days). Hope you are having a good weekend, ladies!

DH and I set off yesterday on a ride we've been wanting to check out for quite a while now. We're in Southern California and headed out the westbound 126 into the town of Fillmore. Beautiful weather (started in the low 60's - 6:45am - and peaked around 90) with gorgeous sunny skies. A total of 58.5 miles with lots of rolling hills.

All-around, he's a much stronger rider than I am but he noticed how I've picked up a few mph since getting a new road bike a few weeks ago and consistently going out on group rides. Last weekend was my first half-century so at 58.5 this was my longest ride ever.

I was trying out a new saddle and shorts... not a good thing on a long-for-me ride. I believe the Canari G2 Vortex shorts were a size too big and as much as I was hoping it would be, the Terry Damselfly saddle is not a winner for me :( 24hrs later, parts of the girly-bits are still numb. Back to the saddle search!

Finally managed to get to a Waterford factory ride. It has taken us 3 years of plotting to get there--if we haven't been busy, the rain has fallen. Rain was predicted the night before but we woke up to only a 20% chance.

So, off we rode the 25 miles to the plant in a moderate fog. The ride was supposed to be 50 miles so a century day was in the works...well, sort of.

The Waterford factory puts on a couple of rides every year. One of the local bike clubs hosts for the ride insurance. The factory gives a tour where you get to see all of the pretty bikes, both nekkid and painted versions, and Richard Schwinn provides awesome roadside SAG service from the back of his car.

The 50 mile route was bumped up to 60 miles and rerouted away from the flat farmland the area is known for and up and over every hill in the neighborhood including a gruesome 15% grade. Given that we started out way too hard, we clipped the final leg and headed home, getting in a too quick 93 miles for the day.

But, it was fun. I'd guess about 100 riders with maybe 1/2 riding Waterfords. Some really pretty machines that made my beauty almost, but not quite, look plain.

I rode ~30 miles on beach drive, MD. I got there at 7 am with some hesitation thinking there'd be only a few folks out only to discover I could have gotten there at 6 and probably still had company :) next time I will!

Finally some nice weather! About 24 miles out and back through the river valley. This place has finally thawed out.

100 miles / 7,000 feet of climb. Except for the fact that it rained the first 30 miles, the sun never came out, and the temp never made it above 63 degrees, it was an AWESOME ride!

I made a couple of nutrition mistakes Saturday morning that killed me: I ran out of milk (so no cereal :( ), so I had a yogurt. I also put grape gatorade in one of my bottles. It wasn't hot, maybe high 60s or low 70s, but horribly humid. I had to pull over for a while to keep from throwing up. I had a time limit as one of my friends was picking me up for a little trip to Pittsburgh, but I still got around 8 miles in with hills. I improved my average speed too. :)