Sunday, August 8 rides

Hope I'm not overlapping with someone else creating the thread...

46 miles ride today, with rain and wind in the first half. I really wanted to ride and was not willing to wait for the weather to clear. I will say, it's invigorating to feel the rain hitting your skin! (some imagination of epic stages in a grand tour help)

In the spirit of Fredwina, whose picture I alwaya enjoy, I'll share a couple of snapshots taken with the cell. I apologize for the smudges... did I mention it was raining?

First picture is a small bridge in Lake Forest; the second is the beach front in Lake Bluff (looking south) and the third is Fort Sheridan.

Had a nice recovery ride today. I am house sitting so for a change I do not have to TAKE my bike somewhere else to ride :D

So, for the first time since learning how to ride 9 months ago. I had no route planned. I just let my bike go wherever he wanted to go and had fun! I had to keep reminding myself that this was a recovery ride and that it didn't matter how long it took me :) I really enjoyed my 20 mile ride and got to see some new roads and scenery.

Another club ride today with the same amount of climbing as yesterday, 2900 ft., but 15 more miles to make it 40 miles today. Up to Mokelumne Hill and then down the smooth as glass hill to Starbuck's. Had a guy join us from Southern CA, "never done hills like that!" He kept up with the front of the pack though, at least he wasn't in the back ;)

Trailnet organized ride at Augustfest in Mascoutah, IL. Flat 40 miles. Beautiful farmland, lots of riders, kids selling lemonade & cookies on the side of the road. No traffic. Lots of fun--DH did the longer route with another riding buddy. A record pace for me. Good ride :-)

I rode my mountain bike today, for the first time in 2 years. We rode the 1.5 miles to the local conservation land trail, which I had hiked on Monday.
Sigh. Whenever I get on any bike that isn't my road bike, I am a shaky mess. Add in rocks and roots, and well..
I did fine on the first trail, where we rode up a bit and into a beautiful field of wildflowers and into a neighborhood in the next town. I was a bit nervous coming down a teeny hill, but, I did it. I waited for DH at a junction for the other trail. He took a while, and as I suspected, he had crashed, while trying to take a video while descending. Yea, he can do this quite easily on the road, but not good on the trail. He was fine, but right away, I realized this next trail was more technical. Lots of rocks and uphill. I crashed for no reason, falling into the bushes on the side. It seems like every little teeny thing that hits my wheel makes me fishtail and feel like I am going to crash. I walked a bit and yelled to DH that I would wait for him to come back. This trail ends at a grassy field that is part of a gas line access behind my neighborhood and the "prison farm." It's a really fun place to ride, but I was not ready. I made it down the uphill on the bike, but crashed again, not really sure why. Once back on the main trail, I pushed it and rode up the steep grade on my street quite quickly for being on that monster bike.
Total of 5.2 miles.
I considered selling my mountain bike, since maybe a 56 year old with osteoporosis shouldn't do this, but decided I will try to give more time to it. I love being outdoors in the woods, but I guess I have to start all over with this.

51.83 km in 2:21:17
average speed: 22.01 km/h, max 33.3 km/h
A whole whopping 256 ft of climbing... haha

This was a repeat of an out and back ride I did last Saturday. I didn't see nearly as many cyclists out. In fact, I didn't see any until 25 km. Ended up seeing only 4 total, the cool part is that 3 of them were women.

Anyhow... it was a pretty good ride. My average pace has remained fairly unchanged for the last couple of months.