Labor Day Weekend Rides

I will start :)

I've been having some slight right hip pain after riding my Gunnar, but not my Jamis. While it is hard to compare the two, at the advice of my fitter I took them both in. He made two teensy tweeks - removed an unneeded washer from my Frog cleats in a very minor tweak to my Q-factor, and raised my saddle 3mm.

Tiny changes...frankly I wasn't hopeful and I do not think he really was either. However...I rode 40 HARD miles this morning and even had a PB in my average speed. No numbness in my hip, no pain. Period. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Nyet.

I did my usual stretches, and there is a hip stretch that has been consistently painful after riding the Gunnar lately - and even THAT was perfectly pain free. I will take it :cool: :D :cool:

Good news, Catrin! Hope that's that.

I heart my Sat morning shop ride. I parked at my friend's house and rode to the start from there, so 39 miles. It was especially fun for some reason. Not sure, I think I just felt good.

Maybe it's because I've reset my internal clock so I now wake up early everyday just so I won't be tired on Sat morning. How crazy is that? The weird thing is, I've never slept better in my life. I've been getting like 9 hours a night, which for a borderline insomniac, is heavenly. I'm thinking all these years of not sleeping well were because I was forcing myself to stay awake hoping I'd sleep better if I were really tired. It seems like my body likes to go to bed at 9 pm. I hit the pillow and I'm out. It's awesome.

I wouldn't have figured this out if not for the early ride. I pray it lasts.

Did the "usual" Sat. morn group ride. We had so very strong head/cross winds which caused the group to split initially, but we regrouped and stuck together well for the rest of the 38 mile ride. Had some light rain on the return trip which made a few folks decide to push the pace, but overall it was good. Had to get the ride done today as a little storm named Lee will probably make it impossible for the rest of the weekend.

80 miles for me today. It was unusually hot and muggy for a Sept morning here today...mid 70's when we started at 6:15am, and got up to 87 (as shown on my Garmin) near the end of the ride. Tomorrow's ride might be a big one (100?) since we are supposed to have a good amount of wind from the NW, and that generally means we do our "northerly" route which often ends up being over 100 miles. Not really looking forward to doing another century, since I just did one 2 weekends ago...but I don't really want to complain about it since I know that in a few short months the snow, ice, and sub-zero temps will end my riding season until next spring. So I'll keep the whining to a minimum and tough out the 100 miles tomorrow. :cool:

My DH and I did an organized ride in southeastern Arizona, from the town of Willcox to the base of the Chiracahua Mountains. 65 miles, a little more than 2000 feet of climbing. The start time was pleasantly cool but on the ride back the big climb was miserably hot and the last 8 miles were mostly flat, but windy, hot and humid. We were both really happy to get off the bikes.

Don't know if it from the recent fit changes, but my b*tt was really not happy in the saddle after the middle of the ride and I was squirming a lot.

Still, it was rewarding and I have a shiny medal to show i did it

Yesterday we did our annual ride up Boreas Pass outside of Breckenridge, Co. The road is an old RR bed, with a hard packed, dirt surface. Cars are allowed on the road but the tourists had not yet arrived so we had the road pretty much to ourselves. Temps were in the mid 60's. We started at approximately 10,000 ft and rode to the top, 11,481 ft. The climb was 3-4% for 6 miles. It took about an hour to reach the top. On the ride down we had beautiful views of Aspen forests and the Breckenridge Ski area. There is still snow at the top of the mountain!

At the top there is an old RR car and several buildings left over from the RR days. The buildings have been restored and are part of the Summit Hut system. Several years ago our ski club rented the hut and we snowshoed the 6 miles to it and spent 3 days there. It was quite an experience.

On Friday Hirakukibou and I rode; I did 43 miles, some flat, some hilly, and one unexpected patch of soft dirt, stones, etc, with a huge tree truck in the road. We got through it, but it was scary. Pre-holiday traffic was out of control when we got back into Concord, as compared to the rural areas we were in.
Yesterday did a very fast 11 mile ride with DH before we went to the beach. I was hurting.
Today, doing 50 or so, our hilliest local ride, about 3K ft. of climbing.

I returned from our self contained trip yesterday. On Friday, we were heading back from Colebrook New Hampshire and riding Rt 26 south, and of course over Dixfield Notch. I have ridden that route many times, but always from the other side, so this was a special treat. :p

Yesterday we were finished up riding Rt 26 south towards Newry in the rain, but had an incredible time and were very gracious to the compassionate Canandian drivers who were whizing by us!

I'll update my blog within the next day or two if any of you are interested.
http://chasecyclery.blogspot.com

Have a safe weekend everyone!

Friday was a commute day. Yesterday was 50 flat windy miles with DH and our friend S. S. has this issue with eating during exercise and stomach upset and, as a result, he doesn't take in any nutrition on a ride. Makes for an interesting last 10-15 miles every time we ride with him. I/We can't figure out how to convince him to experiment a little with different drinks, gels, and chews and that he's causing a danger to himself and others when he bonks. *sighs*

Today is a day off the bike for yoga, chores, and an REI trip. We'll ride again tomorrow :)

My road bike is in the shop in need of some minor repairs, so yesterday I took my husband and my old hybrid out on the East Bay bike trail beginning in Bristol. Lots of storm damage along the trail with several trees and lots of debris down. There were also several groups of 10-11 year old boys riding like 10-11 year old boys all over the place. We did about 18 miles then had lunch along the water.

Yesterday I did 40 someodd miles in the local hills. Highlights:

• Great weather! Not too hot, not too cold.
• Gear adjustment at the LBS and I shifted like butta the rest of the ride.
• Free massages at the LBS while I waited.
• 10 miles of headwinds. d'oh.
• teenagers screaming expletives at me out their car window. erg.
• old people looking for marineland. it's been closed for almost 25 years. whoops.
• the chance to attack some tough uphills and scary downhills. i rocked it.
• a beautiful day and a fun ride overall.
• a nice hot bath when I got home. highly recommended.

Did 3-in-1 ride on Saturday.

• 10 mile ride on my own for warm-up
• 20 mile Pre-Mike ride with group
• 20 mi Welcome Back Mike ride

The Welcome back Mike ride - He is my fitter (and the one that told me I should be on a smaller bike size!) - He was in a bike accident from a car (No insurance, no driver's license, no registration...poor Mike...he had to eat up all the costs!) 12 weeks ago, and this is his first ride back...on his SWEET expensive bike...

I needed to put in 50 miles for Century Training...so it was perfect. Very Hilly - 3k+ climbing! The most climbing I've done.

Today - I put in easy 26 miles. I think it's the most I've done in a weekend ever....that I've been riding for 2 years!

We rode 100, just as I suspected we would. My nutrition must have been a bit off today, because when I got home I immediately sat down and felt like I was too weak to even stand up. DH suspected that I was dehydrated (and I probably was) but the very thought of drinking water at that moment made me want to gag. So I just sat there, hanging my head between my knees for a while. We had a fairly stiff headwind for more than half of the ride, so I think it just wore me out...along with not drinking enough during the ride. Once I got up and moving again, I took a shower and then actually laid down for a short nap and felt a bit better afterwards. THEN I suddenly got extremely thirsty...like I simply could not get enough water in me no matter what, thirsty.
I've done many 100 mile rides, but this one (and it was a route that we've done many times, too) felt particularly tough and really kicked my @ss. Oh well, I guess we all have bad cycling days once in a awhile. Tomorrow I am planning to take it easy with a much shorter ride.

I grabbed a peanut butter nutella sandwich for breakfast and then did 2 hours of hill intervals with one of the students on my team. He is FANTASTIC! I am always surprised and thrilled by how genuinely cool and unique my cycling kids are. He just got himself a Bianchi Nirone and is loving it! I'm not sure how effective it was, but we took this 0.3 mile hill spinning and in big gears, alternating every other climb. It was probably only a grade of 6% or so, but nonetheless, got my heart rate going! I am psyched to train :)

Later, I forgot my bike was on top of my car and drove into a mall parking garage. My bike is ok, the shifter got twisted around, but the Thule tray it was in is toast. Whenever I tell my students that failure is an opportunity to learn, I will tell them of this story. Ugh!

did a 65 mile ride today, a very warm day; a lot of it was with Susan126. She an incredibly strong rider.