Weekend Rides: Sept 22

Yesterday was the Hope Ride, a wonderful charity ride that has been going on for a long time. Very well supported with so many SAG vehicles that we saw more of those than any other vehicles! There were over 2,300 riders at the last count.

Guillianna 23 and I met at the event and rode the first loop together. It was supposed to be a 24 mile loop, but it was actually 28.5 miles according to my bike computer. Very pretty route, even if we didn't ride past the "Garden of Armageddon" this year (it's been around since the '60s and was mentioned in one of Kurt Vonnegut's writings back in the '70s) The Garden is surreal and I had hoped to get a picture THIS time. Perhaps next year! They change the routes up each year.

The day was cloudy and cool, starting at 51 degrees and it didn't warm very quickly. I started out with a cranky knee and IT band so I knew there was a chance I wouldn't be able to complete my desired 50 mile route...and that is what happened. By the end of the 28 miles the back of my knee was starting to complain a bit, and my IT band was starting to go numb on me so I read the writing on the wall. I COULD have finished the ride, but at what cost? Wisdom overcame stubborness...errrrr....valor and I called an end to my part of the ride on a positive note.

The roads were delightful, I am always impressed by their condition. Certainly they all aren't perfect, but nice. They tossed in a few wicked climbs which was also fun, and I am not ashamed to say I walked one of them :rolleyes: This was the worse of the climbs that came right after a bridge that forced me to slow down because of the "lip" area on/off the bridge and I knew I was going far too slow. I wasn't the only one to make that decision.

I loved this bus, pity I couldn't get a shot when the wind was blowing so you can see what is on the flags :)

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Friday afternoon I rode 15.5 miles with a friend, just around Acton and Stow. Old familiar roads, beautiful temperatures, clear, cool, 60 degrees.
Yesterday I went down to the south coast to do a preliminary ride for a ride I am co-leading in 3 weeks. DH is away, so I went with the other leader, who is a guy that has helped us lead some of our rides. We have similar riding styles and philosophies of leading, so it was fun. It's a 1.5 hour drive down there and he regaled me with stories of poor trip planning and other leaders' disorganization on the way down. It was rainy/drizzly when we left, but not when we arrived. I have a similar ride I do in the same location, and I knew from the cue sheet that his ride was similar, but more of a loop (and shorter). We left from Tiverton HS parking lot and the first 10 miles or so were the same as my other rides I have done here. Then we went to a beach I had never been to and doubled back, on new roads to the lunch spot. Much better than my previous rides, where this lunch spot comes way too early in the trip. I bought a turkey sandwich, we ate (he is like me, doesn't like to hang out too long at stops), and went to finish the last 18 miles of the ride. There were a few hills on this part of the ride, nothing horrible, and I found out that while he zoomed ahead of me on a couple of downhills, I could easily catch him on the ups and we did ride together the whole time. At times we were zooming at 19-20 and other times going 10, to look at the scenery. The last road back is a 3-4% uphill and I always get tired here. I got in the front and was zooming at 13-14 as my friend dropped fairly far behind. It was a good ride and I like it much better than my old route. I didn't drink enough or eat enough after the ride and i felt shaky when I got home, which was remedied by eating and drinking water. 39 miles.
Today I am doing a 30 mile hilly ride around the apple orchards in Harvard, with a combination of friends. As usual, I will be riding alone, as the fast, male half of our cycling friends will be leading and the other 3 women ride much slower than me. But, we stop and wait, and it's a beautiful day. Now I just have to decide if I want to ride to the start at their house, or drive... I know at the end of the ride, I might not want to do the extra 5 miles.

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Well I picked up my new Surly Cross Check yesterday and today I took her on a one hour jaunt just to check her out! I bought her to handle roads like the one shown. She was like a dream and as soon as I have fine tuned we can go even farther! Adding a Cross Check to my stable has increased the number of roads I can travel by about 40%. Not sure how many kilometers we rode today because I forgot to set my phone to track. If I had to guess I would say about 20 km.

I always enjoy reading everyone's ride threads. I'm guessing it must be beautiful riding in fall in so many areas.

It's still like summer here.... Yesterday we finished a 66 mile ride, just before noon and it was 98 degrees. One of my friends drank 7 bottles on the ride (or so he said) and still started overheating.

Today my legs were pretty tired, but I made it up to milepost 5 on Mt. Lemmon, to about 4200 feet (starting at 2400). It's 5 miles to the base (mile 0) from the parking lot. My DH, training for a big hill climb next weekend, rode to milepost 20, well over 7000 feet, but I rode home and left him the car. It was hotter today than yesterday, so going up in elevation was probably a good idea. I can't wait for the weather to cool down a little.

Can I tag along? :) I went out on a 14 mile ride yesterday around the baylands. We probably would have gone further but found that many parts of the trail were actually made of gravel and sand...so I didn't think I should bike on it with road tires. Today I went out on another 23 mile ride over in another part of the bayland trail which was paved. I'm not sure where those paved paths connect or if they are only connected by gravel paths so I'll have to do some more research. One of these days I will bike the entire trail! The fall weather was wonderful this weekend.

Congrats on your new bike, DebSP!

Perfect, perfect riding weather. 68, sunny, no humidity, breezy. Did 32 miles with great friends. Up Oak Hill, into Harvard center, had to tell a guy to wait in line at the porta potty, and then up Bolton Rd (another climb) back into Stow, and back to my friend's house. I am very proud of my friend, Linda, who rode with us. The one who said she'd never get clip less pedals, never get a road bike. She did awesome and she actually rides faster than my other friends. All showered, now back there for wine and dinner!

It has been abnormally summer like for the past 2.5 wks. Just dreamy and wonderful.

Did 52 km. yesterday through various park paths and took photos along the way. Did lots of grocery shopping + a farmers market + cafe stop. Towards last 15 km. I did a mini art studio tour that was going on this weekend. This is the stuff I wanted to see --prairie landscape/icongraphy interpretations. I don't need to see abstract, non-representational art...I can anywhere in the world for that.

Today was 45 km. different direction. More photos, creme puff stop, Mediterrean bakery shop (for flatbread lunch snack with sumach spice) and grocery shopping.

Friday was a short mountain bike ride, since we were chasing daylight. It was my first ride on my singlespeed since I switched from a 20-tooth cog to an 18-tooth cog. Oww. That will take some getting used to, but I didn't have to walk anything. If I can ride this gearing all winter, I'll be an animal come springtime.

Saturday was a commute to work, just 12 miles roundtrip, but with beautiful weather.

Another gravel grinder today, this time without the horrible nike-a-bike hill! There were plenty of others! We had knobby tires this time, which really helped on the off-road sections, but made the road sections very tough, especially the uphill ones.