August 27th rides - post 'em here

I rode 21 miles today. 1st ride in 2 weeks - schedule has been crazy to say the least. I had a lovely encounter with a pack of dragonflies. You know - when there is a huge group of the buggers. One of them thwacked me in the side of the head. I thought it was stuck in the side of my sunglasses for a while. They sound very crunchy when you run into them. A little old man that is always wandering around looking for aluminum cans nearly did me in - tossed a flip flop from the side of the road into the middle of the road just as I was coming up behind him. Gotta love that. The great thing about today's ride was that I only saw 1/2 dozen cars the entire time. Very nice!

The very best thing about today's ride was that I was wearing my new AV jersey! I got a lot of looks from the walkers and the other cyclist I saw. One guy even turned around to read it! Cool!

Wow, they must have been out in force today. I was sporting my new Primal Wear jersey today and thought perhaps I was attracting a lot of attention from them because of the colors. I also noticed quite a few dragonflies on the ground. Which made me wonder how long their life span is....the things we ponder during our rides.

I had a great ride today, I pushed myself really hard on a few sprints and hit a new record for myself. I only rode 18 miles, it was just too dang hot today!

Today I did my longest, hardest ride to date, 27.4 miles with 1500 feet of climbing. This was the ride I had intented to do last week. I brought it in at just under 2 hours at an average of 13.8mph.

Around 6 miles in a saw a turle crossing the road. I thought about stopping and helping her across but I didn't want to break my rhythm. I hope she made it across ok...

GF and I rode 10.99 miles (we are thinking of rounding up to 11!). Longest ride yet. We too live in Houston,Texas and rode this morning at 8 am. Wasn't too hot, yet. And thank goodness we missed the rain! I am preparing for the Tour de Pink. 12 miles. If I can ride 11, I know I can do the 12! :D

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Originally Posted by Artisan

I also noticed quite a few dragonflies on the ground. Which made me wonder how long their life span is....the things we ponder during our rides.

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Short answer - in the nymph stage (aquatic, really cool looking and quite predatory) they can live up to 4 years and as a flying adult can live for a few months. I found a pretty informative site here.

Found a new mtb trail today. It starts about 2 miles from my house. We got geared up, knowing it would rain. It was sprinkling when we left, but then stopped. Riding those mtbs on the road is very strange, but it seemed silly to drive 2 miles to the start. The beginning of the trail was single track, but flat. Most of the rest was fine, wider, with some mud bogs, a few roots and one hill. Apparently, this trail attaches to the beginning of the Minuteman Bikeway in Bedford. I don't ride bike paths, but I did have a thought of getting up early one day and going to Carberry's in Arlington for breakfast (muffins!), before most people get out on the trail. Anyway, it did start raining when we were just about at the end of the trail, so we turned back. In the woods, you don't get wet, but when we got to the road, we stopped and put on our rain jackets. I was soaked (no rain pants) from road spray and the increasingly heavier rain when we got home, but it was really fun, besides the mud in every part of my body! 13.5 miles.

35 miles today.

I haven't been riding much this year, only once or twice a week. Laziness mostly.

Today the weather was perfect, in the 80s, no wind, partly cloudy. The local Tour of the Valley organized ride is going on today, but I didn't participate this year.

So I went on my own ride. I sawe many ToV riders going the other direction. I was going to ride to Fruita and back, about a 30 mile round trip. When I got to Fruita I felt pretty good so I decided to take the longer way home through the Redlands. It was simply gorgeous! The temp was perfect and I was feeling good. The bike felt great!

About 10 miles from home, I'm climbing up this grade and I hear hissssssssss! Uh oh! A Flat! I don't get many flats fortunately. OK, I can take care of it. My font tire has a boot in it. The tire has a cut on the sidewall and I had double booted it and kept using it. The air was coming out of the cut where the boot is. So I pull over and break out the spare tube and the CO2. The boot in the tire was all dried out and cracked with sharp edges so I figured it put a hole in the tube. I had to improvise with another boot. A dollar bill folded twice usually works well, but I was fresh out of cash. I did have a little paper packet with 2 aspirin pills in it. So I took the pills out and put the paper in the tire as a boot and put a new tube in and went on my way.

Less than 1/4 mile down the road I ran into goatheads. ARGH! Hissssssss!!!! Not again! I was out of spare tubes! I stopped at the side of the road to decide how to handle this. Right then, anther rider comes along and stops. I aksed if he had a spare tube he could give me. He did. Answer to my prayers. I fixed the tire again and got home just fine.

We did 58 miles today. It is a route that we normally really like, but after a fast ride yesterday, our legs were a bit more tired than usual. We decided to cut it short at 58 (and not do the 78 we had planned).

It's a hilly but beautiful route with plenty of shade, so we really did enjoy it. I could have pulled out a few more miles, but I'm joining a new group ride tomorrow and I don't want to be totally useless!!

The stats: 58 miles, 15.5 mph pace and about 3500 ft of climbing...:)

I did a nice flat solo ride of about 25 miles today, from my house down around Alameda. It was my first ride of any distance with my first-ever pair of bike shoes and clipless pedals, so I wanted to mostly focus on remembering to clip out! Didn't have any problems with that, but my foot started to kill me at about 15 miles. I just rode through the pain, and it abated a bit after another 5 miles. But it's hurting me now...I think I need to get insoles for my shoes, and possibly go in for a bike fit. My seat doesn't feel like it's at the right level anymore with the new pedals, and I feel like I'm torqueing my knee strangely all of a sudden. Anyway, I'm glad I did the easy ride today. Next Saturday is my club ride which is 40 miles with 2000 ft of climbing, and I'd croak if my feet hurt like that.

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Originally Posted by ace

It was my first ride of any distance with my first-ever pair of bike shoes and clipless pedals, so I wanted to mostly focus on remembering to clip out! Didn't have any problems with that, but my foot started to kill me at about 15 miles. I just rode through the pain, and it abated a bit after another 5 miles. But it's hurting me now...I think I need to get insoles for my shoes, and possibly go in for a bike fit. My seat doesn't feel like it's at the right level anymore with the new pedals, and I feel like I'm torqueing my knee strangely all of a sudden.

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Do you have the cleats positioned so that your foot is in the same alignment to the center of the pedals as they were before? Even a small difference front to back could make a big difference in comfort. If you are torquing your knee too much it may also be that you need pedals with more float to allow you to get your heels turned as you body needs them to be.

DH and I did 42 miles on the Silver Comet Trail today. Got out there early and it was a really nice ride. I saw a lot of ladies out there riding today!

Did a reasonably short 17 mile ride today - late afternoon/early evening (with lights towards the end). Rode the American Tobacco Trail in Durham, with some extra loops through lovely neighborhoods.

On the way back to the car (and after dark) had a baby bunny run *between* my wheels (I was doing about 15 at the time). Amazingly, I didn't hit him. Don't know who was more scared - me or him!

It's finally getting cooler at night here (heat and humidity seem to be going away earlier in the day...). Fall is on the way!

I did my first metric century today! About 63ish miles. Totally informal, just DH (does that mean Dear Hubby?) and I, from our place to Lansing, IA and back. Never ridden that far before, and I felt really good - more strength in my legs than I expected.

And a beautiful day for a ride - hazy sunshine and upper 70's, headwind for the first half and then maybe a teeny tailwind for the second.

Thanks for the good-spirited community and support! This forum is my new favorite time vacuum!

Did the shop ride with DH, adding a drop into the park (Rock Creek Park in D.C.) afterwards to add a few more miles. Ended up with 34 miles at 16.8 mph. I was whupped and happy to refuel with a poppyseed hamantaschen from the deli afterward! ....mmmmmm....
DH said he was "chompin' at the bit" when the A-ride came screamin' past us across East West Highway (boy, did they reek! I told the guys at the shop that in addition to helmets, deodorant should be required for the ride! I can only imagine what a pro peleton is like after a 200 km stage on a hot day. Yuck.).
Anyway...DH may be looking to lose me as he joins the A-group and leaves me in the B-group. I've done that ride solo before, so it's not a huge issue, but I do remind him he just had knee surgery in June, so he's supposed to be taking it easy!