September riding

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Originally Posted by Crankin

You think you'll be back that soon? It looks like power will be out for weeks!

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Amazingly, the power never went out at our RV park there! We got a report today from a friend who lives in Winter Garden. The Orlando area, not being on either coast, did not suffer as badly from Irma as coastal areas. So, we got lucky! The main criteria for us will be that there is gas available and that the roads are not clogged with returning evacuees. We can avoid I-75 (which tends to be the most clogged) and travel smaller highways if needed. We have good apps to let us know about gas and road conditions, so once all looks good, we'll be heading back. If not this week, then next.

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

Sound like some great rides, ladies! NY, is that the Seagull Century? If so, DH and I did it (the full century) many years ago on a tandem. Unfortunately, we had a cold rain for most of the ride, just miserable. We were freezing! Don't remember any good food like what you describe, but it's been awhile. I do remember hot chocolate and coffee at the last rest stop because it was so cold. DH's lips were turning blue, and for the first and possibly only time ever, I had to coach him through the last 20 miles or so as he was really having difficulty in the cold (not enough body fat!)

Anywho, we are in our evacuation spot in Mississippi and have been enjoying some excellent rides on the Longleaf Trace. I took today off, but before that had ridden three days straight: 32, 20, and 35 miles. The Trace itself is flat to gently climbing and descending, since it's a rail trail, but the connector trail from our campground to get onto the Trace is very hilly, with marked grades up to 15%. That's only 2 miles at the beginning and end of each ride but does get your attention!

We've had the Trace almost to ourselves, even on the weekend; a real surprise. We're here until at least Thursday morning before we attempt to head back to Florida, so I hope to get a couple more rides in. It might rain tomorrow (remnants of Irma), so we'll see.

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I've done the Seagull twice and will never do it again. Rainy and windy both times, the second time it was a nor'easter with heavy rain and strong wind. The awfulness began on the drive down to Salisbury the night before with a 10-mile backup to the Bay Bridge causing me to miss the dinner I had prepaid for. At the start of the ride we still had heavy rain, my shoes filled up with water and my feet went squish-squish with each pedal stroke. Then the rain ended and the wind got worse. This is flat farmland with wide open spaces, a terrible place to ride when it's windy. They do have good weather some years, but I've decided I really don't like the eastern shore very much, because although I'm slow on hills I still prefer varied terrain to flat, flat, flat. And it's far enough away to require a hotel stay, which adds to the cost. So no more Seagulls for me. Also an important lesson learned: no matter how much you prepaid for a bike ride, just say no to riding in a nor'easter.

The ride I did on Saturday was the Civil War Century. Highly recommended. Frederick County MD is a great place for cycling. The route I did went through the Gettysburg battlefield; the longer routes go up into the Catoctin Mountains and also go through Antietam and one other battlefield, South Mountain I think. None of the routes really tour the battlefields, they just go through them for a brief visit. But I will say that the Gettysburg battlefield park is a great place to tour by bicycle. Just make sure you get a good map and are prepared to make a few wrong turns, since they don't have typical street signs at intersections. I think Antietam can be toured by bike, too, though I have only ever been there once a long time ago.

In fairness to the Seagull I should add that the CWC has seen its share of extreme weather -- last year extremely hot, the year before rain all day, a couple of years before that was somewhat hot with bad thunderstorms in the afternoon. One year they had to postpone it a day due to a tropical storm. I've done it in all kinds of weather, though the year it rained all day I bailed after the first rest stop and then spent the day at the picnic eating yummy food and waiting for friends to finish. To me the big differences are -- I prefer the scenery and terrain of northern MD to the eastern shore, and the CWC has shorter route options in case of bad weather. Plus I have learned the roads up there well enough to make my own short cuts if needed.

Rode with my friend Jack today, since the club ride was in NH/Maine seacoast. Beautiful, but too long to drive there, with risk of traffic on the way home.
32.5 miles, on a ride called the rooster ride, because the route looks like a rooster head (kind of). Nothing special, just Bedford through Concord, Carlisle, Westford, S Chelmsford, and back. We did ride through my old neighborhood, but we did not go up the hill. It felt quite warm, although it was only 76 when we got back; humidity from Irma is seeping in and we should be getting some rain from the remnants on Thursday night/Friday. I just got used to cooler, dry weather, so I hope it's temporary.

NY, thanks for elaborating on the century. I have always heard that the Seagull seemed to be cursed with bad weather. We drove up from NC for it and stayed in a hotel so were especially disappointed with the weather the year we did it -- probably 2004, as that was our big year for centuries before I had my crash in spring '05 and fractured my pelvis. A few years prior to that, we bought a tandem bike in Frederick, MD, and took some test rides in that area. Seemed really nice.

Today was our last day here in Mississippi, so DH and I decided to go for the gusto and reprise a ride we did in May of 2016. From the campground to the town of Sumrall is 50 miles round-trip, and that is what we did. Other than the hilly connector trail (about five small hills with grades 9-15%) from the campground to the Longleaf Trace, the ride was typical rail-trail fare, with gentle grades, so it's a good one to do as a longer ride. But today my old aches from my pelvic fracture mentioned above were really barking at me (lower back/upper buttock on the right side), so I had to take extra stops to stretch. Still, it was a good ride overall, and with the Conti Gatorskin tires DH just installed on my Trek, I was 1/2 mph faster than my usual average speed on similar trails -- and 1.3 mph faster than my first couple Florida rides coming back from my jaw fracture. So, that was nice, and it was my first 50+ mile ride since last October. It's a longer distance than I really enjoy, but every now and then I do like to push myself a bit. Should make my more typical 30 miler feel pretty easy when we get back to Florida. :D

Way to go on the 50 miler, Emily.

We have been seeing traces of Irma for days now. We already had cloud cover from it while it was still ripping through Florida. The initial forecast for this week was rain every day but fortunately that has not happened. We had some rain yesterday morning, nothing heavy, and the sun was out by afternoon. It was very humid though, enough that I had to close the windows at home and turn on the A/C, which ran a long time and dropped the temperature to 6 degrees below the thermostat setting as it dehumidified. I went for a bike ride last night, 19 miles. It was in the low 70s. I was comfortable in shorts and short sleeves -- if the air had been dryer I would have needed more layers. It was a quiet uneventful ride (in a good way). My new weeknight route is still a work in progress and I made 3 changes last night. I still need to work on finding a better way to cross one very busy road at the top of a hill but overall I am making good progress with each tweak. It will be a good route for colder weather because it's easier to shorten on the fly than the old route.

It's really humid... had to put that AC on when I got home, despite it being only 77 out. It was sprinkling when i got home and is supposed to shower on and off through tomorrow. My friend is leading a ride at 5:30, a route he stole from us, but obviously, I didn't go. It's my first true rest day in a week. Tuesday, I thought I'd rest, but it turned out I had 2 free hours in the middle of the day, so I walked to the village from my office and did an errand. Only about 1.5 miles, but it was hotter than hell and I walked fast, in my work clothes. I had to use my bath cloths I keep there for when I commute, when I got back. I have my boot camp tomorrow, and since the weather doesn't look too good, I don't think I will be riding. If it's ok in the AM, I may ride to work. Next long ride is Saturday.

sounds like a good ride Emily!! good for you on the 50 miles......NY....hoping you have a good weekend ride!!

Ellie and I did a bike path ride to USC for a meeting today. (a testament to student activism to get a path to the beach :)) 19 miles of not needing to be traffic cautious makes for a pleasant ride. Doing a few competitive sprints on the way back also gave us some good exercise…with Ellie taking it a little easier on me. I know I'll probably never have a more supportive and just wonderful CEO in my career. 44 miles total for us with a continuing ride to an early dinner with Alex joining us.

Alex and I are going for a ride on a lesser steep San Gabriel mountain route this weekend to finally start my real climbing exercise. Feels good to be improving my muscular endurance and lactate threshold for climbing again.

eta...btw emily...having a movable home to escape severe weather is such a great idea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I am seriously exhausted from a hilly ride I did today. Not so much tired exhausted, butI started having mild pain/cramping in my left hamstring, after we ate lunch, and I can't figure out what's up. We road into Harvard, MA, in a circuitous way, to climb Oak Hill. None of today's ride was on unfamiliar roads, just a few we rarely ride on, or, ride in the other direction. So, it's really humid out. Was only about 70 degree when we left, but I wore sleeveless, as it was supposed to go up to 80 or so. I was cool at first, as it was cloudy, but the sun came out when we were climbing Oak Hill. It's shady, so that was not an issue. I had adequate liquid (Skratch, which I reserve for longer, hilly or hot rides). We stopped for lunch at mile 26, where I had half a veggie wrap, ate my Lara Bar, and off we went. We knew we had about a mile climb we always dislike after lunch; so being stiff from sitting, we took it slowly. But, it was after this my hamstring started acting up more. After that, we had a long downhill, so I got to rest it, but I never really felt good for the rest of the ride. The hamstring was hurting, my sit bones were too, and we still had some ups and downs. One thing did make me feel better and laugh was we saw a guy, riding in the opposite direction, with his helmet on backwards. :eek: The only other time i have seen this was at the start of a very large ride we were leading, with 3 others, and I was elected to tell the woman. This guy had the back tilted straight up, in the front. It looked ridiculous. If I had felt better, I would have stopped. I did manage to pick up the pace on one of my favorite, semi-flat roads, but as we get near home, there is a small hill, I usually go up at 10-12 mph. DH got so far ahead, I felt like crying... I wasn't bonking, just hurting. He slowed after we turned off this street, and we made it home. My average was similar to rides we do in the Berkshires or Europe, I was so slow! Yes, I rode 44 miles and climbed 2,500 ft., but, it wasn't much different than last weekend. The only difference is that last weekend, I rode on Sunday, and only did a short walk on Saturday, after an intense ride and bootcamp on Friday. Yesterday, I went to bootcamp, it was hard, but I was not sore when I got up.
I have really upped my exercise in the past 10 days, so perhaps I am paying for that. I rolled out my hamstring and will do a short recovery ride tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by rebeccaC

eta...btw emily...having a movable home to escape severe weather is such a great idea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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It surely worked out for us this time! We enjoyed our evacuation and treated it as a vacay. We had power and water and no worries about the hurricane, though it was a little costly because of the post-Harvey spike in gas prices and our motorhome getting 7 miles to the gallon! :eek:

We got back to our "home" campground in Florida yesterday and are all settled in again. They never lost power, but a huge tree fell on one of the fifth wheels that stayed here. They should have moved it to one of the many sites with no trees! Fortunately, no one was in it as they had evacuated, but why they left their rig right by a line of tall trees escapes me.

We are not even sure if the bike paths are open here as there are many, many branches and some trees down all over the entire area, but we'll be checking it out next week.

emily...glad to hear you're back to your florida campground and hoping the bike paths are cleared soon!!

We rode the Angeles Crest Highway to the Mt Wilson Observatory today. 42 miles total with 4500+ ft of climbing and temps in the 70’s. Less difficult grades than the other rides we’ve done in the San Gabriel/ Santa Monica mountains but with a final 5 mile climb that was a challenge….but in a good training way and I was able to keep a rhythmic and controlled breathing pattern the whole of the days ascent. I was really sweaty when we reached the observatory but I felt mentally good and some yoga stretches helped with tightness and soreness. We split an olive hummus, heirloom tomato, cucumber, spinach and avocado sandwich we bought at the observatories Cosmic Café and with wonderful banana smoothies we ate overlooking a peaceful and beautiful view. Little traffic, nice smooth roads and a great ‘lots of grins per mile’ descent were big pluses.
Tired tonight but my first hard climb in 10 months felt good to get in. Well that….and the chocolate marshmallow fluff brownie ice cream we stopped to get on the drive home at salt and straw and we just ate was good too. :)

No photos cuz I felt the big need to be a weight weenie on this ride. It was just I, the bike and water cuz I let Alex carry all the needed essentials. She was happy to.
Thinking I’m going to sleep in tomorrow. :)

.....it was sad to see the police aftermath of a motorcyclist's death on the lower part of the descent going back to the car. It happened after we had gone by the area on the ascent

Hoping everyone had/has safe and satisfying rides this weekend!!!!

I am drooling over your food mentions, rebecca (all except the olive hummus; you can keep that). Salt & Straw...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Sounds like a great ride you had. I haven't ridden since our 50 miler due to our travel days, and then getting lots of stuff done re. settling in: lots of laundry, lots of groceries, and the bike trail is indeed closed (per DH, who rode today to check it out). Tomorrow I have an orthodontist appointment and more errands to run, so looks like Tuesday is going to be my next riding day. I did do some yoga/light weights today, and we've been walking, of course!

And my recovery ride turned into a 4 mile walk (rt) to get ice cream! Was just about to get in my cycling clothes when DS called and told us he was coming earlier for a visit with my granddaughter. After going to an event at a local farm, it was about 1:30 when he left and we were choosing between an 18 mile round trip ride to an ice cream place we like, that is not open all year round, or the walk into town. Walking actually aggravates my back more than riding, but I was good with it.

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

Salt & Straw...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

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:)

It's first location was in Portland Or. When i did the Seattle-Portland ride with my Portland friends they got me hooked on it. Felt blessed when it came to the LA area and even more when a Venice location showed up on my work commute, which unfortunately makes it even more of a calorie hazard…..

We woke up late, we did bike to get massages and a late lunch but basically it’s a being lazy and content day/night

Just got back, late last night, from our San Diego visit, which included three days of biking for me. I managed to rent a bike from an outfit called Stay Classy. Pete, the owner, will deliver a bike to your hotel and pick it up when done. He will also come to the rescue if the bike breaks down or has a flat. Yup, I did have a flat on day two, thanks to the goats heads which are present in the area. He fixed it, no problem, though, and I was back to riding in no time. The bike was a typical 700x35 SE hybird with flat bars (I specified I wanted a flat bar), but he has other bikes to choose from. Don't expect a high end carbon road bike with Ultegra Di2, though. This is typical tourist stuff as far as the bikes go, but, me, I'm happy with very basic fare when it comes to bikes when doing the tourist thing.

The riding was a definite change of pace for me, being all pavement. Everything paved, including the bike paths. Oh, dropping off the bike path to ride the dry river beds was tempting, but wrong bike and the goatheads, too, not to mention wasn't sure about the legality.

Weather was super, with clouds off the ocean in the morning, burning off by mid-morning with highs every day in the 70s. Real treat to meet back up with Bill at the end of my ride, then head to the motel swimming pool for a nice swim.

Each day of riding included a trip to the many beaches in the area with lots of time watching birds along one of the wildlife sanctuaries. Loved the Ocean Beach area. Lots of coffee shops and neat shopping. The Sunset Cliffs city park was spectacular and had some great hills to climb, to boot. Real people watching place along the beaches with surfers and all the other California type activities. On Saturday, there were probably as many people on the beach as we have in our whole county, up here. :) Sadly, lots of homeless people on bikes along the bike trails, but that, too, is common for big cities.

Now, don't laugh, but only put about 60 some miles total for three days, but they were 60 fun miles with lots of stops along the way to chat with folks, stop for coffee and watch everything. It was a real change of pace from my daily MTB riding at home, for sure, and I appreciated the difference. Have to say, this was a very bike friendly area to ride with lots of bike lanes and bike trails. Having lived the urban/suburban living on a bike lifestyle, before, so I can safely say that I could manage it, nicely, in San Diego. I'm very much a country girl and backwoods girl, though, so I'll just stay put, but I had a fun time. As I've always said, the best way to get to know a new area is to grab a bike and go for a ride.

Glad you had so much fun, Northwoods! You know, while i have not actually lived in San Diego, my parents moved there in 1979, and I stayed in Phoenix, then on to Boston. But, I have spent a lot of time there, as one of my kids lived there for 5 years, too. In 2011, when we went to see my son, after one of his deployments, we went on a bike tour of La Jolla, Bird Rock, OB, and PB. I saw things I had never seen in the 30+ years I've visited. I'd love to get back and do more. My brother is still there, so it's a possibility.