august rides

Rode 30 miles with DH, in Harvard, Littleton, and Boxborough, Acton, without doing any of the big hills (which is kinda hard!). We started out to climb Oak Hill, but DH just doesn't want to push his recovery and he was feeling a little tired. There were enough little hills to keep me busy. I'm focusing on riding a couple or a few days in a row now, in preparation for my trip. I know I can do the climbing at this point in the season, that part is all mental for me. And I've been riding even the bigger climbs with my Kuota, which has a couple of less lower gears than my Guru, and the gearing is more like what I'll have in Portugal on a Madone.
I've noticed a little issue with my Terry Bella shorts. They used to be the shorts I always wore, but when I went to Spain, the heat was unbearable, and I ended up riding in the 2 pairs of Sugoi RS I had. Since then I usually reserve the Terrys for early/late in the season, when I need leg or knee warmers, since they are the only shorts that don't give me horrible thigh bulges. It's going to be cool in the mornings in Portugal, so I've been wearing them a little more, and I've been having soft tissue issues. Nothing else has changed. I am wondering if they are just old and the chamois is worn, or I need something different now. I generally hate thick chamois and I am not sure how the RS are different. I might buy one new pair of the Bellas and see. I now have like 5 pairs of the Sugoi.

I started having chafing problems with the Neo Power shorts, including a new pair of them. I think something about me has changed, the way I'm sitting or something. I've been happy with the Gore Oxygen shorts -- their new chamois is very good, thinner in front than in back.

I was going to do a 50-mile ride in northern Maryland yesterday, a club ride that would give me a chance to check out some roads that I'd like to include on some routes I've been working on. But the weather forecast was iffy, with rain possible, and I had had a long week at work and I was just really tired when I got up yesterday morning. So I decided to skip it. This turned out to be a good idea, since it rained very hard in that area yesterday during the late morning/early afternoon. And I went back to bed and slept until 11, so I guess I needed the rest.

I had to work this morning starting at 6:30, and we finished up around noon. By then the sun was out and the humidity was dropping. I headed out for a solo afternoon ride, using a 48-mile cue sheet I had developed last month for a ride with a few friends. That ride had to be cut short, because one of my friends wasn't feeling well. But one of the good things about this route is that it's easy to short-cut. Sure enough, my legs felt pretty tired from the get-go so I figured I'd cut out a 10-mile section and make it an easier ride.

After about 15-16 miles, I was nearing my rest stop at a wildlife sanctuary on a river, when I felt something snap. It was a spoke on my rear wheel. Okay, this has never happened before. (Did I mention I was riding alone, in a quiet rural area, and that I live alone, have no significant other and no family within 300 miles?) Now I remember that a friend always keeps duct tape and zip ties in her bike bag. Why don't I do this??? Would they even help???? I find a small plastic sandwich bag in my handlebar bag (in case I need to keep something dry in the rain), and I use that to tie the broken spoke to one next to it. But now the wheel won't turn. I open the brake lever, it's still rubbing, the wheel is out of true. Damn. My car is at at a small community park, and it's not a short walk to get back there. I know the roads around here well, what's the best way to go? Wait, let me send an email to my bike club's yahoo group -- there are a few members who live nearby, and others might have suggestions.

So I send the email, giving details on where I am and where my car is, then I have a quick snack, put the cleat covers on my cleats and start walking. Fortunately I'm able to walk the bike without too much trouble. Fortunately the weather is fantastic, sunny but not hot. Fortunately the road is not steep; since I was down near the river, every route back is uphill.

After about 10 minutes, my phone rang -- one of my friends from the club is out running errands and can meet me to bring me back to my car. Yay!! We made arrangements to meet at the intersection where the the road I'm on meets the main road in the area. A few other club members sent emails with tips on how to make the bike rideable -- loosening the brake cable, loosening the spokes on the other side (if I had a spoke wrench, which I don't). Another friend sent the name of a cab company that serves the area I'm in.

The walk was actually not too bad, even uphill in cleats. Though my legs and feet definitely would have been hurting if I'd had to walk the whole way.

I left the bike in the car, so I can bring it to the shop tomorrow to get the wheel fixed (or replaced? I hope it's fixable). While I'm there, I'll get a spoke wrench and ask them to show me how to use it. I actually had thought it would have been bad for the wheel to try to ride the bike with a broken spoke, but I guess that's something that is okay to do. I supposed you'd want to get off the saddle when going over bumps, and of course you'd have to be careful with only the front brake for slowing and stopping.

By the way, this is my friend's trick for carrying duct tape in her bike bag -- take a piece of cardboard and wrap a long strip of tape around it. This will give you a small "role" of tape for roadside repairs. She also has a fiber spoke that can be used as a temporary replacement when needed, so I'll look into that. Also I'll be programming the name and number of that cab company into my phone.

So, I had a pleasant 15ish mile ride, followed by an adventure that underscored how very nice the people in my bike club are.

ny biker, you're right, bike club people are the best! Glad you were able to make connections.

(my ride was rained out yesterday, so no report. I had limited time today so I went for a run instead)

Ah, ny biker, so glad you were able to get some assistance. It's times when something like this happens that we always realize how we could be better prepared, but more often than not, a cell phone is your best line of defense.

I am sure your wheel will be fine. I broke a spoke on each wheel in Belize (not on the same day) due to them rusting out, and was able to get the wheel rebuilt. At each time I replaced all the spokes with stainless steel -- a must when living on a salty island. One big difference in there and here is that the young bike shop guy only charged me $15 BZD ($7.50 US) on labor! And he spent around 90 minutes each time! Of course, I gave him a very good good tip!

Today's ride was a good one. We rode a gorgeous route DH just discovered. It was tacked onto one of our usual 40 mile loops, so I ended up with 61 miles. The scenery was breathtakingly gorgeous, and we only got passed by a couple of vehicles on the 21 mile addition -- it's super deserted rolling farm country. We were lucky enough to have NO wind starting out and a tailwind for a lot of the middle section, but our luck ran out in the last 5 miles where we faced a stiff cross to headwind, as the wind clocked around due to nearby afternoon storms. I thought I'd never get back and was going SO slowly at the end.

Here are a couple of photos so you can see how pretty it was...this was north of the tiny town of Touchet, WA outside of Walla Walla.

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Cons: Headwinds for the first 3 days.
Putting tent up in the rain on the 1st day. A wet night in the tent.
3 nights of shredded pork or beef sandwiches.

Pros: Beautiful scenic country including flats-rolling hills-steeper hills, corn, soybean, sunflower, and flax fields-many small to large lakes and the Missouri river.
Around 200 great people
Very good support
Bike ride averaged 67 miles per day.
A loop ride.

I went solo to this N. Dakota ride and had a fun week. The route was close to the Missouri River. The cons were mostly controlled by Mother Nature. Tent service is available and I would of paid a lot for it the rainy evening.
Port-a-potties are adorned with geese dressed in their finest apparel. A beautiful thing in the middle of the prairie!
I'll try to get out of my comfort zone to attach some pictures.

Fun rock-n- roll rest stop with yummy oatmeal with all the fixings:
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Port-a-Potty on the prairie:

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North Dakota roads are rumble strip happy with a middle strip too. Blue is a beautiful flax field that looks like water.
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My tent at fairgrounds with abandoned carnival rides:


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Sunflower field with Missouri River in background:

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A few more pics to share:

Close to Bismark with low ground fog over river :

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Quad riders that have participated in many Candisc tours.

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Celebration at the end:

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I rode 19.5 miles with 2 of my riding friends from the 2 clubs I belong to. I just am losing the will to drive far for a group ride. So, one of these guys doesn't drive and lives near me and is usually a willing riding partner. The other lives in Cambridge and comes out here to ride. He's about 76, and had a bad crash 2 years ago. Since then, he can't ride more than 25 miles, and he said he's working on "not trying to ride at 18." Thing is, he says he gets exhausted, and he is really struggling on hills. We paced him, riding at an average of 13.5 and he still was struggling on the hills. I am wondering if he's having cardiac issues and doesn't know it. Anyway, it was fun, though. Was getting quite hot, got to 91 yesterday, so we stuck to our little loop in Concord and then went for coffee when we got back to where he was parked. I kind of wanted to ride longer, but, the heat and having stuff to do on my day off made me ride home!

I think you should try to bring up the possibility of cardiac issues with your friend, just to be safe.

I rode 20 miles after work last night. The guys at my LBS are beyond awesome. They replaced the broken spoke, trued the wheel, and also replaced the cable to the rear derailleur after I had mentioned that it's been needing more adjustments than usual lately. It's now shifting beautifully. Since my usual post-work route is ~20 miles from the LBS, I rode a different route last night, which included portions of some other rides I've done before. It was very dark for the last 10 miles (very few streetlights), so it's a good thing I knew where I was going. Also a good thing that I had just changed the battery on the headlight that's on my helmet, because I needed it to read the cue sheet.

DH took today and tomorrow off and I don't start my Thursday clients until 9/11. Had all intentions of doing a 40-50 mile ride and I woke up feeling like a truck hit me. Who knows why. My weird autoimmune/allergy stuff has been acting up this summer, but since I know the drill, I push on, at least in a modified way! We ended up doing a more local route, that goes into Westford and Chelmsford for a bit and then stopped at Ferns for lunch on the way back. DH put a new chain on my bike a few weeks ago and I have had issues since, despite him fiddling with it continually. After the second "shift by itself" incident, of course, on a hill, and the third time we had to stop, he found the correct fix and it's finally back to normal. Yesterday I dropped my chain making a left in traffic and I could not get it to go back on with the "put it in the high gear" trick, so I actually had to pull off the road and lift the rear of the bike and spin the pedals to get it to move.
We sat at Ferns for quite a while; it got cloudy and was feeling a bit cool for the last 7 miles home, but it was fine. Actually averaged over 15, so, in the end, a good ride of 23 miles.
I am going to take a day off from riding tomorrow, probably hike in the afternoon, after I am done with work.

Awesome ride to the Fruitlands in Harvard, MA today. It has to be perfect weather... 73 degrees, breezy, no humidity. DH did his first post surgery ride with bigger climbs, including Oak Hill. We are kind of experimenting for our Portugal tour, and we went at touring pace! We rode about 17 miles, ate lunch at the restaurant at the Fruitlands, where the view is outstanding, but we were surrounded by loud women, having lunch! This is where I have often seen the Red Hat group, but, it was just various random groups of people who had fun staring at our bike clothes. We went home a more direct way, past our old house, where the trees DH and DS #2 planted are totally mature. Total ride was about 37 miles, with 2,000 feet of climbing.
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I rode 79 miles today, my first >70 miler in years. It was a century ride put on by a local racing team, but I figured out a couple of short cuts because I didn't want to ride more than 80. I rode with several friends and had a (mostly) good ride.

Five miles from the end, I had another broken spoke. I was able to finish the ride; the wheel was out of true but I opened the brake as far as it would go and ignored the rubbing brake pad. I'm planning to start a separate thread to discuss broken spokes. In the meantime, I can't get to the LBS until Monday but have a big ride planned on Saturday. So I called the LBS from the parking lot of the ride start/finish location, they looked up the type of wheels currently on the bike, we discussed some options, and I ordered a new set of comparable wheels. They should be in by Tuesday, but if there's a delay the shop can lend me a wheel temporarily.

This is not an expense I would like to have right now, but I consider it an investment in my sanity. ;)

Btw one of my companions today was asking about winter cycling clothes. The general discussion centered on layering, wool and shopping at TE.

I rode about 64 miles today on an organized event east of Tucson, from Willcox to the Chiracahua Mtns and back, with about 2500 feet of climbing. I did not go with my regular breakfast of oatmeal or a bagel, but threw together a piece of toast & peanut butter and mini-yogurt from the motel we stayed at. It warmed up quickly and was a little humid, and my stomach felt yucky as soon as we left the flats and started climbing. It basically felt yucky the whole ride, though I managed to drink a bottle of electrolytes, 3 or 4 more bottles of water, and ate half a banana, a cookie and a piece of my home made fruit-nut bar (pan forte).

I felt so crummy on the last uphill portion (about 15-16 miles before the end) I stopped and rested twice on the climbs. I considered just getting a ride back, but stopped at the last aid station and dumped a bottle on my head, sat in the shade and then got back on the bike for the descent and a 5-6 mile flat section. After all the riding I've been doing, I was a little depressed about my lack of progress and an overall moving speed of 13.5 mph.

I blamed it all on my eating, but then after I got off the bike, I realized that I was getting a headache and scratchy palate (actually ignored a little preview of the scratchy palate when I woke up this morning). So now I am thinking it was more that my body was just having to deal with too much: oncoming cold, sub-optimal breakfast, and a long bike ride with heat and hills.

It was still a beautiful route with almost no cars, grasslands green from the summer monsoons, soaring Swainson's and Red-tailed Hawks and the songs of the desert sparrows serenading me.

Been riding a lot but haven't been posting. Today's ride was just a little 13.5 mile market ride, but overall for the past week I've done several 50+ milers. I've been battling a bad saddle sore, but I think I finally turned the corner on that in the past few days. Thank the gods.

The wind has come back with a vengeance here, and the past few rides have been less than fun having to fight it. Looks like more of the same tomorrow. :( Other than the wind, the weather has been lovely, though!

Today we did a CRW ride and then went to the Labor Day party at my friend's Jack, house, after. It started about 2 miles from his house, in a parking lot at the VA campus. Unlike AMC rides, it's a kind of "you're on your own," thing, so we took off about 20 minutes before the start. Rode some new roads and nice ones in Lexington (where i've never ridden, except on the bike path), and then we headed back to Concord, into west Concord, Acton, and up Nagog Hill. Now, this is in the area I live in, but I rarely do the whole hill... it's a series of 5-6 hills on one road. Today, we did them all, and more, because we took the road all the way to the end, which I have only done a few times. Then, we headed into Littleton and Westford, back onto a route that we often do. From there, we had about 12-15 miles left to get to Jack's house for the food! Need I say, that the weather is the absolute opposite of Saturday. It's 85 degrees with like 70% humidity. Thankfully, partly cloudy. We did stop to eat and take long drinks twice, but overall, we got to Jack's hosue with a decent average for a hilly ride. Sat and had pizza and beer, sat more, because then we had to ride 2 more miles back to the car. That 2 miles felt pretty painful, after sitting.
I'm really stiff and tired, need to go revive myself. This weekend I've ridden about 80 miles and hiked 8 miles.

DH and I just finished the Seattle Int'l Randonneurs Maltby-Granite Falls 100 km ride: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3728236

The ride was just over 64 miles and started and ended at the Maltby Cafe. What a scenic route! It went through mostly quiet country roads, with lots of horse ranches and farmland. It was also mostly downhill with lots of long descents, a few miles of rollers, and only a few climbs, kind of like my favorite loops around the Kitsap Peninsula, even including some water views of Lake Roesiger.

Maltby's also a bit more convenient since it's only about 25 minutes away from downtown Seattle and doesn't require a ferry ride. It's great to start a long ride with a big hearty breakfast at the cafe. If I didn't have gluten sensitivity that makes my stomach blow up like a puffer fish, I would definitely have ended the ride with the cafe's signature gigantic cinnamon roll.

http://www.drmariev.com/Cycling2014/MaltbyCinnRoll.jpg