Magnificent or Mundane May Rides!

Happy Memorial Day Saturday! Spent the day on the MTB trails learning the "ins' and outs'" of SPD pedals. Tipped over once, but righted myself before going down :p

Scrappy

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Since the weather finally started getting nicer in Seattle this month, and May is Bike-to-Work month I started bike commuting again. I even organized a Bike-to-Work team for our division at the college where I teach. Even though the weather's been mostly beautiful and sunny, sadly I've only bike commuted four times, mainly because of a minor crash and a crazy schedule, but fortunately, my team members are more dedicated than I am.

Today I also did my first Seattle International Randonneurs 100 km ride for the year, the Centennial Trail Run. I'm starting to increase my miles to prepare for the RSVP in August. We've been watching the Tour of California and the Giro d-Italia, and I always love watching how the stage winners cross the finish line and bow or do something else cool with their hands off the handlebars. Since the trail's mostly flat and not too busy I asked my husband to teach me how to ride without holding onto the handlebars. Here are some photos from our ride today.

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We did a 7 mile bike tour through Central Park. I proved I could ride without bike clothes, but I did have to lower the seat to feel comfortable on the heavy duty bike I was on. A lot of stopping, but there were a few hills. Fun.

25 mile loop after work with some pretty good hills...I'm realizing that I don't so much mind the longer gradual climbs as I do the short steep hills--those are hard, especially if they come soon after a stop sign. I managed to drop my chain right at the beginning of one hill (ugh)...thank goodness for the work gloves I keep in my trunk bag! Average speed was about 12 mph (ride took a little over 2 hours), and according to MapMyRide the total elevation gain was 1117 ft (why does it sound so unimpressive when it seemed like such a hilly ride???). Hoping I will be able to manage OK on Sunday's 50 miler...I think the limiting factor is going to be saddle discomfort if I don't figure out how to not get soft tissue irritation from that cutout.

Yesterday I did my first backcountry "epic" -ish ride of the season. I know one of the trail gnomes ( anonymous volunteer) who works on a certain trail system. He spends a lot of time riding around with a Bob trailer full of chainsaws and other tools. He will always let me join him on some non- published rides that are awesome. So this one was 14 miles,3300 ft ascent on real old school singletrack through cedar forests near Lake Coeur d'Alene. I wish I had pics, but I guess I don't. There was lots of fresh -enough bear scat and it was a lovely. I'm always happy when I can do a big long ride like that, not bonk, not get dehydrated, not crash and not have a recovery hangovber the next day.

We went camping near Payson Arizona. I took a short ride from our campground at about 5900 above sea level, to the top of the Mogollon Rim, at about 7400 feet. Nice steady grade with a wide enough shoulder on the uphill portion, but not much room on the downhill side, so that was a little scary. Fortunately, the traffic was mostly still going uphill when I rode.

Today was a "training" ride with high cadence intervals.

This weekend has been an absolute bust for me, as far as riding goes. Got home late last night from NYC, with plans to do a 40-50 mile ride today. It was raining in the AM, clearing up around 10:30. I thought I'd go out around 12:30, after the original plan was scrapped. Then I looked at the radar and a line of storms were coming through. They got through here by 1:45, by which time I decided to take a walk, since DS was coming at 4. It's nice out now. Got back, and DS calls and says he's waiting until 6, when his wife can come with him. I am tired enough from our trip, to not be too upset, but... going out for a dark ride early tomorrow, as there will be no commuting, with thunderstorms forecast for the time I ride home from work.
Az, I know exactly which road you are talking about. I have a picture of me in a rowboat on the lake by that campground, about 7 months pregnant. I couldn't stand the heat any longer, so we drove up on a Sunday, rented the canoe, and basically chilled out in the shade in the 70 degree temps. Then we drove up to the rim.
Was it hard to ride up to that elevation?

I rode on Saturday. There's a big multi-club ride every year on Memorial Day weekend, with two routes to choose from on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This year I decided to use it as a chance to scout out an area that I want to include on a ride I'm planning to lead later this summer, so I made a modified route, which started and ended with the longer cue sheet, switched to the shorter one in the middle, and then went off the planned course to the area I wanted to check out. Four friends rode it with me. After the second rest stop we added an impromptu detour through a small town near the bay for a few extra miles. The weather was perfect and we had a great ride. The total distance was 53 miles.

Early on we rode through some broken glass (it was brown glass, hard to see until it was too late), and shortly thereafter one friend realized he had a flat tire. While he was fixing it, I checked my tires and found a small piece of glass embedded in one of them, but not deep enough (yet) to cause a problem. I was able to remove it. Then I took some pictures. The road where we stopped is in a rural area near the Patuxent River.

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Did 31 miles from work to the top of Mandeville Canyon road with the 12 to 15% grades of the Arbutus/Banyon/Cordelia adjoining climbs on the way back. We stopped at one of my favorite restaurants on my way home for toasted avocado tartine and a beet and burrata salad and rode home as the sun was setting.

Yesterday, DH and I went out at about 5:15 AM, for a short ride. It's already light out, but since it was cloudy, I had my headlight on low/flashing. We rode through town (a lot more cyclists out at this time of the year!) and up Nawshawtuc Hill, and then back around the other side of Concord center, for a grand total of 13.5 miles after arriving at the top of our hill. The 2 hills added in some good added intervals.
When we were leaving, I think my vest got caught on the nose of my saddle as I was pushing off and I crashed, right in my driveway :eek:. After riding for 14 years, it amazes me that this can happen. No real damage, a chain ring tatoo on my calf, which is pretty much gone today, and slight bruising on my elbow. I used antibiotic cream yesterday, and what was there has healed up already. I've said this in other places, but every time I switch from bike to bike, it takes me half the ride to get used to whatever bike I am riding. Since I had last ridden a city type bike in NY, I think I was also not reminding myself to push up to get on the saddle on my Guru.
Another rainy Wednesday, where I had planned to go on a 42 mile group ride that was leaving from Concord. Bah. Heading out to the gym soon.

Yikes Crankin, glad you are ok!

NY Biker, looks like a beautiful place to ride :-)

Wow. Glad your are ok too. It is those "stupid" accidents that you'd never think could happen in the back of your mind.

Reminds me as I removed my coat (of course we stopped for this!) on the ride Saturday. I tied it around my waist, making sure that it did not touch anything but my waist. I was so afraid of something happening. And I made sure by asking my husband who followed me if something was showing below whatever and I was ok.

Something NOT to do on a bike: :eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stiqJsvPoZ0

My DH can do that quite well.

My tues. and wed. rides were 30 and 40miles- almost the same route with 8 miles being on the interstate. Temps were the warmest of the year, high 80's and I was making sure to hydrate more than usual.
Pro's: I oiled my spd sl and backed off the tension more than I thought was recommended but could get unclipped on first try. Whopee!
Not windy which is abnormal for this part of the world.
No more sunburn with my light long-sleeved jersey
Con's: My poor feet
Ahead on the interstate a dot truck was spraying pesticides to get rid of weeds by the shoulder-The smell-fumes gave me a slight headache. I was glad
to get home.
Crankin it is so easy to take for granted things that we have done many times-most the time with ease such as getting on your bike. I still have the oh no moments when my shorts get caught on my saddle. Swinging my foot over my bike is another easy thing, but hit my saddle the other day and almost bit the dirt.

About 22 miles of hills in yesterday! Yay for me! I felt so accomplished in 90 degree heat feeling like a superstar. Kept up with a guy who was on the bike team in town, paced really well for about 5 miles with him. It was all great minus one dog who tried to attack me. I had thankfully come to a stop because his owner was yammering on her phone and taking up the entire path I was using. Dog was back behind her apparently. He saw me slowing down and then took off. I didn't have time to get off my bike and was screaming and hollering for help before I kicked at him and hit him squarely in the head with my cleat.

Owner was apparently cellphone girl who didn't even bother to get off the phone or come collect her dog who eventually backed off. She was CRAZY and so fuming at me for kicking her dog. I explained to her that under BSL that is likely to go into effect, she would be smart to keep her bully-breed dog ON leash in an area where off-leash walking is prohibited because if he actually does attack someone, he WILL be put down immediately. I hate the idea of BSL but it's stupid people like her that cause people to yell how pitbulls attack people. It was just a poorly socialized animal. I felt sorry for the dog.