June 9 Rides - Great Weather Everywhere!

It seems that there is a high pressure system that is keeping most all of North America sunny today! How many miles will be logged on this continent?!?!?!?!?!?!

SilverSon and I are about to go do Evansville's Tour de Bloom. At least 31 miles, but I'm trying to talk him into his first metric century!!! Wish me luck psyching him up to that.

Now that I'm not thinking, I don't get why they call it the Tour de Bloom. The "Blooms" are gone...they should call it the "Tour de Corn & Coal";)

Silver is doing a sprint tri in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Sorry, Mr. Silver, there is not great weather here in the Northeast. As I sit here, it is raining and thundering. My club had to cancel our bike rally, which is a major fundraiser. But, my husband and I went out at 8 AM, after watching the radar of the approaching front and got in a pretty good 16.5 mile ride. It was raining for the last couple of miles, but I had my rain jacket. There were tons of cyclists out, trying to get some miles in.
At least our dinner and speaker is still on for tonight!

Well it is sunny in Texas but HOT!! :rolleyes: I am waiting for DH and we will log some miles this afternoon. We have a goal of 100 per week and only have 15 so far, I am sure we will do a 30+ mile, maybe 50 miler. Better plan for one with water stops!

I put in a shorter ride this morning, have things I gotta do today. Though the temp was a pleasant 80, the humidity was a less pleasant 84%. Sad when the humidity is higher than the temp. But that will change as they climb back up into the 90s next week.

I was trying out new pedals that have replaced my spd 505s. Shimano A520s which I'll report on after a couple more rides.

But got in 20 pleasant miles, stopped at a tent sale full of books (going back there), loosened up the old legs.

I just spent the morning at a lacrosse jamboree in the pouring rain at Fort Devens here in Mass and it was nasty and cold. They called off all the games when we could see lightning in the distance. Hundreds of kids all running around with aluminum sticks just can't be a good idea in a storm. The kids were bummed.

With the pro race tomorrow in Philly...this is certainly a bike happy weekend for me! Last night was the Manayunk Wall Hill Climb, in which my teammate Liz took first for the 3rd year in a row! She's part mountain goat, I think. This morning, several of my teammates did a Time Trial (top finish for our team was 6th! :)) Then, we took a ride out and about town. I ended up test riding a Specialized S-Works Tarmac for 20+ miles. AWESOME bike! I took it up hill, down a hill at 40 mph, over cobbles (cobbles? what cobbles? I don't feel no cobbles on that bike!), did some sprints. All around kick butt bike! I highly recommend one if you have $5500 lying around! If you have $11000, give me a call and you can buy me one, too! :p

All in all, I was on or with my bike from 8am to almost 2. That's a good day! :D

Oh, and last night...they had a gathering at my LBS with the Health Net, Priority Health, Sierra Nevada, and Aaron's women's pro teams. My DH and I ended up winning a Health Net jersey signed by the team that is racing tomorrow...pretty rockin! :)

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Originally Posted by NJBikeGal

Liz took first for the 3rd year in a row! She's part mountain goat, I think.

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Does Liz know you called her a goat????;) ;) ;)

DH and I got out for the Patuxent River Rural Legacy Ride, hosted by the Oxon Hill bike Club. We did the metric century - our first "long" ride of the season. Was a beautiful day, sunny, warm - towards the end, that would be HOT - and breezy. The route is sort of a figure-8 shape and reaches down and touches various spots along the Patuxent River. It's really nice - much more variety of terrain than the Seagull Century. The cue-sheet alleges 3400 feet of climbing for the metric, but I'll have to see what my Garmin says. MotionBased.com usually shows something different, too...so perhaps I can get an average and use that! :p
I did have a first - a nasty hamstring cramp with 1 mile to go. I managed to spin it out in a really low gear, however.
So...62 miles (and change), at 16.3 mph.
Now it's nap time!

A short 17.25 mile tune-up ride before my diabetes 50 miler tomorrow. I rode with my team captain, Chris. Apparently I'm the only one of the team who is in riding shape. Chris is afraid that I'll "leave them all in the dust." I might. I will if I don't like their pace ;)

Helmet's off, still wearing gloves and camelbak -- drinking the water!

DH and I just had a delightful 23.5 mile ride, the one I didn't get to do with friends last weekend, since I was watching my grandsons. We got off to an interesting start --

FIRST, I didn't wake up early enough to suit him.

NEXT, I went out to put air in my tires, and wouln't you know it would be the back one.... Pumped up just fine, but then I went to take the gizmo off the presta widget, and all the air came out! First time I've had that happen, but WORSE, it wouldn't let me put air back in!

What to do, what to do....

Dig out spare tube, still in box. put a little air in it to be sure it holds air, and take wheel off bike. bring grubby thing into living room, lay blanket on floor to keep filthy light colored carpeting "clean." (DH says we will get new, so why have it cleaned, eh? It's not working, going to have to succumb to urge to get carpet cleaned) Remove tire and tube -- this was easier than I expected. You have to know this tidbit: first tire change for me!

Didn't have puncture, but inspected wheel rim as a matter of starting good habits. Tire too. put old tube aside, and got the new one to put into tire.

IT WAS TOO BIG!!!

Box says it's 700 tire, but tire says it's 27." I'm annoyed, make a proper fuss, then dig out my other spare, and fortunately, it was the right size. New tube into tire, tire onto wheel, also easier than expected, carefully inflate, inspecting to make sure I don't have anything pinched and everything is seated properly.

OH EXPLETIVE! DH comes running.

I put the tire on backwards!

We decided that if I'd been sitting roadside, I should let it go until returning home, but since we were home... Deflated it and did it over again, that's okay, right? Practice! (wait, now I'm relatively good at this, and DH doesn't know how yet!)

Now I go to reassemble bike. OOPS.

Thought I'd released the brake when I removed the wheel. Not so lucky there: it just came off easily with no air in the tire! "Honey, do you remember how bike guy taught us to release the brakes?" We fiddled a bit, decided to get the manual out. OOPS. discovered that somehow, we'd gotten a BMX/Single speed bike manual instead of the one for my Roubaix road bike.

Deflated tire, put wheel in place, and reflated the tire. Bike back right side up, we should be ready to go, yes?

Oops! By the time we got to the end of the driveway, I knew, something wasn't right, and I still haven't a clue what it was, but when I pedaled, the wheel didn't go. Brake was a bit off kilter, and that was easy to straighten out, but something was just not as it should be. DH loosened wheel nuts, and put it back tight again, and we were back in business.

I said, hmmm, well, not the best start, we're an hour and a half later getting out than we expected, but hey, we learned lots this morning, right? Down the road a bit, to a favorite beginning of the ride downhill run that is easy to ride about 20 mph. Hmm, we got headwinds this morning, that's a bummer. Now the downhill, can't go over 12mph. Something's GOT to be off yet. I stopped, checked to make sure I had air yet, and discovered the brake had gone off kilter again. Straightened it out, and fortunately, that was that for the ride!

ANd now we're off! (well, girly bits need some adjusting, but gotta go find a lonely spot where traffic and neighbors won't notice, but...) Not real speedy, that head wind is a bugger!

We're on our way to a hill that's got a GREAT road on the other side. We've had a rocky start. We're tootling along behind a mail truck we'd rather not play leapfrog with. Get to the corner where it's time to turn to go up the hill, and Son-in-law is on the phone to let us know that his sister will watch grandson for sure so we don't have to wonder (hooray!)

DH wants to turn around and go home.

NO WAY!

Tandem riders head up in front of us, coming from our left. I told him, look, they're going to need two people to get up the hill. Nother lady comes by, hollers, YIPPEE! HEADWINDS!

He wants to turn around and go home...

NO WAY! I've only climbed all the way up this hill one time before, and I told him I didn't know if I could do it again, much less with the wind, but we were danged well going up the hill.

He's better at hills than me.

I nearly passed him. If the hill had been any longer....

(DH was impressed)

We even almost caught up to the tandem and other rider, who had a big head start on us! (_I_ was impressed!)

I even tried my drops a little bit on this climb. Interesting difference!

Anyway, once one gets up this hill that I climbed at about 5.5mph today, there's a wee flat area, then a delight full down up down with a right turn halfway down that second down (keep speed in check!) onto a great gradual downgrade with no cars ever on a Saturday or Sunday and the hill barricading the wind, and we FLEW! Well, until we got back into the winds, when we slowed down lots again.

Our average speed ended up around 11 1/2, but we were doing an amazing, astonishing 20+ for several miles!

Now he's still in a bit of a tizzy about my bike's mechanicals -- that cool freewheel sound, when you coast? He's dead certain something's broken and I need the bike guys to fix it. He claims his doesn't make that sound, but it's just louder on mine than his, I think!

Now I'm cooled down a bunch, and ready for some FOOD!

Karen in Boise

we had clouds this AM, Mr s. Normal this time of year('june Gloom'). Condensation forms over the pacific and blows inland and gets trapped by the mountains. burns off by about noon
I did about 67 miles.
was going to do the long club ride, but I looked we had a wide variety of talents on the short one, so I changed my mind
He have one who hates to get passed by girls. I guess he was have a bad day:)
Afterwards, I climbed up into one of our local canyons. Normally, I stop a c-store for break on this route, but a strange homeless guy has taken up residence there:( , so I stopped at a ranger station.
Downhill for 15 miles :D and then 5 flat one, and I'm back home

I ended up spending most of the day feeling a bit under the weather. Took some Promethezine (sp?) an hour ago and now I am done. DH is out for a 50 mile ride and I am feeling sorry that I didn't go. Come on be rational, I just ate a bagel as my second and biggest meal- I can't ride. :( :( :(

I did my first hill ride since my return from South America two weeks ago. Probably have only done 60 miles in the past two weeks, so I was a little worried how the hill ride would go. But I did fine. I was able to power up the smaller hills no problem. The one longer hill I took nice and slow. I did run into my two nemesis dogs though. Only did 8.25 miles, since there was a bike event today.

My club did a children's bike fix-it at a trailer park today. The kids had a great time, and so did we! 25 bikes were outfitted with repaired brakes, new saddles, personalized license plates... The whole works! It was a blast. You should have seen the looks on their faces. It was worth cutting short my hill ride. :)

Kano, you and E. missed a neat ride out in Nampa! I did the Bob LeBow century with the winds Kano mentioned. Guh. Report and pictures in the adventure section.

Wonderful weather in St. Paul! However, I am so tired from yesterday's 40 miler (a personal best!) that I only managed to go downtown to the Farmer's Market.

Only 17 miles today, but tomorrow I'm going to try a new route which should be about 35 miles. I've really noticed that my stamina is improving, so I planned to complete today's ride with no rest stops. That plan was put on the back burner when I was getting ready to run a stop sign and a Sheriff's car pulled up. Needless to say, I unclipped really fast and stopped. Since I was stopped anyway, it was a good excuse for a 5 minute break. And I happened to be in the shade so that made the rest break even more attractive.

I know running stop signs is a really bad habit (not to mention illegal), but when you're riding rural roads with no traffic, it's much easier to just keep going. Especially when the stop sign is on a steep hill!

Beautiful weather here in So. Cal. :D As usual lately. I drug DH out on a recovery ride this afternoon. He did a century and SMOKED IT! Ride Around the Bear. (Big Bear mountain with 10,400 ft of climbing.) He doesn't know how his time compares to the other riders yet, but he's pretty sure he's in the top 5 or 10 of 350. He even did a cool stunt at the very end where he was trying to beat a yellow light at 30 mph turning left, saw water and slime and, short story, both tires slid into the curb right at the exact same time and he found himself lying upside down on the grass wheels spinning above him. The guy riding with him yelled out, "Nice! Let's GO!" And then he practically pulled the easy up down as he came skidding in at the finish to get scanned and hit the front brake too hard, lifting his back tire, continuing to skid, grabbing the easy up post, dragging it a few feet! Some guys from his riding club were sitting near by and yelled, "That was great!"

So, I drug him out for a recovery ride, since he's always preaching to me how good they are for you. We just did a little 13-ish mile ride and stopped to visit his sister and fam and show them my great new bike! :D

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Originally Posted by Mr. Silver

It seems that there is a high pressure system that is keeping most all of North America sunny today! How many miles will be logged on this continent?!?!?!?!?!?!

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Except, of course, on the Olympic Peninsula of WA state. I knew the weather report for both today and tomorrow was for steady rain, and a high of 55 degrees. :mad:

I had to get some miles in today, so I got up, got dressed, and headed out at 7am in, yes, a cold rain and 55 degree temps. I needed/wanted to get in 100 miles today, so I was going to train my attitude and get out there in the cold rain. :rolleyes:

Well, I thought I was dressed well enough, but I was wrong. :( Twelve miles in I was soaked and chilled, with a lovely case of nausea (which tends to happen to me when I have to ride in too many clothes in cold weather...I need to work on that...need some bibs!). I bagged it. I was worried that on an unsupported century, it wasn't wise to risk being out there with the possiblity of using up both my tubes with 20 miles to go before any services...and being really cold and chilled and nauseous. OK, OK, I weenied out.

Came home, took a bath, washed my clothes, washed my bike. Really disgusted with cold rain in June, as usual. OK, now for a piece of cheese to go with my whine. :(

Today I had a rollercoaster ride through fear, demoralization, and a small bit of exhilaration. I wanted to preview a route that I'll be riding with Regina & MdHillSlug next weekend. Started out late afternoon, about 4:00pm, with temps in the 80's. The beginning of the ride heads up a steep hill, then a lesser grade, a long downhill stretch, then up another curvy steep hill. 2.5 miles into the ride, coming up the second steep hill, I found myself actually sobbing for breath. Stopped at the top for a break and ended up with Elvis legs, a weak feeling and cold sweats through my upper body, and a very strange feeling around my heart. I didn't know if it was the heat, the hills, or both. I seriously wondered if I had pushed myself hard enough to have a heart attack, and considered walking the bike the 2.5 miles back to the car. After a break of at least 20 minutes, I finally got back on the bike and very slowly pedaled off with the intent of shortening the route. Within a mile or so I felt much better, but a breeze had kicked up and I continued to struggle on every uphill and a lot of the flats. In spite of flying down hills, my avg speed was around 12mph for the first half of the ride.

I took a lot of breaks. Around the middle of the ride, though, I must have gotten a tailwind because suddenly in between the hills was a flat stretch where I got the bike up to 28mph, which is the fastest I've done on a flat surface (that was the exhilarating part). But there were still other stretches of small hills and flats where I was in the small chainring and cussing up a storm at only 12mph or so.

Total miles= just shy of 25. Avg speed= embarassing, considering 30mph down hills and that super-fast flat stretch. On the positive side, the weather and scenery were gorgeous, no cars tried to drive me off the road, and my hootie-hoo had absolutely no discomfort. And, it was my very first road ride all by myself. :rolleyes:

Nicole: Good luck on the diabetes ride tomorrow!

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Originally Posted by Kalidurga

And, it was my very first road ride all by myself. :rolleyes:

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Hey, that makes it a victory! :)

I rode with friends and had a very nice time.

I also got to climb Welch Creek, a ride I've been wanting to do for a couple of months. It climbs 1800 feet in 3.8 miles. The average grade for the whole thing is 9%, but there are some quarter mile long sections of 16% I told the guy riding with me that I thought there was something wrong with me, because I thought it was fun. :D :p :D

The descent was all right. It's a very narrow, twisty road, with decent pavement. You had to keep the speed down because there were a lot of blind corners and loose cows.

After that we rode along Calaveras Reservoir and looked at the eagle's nest. I think the blob I saw may have been a baby eagle's head.

Lunch at Boscos was tasty - especially the chocolate mousse!

I sat on the fence for several days trying to decide whether to join jobob and the gang on Calaveras. It's been four years since I've ridden it and though I am a better rider than I was in 2003, I haven't ridden many road miles lately, nor any hills, so I decided to wait until next time and do my own ride close to home.

I ended up with 55 miles in my neck of the woods. Rode to our local MUT about four miles from the house. After six miles on the trail as a warm up (not too many people at that time of the day), I got off and rode an out-and-back that I often do that includes one healthy climb (Willow Springs Rd.) and plenty of rollers (Uvas Rd.). I got more tired than I normally do on this ride, but at the only bail out point on the return, I decided to finish the longer ride figuring I could stop when I needed to and go at a slower pace. I was heading into the usual afternoon wind, so that in itself slowed me, but only had to make one quick stop to massage an aching hot foot. It was a beautiful day and it felt good to be out there, but I was really glad to get home.

In retrospect, the Calaveras ride might have been the easier of the two rides and certainly would have been more fun. Next time I won't be so wishy-washy:rolleyes:

Veronica, yer killin' me. Between the climbing you did and the chocolate mousse, I don't know which I'm more envioius of.

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Originally Posted by Kalidurga

Veronica, yer killin' me. Between the climbing you did and the chocolate mousse, I don't know which I'm more envious of.

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Oh, I also had fried zucchini and a crab and shrimp sandwich.

five one join us next time. Jo always picks a good place to eat after a ride. :D

V.

Yes, five-one, definitely join us sometime ! Calaveras isn't a difficult climb, and since we do it as an out & back from Sunol, you can go at your own place. Some of the more adventurous sickos amongst us like to tack on side-trips like Welch Creek, but that was an up and back as well, and we all rode as far up it as as we felt up to doing.

I posted a short report mit foto on the end of the Calaveras thread ...

Oh yeah, and Lee and I do take great pride in our ability to find good places to eat. We had that reputation back in our kite-flying days as well. :cool:

A lovely 28 mile ride this afternoon with DH. We had some nice hills. Very sunny. Temps in the low 80s. I tried out my new wheels and I was fretting over an annoying rattle that seemed to emanate from the front wheel. Stopped a couple of times and couldn't identify the source. Upon arriving home, DH figured out it was the little round thingie that goes around the valve on the tube. So, he took it off. You don't need those, right? :confused: I'm hoping that fixes the rattle cuz these wheels are FAST!

Alex

Today was the Sugarhouse Criterium - my second criterium ever. Keep in mind that I'm still healing from a broken arm from ski racing (bad landing off a BIG jump (70+ feet in the air for me, and I was going slow) - occured in early March) - 9 screws and a really cool plate in my arm. My PT says I can do everything but play golf and crash on my bike. So I'm racing Crits.... Yet again, proof that a Ph.D. is no indication of practical intelligence....:cool:

Actually, I did quite well. (Much to my surprise!) I was riding in the Women's Cat 4s, and I was in the lead group up until about 10 yards before the final lap, when I made a bad decision to switch to my smaller front chain ring for the uphill to the start/finish line (there was a big downhill, and then an uphill). Of course, my chain popped off, and despite my frantic shifting, I couldn't get it back on, and coasted to a stop halfway up the hill to the line for the final lap, watching the pack pull away from me. DH was Right There and helped me get my chain back on (I was a little rattled - I. Was. So. Close.!!!!), and gave me a little encouragement to get me moving back up the hill.

I finished in the same minute as the winner, and was NOT DFL (again, much to my surprise!), but was 11th out of 15. I think I could have been in the top 5, if it weren't for my rookie mistake of shifting (I was tired, but probably could have grunted out the hill on my big chain ring, and even if I had been dropped, could have caught up again on the next downhill). But that's all 'woulda, coulda, shoulda'. I've got to show up with the goods.

BUT.... For my second crit EVER, I'm thrilled that I stayed with the lead group. When I ride in our local series, the guys and the gals ride together, and the pace is just too tough for me - the only time I did it, I only made it 2 laps before I got dropped.... And it IS my first year racing. So I'm actually quite pleased (even if I did make a stupid mistake!!! Which I'm not so pleased about!!! :mad: )

So, not counting warm-up/cool-down, 13.5-ish miles, 21.5 mph average, top speed of 37.5 mph. Not bad. Could be better, but that will come in time! :D

42 miles in the lovely Pacific NW chill & rain. I don't have rain gear, our group didn't have fenders, and we all were soggy by the time we finished the ride. Time to shop for wool & actual waterproof gear - DH's loaner jacket was not!

Rode 25 today (Sunday). Questionned my sanity at one point, but kept going. :D I'd like to be able to ride 50 by the end of the year. I know that doesn't sound like a huge goal, but I have a series of mountain bike races coming up soon, so I'm not sure how the two goals will co-exist. :confused:

[QUOTE=Kalidurga;211210] I took a lot of breaks. Around the middle of the ride, though, I must have gotten a tailwind because suddenly in between the hills was a flat stretch where I got the bike up to 28mph, which is the fastest I've done on a flat surface (that was the exhilarating part). But there were still other stretches of small hills and flats where I was in the small chainring and cussing up a storm at only 12mph or so. [QUOTE]

Don't you just LOVE tailwinds?

But, Kali -- do NOT cuss for 12mph if you're in the granny gears! You're allowed to cuss when you're under 5mph in those gears! If I could be doing 12mph when I'm geared down that low, I'd be cheering, I tell you!

[QUOTE=Kalidurga;211210] Total miles= just shy of 25. Avg speed= embarassing, considering 30mph down hills and that super-fast flat stretch.
[QUOTE]

Hill climbs will do that to our averages, and it sux! I had that same sort of speed situation yesterday (except for the 12mph in the granny gear thing) and my average was a little under 12. SUCH a bummer when you know you've been traveling at warp speeds!


Karen in Boise

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Originally Posted by Kalidurga

Veronica, yer killin' me. Between the climbing you did and the chocolate mousse, I don't know which I'm more envioius of.

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Me too! Someday when I'm rich (and fit, LOL), I'm going to fly down and do my weekend rides with that crew! :p

Thank you, Karen & Starfish, for reminding me to appeciate the good parts of yesterday's ride :D A string of good rides always leaves me unprepared for when a somewhat crappy one comes along. I should know better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kalidurga

Thank you, Karen & Starfish, for reminding me to appeciate the good parts of yesterday's ride :D A string of good rides always leaves me unprepared for when a somewhat crappy one comes along. I should know better.

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There can be the "somewhat crappy" kind of rides?

Well, maybe we can call it that when we have to abort the ride at the wrong end cuz of a flat -- pinhole kind that needs a bathtub to find the hole to repair it and the spares are gone cuz of the weird spare problems in the morning, but then again, that was more a WOO-HOO ride, followed by a pleasant walk with my bike!

The puncture happened on the about-to-start-the-up-hill end of the ride that followed a GREAT downhill to the post office, and the walk was under a mile. Starting to get dark out, though, so I was kind of wishing for some blinky lights on my back side! (early dark last night, clouds bringing today's rain rolling in)

Karen in Boise