Saturday July 19 Rides

I guess I get to start this thread, because I did today's ride at 6AM...with a former Cat 1 racer no less!

35.5 miles at 17.8mph with 2,200 feet of climbing. Touched Lake Monroe and Lake Lemon. Fun Ride!

My riding partner is a serious cycling stud. For a challenge and to make things interesting, he chooses "epic" (aka - bad, potholed, graveled) roads...with the objective of staying smooth and vertical! Wow! he found some too!

There's clearly a difference between me (who buys his cycling equipment) and him (who has sponsor supplied equipment)!

With all the discussion in other threads about Garmin's...here's a link to the ride on motionbased:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/i...kValue=6288355

I did our local weekly Time Trial today. In part, I figured that riding at 7am fast was a better idea than waiting until it hits the upper 90s this afternoon!

It was a great morning, with two of my teammates joining me. I clocked a Personal Best of 20:43 for the 8+ mile TT.

Now...I'm resting, watching the tour, and prepping for my crit race tomorrow!

Did hill intervals early. They help sooo much. Short mileage. Gonna be hot later.

I didn't post about yesterday's ride so I'll put it in here instead of wasting thread space.

I did another personal best, this time on my commute. PBs are the only time I state my avg. mph, which today was 16.6 mph from Ayer to Chelmsford. I commute to Lowell but after Chelmsford and the consistent riding I'm able to do up to that point, the mph drops because of lights and so much stopping and slowing in the urban areas. It just keeps getting better with these PBs this year. It's the new road shoes ! It's the new road shoes!

But then this is an extremely flat route, one of the flattest I've ridden. And the commute is 22 miles one way - what is that term that Jobob or someone used - a mere bakery ride? Chuckle. Is that like a cakewalk? So yesterday I walked my cake, did my bakery ride but with no rewards of donuts or puff pastry at the end.

What did RolliePollie say? When you have a max speed of 45 and avg of 12.4 you know you have ridden hills. Nope, not with my bakery ride.

I actually felt really crappy in the car on the way to the parking lot before the commute; my stomach was upset, my heart rate seemed to be high. I almost decided not to ride and was gonna drive straight to work. I said give it a try. Even in the parking lot I didn't feel well at all. By that time it was close to 89 degrees and veryhumid so I think the heat wasn't making me feel well. I said, well, just take it easy and knock it down a notch. So I did, and I did the best time ever for this stretch.

I learned a little something today - that you always don't have to hammer to get a decent time. I actually relaxed a little more and brought it down a notch and my pedal stroke ended up being fairly good and consistent. But then I'm 2 weeks stronger than the last time I commuted. Consistent riding during vacation has helped.

Boy, the ride home was hot. In the 90's. As soon as I stepped out the door, this big wall of heat coming off the pavement hits you right in the face. I certainly don't have as much giddiup on the way home. Must be that 8-9 hr. work thing that happens in between.

I went up and down the little hills in Maryland to get out to the produce stand that did not have corn. I rented a car to come out here to see my sister, and I realized how non-car-centric I've become since I automatically popped that folder out of the car to go explore for produce. I could head out and wander in the car to see if anybody *does* have corn (the guy said their delivery truck was having issues... I almost laughed, since that would of course include that perhaps they had to deliver said corn from someplace less than 'local...')

You're in Maryland??? Where? How long???

We did the N2 this a.m. I knew it was going to be trouble when about 8 Artemis riders showed up. Artemis is a local race club. Their reputation precedes them, and let's just say...it isn't good. But...my friend M.A. now rides with them, and after I clued her in on their rep ("Really? Well, yeah, I've been noticing that myself." :cool:), we chatted about racing (she wants me to race - HA!) and training and the team.

The heat was really cranking up early today. The humidity just kills me and I thought I was doing awful all day. My legs felt like junk. I thought I was doing just average, and perhaps the group was dallying in spots. But I took a peek at mile 32 and my average was 18.3! :eek: Crazy. When the commentators talks about suffering during a race for miles and miles, I know what they're talking about. Why does it have to hurt so bad to go fast? I ended up with 39 miles at an 18.0 pace. This is the second week in a row where I thought I was crappy for the whole ride, and then surprised myself with a P.R. for speed. Stupid.

I took my bike out for a short ride to test the new cassette before riding the hill country tomorrow. There is one pretty meaty hill near my house so I took off towards it. Early on I was Chased by bassette hounds, always amusing to see those dogs run. I spun up the hill and did see a slight improvement with the new cassette. My legs were lead today so it is hard to judge if the cassette was worth $100. Oh well it is Ultegra, not 105 I can pretend I upgraded because I am such a weight weeny. :p

Took one more long grinding hill in a headwind, that officially stuck a fork in me for the day. Saw a baby goat no bigger than my 8 lb miniature schnauzer, I love goats. :D Came home, took the pups to the groomers and am chilling before a mountain ride this afternoon. 21.66 miles, 13.9 mph (gotta love the climbing and headwind).

I'm off the bike this week. :( Will someone ride extra miles for me? Please? :o

Sundial- I will be riding my butt off to try to make it calloused for New Mexico next week. I haven't had nearly enough time in the saddle to enjoy a 85+ mile ride. I will log some miles for ya. ;) Hope you are not ill!

I did a 5.5 mile hike with Denise G. It would have been OK to ride at 6 AM, but it is brutal out there today and neither of us wanted to get up that early. We decided a hike in the shady woods would be better. Plus, we have not seen each other since November, so hiking gave us more opportunity to chat. I was soaked with sweat from hiking.
Whenever it's extremely hot and humid, I get headaches, which makes me feel like cr@p. My ride yesterday was pathetic, dead legs. I'm finally starting to feel a bit better, and hoping to get out early tomorrow, before the T storms take over.

I joined the club this morning for a lovely 47 mile ride from Louisville to Simpsonville. We traveled some beautiful, scenic roads but boy did we see a lot of hills on our journey today. I pushed myself today (as much as my tired legs would allow me to) and felt I had a decent ride (15.9 mph avg speed). Our typically summer weather pattern has set in so when we started at 8:30 it was already in the mid-70's and climbing fast! I love this weather! It was a good day on the bike.

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Originally Posted by 7rider

The heat was really cranking up early today. The humidity just kills me and I thought I was doing awful all day. My legs felt like junk. I thought I was doing just average, and perhaps the group was dallying in spots. But I took a peek at mile 32 and my average was 18.3! :eek: Crazy.

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You are such a stud-ette. I remember that post where you did 75 miles or so with the boys at something like 17.X mph. Whew!

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Originally Posted by Aggie_Ama

Sundial- I will be riding my butt off to try to make it calloused for New Mexico next week. I will log some miles for ya. ;) Hope you are not ill!

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Thanks! And good luck on your ride. I know how the Texas heat will sap you and I hope you do ok. I'm not riding because I've got 2 big deadlines......and life.

I did 40 miles on the WMRT. Nice spot

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sundial

I'm off the bike this week. :( Will someone ride extra miles for me? Please? :o

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I will donate 10 miles to your cause. I would give you more, but I rode 40 and I want to keep 30 for myself. Selfish of me? Yes! But donating 25% of my miles to you isn't so bad, right? ;)

I did my traditional Saturday ride down to Placerville and back. What a fun ride! There is one descent that I'm just addicted to. I was almost tempted to do that part of the ride twice today just so I could fly down the curvy hills again. It really feels like a roller coaster...I love it! Then I rolled into my LBS to talk about a new chain before heading back up the hill. 3 hours and approximately 40 miles later, I made it home. There is a Safeway close to my house and they just put in a Starbucks (I find this so strange...I live in a very rural area and it isn't even an incorporated town, but we have a Starbucks?!?!) so I walked over and treated myself to a caramel Frappucino complete with whipped cream. Yummmmm!

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Originally Posted by RolliePollie

I will donate 10 miles to your cause. I would give you more, but I rode 40 and I want to keep 30 for myself. Selfish of me? Yes! But donating 25% of my miles to you isn't so bad, right? ;)

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LOL! As long as I get credit for the calories that were burned. :)

I did 24 miles this morning. 70 degrees, very little wind, I averaged 16 mph. Which is very good for me. I am not very fast. It was a good ride. Hopefully my husband and I are going to ride this evening.

Did the 60-mile ride, on our tandem, around Lake Washington with a bunch of folks, including Mimitabby's spouse Raleighdon! It is the PERFECT day here in the PNW--sunny and 70. Great ride, lots of fun, felt strong.

This morning I rode in an MS fund raising ride through the beautiful rolling (yeah, right) countryside of the Little River region of northern Durham and Orange counties in North Carolina.

We had a choice of 30, 45, or 60 mile routes. Since I didn't sleep well last night I chose the 45 mile route and it turned out to be 46.59 miles with 3061 feet of climbing. Our average speed was 17.3 mph. It was great fun and I was lucky to have two other strong riders with me...they were helpful when the hills were long and I needed a wheel to draft behind.

Any one else here do this ride today?

I don't know how far I rode. My bike computer is partially operational so I get cadence only, and I think I like it.

For the locals, I rode 527 down to Lake City Way to see what Mid Mountain had done to the road recently. Thought about riding the BG into Seattle, but I realized that I HATE the BG. So, I hung a left at Ballinger Way, and headed that way. Considered stopping by Knot's place to see what sort of folly I could talk her into, but in an ADD moment, I saw one of the Interurban Trail signs. I'd never ridden the Interurban south of Lynnwood, so I kept going until I found it. Which means I rode most of the way around Lake Ballinger, gave up for a while and headed north into Montlake Terrace, regained my resolve and headed back across I-5, rode for a little while, gave up again, then stumbled across it in spite of myself. At this point, I decided to give it a whirl.

I was underwhelmed, so I hopped off at Alderwood mall and went home.

Oh, and the whole time, I was switching back and forth between "Crucify" and "City of Compton" in my head. Tori Amos and Ice Cube. What a match.

Joe and I started our ride today at noon. We had planned on an early morning ride but when we woke up it was cloudy and chilly outside. A marine layer had come on shore during the night and cooled things off. The morning temperature at our house this morning was 51 degrees! So Joe and I decided to wait until noon, hoping the sun would burn through and warm things up, before starting our ride.

Noon arrived and the sun was not doing it's job! So not wanting to waste the day we left for our ride. It was an out and back. Gradual up hill to start then a big 2 mile climb, about a 6 percent grade, then leveling off at the top of the climb we rode around the town of Buckley and then went down the hill we had climbed about 30 minutes earlier.

Oh I almost forgot, on our way back this guy on a bike passed us and Joe decided he just couldn't allow this. So the last 4 miles of our ride Joe, me, and this guy were in a sort of three person Tour de France. We were the sprinters racing towards the finish. Happy to say Joe and I won! We passed this guy and left him in our dust. We put a lot of distance between us too. Joe was happy. He gets like this occasionally and it actually was fun. I guess Joe was feeling pretty good on our ride today. I felt pretty good too. It was a good ride. Oh and the sun finally did come out. About 1/3 of the way through our ride it started to burn those marine cloud layers away. We finished with full sunshine!

:)

Oh I almost forgot, we got 29 miles this afternoon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by luv'nAustin

This morning I rode in an MS fund raising ride through the beautiful rolling (yeah, right) countryside of the Little River region of northern Durham and Orange counties in North Carolina.

We had a choice of 30, 45, or 60 mile routes. Since I didn't sleep well last night I chose the 45 mile route and it turned out to be 46.59 miles with 3061 feet of climbing. Our average speed was 17.3 mph. It was great fun and I was lucky to have two other strong riders with me...they were helpful when the hills were long and I needed a wheel to draft behind.

Any one else here do this ride today?

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We felt like crud this AM, so we wimped out. I'm kinda glad - I wouldn't have been up for that kind of climbing (it's more than the elevation profile showed). It usually is an awesome ride, though. Great support, and a great cause (plus I LOVE the burritos). Had been meaning to PM you - have much more free time to ride now (but you're WAY faster than me:)).

CA

Slept in this morning...nearly a mistake. I did my 55mile loop through hill country and didn't finish till 2:30 (HOT HOT)

I have found that I really dislike riding blind (no computer). I had to do a loop today that I knew the data for - distance, time, usual avg speed, cals burned, etc.

Mr.Silver - your MB profile from the ride today has convinced me finally that the 305 is the way to go. I had no idea you could get such organization of the data in a download. Way cool.

I did a brevet!
"only" 128 miles from Malibu to Carpinetria and back

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Originally Posted by Fredwina

I did a brevet!
"only" 128 miles from Malibu to Carpinetria and back

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Sometimes you prove how crazy and awesome you are to us all. What no pictures? :p

A nice relaxed ride of about 20 miles with some new friends. Av sp 13.5mph