8/16 Ride report

I haven't done a ride report lately, so I'm starting us off today!

I did the "Bicycle Ride Across Wilson County" this morning, the 30 mile option. I've been riding by myself mostly this summer, so it was nice to have folks to chat with. It was the same general area that Andrea won her state championship, but a different course. But she can tell you how hilly that area is.

But I had a good time. Except at one point too early on when my heart rate got up into zone 5. I stopped to let it get back down. It was after a climb that hits pretty quick and I probably wasn't warmed up well enough.

But my average speed was pretty darn good for me, even with the hills.

I also had a pretty good average speed today, although I don't know what the number is, I just used my watch. I stopped for ten minutes while a train passed, but I ended up having to take a detour because the train stopped. Even with the detour I was faster than I was last week. I was still dropped by the group, though. I faltered for about a minute or two in the high rpm's I was having to maintain and they kept pulling away; a hill came up and I never caught them. Then I decided to wait on the train instead of immediately taking the detour, so I was alone for the back half of the ride. One day! One day....

Very nice 32 mile ride, rolling hills. I got caught in tremendous downpour, but a very fat short maple tree really was my friend and kept me half dry. Almost home when a stupid dog came barking and chasing me pretty aggressively. I had to stop since he was determined to come after me (Australian shepherd), and all traffic halted in both directions while I had to yell at him and make him go home. He then became sheepish and ashamed of himself. Other drivers were concerned for me. I heard his owner start calling him, so I hope they got the message since the whole neighborhood could hear me bellow about what a BAD DOG he was. :cool: If this happens again I will have to speak to the owners.
Despite the dog and the sopping rain, I had a great time and my legs got a real workout. :D

22 miles, rolling hills, a few looooong uphills with my husband. Avg speed 14mph (some of the ride was in town/traffic) which is a pretty good clip for me. Threw in some sign sprints and worked on standing on the uphills and increasing my speed on the downhills. It was a good ride for me!

Ah, I'm jealous of your nice rides today... all I got this morning was a quick 25m on the rollers - it's POURING outside!!!
:mad: can't stand the rain! :mad:

My husband and I did our first 50 miler this morning. It's our 4th wedding anniversary too, what better way to celebrate? :p

It was a lot of rolling hills, and one long (~7 mile) climb around mile 30. Took us about 4 hours at ~13 MPH.

The stops are all local churches, and bake all kind of goodies for the riders. Cookies, granola bars, etc. I had this awesome homemade peanut butter oatmeal "energy" bar at one stop. YUM!

Happy anniversary berkeley!

I rode 26 miles on my scenic horsefarm route and really should have gone farther considering that it wasnt raining! Didnt check my avg speed til I got back and was pleased to see it was 19.3. It feels like I am getting faster and stronger all the time. :)

45 kms. with a stop near end to do grocery shopping. Went nuts buying local fruit: raspberries, blueberries, etc. plus local tomatoes, snow peas, etc. Temp was hot but with a slight breeze..Bright beautiful day.

He left while I hung out at bookstore and bought a book about a guy cycle-travelling and Dr. Seuss child's bk. for a niece.

Then biked a bit more homeward to do more grocery shopping...got a huge hunkin' fresh Dungeness crab for supper tonight..on our balcony.

Lovely day! :)

I started the morning off with a fast 17 mile club ride. My legs felt great and the route was nice and flat (I love flat!). Loaded the bike back in my car and headed across the river to Jeffersonville, IN for the next club ride. A 50 mile route which would take us to Corydon, IN for the Underground Railroad Dedication Ceremony. It was a beautiful, rural route (not sure if it followed the Underground RR) to Corydon. We had lunch at a family owned/operated deli very yummy and headed over for the dedication ceremony. Seems we took too long eating and we missed it. Back on bikes for the return trip. It was a beautiful day to ride.

Beautiful 37 mile ride this morning through rolling hills and some flats with my riding buddies in cool weather with low humidty - not normal for NC in Aug! Took a break at a fenced in field with donkeys and cute baby donkeys who came up to the fence to see us. Ate brunch at a bagel shop. Only bad part was one of our riders took a turn too fast and hit a median and went down. Got some bad road rash. First time I had to use my handy dandy baggie of first aid supplies. It sure came in handy. She rode the rest of the way in. Averaged 15 mph, which is a high for me :)

Did a 35-mile ride early, before I had dinner guests. I have some pictures here, of a ride that I did 2 days ago that was 44 miles. I didn't have the camera today but I figure, heck, I rode on most of the same roads today so it's sorta like the same thing. I like when people show pictures of where they ride. Besides, I've just learned how to put text between the photos.

Most of my area is heavily wooded but there are a couple of farms with open fields near me.
http://inlinethumb46.webshots.com/40...425x425Q85.jpg

"My" classic view into southern NH. This view is early in the ride, about 2 miles from the house. Mt. Monadnock is about 17 miles to the north as the crow flies.
http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/43...425x425Q85.jpg

One of my many 1.5 country lanes. These roads I ride on have very little to no traffic.
http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/39...425x425Q85.jpg

Sigh. Some days I pine for good pavement. This stuff just does a number if you're in a groove.
http://inlinethumb50.webshots.com/42...425x425Q85.jpg

The road to Royalston is up, and up. It has max grades of 22% or so, most are between 11-15% interspersed with 8-10%. It's 6.5 miles, and I'll use this particular road to help improve climbing. But at the top, finally, Royalston. Your quintessential New England white town common and Main Street. Complete with desolation. There wasn't a soul around.

http://inlinethumb27.webshots.com/22...425x425Q85.jpg

I love this barn. It's on Main Street. Hmm. The trees are turning color up here. Albeit the weaker ones. But it's only August!

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/20...425x425Q85.jpg

I follow a river for a little bit near the end of the ride. Short
lived as it is a narrow valley. 5 minutes, then I cross the river and it is up a hill to home for 2 miles.
http://inlinethumb46.webshots.com/12...425x425Q85.jpg

Here's a link to pictures of the rest of the ride.
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...ost=good-times

Just a little easy cruise with the club this morning - nearly half of it on a couple of the MUPs. Hardly any traffic on the trails, but lots of glass on the outbound path, and lots of bumpy tree roots, frost heaves and sinkholes on the inbound side. I was amazed I didn't get a flat in all that glass, I'm overdue for new tires :p For the last ten miles or so I picked up the pace a little bit and came on in by myself. I'm starting to feel up to some more exertion, thank goodness - hardly any pain, just some discomfort, although I'm still wearing my HRM really low.

Another amazingly beautiful day. Arm warmers starting out, completely perfect by late morning, and I just had all the levels adjusted in my allergy shot so even the peak of ragweed season isn't bothering me that much.

Which reminds me to turn off the water to my garden, as we've had a serious lack of rain lately. Great for outdoor sports, not so great for life :(

40.38 miles, 14.7 mph avg., very very flat.

Great pictures, mudmucker!

I rode 32 miles. 7 of those miles I averaged 15 mph while pulling a trailer that weighed about 65 lbs or so. It was a good work out.

Zen, 7rider, and I had a fun multi-sport day--kayaking on the Monocacy and Potomac rivers, and biking on the C&O canal.

We saw lots of birds--bald eagles, great blue herons, green herons, a kestrel, there were more but I'm not a bird person so I don't remember.

After kayaking, we were so hungry we rode 0.4 miles--that's right--and stopped at a picnic table for lunch. Then we rode another 13.5 miles. The excitement of the ride was that Zen's saddle decided to spontaneously fall off. oops.

Here are some pictures:

7rider and Zen having fun paddling
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...yakbike009.jpg

Zen paddling
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...yakbike003.jpg

bald eagle
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...glecropped.jpg

I just like this picture with the bow of my boat in it
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...yakbike024.jpg

Zen and 7rider on the C&O
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...yakbike026.jpg

Wonderful pictures mudmucker!
Thanks - you just made my day much better after all the rain :)

Thankfully the Dallas area wasn't getting any rain today, but the weather was absolutely fabulous. We did 85 miles, with the weather in the 80's. We have been having 100+, so we were relieved.

Great pictures, everyone!

Mudmucker- those roads are just like the ones around my area!- often no shoulders at all and loaded with cracks, debris, patches, and potholes. Ah, the benefits of the freeze/thaw seasonal cycles. :cool:

I liked Divingbiker's photos too. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by divingbiker

We saw lots of birds--bald eagles, great blue herons, green herons, a kestrel, there were more but I'm not a bird person so I don't remember.

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Kingfisher.

Mudmucker, your ride looks lovely. I like that barn too.
The "complete with desolation" look is kind of scary though. It makes me think of a Stephen King story.

Ouch, our ride was a sufferfest! I was hungover, we started at about 1pm in 99 degree heat and still did our planned 35 mile ride....it usually takes about 2 hours and we were 15 minutes slower. Considering how hard it was, I thought the time was pretty good.

So, that makes me stronger, right???

Great photos and stories everyone! I love hearing how you feel stronger and faster and seeing the cool places you've been. Oh, and we have roads like that on all of our rides.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

I "only" did 117 miles today

I went to rolla and rode the mtb trail at lion's club park. I had a limited amount of time and since it's only 4 miles it was perfect. There was only one other person riding it, and we never actually crossed paths (it sounded like he was going VERY fast). I did it faster than before but still walked over one very muddy creek, the same one we walked before. My forerunner said I averaged 8 mph, which doesn't sound like much, but since I averaged 6.2 ON THE ROAD on one hilly ride, it's not bad for me!! I felt like I was flying, but slowed down for the places where the trees are only barely wide enough for the handlebars to go through.
vickie

We did 9 miles of mountain biking. It was the first mountain ride that left me excited about the sport and even squealing with glee at the fun I was having. :D

Forecast is rain today which we desparately need, I just looked outside and there is lots of sunshine. :(

We did a club sunset/moonrise ride on Antelope Island last night. What a blast! Riding between the herds of buffalo did not seem as intimidating in the dark because they really were just dark blobs in the fields on both sides - until one got up to cross the road that is! :eek: That seems like a good point to turn around & go back. It was so cool to ride with the full moon. At one point we turned our front lights off for a bit to just ride in the moonlight - no cars around either, just moon shadows. Almost ran into another buffalo crossing the road!

The only bad part was getting eaten alive by mosquitos when loading the bikes back onto the car at the end. And why am I always the only one that gets bitten?? :mad:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl

Mudmucker- those roads are just like the ones around my area!- often no shoulders at all and loaded with cracks, debris, patches, and potholes. Ah, the benefits of the freeze/thaw seasonal cycles. :cool:

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Yah. That and most of the places along this route are so removed, not heavily populated, and don't lead to anywhere. I mean, there is no reason to travel some of these roads because they don't lead to major towns or have food stores or retail, so they aren't high on a priority list for repair/new pavement. Basically, the locals travel them and everyone else uses them to get lost. These towns are much less wealthy than most of the communities in the commonwealth. Although towns across the US have their share of fiscal woes, these towns have annual budgets less than those towns that have no budgets. I don't think they'll get paved any time soon.

I used to think that was true, but Lincoln, one of the richest towns in the state has horrible roads, worse than what you have in your pictures. They just don't care. Most of the people have lived there for years, are proud of being frugal to the extreme, and don't want "outsiders" using their roads to begin with! That is one of the reasons I don't ride in one direction from my house because I have to go through Lincoln.
Littleton is even worse, although it is not in the financial category.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crankin

I used to think that was true, but Lincoln, one of the richest towns in the state has horrible roads, worse than what you have in your pictures. They just don't care. Most of the people have lived there for years, are proud of being frugal to the extreme, and don't want "outsiders" using their roads to begin with! That is one of the reasons I don't ride in one direction from my house because I have to go through Lincoln.
Littleton is even worse, although it is not in the financial category.

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I used to feel that the generally crappy roads on the North Shore were the locals' way of having cheap speed bumps. If the roads are bad enough, you'll have to slow down....which is just the way they want it.

That cracked road looks exactly like a lot of the pavement on my usual routes! One must pay attention or you'll go down in a hurry. Yikes!

I did much of a usual route of mine - except I did it in reverse. Wow..talk about an eye opener! #1, it made it look nearly like a new route hitting it from a different direction. #2....it was a LOT harder! I thought it was hilly the other direction - sheesh...

I added a few different turns and roads to the beginning and end of my usual Saturday route to make it extra interesting. The really intresting part is that usually this route (in the other direction) gets the tough hill work out of the way in the first 90 minutes. Going in the reverse direction seemed like I had hillwork throughout the whole ride. Sufferfest served up by my own hand...err...feet?

50.5, 3100ft climbing, 14.6mph avg (the top grade in my hillwork sufferfest was 14%)

I think I've paddled a canoe up that way. Not to be outdone, my friend Annette and I did a short ride around Trap Pond State Park Saturday, and Paddled it on Sunday. Trap Pond is the home of the northernmost bald cypress trees in North America. It was a pretty cool place.

These are cell phone pix... so I apologize for the quality, but the cypress trees are really awesome.

If there is interest from the Mid-Atlantic crowd to do a camp-out with biking and kayaking either there or even at Assateague this fall these are great places to base bike and/or kayak outings.

Trap Pond is near Laurel, DE and might be a good place for the SeaGull riders to consider camping if motels are booked up, or want to keep the costs down - about 16 miles from Salisbury. Campsites are $24/night for DE residents or $28 for non residents. Seniors get a small discount.

Here's a couple photos of the cypress swamp...