Labor Day Rides

I did a beach ride today with dh and some friends. 44 miles to the beach and back. I'm so totally stoked, cause I PR'd at a 20.3 mph avg, the first I've ever been 20 anything. Woo hoo!!! :D

I did a tri training ride, 22.6 miles on the tri bike. I love to ride fast!

I had planned to do a ride around and up to Wachusett Mt but when I woke I just didn't feel like it. Later in the day I jumped on the utility bike with my sneakers and did a leisurely ride up the hill to the farm to pick peaches. I picked about 28 lbs for canning, put them in my panniers and coasted back down to the house. Round trip: about 2.25 miles.

Saturday morning I had an excellent very enjoyable ride with my favorite bike shop, about 30 miles.

Friday I took the day off. Well, I did something I thought I'd never do for a good long while, if at all. I bought a new bike. At my favorite lbs. A mt bike. I bought my current mt bike in 1989 when I was 29. It has no suspension because suspension forks hadn't quite come out yet so yes, I've been riding a rigid mt bike for the last 20 years. Until one day last week I took it out and I said that's it. This is the last ride. My hands, arms, wrists, and shoulders were just getting pounded too much. Went to the shop, found one I liked and it fit good, and ordered it. So now, I've got front suspension and disk brakes. I had thrown my carbon fiber in the back to do a ride out there after I was done. I looped around and rode basically all over Harvard, about 38 miles total.

Did a 16 mile ride today, threatened rain, but only got sprinkles, however there was a horrible head wind so my average speed went down.

Did 20 miles on Sunday, in the rain but no wind. Was actually kind of fun. I was the only person on the trail so I was 'singing in the rain' and not worrying about how I sounded. LOL.

I looked outside early this afternoon. Gray skies, but that's not unusual around here. I decided that it would be a nice day for a ride anyway. I put on my cycling gear, grabbed the bike and things, took the elevator down and...
It started pouring down rain. :mad:

I did a 5.77 mi ride on Saturday morning, though. Only reason I came back was because it was getting hot and sticky and I'd forgotten to pack a water bottle.

I had a personal best ride today! I'm haphazardly / non-specifically training for a century and after today, it is totally within reach. My longest ride ever:

Time: 07:26:07
Distance: 86.25 mi
Elevation Gain: 7,954 ft

I'm feeling all kinds of euphoric! Previously we did an 81 mile flat ride and I totally bonked. Today I was fine. Feels great to have accomplished this.

I did my 13 mile ride from home to our waterfront (east and west sides) which is nice. I rode the road bike today which was a first, usually I have been taking the mtb because it has the lower gears for some of the hilly sections.

Not bad for a couple months of riding, felt good and had no issues with the hills running a low gear of 39/22, yay.

Some drizzle when I started but had mostly grey with a few pokes of sun. A nice morning for a ride.

Morning ride on the Mississippi River levee, 16 miles, 16 mph. Was pretty muggy. OK very muggy, but at least fairly pleasant temperatures, low 80s.

I rode our local Labor Day Ride - The Tour of Sebring. I completed two metric centuries (Sat. and Sun.). The route actually came by my neighborhood yesterday, so my DH and I jumped on to complete 42 miles of yesterday's metric. All in all, I rode 192 miles from Friday to Monday. Beautiful weather, good friends - a perfect weekend!

I did a metric century on Sunday---the annual Tour de Valley starting in Waynesboro, Virginia. Beautiful pastoral landscape with mountains as the backdrop. Inspiring scenery but, whoa, I really had to push to make it to the end. I struggled between 20 and 25 miles, then got a second wind and did OK until about mile 50. At that point, my knees, butt and mid-shoulders began hollerin' at me. But I made it to the finish, 63.8 miles, at 13mph, a better average than I expected! :)

I came in among the last who were doing the metric circuit, but that's OK! At about mile 40 on my ride, the first of the full century riders passed me, meaning that they had already done 78-80 miles--at twice my pace! :eek::eek: The first two guys were so far ahead of the rest of the pack that it was at least another 10 minutes until the third century rider passed me.

Not a ride, went to the dojo. I've changed dojo's (school) and find even in the same art it is different; terms, forms, technique. This one is also more of a workout, subtle differences in style make it harder. I reflected last night because this one's closer to my home I train more often, arrive at class earlier and on average train a half hour longer besides harder. :eek: :rolleyes:

I broke in my new Orbea riding around the Flaming Gorge Utah area, 90 miles on the road and 10 miles on my MTB between Saturday and Monday. Desert landscape, brilliant red rock, many painful 8% grade hills - I stopped counting - ooouch. But they're so fun to zip back down, just gotta watch for road kill. :eek:

Hubs and I have been on vacation. We've just been riding our bikes. We rode 20miles friday, 15 saturday, 20 tues and plan on doing another 20 on thursday!

Since one of translation of "cucamonga: is 'sunrise over the mountains', I took some photos
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/Sq...0/100_1046.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/Sq...0/100_1047.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/Sq...0/100_1052.jpg
we then rolled over to Claremont, but the euro cafe was closed:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/Sq...0/100_1055.jpg
so we went to the bagel shop
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/Sq...0/100_1056.jpg
I pulled the back along arrow at about 20, which was good for me!:)

We played photo-tourist on foot and bike at the Painted Hills and the John Day River.


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...dHills0090.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...dHills0114.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...dHills0078.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...9/IMG_1737.jpg

Have I told you how much fun washboarded roads are via cross bike? Actually, these were pretty well-maintained roads which meant we hit the washboarded sections at higher speed than normal.

Beautiful pictures!

I did my regular loop + a couple of extra loops. I was a bit loopy by the end. ;)

I did 40 miles - with 3300 feet of climbing - in about 3 hours. Sadly, my Garmin refuses to turn on, so I can't find out my max speed. I think I really got going on some of those downhills!

Not sure I'll do this one again though...first you climb up, then some rollers, then down, down down, then back up to the top and down again. It was pretty and quiet out there, but a lot of work! :)

I hurt my knee during a dance class in early June and haven't been able to bike past 5 miles or so since then, trying to get it healed. Yesterday I rode 20 miles on the Katy Trail. What a beautiful day it was! Mokane to Portland. It isn't maintained very well here. Still beautiful, but lots of wildlife. The Missouri river is in the background. My two new snake friends have a thread of their own.

I love these pictures!

My boyfriend and I took a relaxing ride along the Hudson River. I'd just done a 15-mile trail race the day before, and my legs were tired! Sometimes it is really nice - and welcomed - to ride just for the sake of pleasure, not to challenge yourself. I need to remember to do this more often :)

SadieKate those photos are breathtaking.