June 21 Weekend Rides

I had a wonderful little ride this morning, and I made myself hit the streets rather than just riding across the street to my favorite park as I have been doing. Right now I am limited to the length of my rides and have fallen into that bad habit. Wheels hit pavement at 6:20 this morning to beat the heat and I really enjoyed being "on the road" again. The few cars I ran across gave me lots of room, and it was wonderful to see different scenery. I DID finish up in that park, and it was early enough that I saw far more deer than usual. Thankfully none darted in front of me - that is always a concern. No squirrels however, which was a surprise.

That's awesome. I love the deer as long as they stay off. The best part of riding here is it's flat so you can see across to make sure they are good.

Early morning rides are really great and peaceful. I wish I was more of a morning person but I have this feeling that I am about to become one with this heat back in Missouri.

I tried to get in about 42 miles with the old bike club here. It was pointless. The radar was supposed to be clear until the afternoon and we were planning on coming back from Michigan by noon. Well, going about 17 miles going out was great until the RAIN. So, me and another couple got a little over 7 miles altogether before we thought it was too dangerous and turned around. Breaks were squeaking and the grates by Lake Michigan were really slick and I didn't want to go down. We pedaled home when it let up a bit but it was POURING. I was soaked. I think the sports bra took on the most water. Gross. I'm sad but glad I stuck to my guns - the front is moving in more quickly now and don't want to be out in it.

This morning was the 41 mile no-drop ride. Got a late start as someone in the group had a flat right off the start. This also was our club's "trash pick up" weekend. We do it about once a quarter, try to give back to the county where we have our club rides by picking up trash along the road. Between the late start and trash we didn't get done until almost noon so I was pretty well fried. On the bright side I got to see lots of scissor-tailed flycatchers and several zebras (yes, I do mean real live zebras) :)

We drove to Mystic CT with our cycling friends, where we met the ride leader and 5 other women. DH and I were the sweeps. I was glad for once, as I woke up still with some kind of viral thing in both my head and stomach. It was a gorgeous day; about 78-80 and sunny. The ride is OK, not wonderful in my book because of 3-4 traffic situations, i.e. intersections I don't like, but there is really pretty scenery, especially at the end. There were no incidents with the group, except, right before we got to downtown Mystic, by the bridge, DH had a flat, where he cut his tire with something. In went the dollar bill! We were only 3 miles from the end. We stopped twice, once to eat lunch in a park and visit a church fair where we bought a mini fruit pie and split it 4 ways, and then in Mystic, by the harbor, where we watched the bridge go up/down and the boats passing. After that my friend's DH stayed with her (she was the slowest rider) and I rode up to the front. There ws one hill there, and I wanted to see what the other women were like... they seemed like strong riders, but I dropped them all in my big ring :eek:. That doesn't happen very often to me. One lives near me, and we might ride together sometime.
When we got back to the cars, we changed (I am the only women who would change in the car) and drove to a nearby fishing village and had an early dinner overlooking the harbor. I had delicious fish tacos. I did get a bit sunburned here, as I had rinsed off the sunscreen. Then we drove back into town, hoping to get ice cream, but we couldn't find parking. So, off we went and when we got near home, we stopped and got some soft serve with chocolate dip.
I'm tired and sticky, have to go shower. Even though I wouldn't say this was my favorite ride, it was a really fun day.

My husband and I rode in the "Bike MS Ride the Rim" this weekend. 105 miles on Saturday and 25 miles on Sunday. This was our first MS ride. It was tough, but we had fun.

I did an errand ride on the Jamis, sans DH who is on the injured reserve list with a cranky knee. Sunday mornings are so nice for riding since the traffic is really light, even in the KC suburbs! And it was overcast with a hint of rain in the air (felt a few drops but nothing more). Very humid but not too hot -- just 81 when I got back. Hit Walmart and the Natural Grocer. I don't have a computer on the Jamis, but it wasn't a long ride -- maybe 12 miles round trip? Still, kind of fun to ride solo since I usually ride with DH. Helps me to learn the roads around here since I tend to follow him and not pay as much attention to what all the street names are.

The Jamis is proving to be excellent for utility rides!

Did big cottonwood canyon today (UT) and it was lovely. about 14 miles up (to Brighton) and 3600 ft of steady nice climbing, I don't like descending but it was OK, there are some flats and drivers were really courteous. 14 miles of descent with some wind is way harder to me than climbing LOL. Had a nice burger at the top and there were lots of riders in the canyon. This was my first time all the way up BCC and I would have done it a long time ago had I known it was so nice LOL. Maybe next time I should have a beer before going back down? That might help. I do half consider asking anyone with a truck to drive me down descents, isn't that pathetic? I was singing, that helps.

Today was about 10 miles of mtb with the club aka excuse to socialize and call it a recovery ride :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

I did an errand ride on the Jamis, sans DH who is on the injured reserve list with a cranky knee. Sunday mornings are so nice for riding since the traffic is really light, even in the KC suburbs! And it was overcast with a hint of rain in the air (felt a few drops but nothing more). Very humid but not too hot -- just 81 when I got back. Hit Walmart and the Natural Grocer. I don't have a computer on the Jamis, but it wasn't a long ride -- maybe 12 miles round trip? Still, kind of fun to ride solo since I usually ride with DH. Helps me to learn the roads around here since I tend to follow him and not pay as much attention to what all the street names are.

The Jamis is proving to be excellent for utility rides!

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I thought it would :) So glad you are having fun with it!

Gentle ride down to the lake and over to the farmers' market in an attempt to beat the heat.

It sort of worked.

15.3 hot and fast miles. See the "I Could Have Gone My Whole Life Without Knowing" thread on the open topic non-cycling forum.

It's getting uber hot here in South Florida as well. I got in two nice, shortish rides (40 and 32 miles) with friends this weekend, very casual with breakfast stops along the way. Today, I got rained on, but it was welcomed. I have some distance events coming up in a couple months with some metrics in between. I've been riding a lot, but haven't been beyond 60 miles in a month or so. I gotta ramp things up, but I can't seem to get my azz motivated, though I know I'll be happy as soon as I do.

My regular training ride was cancelled due to rain this weekend, but I wasn't too broken up about it since it had too many back cranking steep climbs (which I've been considering "overkill" given that I'm only training to do the STP...). Did a fairly flat 50 to Lowell, followed the river to the centennial trail to lake Cassidy and back home. There is one nasty climb to get out of the valley which, sadly, hasn't gotten any easier. There was a guy standing there watching me going inchy, inchy, inchy up a segment of the hill which I have been told has a 14% grade, and he was laughing, so I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of seeing me bail and walk, even though I was starting to see stars. I chided him for laughing at my suffering, which made him laugh even harder. The last 10 miles home were an agonizing crawl after that.

I got out again on Saturday, by myself. I'm pretty much feeling healthy enough to join a club ride for an abbreviated distance ... except that the rides conflict with the farmers' market and my garden hasn't come in yet. Not sure how I'm going to resolve that dilemma ... I am kind of back to thinking about a bike with some luggage-carrying capacity and possibly riding to the market, but that still doesn't get me a social ride (and I really am not sure how well fresh veggies would survive an hour in the saddlebags).

Just 20 miles at an easy pace, but 1400 feet of climbing, and it didn't seem to aggravate anything. Yay.

18 social miles Friday at Eagle Creek Park...easy pace 12mph
56 event miles Saturday CIBA ride...intervals with a lot of medium/short steep hills...15mph
18 social miles Saturday NITE RIDE easy pace 11.5 mph
and mountain biked Sunday about 3 miles before it started raining :(

I am exhausted. 95miles for the weekend . According to mapmyride I burned 7144 calories total on those rides. Not bad!

A few weeks ago on the MS-150 ride I was chilled to the bone on day 2 riding in the cold, drenching rain. Now? Suddenly it's hot and humid with one violent storm after another. We've been without power since Friday. :( I got out yesterday for a total of about 27 miles, but my intended route was thwarted due to too many downed trees and limbs. This photo is typical of how things look around here:

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Two rides. I went out on a shop ride Friday night hoping to meet some new gals. Me and 8 guys sigh. The shop guys made sure it was a no drop and everyone was friendly enough. We rode some trails out at the state park that I hadn't been on in a long time. I turned down the invite for pizza and beer afterwards - just not comfortable with that even tho I know three of the guys from elsewhere.
Sunday I went out on the technical XC trails with a girlfriend. I made a point of going back to redo anything I coudn't ride clean - didn't clean all of it but I did work on it. One thing I'm giving myself this year is making myself go back and try things if I'm not making them the first time. I'm rebuilding my confidence and if that is what it takes, that's what it takes. A couple of minutes more on a ride isn't going to be a big deal. My friend cut the ride short as she had to be back but that's OK. I did have some weekend successes. Jumped off a little rock and landed it correctly and rolled a bunch of slick rock drops that I've been eyeing. I also rerode some thing that required technical "up" moves, Yay.

Good rides in an area I've come to really like. Posted some photos in the summer adventures thread. A road going through winery country, cattle and horse ranches and some crop fields was a nice beginning. One ranch had a lot of deer in it's fields (probably 40+) which seemed strange especially since it didn't look like they were even fenced in. Some long climbs on another road but gradual rather than out of the saddle desperate, some great views from the top and a good descent. A mistake was riding a state hwy that had a few sections with no shoulder. I've ridden in the area a few times now and plan on doing a double century in the fall in parts of it. I stayed the night in Santa Maria and the power to the entire city went out around 9 PM. Don't know what that was about but it made for a good nights sleep for the ride back to Los Olivos the next day. Sides Hardware and Shoes Restaurant in Los Olivos for a great Burrata and Scarlet Quinoa for dinner when I got back.....and cinnamon and golden raisin Beignets that started my ride!!!:)