August 20 Ride Reports

Not the Ride I had Planned!

I set out this morning with my route slip for a 27 mile ride but it's not what I ended up doing...

0 miles: can't get into a comfortable rhythm, maybe it's because I'm starting off into a head wind
5 miles: still no comfortable rhythm, just grinding away
9 miles: made a wrong turn but didn't know it yet
10.4 miles: this intersection isn't supposed to be on this route! I must be off route! What do I do now, try to continue on to something I know or turn around...OK, let's keep going...no, that's stupid, turn around...where'd that big hill come from?!?...panic downshift...dropped the chain...fall! No pain or injury except to my pride. After a rest to regroup I headed back towards what I knew.
12.6 miles: Oh, I was supposed to continue straight where I turned! Now, back to my intended route or back track towards home? OK, continue on...
13.5 miles: this is stupid, turn back, you'll never do the intended route plus an additional 2.5 miles in your addled state!
14.0 miles: I know this road, it'll cut through to my intended leg back in...let's take that!
14-19 miles: just grinding away, no rhythm, I can't wait until to get back in...
20 miles: damn, they repaved this road since last week with a new layer of gravel, this is hell!
22 miles: glad to be back on smooth road
22-25 miles just grinding away
26 miles: destination in site!

All in all it was a lousy ride, but I still managed to grind out 16 miles at a 13.3mph average. Not too shabby.

34 miles at a 16.2 mph average - essentially the exact same ride as yesterday but it was much windier, and we were riding with our friend Crazy Harold (it's okay, he knows I call him that!). He's this amazing athlete (you know, great at everything, negative body fat, the whole thing), and rides with us when he's doing his recovery rides (he has been known to check his email on his Blackberry while riding with us...). As always, it was a ball riding with him. Sports are his passion, and he's always got the best of everything. (And 5 of them - he's got a high end bike for every possible riding possibility.) Today he was testing out his Waterford touring bike. Oh so nice!

But the best part?!? Crazy Harold is basically my size, and so he offered that if I get some Speed Play cleats, he'll let me test his bikes. Hah! We are talking like $7000 road bikes. (Of course, I'll have to make sure I can get in and out of the pedals before I try his bikes!) So I'm going on eBay to see if I can find a new pair of cleats. Oh yeah - expensive bike testing, here I come!!!:D :D :D

Of course, I'll probably be spoiled, once I've tried out his bikes, but it'll give me something to save my pennies for! ;)

I took the Giro out for a spin today and boy did I shock myself. Up to this point my average speed on this bike has been hanging around 14.5 mph or so. Last night I took it out on a club ride and only average 13.7 but then again this was a ride filled with unusual circumstances and events so I was not upset with what I ended up with when I parked my bike.

Today's ride was 22 miles long a mix of flat and gently rolling hills. I quickly settled into a nice spin and what a difference it made. I found myself zipping along and actually climbing some of the hills as if I was atop my little blue bike. In the end I ended up with an average speed of 15.8 and I'm thinking maybe I'm no longer a "slug" on my new recumbent. Just maybe I'm getting the hang of this bike, I sure hope so for I do enjoy riding it just have not enjoyed the slow pace I've stuck since I acquired this bike. I guess there is hope!

I did an easy 16mi recovery ride, just went out and relaxed while I was out there. Nothing exciting happened, just me and my bike, which is sometimes the best thing going.

Tomorrow is DGF's b-day, and it's impossible to hide anything in this house, so I had to go out *today* to pick everything up. I hop on my bike w/ backpack and waterbottle, noting that I'm pretty sure my butt's going to dimple before that Brooks saddle ever does :eek: but perservere. I make it to the store, pick out a rather expensive '02 champagne and oj (mimosas!) and a dozen roses. Because I left in a flurry, I really hadn't thought about how I was going to get them home, but the wine and juice fit well in the bag, the roses' stems fit in fine, but the flowers themselves protruded 2-3" from the top. It looked pretty, though, and was secure, so I took off. Lots of comments on a bicyclist with roses sticking out the back of her bag!
Had a gent on a green Bianchi coast up behind me and say "Nice flowers!" before I saw him. I said "Wow! Nice bike!" (it WAS pretty nice...) he smiled and coasted on w/o any effort. (hills!) Got home, put more dressing on the saddle and arnica on my bum (any hints on arnica on sitbones) and put everything away. Long story short, 7 miles, all hills, with 4 of them being gravel.

After some back and forth moments (rain? no rain? darnit, let's ride!), I had a lovely 31 mile ride. Rode some of the bike paths, along the rio grande, through the university and finally back home.

Best of all I got to ride with one of neat folks from this board, Ms. Corsairmac herself :D

Rode 12 miles in the Danskin triathlon. It was a huge amount of fun. I was singing and hollering and cheering. Made a song out of "Passing on your left". Sang it a lot. Hollered "Thank you" to most of the volunteers on the course. Huge fun! Averaged 15.2 mph, which is very high for me.

Did the Sunday shop ride today.
Not many of us in the "B" group, but that's okay.
28 miles...haven't downloaded the Garmin, so I'm not sure what the average was. Lately they've been in the 17 mph range.
Were cruising along MacCarthur Blvd with about eight of us....
Got to the bottom of the hill at Old Angler's Inn, and DH breaks away, followed by this great big guy with dreds on a screaming yellow Giant. I give chase. I had to. The hill is a couple miles long at about 8% avg. grade. It took me 2/3rds of it to drop the folks behind me, and nearly the rest of the way to catch the guy on the Giant, but I did it! Came in at the #2 position to the top of the hill - right behind a very proud dh.
Took a while for the heartrate to get back down tho', but boy, that was kewl!
:D

he he he

Picked up a pocket neighbouthood guide from my local library a week ago. It marks out all the on road bike lanes and "off road" bike trails within a 10km radius almost of my house.

So I set out on my own this morning and went through the hilly terrain of whites hill reserve, then along the busy main road (in the bike lane of course) and ended up back on the main trail I take to get to work... cept I kept going, all the way into brisbane city along the riverloop track then all the way out to Tenneriffe.

Best part was "running into" BF as he came with his riding group in the opposite direction. HA HA HA. He'd done 90km already and stuck with me as I did my last ten.

So I rode 35.42km with an average speed of 15km... most of it by myself. Was great fun!

yes. but you also swam first and ran after. What's the total mileage on these things, tell us more! :D

Hurray, I finally got to ride today. Been on the east coast with ill mom for two weeks, just back for the weekend, and going back east to mom again tomorrow. But today! Gorgeous clear day, little wind, 49-mile tandem ride with Mr. Salsa, felt great and strong, including on hills. Hurray for small favors like this ride.

Took the Trek out for a show and go... and when I got there it was all "fast people." Fortunately the Trek is, albeit a hybrid, a whole lot easier to get rolling than the Xtracycle, and riding that around has me in pretty good shape. The perfect ride just peppy enough to be fun with pauses for Dairy Queen and to visit the womannequin in the window at the grain elevator house who's now turned so we can see her much better. I'll bring the camera sometime soon.
Wanted to do some harder, faster miles 'cause next weekend I"m going to do some real green miles and ride to Bloomingon - about 50 miles - for the League of ILlinois Bicyclist's meeting (go the day before, spend the night, ride back the next day). It still will involve the car, probably, 'cause Saturday is our club's invitational ride, C-U Across the Prairie, and I"ll probably be hauling even more than the xtracycle can handle (like 5 5-gallon jugs full of water and gatorade, *and* the blender setup adn ingredients and whatever else...)

I did a real wimpy ride for me today. I did 10.6 miles at at 14.2 pace. I did it because #1 I hadn't ridden since wednesday and #2 because I was stiff from sitting in a car forever and needed to stretch muscles. DH and I drove from straight from Mass to North Carolina, were my son has moved. We left 11:45 pm Friday, got NC around noon time, we unloaded truck, I helped unpack boxes, ran to store with son, DH took a nap and 7 hours later we were on the road again back to Mass! We made it home a 8am and we are exhausted. I am glad I did my ride, I feel better

We did a 66 mile well supported ride sponsored by a local bike shop, The Assenmacher 100. It was my longest ride to date. I had hoped to be up to doing the 100 mile ride, but I was pretty tired as was my 14 year old grandson. This was his first long distance ride ever and he did great! The ride had great food stops, nice people and beautiful weather. Who could ask for anything more? We are in training for a four day ride that goes from E. Lansing to the Mackinaw bridge, a distance of 290 miles in the four days over Labor Day weekend. Except for the hills that I will have to conquer as I get farther north I think I might actually be able to finish the tour

Dalmac!!!!!

Today I rode exactly 2 miles... that is on my mountain bike, to the pond in my neighborhood and back. Swam and read for a little over an hour and headed back. It felt weird to be riding in my Keens, even though I don't always clip in while riding the trails, I do have my bike shoes on. Coming back, I was a little nervous about climbing the 10-15% grade back to my house on that heavy bike, on the road, with a backpack on, not attached to pedals. But, it was fun. It sort of reminded me of riding when I was a kid.
The reason I rested today is that after my fastest ride ever on Friday and mountain biking on Thursday, I rode 56 miles yesterday and I was exhausted. My legs were tired last night so I forced myself to rest today.

As some of you are aware, I got hit by a truck back in May (see http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...bike+totalled).
8 weeks after the accident I ended up having an MRI and found out that I had a lateral tibial plateau fracture and some major cartilage damage in my right knee. I was immediately put in a knee brace and back on crutches. A few weeks ago, I graduated to a cane, but I've been completely unable to ride a bike since May 8th (and I got my replacement bike Memorial Day weekend).

10 days ago, I had new x-rays taken so that my doctor could assess how well my bone is healing. This week he told me that the bone had healed enough that I could not mess it up by walking or riding, so I got to lose that stupid brace. I have to keep the cane for a while though. He also told me that as a present (my birthday was this week) I could ride my new bike around the block. So today, I rode. He never specified how big the block could be, nor how many laps I could do, so I kind of took some liberties.

The ride: from my place around the back side of the yacht harbor to my friend's house to help him build his new bike. Then, since he needed a longer seat post, we rode to my favorite LBS. After, I rode right home. In all -- 1 lap around a pretty large block. Total distance: 3.6 miles. I'm so happy I actually cried!!!!!

Yes, I'm icing now,

Susie

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

That is wonderful that you got to get back on. I am very happy for you.

We rode this morning with Rich from Rivendell, the guru of wheels. He rode the first leg of the ride and took a picture of us with our Rivendells; he had to return to rehearse for a gig locally that he and his wife were doing (he plays sax too--is there no end to his talent?) He's the short one with the MUSA seersucker shirt...

I had a merino wool jersey underneath and my shorts, and was pretty cold the whole time; overcast and 50s a lot of the way...

I can't figure out how to get actual pictures on my Mac....

while I'm at it, since I had my camera, here is our local road after a long winter of rain (the mountain bike portion our ride):
.
.and finally, our glorious coffee and turn around point; I think Trinidad looks a lot like a Mediterranean port...

while wabisabi is fighting the cold we're still fighting the heat. rode 35 miles (to church and back, 17+ miles out at 7 am, then start back at noon), it's still over 100 degrees, hot, muggy, windy, wahwahwah. good rides, an hour out, an hour back, but you can just feel the weather is about to change to the gorgeous fall-in-phoenix weather.

susie, you are awesome.

Kitsune06, how are you going to keep the b'day surprise from DGF if you post here????!!!

Susie, welcome back to the ranks of the riders!

I rode 20 miles today. On my mountain bike. I think it's the longest I've ever ridden on the mountain bike.

Before riding, I cleaned & lubed the drivetrain. Wow, what an improvement in shifting! When I rode on Friday, I would shift, wait a second or two, and either the chain would jolt into the next gear, or nothing would happen. Yep, that chain lube is a magic potion!

This was the second ride on my Brooks saddle. I moved it back a little bit, and rode. I noticed some issues, and wondered if this saddle would improve with break in or if it's just not meant to be. When I finished the ride, I noticed that the nose was tilted up. Oh, that might be a problem! It's back on the level and waiting for tomorrow's ride.

-- Melissa

Yay Susie ! Glad you're back on hte bike. Small steps, grasshopper.

Very nice pixs, wabisabi. :)

Hey melissa, as you noted, work on the saddle tilt a little bit more. One thing I noticed about Brooks' is that the tilt of the saddle makes a big difference.

Lee & I only did our out & back to Mission Coffee for lunch, maybe 26 miles or so. Added a loop around what (back a few years when I was doing the Fremont Freewheelers Cinderella training rides) I thought was a really big hill. Notsomuch anymore.

M. Coffee makes a tasty turkey pannini with foccacia bread & pesto, yummers. Washed down with a mango freeze. Sitting out on the porch watching the world go by and listening to the birds chattering at the feeders. Nice.

I'm training for the Gateway MS150 in Columbia Missouri in a few weeks. Did a training ride with my team - all guys - we rode 70 miles in 5 hours, averaged 14 m.p.h. I think they expected me lag behind, but I was determine not to!

We did 50 on the Madison County IL country roads, then did the last 20 on the bike path. It was the first time I'd ever riden on hilly country roads....got chased by a mean dog and had a near miss with a deer on the path.

Six months ago I wouldn't have dreamed I would have been able to do this!

Patty
47 years young

Yesterday I went on a wonderful ride with someone from the TE forums: divingbiker! She, me, and a friend rode 40 miles out in the country on amazing country lanes with no traffic, had a dear cross right in front of us, made it up those hills, and generally had a great time (well, the gravelly pavement made it interesting).

Thanks, divingbiker!

GOOD FOR YOU SUSIE! That's all there is to say really! What a great recovery! Well done!

Susie, You're not looking forward to be able thier rides, too! I'm glad you're back