Weekend Ride Reports

[jesvetmed]

Hi all. Didn't see anyone posting their weekend rides. I know you are all out there!

I actually got in a great ride at the METHOW VALLE BIKE FEST... in Winthrop, WA. It is a beautiful time to be in the Methow Valley, although we did hit some of the rare heavy rain. But by Saturday am we were having the pancake breakfast in town, trying to decide wether we should just go back to bed, or go on the ride. We took the better choice -- went on the ride.

The event is all weekend -- Saturday is mostly road biking, but there were two guided mountain bike rides, also. Then on Sunday there were all levels of "Cross Country" racing -- beginners, all the way up. These took place around the Sun Mountain Lodge at the top of the mountain in the area.

A friend from bike club and I did a 35 mile road ride on Saturday -- rolling hills and some wind, but all in all a great ride along the river the entire way. Great fall color. Cold, wet toes (forgot the toe covers ), but still quite enjoyable. Felt like more than the 35 miles by the time we were done! Her hubby did a century up and back from a local pass (Loup-Loup) which is Hwy 20 heading to Omak.

We were all cold and tired by the time we were done. But what a gorgeous way to spend the weekend! Wish I could say I had photos, but forgot the camera as well. (I packed in quite a hurry!) So, I downloaded some of the photos on the website for you all to see. Anyone else there this weekend?

[Aggie_Ama]

Wow, gorgeous pictures.

I spent Saturday morning hoeing up the yard, building a retaining wall and spreading dirt with my husband. That afternoon we went to a Parks & Wildlife Expo where we found many things we wanted, mentally we spent $20k, physically none.

Yesterday I wanted to ride but I only had time for a run before heading to my friend's memorial service. Today more playing in the dirt planting shrubs. I was hoping to mountain bike tomorrow but we appear to be FINALLY getting some rain overnight so I doubt I will be able to. Maybe I can road ride instead.

[Jiffer]

I did a 52 mile Sunday club ride, which I have never done before because of church. This time I made an exception because I needed to get in a long ride before Inland Express in Riverside next weekend, of which I'm doing 50 miles. I also wanted to do something "different" than my usual rides. My two close friends went with me. We all wore pink and many comments were made about that by the guys ... in fun. There were two other women, who are both new to riding, so they were much slower. (Feels kind of nice to be one of the one's waiting for the slower people instead of the other way around!)

Of me and my three friends, if one of us is the weakest, it's usually me, though I can usually hold my own fairly well with them. They usually beat me up hills, while I excel at downhill and flat. Yesterday, I was doing hills right with them and, as it turned out, I was having more energy and strength than both of them. When we headed up our last leg of 9 miles a 1 to 3% grade, they took it easy with the "slow pack" and I ended up with five other guys in the front pack and surprised myself that I was able to hang with them to the end. We did 1750 climbing and I ended up with a 16.4 time, which just thrills me to no end. (My friends were around 14.2).

At the end of the ride, the guys I were with commented on what a good rider I was. I said, "Thank you! I can use all the ego boost I can get!" And they said, "We should call you Super Girl .... or Super Pink!"

[makbike]

I joined the club for back to back centuries this weekend. Saturday's century is now on my list of rides never to repeat. I'm not a big fan of urbane riding and a majority of this ride found us on busy roads in southern Indiana and the Louisville area. It was not a very scenic route and the traffic was awful. I was very happy to return to my car Saturday afternoon.

Sunday's century was far more challenging and very scenic. It started in Westport, Kentucky and took us to General Butler State Park in Carrollton, Kentucky before heading back to Westport. We vistied the towns of Pleasureville, New Castle, Sulphur and Carrollton. The scenery was awesome and the route was hilly (7200 feet of climbing).

I've now logged 28 centuries for the season and have two more to go to hit my new goal of 30. I'm almost there.

[wackyjacky1]

I went on another short (8 mi.) but thoroughly enjoyable ride on Sunday. Would have stayed out longer, but I got a late start and had to get home in time to watch my beloved Redskins BEAT THE EAGLES!!!

[salsabike]

Saturday we did one of our standard tandem rides, 48 miles around the north half of Lake Washington. The weather was absolutely WILD, gusts to 50 mph, we heard later, and we got totally hammered by wind and rain coming west across the very exposed I-90 bridge. It was around 60, though, so not really cold, and we had a blast!!

This is how it looked when we got back to our starting point:



And this is me, at about the midpoint of the ride:

[wildhawk]

Makbike: Wow! And I am still working my way up to a full century - 28 - incredible!!
Jiffer: you rock!! Super pink for the win!!
Aggie: DH and I should have been working in our yard this weekend, but we had a bike ride to do two hours north of here. Hurray for you - I know that your place must be gorgeous - post pics sometime!
Jesvetmed: The pics from Virginia were gorgeous - sure makes me homesick (I am originally from Lynchburg, Va. and fall is indeed my favorite time of year!)
And what did I do? DH and I rode the 14th Annual Rails to Trails run out of Inverness, Fl. I took pics and will be starting another thread about our ride, but we complete our first 50k on an awesome trail!!
Great going everyone!!

[7rider]

I was wondering where the weekend ride reports were!

Saturday, DH and I, along with 7,000 of our closest friends, took part in the 20th annual Seagull Century on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Imagine a pancake flat century on lightly travelled, well marked roads, winding through some beautiful coutryside, out to the ocean, and well...you can imagine the popularity of this event!
Then, add sunshine, mild temps, and virtually no wind, and you have the makings for one EPIC (!) event.

I went with 2 main goals in mind:
1. Finish. Done! 97 miles completed (we skipped the first rest stop, which was down a mile-long or so dirt road).
2. Finish in 5 hours or under. Done! Ride time: 4:41, for an average speed of 20.6 mph.

Here are some pix:
DH and me at the start


Pancake flat roads:


On Sunday....we did the shop ride. 30 rolling miles at 17.5 mph. It was SUPPOSED to be a recovery ride. Well, today's commute will have to fill that bill.

[Aggie_Ama]

Aggie: DH and I should have been working in our yard this weekend, but we had a bike ride to do two hours north of here. Hurray for you - I know that your place must be gorgeous - post pics sometime!

And what did I do? DH and I rode the 14th Annual Rails to Trails run out of Inverness, Fl. I took pics and will be starting another thread about our ride, but we complete our first 50k on an awesome trail!!
Great going everyone!!

Well we think it will look better with the beds when they are done but still not sure. We are kind of at a stalemate on plant selection. DH manages a plant nursery so of course he has many choices and opinions. There are two beds combining to make a large sorta L-shaped feature we only have plants for the one smaller leg planned so far. The other bed we keep getting stuck and don't want the same plant across the sides. I am babbling about it!

I can't wait to read the report!

[indysteel]

Twenty eight centuries in one season?!!!!! A sub-five hour century?!!!!!

You guys are making me feel like a slug. Seriously; that's impressive.

My weekend ride was rather interesting. I went to Chicago with my BF to meet up with some people from RoadBikeReview's online forum. A rather "popular" member of the forum was in Chicago for a conference and that apparently motivated the get-together.

We met one of the fourm members for lunch on Fridya and then took our bikes on the train to Evanston on Saturday morning to ride. There were 8 or so of us altogether--three women and five men. We met up at a bike shop called Turin Bicycle in Evanston (great shop, btw) because one of the gang is the sales/marketing manager there. From there, we had breakfast at a bakery and finally got rolling after a delicious if not nutritious carrot muffin!

I think the ride itself was about 30 miles at a fairly social pace. From what I gathered, it went through several Chicago suburbs and we were mostly on fairly well-traveled streets. We stopped at a scenic overlook of Lake Michigan, which was very pretty (sorry; I don't have pictures). It was chilly that day, but sunny.

After the ride, we stopped for lunch in Evanston and chatted for a while. Everyone was very nice and very, very funny. While it was a bit awkward for me since I don't participate as much on that forum as I do this one, everyone was more than welcoming. We then hung out at the bike shop for a bit and later met up with a few of them on Saturday night for dinner in the city.

The only downside to the trip was having to cart our bikes around on the train. It was fine in the morning, but the ride home was a pain. They unfortunately don't have a dedicated space on the trains for people with bikes or larger items like strollers. I was exhausted by the time we returned to our hotel.

On Sunday, my BF and I kept to ourselves and went to the Art Institute of Chicago before heading home. It was definitely a fun weekend, althoug I'm tired today.

I've had various opportunities over the last couple of years to meet people from this and other cycling forums. I've thoroughly enjoyed those experiences. Cyclists, by and large, are just good people!

[jesvetmed]

Jesvetmed: The pics from Virginia were gorgeous - sure makes me homesick (I am originally from Lynchburg, Va. and fall is indeed my favorite time of year!)

Wildhawk: Not Virginia! It's Winthrop, Washington. Gorgeous place, too!

Great rides by all this weekend! Salsa.. that picture looked like the morning of Danskin for a second!

[wildhawk]

OOOPs my bad - got the places mixed up. Oh well, it still reminds me of home. That is what happens when I start typing on the forum before I am fully awake - LOL.

[salsabike]

Wildhawk: Not Virginia! It's Winthrop, Washington. Gorgeous place, too!

Great rides by all this weekend! Salsa.. that picture looked like the morning of Danskin for a second!

Yeah!

Those Winthrop pictures are GORGEOUS. Wow. And the ride sounds really nice.

[chicagogal]

ditto to everyone who said that you ladies are super impressive. It sounds like everyone had a nice weekend!

salsabike, the picture you posted of those storm clouds reminds of a ride I did here in chicago a few months ago. I knew it was supposed to rain, but when I checked the forecast in the morning, weather.com promised that rain wasn't coming until 9am, so I headed off at around 6. My doorman warned me not to ride, saying that he was just outside and that I storm was brewing. I confidently told him that it wouldn't rain until 9 (what exactly made me so certain that the forecast was right?). So I headed south along lake Michigan and while it was windy, the sky ahead of me was clear. After 15miles I turned around for the return trip and, um, the sky over Chicago was completely black!!! Got caught in a crazy thunderstorm, was soaking wet and completely wind blown, and later that day funnel clouds were spotted and tornado alert sirens were going off all over chicago - mental note, listen to my doorman when he tells me not to go riding!

This weekend I did a very nice 50mi ride in the forest preserve district (north branch trail). I was expecting more fall colors, but was not disappointed to see that we have a little more "summer" left.

[spindizzy]

Hills again. Light sprinkles but a cool, occasionally sunny day

King Road, Terra Cotta
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1223345381

Heritage Road
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1223345381


Maple Tree on Heritage Road
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1223345381

I love fall...

And I've never done this posting of pictures before, following jsdilks explicit instructions..hope it works!