Aug 27-28 Weekend Rides

[Owlie]

Guess I'll start.

I did 34 miles today. I started out fine: I went south thirteen miles, then turned around. 1.5 miles in, I got hit by really bad menstrual cramps in my back. I really should have just stopped and gotten off for a bit, but by that point there's nowhere convenient to stop. I must have shifted around a little to try to lessen the pain, because I veered right, and without realizing it, ended up in the grass next to the trail. Of course, I picked the one spot where there's a difference in height between the trail surface and the grass/gravel at the side. I tried to steer back to the trail, but hit the "wall" at a bad angle. I don't know how I stayed upright, but I did. There were definitely a few scary moments there.

The rest of the ride was pretty good. I managed to stay with some racer types for about a mile before they turned off at a road crossing, though my legs are now a little sore. I was going to cut it short at 26, but the LBS's new location was having an opening event and I wanted to stop by and pester the reps. It was about 9:45 when I got back to the parking lot, and I didn't want to sit around for 15 minutes, so I did another 4 north and turned around.

This ride puts me at 204 for the month, 4 miles over my goal. Yes, I'm riding tomorrow. We've got some nice weather right now--shame to waste it.

[nscrbug]

85 miles for me today. I did a slightly longer ride than I normally do on a Saturday, because I am actually taking tomorrow off from riding...well at least bicycle riding. I'm doing a motorcycle ride with a bunch of my old biker friends. I've been looking forward to getting back on my Harley for a nice ride, and tomorrow will be my golden opportunity. I miss riding my Harley SO much! Plus it will be good for me to take a break from cycling for one day, as I've been feeling a tad bit burned out with it lately. Hopefully, the day off from it will renew and refresh my interest again. I'll be back on my bike for a ride on Monday.

Linda

[Crankin]

We rode 20 miles just around parts of Concord that I am not familiar with; found a couple of cool looking neighborhoods with old victorians in west Concord. Not a lot of cyclists around this part of town.
We had wanted to do a longer ride, but with Irene coming, we weren't sure when the rain would start. It actually held off until awhile after we got back, but I've had enough wet riding this year already.
Obviously, no riding tomorrow. If the power is on, I'll use my treadmill. If it's not, well, some weight lifting or yoga.

[jusdooit]

37 miles on a beautiful morning. Thought it was going to just be me and 1 or 2 other ladies, expected the pace to stay around 15mph. To my surprise we had a male escort. Unfortunately one of the other riders had a wheel touch at about mile 8 and went down very hard. After getting his bike checked out and him a little cleaned up, we were back on our way. However, he started to feel dizzy, so he and the only other woman turned back. I continued on with "the guys." I set an all new best pace over a distance with these fellas. We all took turns pulling for about a mile at a time and our pace for the first 20 miles was nearly 17 mph. A far cry form the 15 I was expecting. Now I've done that pace before but never for that disatnce. I asked them to slow a bit on our return trip, bringing the overall average down to 16.2. I know for some this isn't a big deal, but for me it was huge!

[redrhodie]

Shop 30. I was thinking it would be a ghost crew, since several of the people live very close to the water, but it turned out to be the regular group. No one seemed very worried about Irene. I guess we really are swamp yankees.

Made it back before the deluge. It was a sticky gross ride, but fun.

[azfiddle]

I love reading about everyone's ride adventures, especially when you describe the scenery, roads etc, because it's so different around the country.

My DH and met up with our group at park about 5 miles into their planned route, because I had to get back early for a haircut appt. and couldn't do those extra miles at the end.

Our destination was Molino Basin, about 5 miles above the base of Mt. Lemmon. The route is very heavily traveled by recreational cyclists heading up Mt. Lemmon or to several other popular rides. From the park, we rode east along a 4 lane road that crosses a big wash with some very nice old mesquite trees, passes by a horse ranch and through one last big commercial shopping center at the turn-off to Mt. Lemmon highway (2 lane). It's a gentle climb for 4 miles through a mostly residential area. Houses are spread out and there is a lot of native desert vegetation. Once the climb up the mountain starts, it is all forest service land so no more houses. Plenty of saguaro cacti, ocotillos and palo verdes. Three miles up there is a scenic lookout called Babad Du'ag (Frog Mountain in the Tohono O'odham language)- but some people like to call it Bad Dog. 2 miles more to Molino Basin campground. The base is about 2700 feet above sea level, and Molino is at about 4300 feet, with a pretty even grade around 6%. Then the fun- riding back down!

25 miles altogether for me, but my DH took advantage of the opportunity to ride intervals because I'm so slow, and he had 32 miles for the day because he kept riding ahead and going downhill and then passing me again. No way I can keep up with him when he decides to go all out.

[pll]

An easy 60 miles. There was a bit of a breeze and I rode the first 12 miles with a friend.

[Tri Girl]

rode a self-supported century with 2 good friends. Needed to get a hundred in before my Ironman next month and I had two willing participants to come along with me (they are both doing the IM, too). It was hot and harder than I had hoped it would be, but it was good. Rode through some tornado damaged areas, and that always breaks my heart. We started in the pitch-black at 5 am and finished about 1 pm. Had one flat (wouldn't be a ride without one), some hills and some good laughs. Good times!

[goldfinch]

My ride was all of 17 miles today, in two separate jaunts. One alone and one with spouse, in Marquette, Michigan along the paved MUP that hugs the Lake Superior shoreline. Very lovely and the conditions were about perfect. Sunshine and cool air. And a food festival in downtown Marquette. It puts me at 265 miles for the month.

[Catrin]

The more time I spend on my mountain bike, the faster my weekly mileage plummets. I still spend the same amount of TIME on my bike...and trail riding is certainly more challenging for me right now. I do need to get more TITS on the road though, I hope to do a 50-62 mile ride on September 17. So far my longest ride this year has been 45 miles - rather different from this time last year I am comfortable with my base, but it would be good to have one or two nice longer rides before then but that won't stop me.

Yesterday I spent about two hours on a brand-new not-yet-officially-open-to-the-public-but-unofficially-open-for-riders-to-pack-down-the-new-beginners-trail (whew). I found it far easier than expected, and I never thought I would ever actually SAY that

Today I intended to start out with some trail work, and then ride the more moderate half of an intermediate trail in the same park. Best intentions...but after 4 hours of trail building I was sore in so many places that I figured it wasn't the best time to ride a trail I hadn't yet ridden. I want to be well rested for that trail and with both sore hands and biceps...

My goal is to ride that trail tomorrow morning, and hopefully get a road ride in tomorrow afternoon. The latter will depend on how my body feels at that point. The weather is just so nice that I don't want to waste it!

[cosc]

I love hearing about everyone's ride, speed, improved skills and description of the countryside.
Today I rode 40 miles on the Tour De Corn, which is mostly flat. Pork sandwiches and corn on the cob was a nice treat at the end.

[Owlie]

I did 15 miles today in lovely weather. It was supposed to be a nice easy ride, but no, the "go fast! whee!" part of the brain with no sense of self-preservation kicked in. Apparently I don't understand the meaning of "recovery", and now I'm sore again.

[westtexas]

I did 27 miles this morning. The wind was from a different direction than usual this morning and miraculously under 15 mph. I rode a steady pace of 16 out (into the wind) and 25 back (tail wind) and completed the ride in 90 minutes. It's a pretty boring route - straight, flat, crappy roads, and no scenery (everything is dead/burned out here from the drought and the fires).

The one interesting thing this morning however was that the only riders I passed were women. I did not see a single man on a bike this morning and I found this very interesting since 1) the weather was only 85 out and 2) I only see other women cyclists once in a blue moon 3) the weekend before I saw at least 10 different men out on bikes on this popular route. So that was a good thing.

Due to work, heat/extreme weather and being exhausted, I only put 70 miles on the bike this week. Hoping to do better this coming week. Today was a nice ride - a good way to complement a good morning at the hospital (all my patients are getting better for once!)

[kermit]

An awesome easy 20 miles, high cadence low speed fat burner. Only saw one HUGE dead rattlesnake, whew I'm glad he was dead. The weather was 69 degrees when I left, a great ride.

[Aggie_Ama]

Yesterday I did 15 miles of technical mountain biking at Barton Creek Greenbelt. The first half was awesome, I cleaning rock gardens, riding strong, then as Paul Sherwen says "boom boom out go the lights". I couldn't even ride back to where we parked, I stopped at a different trailhead that has lots of shade and rested until DH came for me. I stopped early enough to not get in the danger zone (did that once this summer not pretty) but still had a pretty intense headache all afternoon/evening from dehydration and overheating. Still it was a great ride, I just don't have more than two hours in me until we get freed from this oppressive heat.

This morning I did a solo rode ride on some quiet rolling roads. My goal was active recovery, staying out of an anaerobic zone. I started at 8:00 and it was a very enjoyable ride. Lots of road riders take this popular route, everyone was friendly. Saw two roadrunners (my favorite birds), two cardinals, many goats, three horses, a heard of longhorn cattle and two squirrels. It was 28.8 miles at 15 mph, I really tanked on the last 3-4 miles as the humidity started to wear me out. I hope to do a century to train for the mountain bike marathon season (starts 11/19) but it is going to be hard to get those base miles!

Mileage for the week (for Catrin): Monday mountain biking with Ride Like a Girl Women's Ride (9), Saturday (14.9), Today (28.8). Mountain biking is a great workout but the mileage is not high!