Oct 7 rides

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Can anybody start this daily thread? Hope so...let me know if I've done a faux-pas....

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Today I hit a new record for myself! 41.5 miles! Woo-HOOO!!
DH and I did a great ride today, with lots of rolling hills (quite a few steep ones at that) a nice mix of gravel backwoods roads and main routes. All pretty nice.
We started out at 9am after a big breakfast in town, stopped for about 30 minutes at lunch time for apple cider and ice cream at a country store, where we sat and rested on cushy rattan chairs on their front porch in the sun.
Rolled back home at 4pm after stopping again in town for a couple of grocery items to take home.
I'm pretty tired out, let me tell you. But amazingly, I had no aches or pains at all until the last half hour or so. That's about when my sit bones started complaining a bit, and I had a little soreness in my knees and between my shoulder blades and a slightly stiff neck. Overall, nothing too bad! When we got home I raised my seat yet again, another cm- that should do it. Was wearing my SheBeest Tech tights with a chamois that I am finding very comfortable indeed.
The ride started out COLD at 40 degreesF. and wound up at about 65 degrees and sunny, so we had to do various unpeeling of layers along the way. My SB tights kept my legs comfortable throughout those temperature changes. On my upper body, I have lately discovered the beauty of using several layers of THIN merino wool or polartec (I know, duh). The best part is that they roll up tightly into SMALL bundles that can easily be strapped to the back of your saddlebag once you take them off.

It was a great all-day biking day for me, and a new longest distance ride!
I'll probably sleep like a rock tonight.

[Cassandra_Cain]

Today I hit a new record for myself! 41.5 miles! Woo-HOOO!!

It was a great all-day biking day for me, and a new longest distance ride!
I'll probably sleep like a rock tonight.

Great to hear Lisa - PR's are always a good thing

So is sleeping like a rock!!!

[Cassandra_Cain]

Saturday morning. Ride. Of course -oops, wait. Clouds, gloomy, and threatening skies. Hmmmm. A nap.

2 hours later. Ah, there's the sun, let's go!

I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach today's ride. It was the usual 4000 feet of climbing @ 5.2%. Partly I considered doing L4 intervals up with easier periods between as well as a few other options.

Naturally I decided to do it as an all-out time trial.

Felt like I was flying at first, starting out a bit too hard. My pace leveled off and I made it in good shape to the base of the ski area @ 8500 ft. After that though the next 2000+ feet were much harder, like always. From the base of the mountain to the summit, apparently Vo2max drops by about 7-10% even for someone acclimated to altitude like I am - which probably explains why the 2nd half of the climb feels disproportionately hard, that and it is steeper.

It was a grind, but I forced myself to push hard through the less steep sections which is precisely where the body usually wants to take it easy. Very challenging to the mind and body, to keep yourself at the limit nonstop.

Easily broke my own PR from last week, doing it well under 2 hours.

It was pure hoots and grins on the way down zipping along over 40mph and passing a car

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

It was pure hoots and grins on the way down zipping along over 40mph and passing a car

I passed a car today too!

(but it was parked)

[mtkitchn]

It was actually cool this morning in Phoenix (64 degrees), so my ride was quite pleasant. Did 23.5 miles, and felt good during the whole ride. I've really gotten out of shape recently, but am happy that this ride didn't hurt me at all.

[Cassandra_Cain]

I passed a car today too!

(but it was parked)

LOL