June 18th rides

[Crankin]

I hardly ever start this thread.
Today I went on a club ride for the first time in awhile. It was in Plymouth, MA, which is about 60 miles from here, so I car pooled with someone. I hadn't been to Plymouth since I was a little kid, so I was interested to see what the landscape was like.
It was hilly. Much more than I expected. Not any really long or steep climbs (well, maybe one steep one), but I always picture towns by the shore to be flat. Most of the ride was in a planned development with lots of rollers and a state park with even more of those. The last part was in an older area, with beautiful colonial homes. None of it was in ocean view, but it was still pretty.
This group is mostly older people, with a few people who work flexible schedules, so they can ride during the week. It's supposed to be social riding, with an average of 13-14, although they usually cruise faster on the flats. The past few times I've been on their rides, they've split off a faster group, which is right around my speed. But today, there were some crazy men out in front that I could not keep up with. They must have been going around 22 on the flats. I was close, but I felt like I was in the Tour, like in the chase group! I could see them, but for awhile, I couldn't catch them. A lot of these riders can't climb that well, so I always made up time on the hills. This is a group that it's best to try to stay up front, because the riding habits of a lot of them are squirrelly, to say the least. But they are a pretty impressive group, given the ages of some of them.
37 miles, around a 15 average.

[Veronica]

I rode out to BART with my honey this morning. He kept telling me I was going too hard. He doesn't want to get sweaty on his ride out. He has to sit for an hour on the train after all. Headwind on the way out, tailwind on the way back, as always in the Sacramento Delta. It was already 85 degrees out when I got back at 9.

26 miles.

I'll be heading out in 90 minutes or so to meet him for the ride home. It's 96 degrees right now. I hope it cools down a few degrees before I head out.

V.

[jesvetmed]

Nice ride last night -- "the hill loop". Took my old riding partner who used to kick my butt on the hills... and this time I kicked his! Felt good, even though I've been training and he hasn't, it still feels good.

22 miles, avg around 15mph.

[sundial]

42 miles for me today. I have to enjoy this wonderful cool weather while it lasts.

[PinkBike]

it is hot hot hot hot hot here
we have not driven a vehicle since may 19th (except the father's day trek to visit the folks in CA last weekend), no particular reason, just to see how long we (DH and I) can go without a vehicle.
today's commute was at 110 degrees. it's only 6 miles but 4 miles of it was west into a pretty hefty wind. i got down in the drops to streamline my profile, but then when i got back on the hoods they were too hot to touch!
i rode to walmart after work last night (2:30 a.m.) to do some grocery shopping and it was still in the 90's.
gotta love it!

[solobiker]

Today after work I got in 30 miles with an average of 15mph. Not too bad I don' t think. It was kind of windy and my back was bothering me at first but after about 15 miles it was feeling better. I think the temps were in the upper 80s.

[BarbaraAlys]

I am sick and tired of wind!

A friend and I set out to do the bike trail. It's hot-ish today (the thermometer on my bike said 96 at the start, 100 at the end of the ride), but even so I was glad the wind had finally died down. we did the ride out in good time (for us), 15.1mph. I felt great. We stopped for a bit, then the wind picked up again. The whole way back (which is primarily down hill) was into a strong head wind, so strong that I had to struggle to keep up 10-12mph. <sigh>

Just wish I'd get stronger so it would not kick my butt so much!

Barbara

[7rider]

I rode to work in the morning.
I came home from work in the evening.
I stopped at the grocery store on my way home for bananas and salad.
15.2 miles.

[OakLeaf]

I was hurting tonight on the Wednesday club ride - not sure why, but I have a suspicion I haven't been getting enough protein lately. Well, I fixed that post-ride with a big piece of meat. Never mind I've hardly been riding at all with all the running around I've been doing - I don't think I could've gotten so out of shape so quickly considering I've been running and/or teaching aerobics at least five days a week.

Only three of us showed up. I guess the others were afraid of rain! A few drops had blown through earlier in the day, but there was nothing on the radar, and it turned out to be a perfectly nice night, if a little chilly and cloudy.

The ride leader flatted on a descent about 12 miles in. I was going 35 mph when I saw him hit a hole, heard his tire go and hit my brakes - he was probably doing about the same or a little quicker. Thankfully he kept the bike upright and got it stopped. He put in a new tube and we continued on.

By the end of the evening it was getting chilly. I had on a wool base layer but short sleeves and shorts, and I was really wishing I'd worn tights - my thighs were freezing, and that definitely wasn't helping me go any faster. So when we finally rolled into town I was glad for the extra warmth as much as being done with a ride that was pretty tough for me.

Not so quick though - less than a mile from the finish, the other rider ran over a BIG hole and flatted. They told me to go ahead on if I wanted, but I figured I might as well hang with them, DH isn't home tonight and I had no place better to go. We put a new tube in his rear tire, he got on the bike and got ready to ride back - and his front tire was flat too! Good thing I stuck around, since each of us only had one spare tube, and it was a pretty big snakebite in his front, probably not patchable.

At least I managed to ride without getting a flat of my own! But my legs were done, totally done. I gave a yeowoman's try at a final sprint but could only manage 25 mph.

37.68 miles, 1905 feet of climbing (there were a couple of pretty good hills, but most of the climbing was in the first half of the route), moving average 15.8 mph, 22 minutes sitting around changing flat tires

[NJBikeGal]

I had planned a long ride with two friends for today. Unfortunately, the two friends could not make it. So, I decided (hesitantly) to do the ride myself.

It started near Philadelphia and ended up at the Southern tip of New Jersey. A 93.3 mile ride on my own...which is something I have never done before. It took just over 5 hours (I averaged just over 18 mph) and was AWESOME! I'm now thinking about the next time I do it...although I will make sure to have some help!!!