Sunday, 10/4 rides!

[sarahspins]

Yay, I get to start one :P

I did 14 miles in light rain this morning, after I arrived for a group ride this morning that was apparently canceled (??? it's not like the weather was really THAT bad). So I went back home, left from my house on my bike on my own and rode a route I've never done before (well, I've done parts of it), and I liked it a lot.. I think I'll be repeating it.

[gnat23]

I just did my first ever race, a cyclocross doozy!

Will have more details when I've picked my lungs up from the gravel.

-- gnat!

[malkin]

I rode in the car to my mom's, because it's her birthday and I baked her a punkin' pie.

Too stormy out for this spooked and almost-not-injured-anymore rider.

[Fredwina]

I've been meaning to do some climbing ride on my bent. Jiffer was asking me about yesterday, and I was all pscyhed since the sun is rising too late to make riding to church worthwhile.
But then A wildfire developed about 15 miles from where i live.
The university of La Verne had put in a new public sculpture so I decided to ride out and take a look:
Downtown Upland:

La county Fair Grounds

Downtown San Dimas. Bill and Ted were at the Frontier Days Festival


Finally:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vuerRrNlUQI/Ss...0/100_1187.jpg
It's right next door to the Super Tents (am I reading too much into this juxtaposition?)


I rode past the Claremont Colleges on the way back, who say your i=IQ doesn't improve by riding your bike?

[malkin]

Very smart post!

[7rider]

Pfunk12, 2 guys from the N2 Late Ride, and I joined the group ride from the LBS this morning. But instead of doing the shop ride, we rode the N2 loop out to Poolesville and up to Sugarloaf Mountain. We probably spent as much time loafing around as riding - including taking part in a VERY spontaneous wine tasting at the nearby winery!
I was glad to do this ride, as it gave me a chance to put some serious miles in, in preparation for next week's Seagull Century. That route will be VERY flat. This route today was more rolling. 81 miles, about 4,300 feet of climbing, and my back held up. Sort of. Lots more planks, time in the Roman chair, and crunches are in store for me this week. Oy.

[Crankin]

We tested out the newly opened Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, that runs from the border of Acton/Westford, MA to Lowell. It is supposed to come through Acton and Concord, but it is estimated to maybe get there by 2020 .
Anyway, we rode about 4 miles to the beginning from our friend's house and proceeded. The trail was busy, but not too crowded. I am usually dead set against riding on these, especially at peak times like Sunday, but everyone was well behaved. The Westford/Chelmsford portion goes by some nice wetlands, a lake, a beautiful forest, although it is parallel to a main road. There are 2 weird crossings on busy, busy roads in Chelmsford. The first one wasn't bad, but the second one, which I see when I drive to my internship is a mind boggling ride up a sidewalk where the trail ends, pressing a ped. light and diagonally going across the street, getting back on a skinny little sidewalk, and rejoining the trail. It would have made sense to ride along the road and get back on the trail, but you can't do this, as there is a fence. I guess they thought most riders wouldn't go in the street, anyway. We headed on and got to the end, which is in the parking area of the Cross Point Towers on the Lowell border. This used to be the Wang Labs headquarters, where my DH worked when we moved back to MA. So weird.
Heading back, I had to use a loud voice to give slow riders and others warnings, but it worked. Everyone else thought I sounded a little mean, but the people moved over quickly and I said thank you. At the end of the trail, we rode into Carlisle, where we discovered a road that has been in horrible shape for 15 years was repaved. It was at the point where we wouldn't even drive on it! It adds more options to our local rides. From there, we rode to Kimball Farm, where we ate ice cream, since it is closing for the season next week. I shared a kiddie size (chocolate raspberry) with one of my friends, as it is unbelievably huge. Then we headed back; since our car was at our friend's house, we actually rode right past our street and kept going. I was by myself after the ice cream stop, as my DH took off with the male half of our friends and the other 2 women are much slower than me. I made very good time, but I was tired as I got to the final climb. Our ride ended up being 34 miles, which was surprising, since I thought we were just going for a little ride on the trail, which was 18 miles.

[pfunk12]

As 7 mentioned, great ride today. Beautiful fall weather, great group of fun people and wine tasting at the halfway point! Can't beat that. 7 - You will be fine next week on your century! I think you have a good base with all of the weekend rides you've been doing. Hope the photo of "the wine tasting/cycling" crew shows up!

[owlice]

Last weekend, I rode in the 24 Hours of Booty fundraiser in Columbia, MD. I'd posted on my rider page that I was going to try to ride 100 miles for this event; such hubris, to write that never having even looked at the route, much less ridden it!

I am such a slow rider that 100 miles would take me 4 x ever to ride, but over two days, that'd be perfectly doable even at my normal (incredibly slow) speed.

But my normal (incredibly slow) speed is the speed I ride on FLAT TRAILS! And what I rode last weekend was NOT a flat trail. The not-a-trail part wasn't the problem; it was the not flat part that was!

So last weekend for the fundraiser, I managed to ride 66.something miles. Because I said I'd ride 100 miles on that route, by God and kittens, I was going to ride 100 miles on it! So I went back today to ride the remaining 34 miles. I did not have fun, though I am glad I did this, and I am soooo looking forward to getting back to my flat trails!!!

[DebW]

I just moved a week ago, so today I took some time to explore and do errands by bike. First I rode a mile down the street and got on the Narrow Gage Rail Trail. Rode that through Bedford Center to the Billerica line, about 3 miles on dirt. Headed back to Bedford Center and stopped at a grocery store, drug store, auto parts store, and at Staples. Yeah, my new home is bike-commutable and bike-errandable!

[tulip]

Deb, nice to have a bike-errandable neighborhood! Mine is, too. The worst part is the parking lot of the shopping center, but once there, everything I need is within 4 miles of my house.

Today I went on a club ride and had a great time. I am lucky enough that this particular ride starts at a park that is a 6-mile ride from my house, so I didn't have to drive there. We rode all around the farmland down here and there was very little traffic. I was happy to get to the store stop, as I was getting hungry and was not looking forward to eating my emergency food (granola bar) that I had brought with me. It's truly emergency food, since I really do not like granola.

Then I was able to ride home on a quiet road, avoiding a big hill that I was dreading. Total was 40 miles. On the Bike Friday, which always invites comments.

[shootingstar]

Methinks I cycled only 24-30 kms. in total.
First third, was a partial route with dearie earlier in morning where we wanted to see some large public art scultpture installations. Local cycling advocacy group was holding a bike ride within city with route choices to coincide with the different outdoor art installation sites, for cyclists to stop and view the art along the way.

He took off with some groceries for home to do some work to meet an urgent deadline. Whereas I cycled to the start-point of today's outdoor art bike ride..got the route program and entry button. Didn't do whole route since I was volunteering for several hrs. later at coffee station.

So I cycled over to a major botanical garden that was free today just for registered cyclists to look at some sculptures. Was surprised there were alot of wonderful lush, rich colour floral and other garden displays. After shooting some photos, I cycled back to help out.

A number of cyclists rode with their children on bikes..there was a route choice that was off-road plus on-road with different distances and choice to climb some hills or avoid them.

Weather was beautifully sun and bright. Unfortunately this event ride was in competition with today's: annual breast cancer fundraising run, yoga convention, a 50-mile fundraiser ride elsewhere and a cyclecross competition that was happening next door to our start/finish staging area!

[katluvr]

We did the Withlochochee Trail ride. 6 years ago this was the first "organized" ride I did. It is a great Rails to Trail so we always do it. We needed a few "hills" in prep for the Moab trip, so we went off the trail and did a hilly loop. We did 70 miles. Longest rides since May when we did the MS Bike Rides. (Just haven't been putting in the miles). We were slower than we used to be, but my endurance was there. Beautiful day (until we stopped--got hot). Fall has barely touched us in FL, was 90 by a little after noon.

Went home and cleaned and packed bikes for the flight!

K

[arielmoon]

Rode a lovely 28 mile out and back with the BF. I did not hear a single complaint from him so it was rather enjoyable! My knee continues to be a little sore/stiff but ice afterward had it feeling better. My chain is making some extra noise and it didnt get better with lube so the bike is going into today for a check up. I think the front derailler is a tad off and I may finally need a new chain. Back tire is toast too- sure didnt last long this time.

I see the doctor today about my pelvis and I am about positive he is going to release me on that.

[chicagogal]

Sunday was my fifth but hopefully not final century of the season. It was a very nice supported ride with great people. With each century I do, the 100mi becomes less daunting; but regardless, by mile 85 or so, I am beat! The same was definitely true on Sunday. Chugging along as usual and feeling great around miles 75-80ish - feeling like I could ride all day, and then, bam!, mile 85 and my body is finished. I am starting to think that it is more mental than physical and that I should just turn off my odometer and enjoy the ride. With my brain not knowing that I have hit 85mi, maybe my body won't know either and will just keep happily going along!