September 10 rides

[Fredwina]

I did a brief one Had a blowout and need to go look at furniture
Along the Hudson in Albany:

Darn irene

Ped brdge over I-787 to Downtown Albany:

[azfiddle]

I rode 25 miles up to Saguaro NP and back, with the 8 mile park loop, and met up with DH for a coffee date. It rained a huge amount south of Tucson last night and the normally dry wash I pass was running almost bank to bank. The rain was much lighter in the mountains above Saguaro NP and none of the washes were running at all.

Sorry, I don't know why the photo is rotated 90 degrees- you'll just have to look at it sideways I guess.

[pll]

Nice pictures Fredwina! I had missed those (and I still remember a video with very cool blue grass music... or at least I think it was blue grass). Have you moved? I thought you lived in the west coast.

[redrhodie]

I rode about 39 miles with a saddle issue. One of the women I ride with asked me if it felt like I was riding on the seat post. I wonder how she knew? After the ride, we did some major surgery on my saddle, so I hope that's that. Other than that, the ride was fun. We had a post ride pot luck breakfast. Yum.

[Fredwina]

yep. lost my job (got tele-fired. what fun!) and got a call about 3 weeks asking if I could be in albany on 9/1. Took it, and will see if can last a year - I'm currently living across the Hudson in Rensselaer , where Yankee Doodle was composed. maybe I should change my avatar......

[indysteel]

DH and I did a short road ride today and were firebombed by swarms of some kind of small bug. Then were attacked by an even bigger bug. As in the size of a small bird. I have never encountered anything quite like it. They also smelled funny. Ugh. We were supposed to mountain bike today, but one of our cats reacted a bit badly after getting her annual shots, so we stayed home this morning and early afternoon to make sure she was okay (she is). My guess is that it would have been more enjoyable. If the forecast improves a bit, we'll try again tomorrow.

[CyborgQueen]

Went on a 91.1k Rememberance ride. Nearly 3k of us (there were 1 mile walkers, 9.11k runners as well) with names of who we are doing it in memory of. The person I had was a Senior Director of cantor fitzgerald. This company lost the most employees, 658. The company owned 101-105th floors of the North Tower. So it was an honor to do it for him, as well as finding out about his family. His wife had his baby 4 months after 9/11. It was also my longest ride to date. I feel awesome. I was a little slower than I normally would have due to staying back with a friend instead of dropping him (73 years old!!). I also got to touch an I Beam from the WTC. So it was nice and special. Spent the ride singing patriotic songs.

I was very very close to kissing asphalt going 25mph. Car got very dangerously close to me, and luckily nothing happened. Had a little guardian angel. My friend and I slowed down our pace a little bit after that encounter. Hope everyone else had an enjoyable ride!!

[tzvia]

Tried to mountain bike in the Santa Monica mountains, but as I started out, a large thunderstorm rolled in and it was quite a show. I did not think it was a good idea to be on the highest mountain for 50 miles with a storm like that right over my head so I turned around and went back. After reaching the car, it started hailing and raining. September in Los Angeles is not supposed to be like this.

[ZenBiker]

CyborgQueen, that sounds like a great thing to do this weekend.

I did a 10 mile round trip commute to the farmer's market, then a 16 mile ride up a pretty little canyon nearby. Passed a bunch of people doing a 10K fun run - they were coming down as I was going up and it was fun to chat a little as we went by each other. One person offered to trade places but I don't know that riding uphill would have been any better!

[OakLeaf]

I started out with the club, but I needed to get back and I just didn't have the patience to do 42 miles at their pace. I figured at least most of them would catch up and say hi when I stopped for a snack in the town they'd planned for breakfast, but I never saw anyone after about mile 5. Oh well.

But here's the thing I couldn't do again if I tried. I'm about a mile from the finish, at this weird 5-way intersection at the top of a little rise. I can see the light's changing, so I slow down, and I'm in that little motionless moment before the light goes green and I stand up to accelerate through the intersection ... when I realize that a different line of traffic is getting the light, not me. I'm still clipped in, obviously, and I start that slow-motion tip-over.

Somehow, I managed to get my foot out on the way down ... caught myself simultaneously with my hand and my foot on the ground ... and without turning the bars and winding up on the ground after all, boosted myself right back upright. One of the drivers who got the green light laughed and gave me a thumbs-up as she went through the intersection.

[Crankin]

We were on the Cape, staying at friend's house. On Saturday, the 4 of us rode about 26 miles, from their house in Orleans, up the Cape Cod Rail Trail, to the end in Welfleet, where we got on a road, went up a hill, and stopped at a beach. The weather was picture perfect. Riding on this trail is always, ah, challenging because of the tourists, but in the off season, it's usually OK. However, there was an MS Walk, partly on the trail. We managed to get by the walkers, with the exception of very large woman, when we said, "on your left," she responded, "where do you want me to go, on the grass?" in a very mean way. I told her, yes, that would be good; there's plenty of room to move over. Oy
On the way back DH almost got taken out twice, once on the trail, by a guy pushing a lawn mower across the trail with his head down, and the second time, on the road in Orleans center, a guy from that state, south of here, not in New England, in a huge Cadillac, was turning left and just decided to "gun it." Fortunately, DH has great yelling and handling skills, to which I assisted him with (the yelling, at least). For all of these reasons, I don't really like riding on the Cape.
Today, 3 of us rode 10.5 miles around town, after taking a 5 mile walk on the beach. My friend's husband is not much of a rider and the 26 miles on Saturday did him in. My Shimano mtb shoes are fixed, but using the Frogs had me on edge. I'm having a bit of trouble clipping in, not because of the cleats (they are almost too easy to get into!), but because the position is in such a different place than my regular Speedplays. I feel like i am not getting the leverage I need from a start because I am futzing around. Well, they are coming off of the road bike, so I can break in my new road shoes. God knows, I will kill myself when my Guru arrives, with the new pedals and getting used to a compact double .

[zoom-zoom]

Did my first ever cyclocross race. It was really hard, miserable, and fun as heck. Got pretty choked-up listening to NPR coverage of the 9/11 events on the way too and from the race.

[azfiddle]

Solo ride a few miles up Mt. Lemmon this morning. Very cool out this morning after a massive thunderstorms last night dropped over 2 inches of rain in a little over an hour yesterday evening. I didn't even get out of the house until 8:30 am and it was in the 70's still. When I was going uphill a lot of cyclists were already riding down again.

I got my first flat in a while- it was a thorn in the front tire, before the road starts to climb. 2nd pic is right after the start of the climb up the mountain, where Soldier Canyon comes down and the road makes a sharp horseshoe bend. Third pic is as far as I went today, 3 miles, to the Babad Duag (Frog Mountain) overlook.

[bmccasland]

I rode the Green River trail, a not heavily used MUP. 6 miles downriver from where I parked to the trail's end, turn around and come back. Lovely day for a ride. Saw a hawk on the ground, lying prone but turned to stare at me when I passed. I think she/he just got a critter and was hunkered down to protect her kill. She was gone when I returned. By local standards, it was hot - to me it was warm but rather pleasant.

About 2 miles from my car realized that my rear tire was running low. I didn't hear a hiss, so thought I'd try my CO2. That sort of worked, and limped back. Could ride in faster than walking. Stopped at my LBS on on the way home and bought 2 new tubes and 2 new CO2 cylinders.

[pll]

@Fredwina: Best of luck in the new job and new city. Sad to hear about job loss (that is terrible).

I did two 32-33 miles rides, yesterday by myself, and today with women who are much faster than I am. It is fun and challenging.