Saturday, Sept. 9th rides

[Tater]

Did anyone ride? Well, didja?

After about two months of family things, my observatory schedule, the state fair and just bad timing, Kano and I finally got out on a ride together. We went out on our local group ride out through Deep Canyon. Despite the name, Deep Canyon wasn't as deep as one might think. As it turned out it ended up being a bit over twenty-eight miles of rolling hills; short and steep ones, just how I like them.

A dozen or so of us showed up for the ride and I don't think Karen had problems finding me, as I was sporting Amici Veloci colors. Rather distinctive, I'd say! First thing she says? "That's what I want!" Now whether she was oogling my bike or my jersey, I'm not sure, but I will be sure to keep an eye on both on the next ride!

After a quick run down of the route and meet up points, we were off. I think the tone of our ride was set a quarter mile out from the starting point, as my front derailleur decided to be finicky and not shift to the second cog. After a bit of cussing and coaxing, it went where I wanted it to, but I think an adjustment is definately in order! Apparently I wasn't the only one having shifting problems; Karen had the opposite problem and couldn't get into her lower gears. Well, that didn't bode well on a hilly ride. She made it though.

Despite shifty issues, the ride went well. The hills were fun, quail were plentiful, the people chatty and friendly. Best yet, the smoke in the area wasn't as bad as it had been this last week. I am looking forward to the next ride.

Oh, and apparently gravity is still working in western Idaho, just ask Karen's hubby! He got his new-to-clipless fall out of the way at our last meet up point. Luckliy, bike nor body were injured.

[pipergirl]

Took the DH out on a rolling 45 miler to a beautiful park other side of the county. We are doing the Cartersville Back Roads Century next weekend so it was a slower 15 mile per hour average ride. He is doing the 45 miler and I , the century. This will be my first. I am a long time long distance runner who has a terrible case of planter fasicitis and hasn't been able to run since April 23rd. I decided to crank up the miles on the bike since it doesn't bother my heel and do the century. I've done sprint tris, lots of marathons, couple of ultras and thought I'd do the bike century....while I wait for my foot to heal. Well...I love riding but it takes sooooo long to get a decent workout unless I'm doing the trainer....Anyway, thought I'd add our ride for the day. Nice and cloudy...mid 80's here in Ga. Lots of folks out at the park but only saw 2 other riders all day. Pretty much like that here right outside of Atlanta.... Not a lot of riders much less 50 year old lady ones!!! I am enjoying reading all the great forums..

[7rider]

Rode with DH today. Did a 27 mile route we call "The French Countryside" because it meanders through this one nice rural section with horses and bluebirds and reminds DH of what the French Countryside should look like - not that either of us have been there. Yet.
We name all our routes. We're wierd that way.
Anyway, DH is not a very chatty kind of guy on the bike. I've learned to deal with it and if I want conversation, I ride with a girlfriend or coworker.
So we're heading up Browns Bridge Rd, a long slog of a hill into Howard County. I'm in front, and as usual, have a billion things going through my head as I ponder my predicament:
1. OOooooo, stitch in my side.
2. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Must. Maintain. Cadence.
3. Why the heck to I always try to go up this hill so dang fast?
4. Ugh, cadence. Cadence. Cadence.
5. Can't.
6. Oh, why do I always try to go up this hill so dang fast? That lady we passed on this road last week seemed perfectly happy to go up this hill slowly. Why can't I be like her?
7. I'll never be able to keep up this pace.
8. Ugh.
9. Why is he staying on my wheel? Why won't he pass me and leave me to die on the side of the road?
10. I think I'm gonna keel over. Right here.

Then, a chipper voice comes from behind me....."Nice pace."

Arrrrggghhhh!!!!

[Kano]

Tater, your bike and jersey are safe: they are probably both a bit small for me! BUT I do need one of those Amici Veloce shirts, cuz they're even prettier in person than in pictures! And I do need a similar bike: those Dolce's are sweet! (and besides, she said she loses 13 pounds when she goes from her mountain bike to her road bike -- which had me asking DH, wanna lose 13 pounds real fast?)

I also need a hill slug jersey -- as I was telling Earl this afternoon, no more hills until that front derailleur is fixed! It's not fun to know you have all those bottom gears and not be able to get to them when the hill lasts a few feet too long!

Earl has a few scratches, none serious and wishes he'd put his gloves on his hands instead of on top of the car this morning, after his fall. In the car on the way home, he said, one foot was in, just fine, and then all of a sudden, I was overbalanced toward that side...

Sounds just like everyone else I've heard/read about!

(his comment later? good thing I had my helmet on!)


We did indeed have a nice breeze clearing the haze out of the valley this morning -- It's good to see blue sky and puffy white clouds today!

Deep Canyon -- it's a scary name for the ride, but as Jen says, the hills weren't so bad after all on Deep Canyon road! The breeze made some challenging false-flats on the last third of the ride. I was just about sure that stretch was beating me, but I wasn't about to admit that to myself or anyone else, much less let it win, until Earl dropped back and asked me what speed I could maintain on the flats -- flats? I asked? Where are those? Maintain something? Yeah right. It wasn't much, but I was pretty sure we were creeping up hill a lot the last few miles, or going down. A while later, he dropped back and asked same question again. One of these days he'll learn...

I think having the speedometer on my bike sometimes psychs me out a bit: the last five miles was MUCH better (easier and I was happier) after I changed to the trip odometer screen, so that I was seeing how far we'd gone already. When I do that, sometimes I forget, and get excited to be riding 26mph, then I'd remember... Or was it the handful of raisins I pulled out of my bag of trail mix just before I changed screens? Who knows, who cares -- one or the other of them worked!

So, I got in the car, said to Earl, Great ride, huh? He looked at me, said, Huh? you didn't LOOK like you liked it. Thing is, they're ALL great -- even when I'm hating a stretch, accomplishing it is, well, dang, can't find the words! (and I've always got words for things, darn it!)

Great ride today Jen! I'm looking forward to another one -- does that bit about keeping an eye on your stuff next time mean you're planning to go on the River's Bend ride too? Some day, I'll actually keep up with you, girl!

Karen in Boise

[Tater]

Great ride today Jen! I'm looking forward to another one -- does that bit about keeping an eye on your stuff next time mean you're planning to go on the River's Bend ride too? Some day, I'll actually keep up with you, girl!

Karen in Boise

I'll be at River's Bend!

[emily_in_nc]

DH and I rode to the local farmer's market, hardware store, and food co-op on our Bike Fridays with full panniers. We bought $100 worth of HEAVY groceries at the co-op (in addition to plenty of organic produce at the farmer's market), and going the 15 miles home with a full load was slow and hard! He weighed my bike with the panniers on when we got home -- 62.5 lbs!!! I weighed only 40 lbs more than that on my bathroom scale this morning so was toting about 60% of my body weight up every hill -- and it's mostly uphill on the way home.

VERY tough ride, but I felt good to accomplish it! 32.4 miles total at a 12.5 mph pace.

Emily

[GLC1968]

I only have a minute, but my ride was big enough to be worth posting...if only in brief!

We rode 102.3 miles today as day one of our MS Bike Tour. Tomorrow is another 45 or so. We had a great avg speed (for us) of 16.6 and the ride was really nice. Lots of hills, not too many bumpy roads, and great weather. Everyone was super friendly (good thing, since there were almost 1500 riders!) and the ride support was amazing!

Let's hope tomorrow goes as well!

[im4smiley]

WOO HOO!!! I did it! Today I participated in the Connecticut Valley Century in Hatfield, Mass. The morning started out very foggy, it's a good thing we had blinky lights on our bikes, the fog lifted after about an hour. When the group I ride with were all ready headed off. It was about 7:30 am. We started off in Hatfield, Mass and some of the towns we went through were Leeds, Whatley, Deerfield, Greenfield, Bernardston, Vernon and Brattleboro VT, Hinsdale and Winchester NH, back to Mass, Northfield, Millers Falls, Sunderland and to Hatfield. There were stops about every 25 miles. I felt pretty good on the ride overall, I had a little cramp in my calf that started early in the ride but I was able to work through it. I felt pretty good up to the 2nd stop at 54 miles, after that my shoulders started to get stiff and I had to keep stretching and trying to relax. The second half of the ride was very windy, which slowed us down a bit. At about mile 73, I started to get tired, I knew the next stop was still about 7 miles away so I grabbed a GU and some water and after a couple of miles I started to feel better. (I think the hills at this point were getter harder or maybe I was tired!) After the 3rd stop I ended up riding the final 20 miles with some of the faster people from our LBS. At about mile 90 I started to struggle again but the group slowed so I could catch their wheel and we all finished together. 102 miles, with an avg speed of 16.8. My computer says I did it in 6 hours, 3 minutes, not including stop time. There was about 3600 feet of climbing. My shoulders are a little achy and my legs were not happy about walking up and down stairs but what a great day I had! I am so happy and excited that I did this ride. The people that ran the century were great, as were the stops, with plenty of cookies, muffins, fruit, and drinks! At times I struggled but overall I had an awesome time!

[tygab]

but knowing them... I got a bad cold last week that peaked around Tues/Wed of this week - the kind of cold where you zonk out the minute you're not doing anything, and feel generally miserable. It was a sneezing/sore throat kind of cold.

I had planned to do the 50 mile of a local century ride for a while, but I knew I was/am not still better yet. I went to bed last night unsure of if I'd even ride, but when I woke up this am, I figured I'd give it a shot anyway...

Ever the optimist, I signed up for the 50 and off I went. I was riding with a couple I did not know (just met that am at the start), but they wanted to go faster than the 14.5 pace that I was barely hanging onto panting heavily, so I suggested they go ahead. A bunch of other riders passed me as well. This shouldn't have been bad ordinarily, so I sort of knew I might not be ready for this kind of ride at that point. As I started up a long hill a few miles after the 25-50 split, I couldn't get my breath at all, and I couldn't clear my throat from the stuff in it either. Had a moment of uh oh, I might faint on the bike! Ya, it was not optimal. So I pulled over, caught my breath and decided the smarter thing to do was to turn around and pick up the 25 course and not make myself sicker. I also decided it was better to slow down my pace, and try to enjoy it rather than be miserable.

I ended up doing 30 miles in lieu of 50. But I take consolation in knowing that I rode the majority of the miles on my own (not a soul on the 25 mile course, for whatever reason), and I have never done a ride alone! I had a fun (well, to the extent that I was not uncomfortable) ride and I really enjoyed the scenery, thru a National wildlife refuge at one point. I also figure that 30 miles elevated my heart as much if not more than 50 @ normal health... heh.
And finally, I am still hopeful that for next weekend's club ride (different club century) I could go for a longer distance, if this darn thing will go away.

Anyway, not my best ride, but still better than not going. And I learned a few lessons along the way...

[Aggie_Ama]

Catherine- I loved our MS150 tour both years. The support is amazing. Have a good ride tomorrow!

DH and I did 23 miles tonight before the big game. We are easing back on the bike after his hospitalization last week. It is amazing how quickly you become deconditioned. We didn't ride the week before his hospital stay because it was so hot and he was getting sick. Almost three weeks off the bike and I feel like a newbie. Well not quite, we averaged 16.1 mph but it was more work than normal.

[Aggie_Ama]

WOO HOO!!! I did it! Today I participated in the Connecticut Valley Century in Hatfield, Mass. The morning started out very foggy, it's a good thing we had blinky lights on our bikes, the fog lifted after about an hour. When the group I ride with were all ready headed off. It was about 7:30 am. We started off in Hatfield, Mass and some of the towns we went through were Leeds, Whatley, Deerfield, Greenfield, Bernardston, Vernon and Brattleboro VT, Hinsdale and Winchester NH, back to Mass, Northfield, Millers Falls, Sunderland and to Hatfield. There were stops about every 25 miles. I felt pretty good on the ride overall, I had a little cramp in my calf that started early in the ride but I was able to work through it. I felt pretty good up to the 2nd stop at 54 miles, after that my shoulders started to get stiff and I had to keep stretching and trying to relax. The second half of the ride was very windy, which slowed us down a bit. At about mile 73, I started to get tired, I knew the next stop was still about 7 miles away so I grabbed a GU and some water and after a couple of miles I started to feel better. (I think the hills at this point were getter harder or maybe I was tired!) After the 3rd stop I ended up riding the final 20 miles with some of the faster people from our LBS. At about mile 90 I started to struggle again but the group slowed so I could catch their wheel and we all finished together. 102 miles, with an avg speed of 16.8. My computer says I did it in 6 hours, 3 minutes, not including stop time. There was about 3600 feet of climbing. My shoulders are a little achy and my legs were not happy about walking up and down stairs but what a great day I had! I am so happy and excited that I did this ride. The people that ran the century were great, as were the stops, with plenty of cookies, muffins, fruit, and drinks! At times I struggled but overall I had an awesome time!

Muffins? I have never had that at an organized ride! It is so funny to read that you went into three states. In Texas we only crossed three counties in our first century.

[Cassandra_Cain]

The day started off nicely enough, which has not been something to take for granted this summer in ABQ.

I had planned on riding a solo century, and in fact it was going as planned till about mile 58. Which was when I got a flat, my first one since returning to riding. So with 6 years since my last flat (and repair!), it took ridiculously long for me to fix it, though fix it I did. After having wasted so much time I opted for the easy option and just rode a metric century.

Feeling energetic and as if I'd not gotten my riding fix for the day, I then went mountain biking. Wow, it was almost swamplike in the mountains. The rain had carved out huge holes and made the ground squishy and loose - not to mention muddy - ack. Still I got a nice short ride in.

Finally I came home and felt OK getting off the bike....well at least till tomorrow morning!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

DH and I had a lovely 4 hour ride today through the countryside after breakfast at our favorite cafe. Incredible cool sunny weather. Doesn't get any better. Stopped at a farm stand and got a bag of gorgeous tomatoes. Rode up a hill through a field in a nature preserve, to a wooded gazebo at the top, felt inspired by nature and did the wild thing (checking for bird watchers first)
Rode down the hill through the field again and got my shoes and PowerGrip straps all green from flying through the grass on our bikes.
Stopped at a roadside garage sale on the way home, and also downed a quick espresso while shooting through town on home. A beautiful day!

[easterbird]

I did it yesterday. Rode 'Century for the Cure' out of Warren,NJ. I started biking a year ago(rode 4.8 miles on the bike path in Frenchtown,NJ on a rented bike) and set this goal for a century when I bought my road bike in the spring. It was a phenomal experience and I feel great today . Had lots of miles on the bike beforehand so only discomfort was my right bunion and seam in my shoe going at it(owee!) at the end. I'm still 'riding' high from it but SO not interested in hearing about it.

[Kalidurga]

I had planned on riding a solo century, and in fact it was going as planned till about mile 58. ...I opted for the easy option and just rode a metric century.

Feeling energetic and as if I'd not gotten my riding fix for the day, I then went mountain biking.

Finally I came home and felt OK getting off the bike....well at least till tomorrow morning!

Ok, Kano recently joked that she wants to grow up to be me (after I complained about a hill I had ridden too slowly), now it's my turn:

Cassandra, I WANT TO GROW UP TO BE YOU!!!! The day I can ride more than 60 miles and then go out and ride again (mtb, no less), I'll finally be able to feel I'm strong enough for anything.