Aug 11 rides

[Duck on Wheels]

Didn't have much time this morning and won't have any tomorrow, so just a short ride. Decided to try some repeats on a hill I need to conquer. It's about 1km at 5%, then a little level shelf, then another 5% for a couple hundred meters. Last time I tried that hill I had to break it up into 4 stretches for hr recovery. The time before that I cross-trained about 2/3 of the first hill. This time I only needed one break halfway up the long stretch, then did the rest and spun along the shelf for recovery before the last little climb. Did that twice, then headed home. I'm thinking I should add this as a detour on my way home from work a couple times a week. That should help. The route home is otherwise all downhill.

[Trek420]

Go Duck Go!

August 10th didn't ride ..... but swam after work. Not sure how far, lost track of the laps. Swimming's enjoyable yet dull. How do people keep track of the laps?

[Duck on Wheels]

Go Duck Go!

August 10th didn't ride ..... but swam after work. Not sure how far, lost track of the laps. Swimming's enjoyable yet dull. How do people keep track of the laps?

I keep track by swimming different strokes -- 1 crawl to warm up, then 2 breast stroke, then sidestroke, overarm side, inverted side, overarm inverted side, backstroke, back crawl, inverted breaststroke -- that's 10 lengths. Then start over again for another 10 and so on.

[SouthernBelle]

I had planned to set out at 5:30 this morning, but it being Saturday morning I was lazy so it was more like 6:40. I planned on trying to get some serious mileage if the heat would let me. But I built in a couple of bailout points in my planned route.

Although It was not a new route, I changed a section to some never ridden roads which included one particularly wicked hill. Sometimes when you keep going up and up it seems like the Twilight Zone.

Although the temp wasn't too bad at first, it started climbing and I started drinking, which is good. But as I approached a bailout point, I realized that if I turned right and went long, there is no place for many miles to refill my bottles, which were about empty. So I went left. Bought some Gatorade at the Norene General Store and about 15 more miles to home. Probably a good choice as I really wasn't sweating a lot.

Total: 48.06 miles.

[makbike]

I joined the club this morning for a 60 mile route (actually was 57 but who is counting?). This route took in many of the roads traveled on the Old Kentucky Home Tour but in a reverse manner. The first 30 miles or so were actually the tail end of the Sunday portion of the tour. As we traveled these roads I noticed I was not having to work very hard for most of it was downhill - only proving my statement that the Sunday portion of the tour is much harder than the Saturday routes. Oh well, I enjoyed the free ride.

The second portion of the ride was part of Saturday's route and it was hilly for no matter which way you travel on Routt Road you have hills to climb! The journey up Seatonville Road was as always long and hard - what a miserable climb but I made it to the top and continued on my merry way.

The temperatures today are down, only in the low 90's as we rode. We traveled a lot of beautiful roads and as always I enjoyed all the animals I spied along the way.

It was a good ride, lots of good company, a Little Debbie Swiss Roll snack at the store stop and great weather. One really can't ask for much more in a day.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I rode on my own today 32 miles over lovely rolling hills and countryside.

This was my 3rd ride testing my new shorter reach handlebars, and the longest one so far.
So far I am very pleased.
The totally unexpected bonus of these bars showed up dramatically today in that my usual quite painful left elbow did not hurt!
Usually for the past 8 months, I get elbow soreness after 10 miles and it gets steadily worse with each 10 miles thereafter, til it hurts- a LOT -just to bend it. It's the only real pain I experience in my biking, and it happens on EVERY ride over 10 miles.
But today for the first time in many months, I felt some mild sore twinges after a few miles, then they went away, then came back a tiny bit, then just went away, kept doing this...by the end of my 32 miles my elbow wasn't really hurting much at all!
This huge sudden change can't be anything but the new bars. YAY!!!!!!!

[HoosierGiant]

102.4 miles -- the century portion of Gary's Ride in Plainfield, Indiana, to support the Gary Dudley Foundation.

(Background: Indiana State Police Lieutenant Gary Dudley and Lake County Sheriff's Department Special Deputy Gary Martin were killed on August 22, 2006 while participating in a charity bicycle ride to raise funds and awareness for the Indiana chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors. The Gary Dudley Memorial Foundation was subsequently established to award college scholarships to children of police officers killed in the line of duty in Indiana.)

92 degrees; 3200 feet of climb with one hill at 19% grade and numerous others over 10%; and a snarly wind that couldn't make up its mind which direction it wanted to blow. But talk about exceptional roads!!

[lauraelmore1033]

After hearing me gush all week about how much I love the gearing of my new bike and how miraculously it has changed my attitude about hills, hubby took me out for a very hilly tour de Everett--possibly just to shut me up about it. I learned I'm still the same weenie I've always been. He took me all sorts of places I've been too chicken to ride, from the Boeing freeway to Goat Trail road (which I'm even too chicken to drive on in the car), Forest park and on to the bluffs overlooking the bluffs which overlook the Marina. I spent a lot of time whining about the fact that my *** was waaay higher than my head and I felt like I was doing push-ups in the drops, or that the climb was steep enough to make me feel like I was either going to slide off the back, or that the front of the bike was going to tumble backwards. After 25 miles of that I was seriously pooped. But I didn't have to walk a single step of it--which is a huge improvement for me!

[KnottedYet]

But I didn't have to walk a single step of it--which is a huge improvement for me!

Congratulations!!! Excellent!

[Righteousbabe]

I did 62 miles at the Rockwall Hot Rocks Bike Race/Rally in Rockwall, TX. The ride lived up to its name! At 8 am when we started, I was soaked with sweat just standing at the start line waiting to take off. At 9 am it was already 90...and when I finished at 12:15 pm, it was close to 100. I was really feeling the heat, too (nausea at mile 40, chills towards the end)...not a good sign since Hotter 'n Hell is only a couple weeks away. I have to get out there and do some more heat training...our summer has been pretty mild up until a couple weeks ago. And it does look like I will get my chance to ride in the heat...the forecast for the next week has our highs at 100-102.

[ibcycling]

Yea, my first ride post! I did 15 miles yesterday evening after dh got home. Nothing fab, just working on faster speed. If I bike from home I'm pretty much stuck with this route since we at the end of a road but it's a nice quiet route with a couple small hills.