Tuesday July 29 Rides

[Mr. Bloom]

I'm on vacation, so I guess I get to start again

Heat index today is expected to top 105 degrees, so I left right after sunrise. I tried a lot of new roads and it was awesome!

It was a cool 68 degrees. In the first five miles, the fog hovering over the corn fields provided a surreal dream-like feeling. The sun was full on my back, but the fog gave a coolness that bathed and relaxed me...my glasses and rearview mirror fogged...20mph...no problem.

The corn and soybean fields remain lush green. The corn is about 8 feet tall and at places, it's like going through a tight little tunnel.

After the corn and soybeans, there's a national wildlife refuge that is reclaimed coal mines. At that time of day, the shadows are long and the abundance of avian life is colorful - varieties like bluebirds, yellow breasted brush finch, heron, orange wings. The old stripper pits are covered with lush green lillies.

Today was a beautiful ride.

I came to an area of active coal mining that was mildly unpleasant because of the coal trucks...dusty, dirty, noisy...but this was just few miles before I was back in pastoral farmland where one field had a small herd of deer - the stag a 12 pointer!...quiet except for the sound of the birds chirping.

Wow! This was a great and relaxed ride followed by a stop at Starbucks for an Orange Mango Banana smoothie...250 calories, 16 grams of protein!

Today, I did 45 miles, 17.1mph, rarely did my heart rate get about 130, so I'm not whipped right now!

I might do this route again...next time with a camera!

[Crankin]

I had to go to my former employer to give them a form so I can roll over my state retirement money into a 401K, so I decided to ride. The school district office is about a mile further away than my school, but in the same neighborhood.
I started out around 9:30. It's a warm, but dry day here, unusual since the last 3 weeks have been nothing but rain or high heat and unbearable humidity, along with poor air quality. I kind of was thinking that I might chicken out, I had a bad attitude in the beginning, but once I got on the road, I got into my usual commute mode. Even though I was definitely more awake than when I was doing this ride at 5:45 AM, I still felt slow. The way there is a false flat, with a few rollers, and one hill near the end. It took me exactly an hour, not a stellar time, but about my normal for a commute there. Everything is SO green here from all of the rain. Every time I passed any wetlands, I heard all kinds of birds and animals that I usually don't hear. My business took about 2 minutes, so I rehydrated, ate half of my Luna Bar and decided to take a slightly different way back in the beginning, which would be more shady and give me a bit of stretch with a nice straight downhill. It's a really beautiful stretch that i rarely ride anymore. Once I got back on Rt. 117 and into Stow and Acton, I was able to pick up my speed a bit and most of it is a nice slight downhill.
There was a lot of traffic when I had to make a left across Rt. 2A to head back to my house, so I knew it must have been close to lunch time. I had to stop until someone let me make my turn.
31 miles, 15.01 average.

[tennisgirl43]

I had an eventful ride this morning. I rode only for about 50 minutes, 15 miles because I had a job interview at 11 am. The temp was about 71 when I started, so it was nice and cool and a pretty morning. I left about 8.30 am. My goal was to do my 1 hour route that incorporates quite a few rolling hills. About halfway in to the ride, I threw my chain and had to stop. After fixing it, I hopped back on, took off riding, and a bee immediately slammed in to my bottom lip! I could feel it's legs on my lip, then POW, a sting! I kept pedaling, of course, and used my teeth to pull the stinger out of my lip.

Fortunately, it's not swollen and isn't hurting any longer. And although I cut my ride short by 10 minute, I still enjoyed it.

[Zen]

...and used my teeth to pull the stinger out of my lip.

Then spat it out on the road, took a shot of whiskey and pedaled on

I didn't ride today, I swam instead. I'm on staycation
I rode yesterday though, a very enjoyable 13 miles to the Monocacy Aqueduct.
I saw a cat on the canal towpath



Just like it ever was


Yeah, it's huge but it's such a great structure I'm gonna leave it.

[Mr. Bloom]

Well, I wound up going out again with Silver doing 57 miles...

So, in the last four days, I've had two metrics and one imperial...

AND, I just surpassed my '08 goal of 2,500 miles...so I'm raising the goal to 4,000...

[arielmoon]

The weather did not co-operate yesterday and today I ran erands with the hopes that I could maybe ride later. Unfortunately there was still some rain and lightning when I got home so it was a no go. I have to work late tomorrow and Friday so I am probably not going to be able to ride those days either. Thursday is my only hope!

[grey]

I kept pedaling, of course, and used my teeth to pull the stinger out of my lip.

Girl, you must be crazy.

Oh and,*waves* hi neighbor!

[tennisgirl43]

Yeah, I"m definitely crazy! lol! and determined!

Mr. Silver - the interview went....oddly....the interviewer ended it with this:

"Thanks for coming in to interview. I've had the position posted since April, so I'm not in a hurry to fill it. We want someone that is the perfect fit. I don't have a deadline to hire anyone" And that was it! So...hmm....good? bad? neutral? Strangest ending to an interview I've ever had!!

[OakLeaf]

Ouch tennisgirl, nothing like going to a job interview with a big fat lip! Good luck with the job!

I missed the club ride on Saturday and hadn't ridden since Thursday. Weather looks iffy for tomorrow night's club ride, too. So I mapped out a short loop to do solo today. It felt hot even though it was only about 80-85 F - I'm totally not acclimated to the heat, since I've been going back and forth among climates so much. We had an air quality alert for here too, so I figured the best time of day was noonish - late enough for the particulates to drop a bit, but before the ozone got too high.

When I got home I picked up the mail and there was the final report from TOSRV. Good thing, I'd have been bummed to get that on a day when I hadn't ridden in a week!

It's mainly the depression slowing me down now, I'm sure of it. 25.4 miles, 1873 feet of climbing, 15.0 avs, 154 avg HR.

Which that AHR is about normal for me, even on the low side considering the heat. Mr. S., how do you do it??? (My RHR is in the low 50s thank you very much, so it isn't that. But running, I don't even crack Zone 2 until 150 bpm according to the Garmin, which seems about right by my RPE - don't know how much different my cycling zones are.)

[Mr. Bloom]

How'd the interview go?

[short cut sally]

My sister is off from work this week, and this week starts my time off from work for 2 weeks..and I thoiught she needed to get out on my old bike and hit the road. We rode 21 miles, ave.speed 11.3 but I haven't been out in 2 weeks d/t the all the rain and such and she wasn't sure how far she could make it. I was looking forward to an easy day to get back in the saddle so to speak. we ventured up and down side streets and looked at houses and landscaping. Very enjoyable.