Wednesday 8/26 rides

[DDH]

Well, I didn't make it yesterday out to ride again cause I had to go to the nursing home and take care of things for my mom.
However, today I went out and there was no mind and determination struggle, I just got ready and went. I went 7 miles today.
It was a little windy which made it a little more difficult heading out, but not to awfully bad. I'm slow right now anyway, so the wind doesn't really make me any slower. You can only go so slow before you topple over right. LOL
On the way back was a bit quicker. Not only because the wind was sorta at my back, but also, it takes me a while to get warmed up so to speak.
It was fun. Hot, sweaty, stinky fun!!! LOL

Hope everyone else had a great ride today.

[KathiCville]

I had a hot muggy ride too: 17 miles on quiet, beautiful backroads, with just enough up and down to keep me working from start to finish. I love rides where I see 10x more cows than cars!

[tulip]

I had a nice little commute today, 5 miles RT. One road was closed--to cars. So it was extra nice.

[Geonz]

Had my reg'lar commute but noted that the light at country fair/bradley was not ever letting the country fair folks through (it's a T). Last time that happened (a month ago) the lady up front called to me that she'd been waiting there for 10 minutes; this time, people were sneaking through (could be that's because the anarchistic students are back ). I did what I did then and hit the pedestrian button, which alas didn't have instant results - but it did get a green in a little bit.
Tonight there's supposed to be a "bike move" across town. Stay tuned

[Crankin]

I went on a 36 mile club ride on the Cape. Left at 8 AM to drive down and barely got there in time for the 10 AM start. Usually this is a 90 minute drive, but there was rush hour traffic. I didn't want to stop to pee, and consequently, I had to wait until a stop at the 8 mile point of the ride . We left from Osterville and rode around there for about 12 miles; then we headed toward Hyannisport, along Craigville beach. The roads were blocked because of Ted Kennedy's death, but we went through the barricades and the police were nice and waved us on. There were at least 50 mobile TV trucks parked along the road, with rubber plates, wires, and other stuff across the road. I jumped over them and we then went up a small hill to a view at the Hyannisport Golf Club. Very nice, but the place gave me the creeps, since it's a restricted club that I wasn't allowed into at a dance when I was a kid. Then we went on to Kalmus Beach and when we turned around in the lot, wow. The wind hit us right in the face, along with blowing sand. I struggled to keep my bike upright! We went about a mile to a park, refilled our bottles and had a snack and headed back. The wind was brutal, so the leader took us a little ways back from the shore; right through the conference center retreat place I went to last year for grad school orientation. There were tons of speed bumps in there. We got back to the parking lot and then drove over to leader's house for a great lunch spread that he and his wife put on every year.
There were quite a few people I didn't know on the ride. I was able to stay up front with the big boys, too. This was a flat ride, but with this group, any little rise, everyone falls back. It was hot, but the wind cooled us a lot, despite the fact that there were a few strong gusts.
My drive home sucked, but I recovered with a beer and a shower.

[mudmucker]

Well, I am on another week's vacation starting today. Yay! Many house projects lined up that will be finished. Having the day off allowed me to go on the Wed night Gardner ride which I can't usually go on regularly because they start too early in the evening. Now, these rides out in this area, to me, are a little more challenging. Those pesky inclines occur a little more frequently and there are more legitimate hills than where I ride on Mondays. It is really just typical of the area but I probably still wouldn't classify it as hilly but maybe terrain with large rollers and a few hills. It is also challenging because the ride is mostly comprised of men so I end up riding harder on this terrain. Which is good - I like riding with men particularly for that challenge. Tonight there was only one other woman who did well but she dropped and paced about a half mile in the back for most of the way. Sometimes they go fast so it's hard to tell what the pace will be on a given night but tonight they seemed to want to take it easy. But these guys are sweet and not jerks at all. They just wanna be out riding and they're very helpful and encouraging. It's a no drop ride and everyone is taken care of. Nice group.

We rode through Westminster, Hubbardston, and Templeton on quiet roads that I've never been on before so it was nice to see new turf. It was overcast which means it was going to get darker earlier and a storm was imminent so we cut the ride a little shorter. We got back dry with just enough light left too.