Sunday, October 11 rides

[Crankin]

We did a 30ish mile ride in our usual haunts, with the usual riding partners. It was cool, felt a lot colder than it really was because of the wind and of course, the clouds that appeared as soon as we started. I had had 2 glasses of wine the night before and I was paying for it (it was my son's 27th birthday). DH stayed with me as we climbed Oak Hill; not my slowest, but I was trying not to expend too much energy. That 4 mile climb seemed a bit longer yesterday! After stopping Harvard center, we turned off the main road, yet another climb that I always dislike, I guess because it comes after doing Oak Hill! Then, in order to head back toward our start, we go down a very twisty steep downhill that has a stop sign at the end. You guys know I am a downhill wuss and I haven't been on this street in a couple of years. So, DH and male friend head down and I am with my friend, who is a slow rider, but fast descender. As she pulls ahead of me, I hear a "on your left," and a woman just flies by me and my friend (who was going fast). Then, a minute later, another woman comes by me, sort of pushing me off to the right a little and not announcing her presence. At the time, I was thinking whoa, that stop sign is coming up quickly, and those women are flying like they have no idea. I catch up with my friend and she told me that they are from our health club (well, the one I used to go to). DH and friend were stopped at stop sign and said those women flew past them, asked for directions, didn't stay to listen to the response, and then turned around and headed in the other direction. As we were riding up the next road, they came by and one said to me, "Are you lost?" When I said "no," she sneered "Yea, right." Very strange.
About seven miles from the end of the ride, I mistook my friend's instructions about the route. I didn't see DH at a Y intersection where I thought we would turn, but I did see a guy ahead of me, wearing a green vest, so I went ahead. Unfortunately, it was not my DH, I ended up doing a lot more climbing than the rest of them, because I took a route with hills... they were kind of wondering where I went, but we were back in familiar territory, so we eventually met up.
We finished with some really good chocolate herbal tea and home made cornbread.

[pinkbikes]

My DH, a girlfriend and another male friend did the Brisbane to the Gold Coast 100km Challenge. It is a charity ride and had a field of 10,000 riders. Luckily my workplace is a sponsor, so we got start right up the front, although this made for a 3:30am wake up call which I found a bit hard. I do like my sleep!

The first 15km or so is on the busway, which is closed for the occasion, so it was a very fast start. I am riding in a team at the Noosa Triathlon in three weeks time, so I was very interested in belting out the first 40km to see how my training is going. Unfortunately, I have also been hitting a lot of hills in the last two weeks, as the Noosa Tri course has a long and twisty hill at the 10km mark and since I am *SO* not built for hill climbing, I have been trying to put some extra work in there. So my legs were pretty much already toast after the fast start.

Although I was feeling pretty weary, I was still holding an average over 30km/h when it started to rain at about the 30km mark. At first just a few drops, but then it turned into the soaking kind that fills your shoes and soaks your socks and turns your brakes to useless and makes you wish for your MTB and some disk brakes!

DH had been pacing me out in the early miles ("You've gone out too hard dear" and "You're going to lose your average dear if you don't move your butt up this hill" etc) but he is most definitely what we call an "Aspro Clear Cyclist" (dissolves as soon as he gets wet - not sure what the equivalent soluble asprin is in the USA - but you get the drift?) So all of a sudden instead of being right in front of me hauling my sorry self along, he is behind my shoulder, kind of whinging that it wasn't fun anymore.

Then he disappears. Now the problem here is that I thought he was still there because I could see this big blue jersey behind me when I took my eyes off the wet road long anough to glance back. Unfortunately at some stage it became another bloke in a blue jersey and I couldn't tell. Woops!

So then the blue jersey comes past me and I realise I've lost him (has never happened in all our married life since he is much the faster rider). Bugger! I slowed up and kept an eye out for him but he didn't catch up until the first rest stop at 40km. At this stage he announces that he is cold, wet, uncomfortable, his tyres are skittery and the road is slippery and he is NOT having a good time. He is mounting a rescue mission and going home. So he gave me the car keys (so I could get home later) and rang a friend to come and get him.

My girlfriend and our other friend decided to keep on going. The irony is that there was barely another drop of rain after that! We had a terrific ride for the rest of the 100km, ending at a park on the waterfront at the Gold Coast. Although it was probably not the fastest 100km I could have done given my beat up legs and the rain, it was a very pleasant ride in good company and with about a 16.5mile/hour average in the end. And I was pleased to see that all the work I've been doing to improve my cadence paid off, with an average about 10rpm higher than on our usual rides in the past.

Now, roll on Noosa Triathlon!

[redrhodie]

I did a 24 mile ride around here. It was perfect, felt like tailwinds the whole way, which is impossible, I know.

Then bf and I went to the Interbike Expo and 'cross races in Providence, where I watched the women's elite race. They make it look so easy! Katerina Nash led for the entire race and won.

Fun-filled bike day!

[Becky]

DH and I set out for a couple hours of riding in the hills near our home. It was sunny, breezy, and surprisingly mild. I noticed that DH's bike was making a funny noise, but he wrote it off as a clicking crankset and said he'd service it that afternoon. 4 miles later and 3 stops to diagnose later, it's still making the noise. That's when he discovered the 3 loose spokes and neither of us had a spoke wrench.

So we changed plans, and carefully rode to the shop to tighten, re-tension, and re-true that wheel. Doncha know, that darn wheel was still true when we got there, despite the loose spokes! Now that's a well-built wheel! After tightening everything up, we took the long way home to get some extra miles.

21 miles for the day, and all's well that ends well. And yes, I will be putting a 3-way spoke wrench in my seat bag

[azfiddle]

My dh was recovering from a super-long run (55 miles ) he did Friday, so I was on my own Sunday. I started with a detour to add a few miles to my regular ride to Saguaro National Park. The direct route is a designated bikeway can be very crowded with cyclists on weekend mornings. I enjoyed the alternate route, which had fewer cars and I only saw 2 other riders until I got to the park.

[shootingstar]

85 kms. Started off with temp. @ 5 degrees C. went as high as 15 degrees C.
Beautiful bright day..a ride with has several hills at beginning within the lst 2 hrs. each 5%-10%. And crossing several road bridges. Went through a flat area with irrigated ditches (sorry TE software doesn't allow me to type the actual 4 letter word) later which looked like drained cranberry fields. Should have taken a photo but didn't stop. It would have been a pic of contrasting red-purple fields of low-lying bushes, mountains in distance and blue sky. Day stretched out from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm which included lunch @11:00 am, short stops for photo shoots, washroom stops and small snacking then hung around a shopping mall for nearly 2 hrs. before meeting up with friends for a long, leisurely dinner at a Malayasian restaurant..sharing 6 dishes among 5 people. Dinner included a couple who live a year-round in mountain ski resort area. They miss cycling long road distances.

Am embarrassed by the amount I ate yesterday which included a Italian sandwich cafe and bakery. Must have been the cold weather...... Stoked my appetite.

[Medianox]

I did my first organized ride yesterday and it was a blast!
My friend Donna and I met up with Tprevost from the forums here and together we set off to do the 25 mile part of the Riverbank (California) Wine and Cheese Centrury ride sponsored by the Stanislaus County Bicycle Club.
For Donna and myself, it was our first organized ride, and one of 2 times all year Donna has been on a bike. She didn't have one of her own so she borrowed my old MTB and bravely went forth on the route...and made it halfway before "technical difficulties" kept her from continuing. Tprevost and I went on and even though we went on an unplanned side adventure (lost track of the route for about 5 miles but I got in some much needed hill practice in the meantime) made it all the way. The weather was fantastic, the company was awesome,the host club was acceptionally helpful and the location was beautiful...it was everything I imagined a ride in the country would be. It was great fun and as a bonus, despite the difficulties she endured, my friend Donna is totally bitten by the biking bug and wants to go shopping for a entry level road bike soon!
I have to thank Tprevost for all her words of wisdom and encouragement on the way and can't wait til we do it all again, even further next time! Onward!!