August Rides

[Crankin]

My first ride in August was a cool one! I normally do a longer ride on Wednesdays, but I have to do a social anxiety desensitization at 9, at a local coffee shop, with one of my teen clients, and then DH and I are going up to Salem, MA to meet some friends from France, who are here. So, I was up at 4:30 and went out at about 5:10, with my big light, arm warmers, and a vest, as it was 58. I have a much bigger choice of shorter routes, which take me into old favorite riding areas, from the condo, but I usually end up doing the same boring route, just around West Concord. I could have a totally flat ride if I rode to Concord Center, around a bit, and back, but it's often hard to get the light to change with a bike, at 5 AM, to get across the highway. And it was cold enough that I wanted some climbing. Anyway, I went 12 and a half miles, most of it in Acton, a bit in Stow and Maynard. Part of it was the the road I often used to train/gauge my fitness on, when I first started riding, as well as part of my commute when I was teaching. It's a busier road and I did not see one car, and the fog was quite thick over the fields of the apple orchards. There were a lot of people going into the commuter train station at 5:30 AM, including one guy on a bike. I took a bit of a different way back, right at the end, as to avoid lights and traffic. This ended up to be a good route.
I was appropriately dressed, but I feel a little chilled now.
Here's to happy August riding, and I better get my rear in gear, as I am behind in my mileage.

[north woods gal]

I know what you mean about having the solitude of early morning rides. When I was commuting to work and had to be there, early, I often found that my usually busy streets were all quiet and serene. In the winter, it was in the dark, sometimes with snow falling, and I found the sound of the tires swishing through the light snow to be almost spiritual. Great memories for me.

As for August, I'll be continuing my mix of road bike work and off pavement work, occasionally pushing myself on some of our challenging single track, of which we have plenty, just a short ride, away. Don't plan to hit a specific goal as to miles, but I will be pushing myself to become a better rider.

Also, we own 7 acres of thick forested land around our house and I have already been building some single track and a bit wider MTB trails from what's left of some ATV tracks left by a previous owner. Can now do almost half a mile on the loops I've constructed and hope to get it up to one mile. That way I can ride out my back door and practice my MTB riding. Nice to just jump on one of the MTBs and do an instant ride when the mood hits.

[emily_in_nc]

Ooops, I posted my first three rides of August in the July thread. In a nutshell, I rode 153 miles over three days on a couple different rail-trails here in Minnesota (Heartland and Paul Bunyan). Yesterday's was the longest at 68+ miles and my longest ride of the year. I'm spent!

[north woods gal]

Great ride, Emily. That's about my tops for the year, too, and I really have no wish to push for more. There was a day when I did purposely plan for a couple of century rides every summer, but that was time consuming because I was always careful to work up to those kinds of miles. I find that my usual 25 to 40 mile a day road work is MORE than enough to keep me in shape, now.

I'm at 70 plus miles for August, so far, but about 15 of that has been some nasty single track that leaves me panting and wheezing in a way that I don't get with my road biking. Another 15 has been on spooky gravel and sand roads. Loving it, though. Not too worried about the miles when I'm having so much fun.

Darn off the pavement biking is addictive. I now find myself going out of the way to ride gravel and sand roads, some really nasty ones, too. In fact, I've been practicing on how to work out of a bad fishtail and spin out in the deep soft stuff. The only way to do that is actually trying to ride through those spots, of course. Has boosted my confidence level, though, knowing I can handle it when it happens. Not a great way to add up a lot of miles, though.

[ny biker]

I enjoy the solitude of my post-work rides. Even though I ride in a well-populated area the roads are pretty quiet with most people at home eating dinner. I see dog walkers and a few cars but not much else, which is fine by me.

I rode last night, 19 miles, first time on the bike in 10 days. I was listening on my phone to the college baseball game that my nephew was broadcasting. It was a little hard to hear for a few minutes, because I had the wind in my ears going down hill and also there was a brief stretch with some car traffic. When I could hear it again, his broadcast partner was saying "I just can't imagine any situation where you'd need to see Twitter at the refrigerator." I have no idea how that came up during a baseball game. Anyway it was the last regular game of the season so I stopped and took a break during the bottom of the 9th so I could be sure to hear the end clearly. Their team will now go to the playoffs, but there won't be many more games to listen to on my post-work rides. I have enjoyed listening to them.

After the game ended I spent the last few miles thinking about the new gearing that I want for the bike.

The weather was great, around 80 degrees and not too humid. I'm trying to enjoy the warm weather as much as possible.

[Crankin]

I rode with my friend who is moving to Amherst today. Her husband is already out there, and they are going back and forth for the next 2 weeks. But, we already have 2 weekends planned, one in Oct. and one in September, when they will be here, since we still have our theatre subscription with them. Hopefully, we will get out there in between.
We rode to Bolton Farm today, a ride I did a lot in the beginning of the season. Woke up still sleepy, not usual for me, but I figured since my friend is a slower rider, I did not have to work too hard. Then, I forgot my GPS, so all pressure was off! I had no idea how fast I was going. I must say, everything feels easier since I came back from the Berkshires.
It was between 70 and 83 during the ride, but it's humid. Thankfully, after our early lunch, some clouds appeared, just as we started a slog of a mild climb that is unshaded. Since this part always occurs after lunch, I dread it, but it wasn't bad.
A weird thing happened after that. We were going up a short steep hill, just before entering Harvard Center and the General Store. This is a side street that no one drives on... at the top of the hill are like 10 skateboarders, rushing down, one at a time, falling off at times, and letting their boards fly. I yelled "heads up," but no one stopped, as they were being photographed. I was picturing one of them crashing into me. I was furious, and when I got to the general store to wait for my friend, there was a competition set up in the parking lot, with jumps and stuff. We told one of the policeman there, who went to investigate. It kind of felt like a bike race, but definitely, the people were not as nice!
After that, we were getting close to being in home territory. I was feeling drained, hot, and generally yucky. I went ahead of my friend and tried to speed up through Boxborough, more hills, through my old neighborhood, and finally into the home stretch in back to her house. As I was waiting at the light in west Acton, to turn left, 3-4 buses with "Team Lick Cancer," were bringing riders out to Sturbridge for the PMC, tomorrow. They were honking the horn and waving at me, which helped revive me, but the last 3 miles had me just bearing down. I actually lay prone on my friend's cool basement floor for a minute when I got inside!
39 miles, probably 2k ft. of climbing.