June 24th Ride Reports

[hibiscus09]

I did my ride this morning because Dogmama told me I had to. We headed out at 6:00a.m. and that felt wonderful as it actually felt a little cool -- yay for no humidity! And, ummmm DUUUHHHHH -- I can be such a blonde sometimes. I was trying to keep at Brian's cadence and realized I was pedaling at least 1.5 times -- maybe a bit more for his every rotation. Then, ding, ding, ding -- I figured out he was on the largest spoke. I switched over -- and voila -- like magic boys & girls -- I could go faster.

Kiawah is perfectly flat, so I never thought to change my gears. Doy.

So, today we did 26 miles at a 16mph pace. My max speed was 19.79mph -- so I'll take it. We didn't make it to 30 miles because Brian had a tee time.

I actually felt like a cyclist a little bit today. I'm not sure what to do for fueling my rides, but today I had 1/2 an English muffin before I headed out (Thomas makes cool multi-grain English muffins with 8 grams of fiber!). Then, on the ride, I drank a bunch of water & half a Gatorade. Next, I'm going to have the other half of muffin with some Allfruit with a whey shake/glutamine/amino acids.

Hope that works.

YAY!

[btchance]

I just have to say I love where I live now!! It's great being able to roll out of bed, throw on my clothes, and head out the door for a ride, run, or swim. Makes it much easier!! Okay, so I left at 6:30am, had planned to do a brick of 10/2, but when I got to my turn around point on the bike, I wanted to keep exploring the area so added another 4 miles on. I love being able to ride down an empty rode with farm land on one side, and the tributaries (sp?) going into the river on the other side. It's right next to the Wildlife preserve, which I will be figuring out how to get into soon. (It has something like 30miles of dirt roads you can bike on!). After I got back, I went to do the run portion, which went really well. Ended up doing 3 miles instead of 2, ran all but .5 miles and only took 35min. All in all a great morning!

[Lifesgreat]

Me, Auntie K and two friends met at 6 am to get a ride in. The sun hadn't come up over the mountains so it was shady and the weather was perfect. 21 miles. Good friends, no wind, no heat. Life is good.

[TsPoet]

Don't usually post my rides, but love to read about others.
I'm posting this for an odd reason, to describe the roads. Roads around here are just plain awful. To get anywhere from my housing community requires a ride on a winding 50 mph very narrow 2-lane road with no shoulder (none, zilch, not even a hint). I once got a 2nd degree burn down my arm from the heat coming off of a truck’s tailpipe. This road is well-used by cyclist because it’s really the only way to get from one town to another.
The last 2 years this has all been made much worse by road construction. I haven’t commuted into work yet this year, I can’t figure out how to get there on a bike, last Wednesday the detour had a detour!
Anyway, this morning I decided to see what they had been doing for the last 2 years, extending the aforementioned narrow road the opposite direction toward the next town. I made a loop, going down to the other town, then back over, and up this new extension.
WOW! It’s still narrow and winding and 50 mph, but it has the most beautiful shoulder I think I’ve ever seen.
I’m so happy I’m beside myself. I can’t wait to see what they are doing with the rest. I’m even less upset about all of the dirt, blowing dust, and the detours – if this is the outcome.
Sorry to ramble, never though a shoulder on a road could be so pretty.

[CycleChic06]

I'm so jealous of anyone that is able to ride this weekend. Massachusetts weather SUCKS! It's raining all day Saturday and Sunday with the threat thunderstorms...of course it's going to be beautiful all next week, but I don't have time on the weekdays to do the long rides I like to do. And now that I"m headed on vacation next weekend it's going to be about 2 weeks before I'm going to be able to do a decent ride.

OK, just had the complain about it.

[Denise223]

CycleChic06 --

I hear you loud & clear.... Raining ... I heard that it wasn't going to clear until Thursday... I hope that's not true!!

[SouthernBelle]

I had an excellent ride from Lebanon to Hartsville, TN and back. Here is my route:
http://www.routeslip.com/map.php?map=1816

I got a late start due to fog.

I was a little afraid of this route because there is not a level spot on it and not much in the way of shoulders. But I never had to get off and walk uphill so I'm rather pleased with myself. My new polar bottle was excellent. I put 1/2 water, 1/2 pedialyte with a little crystal lite for flavor. The only problem is I can't carry one in my back cage because it is too tall. I was also lucky in Hartsville. I ran into a lawyer I know, so I got him to let me into his office to get ice and cool off. He kept saying, "you rode from Lebanon?"

Good ride.

Check out that website. Very cool.

[climbingbiker]

I had a little bit of a frustrating ride today, but it ended beautifully.

Our intention was to ride around 70 miles - one big loop and a smaller loop starting from the same place. We tackled the big loop first and our route was taken from a book that, as we have come to find out, needs a little updating. Stopping every 4 or 5 miles to consult the map is a bit frustrating. I couldn't get lost in the ride. Then, around mile 30 my husband broke a spoke. That was the last straw for me. We finished the loop and had to call it good with a 45 mile ride.

What salvaged the ride was having the most spectacular view of Mt. Rainier right in front of us for the last 5 miles. Absolutely gorgeous!

[EvilTwin]

Did my first ever beyond 40 mile ride today!!! 42 miles, including major, major hills. BF's name for this ride is "Fox Lane", which is 5 or so miles and the majority of the hills on the lane are way steeper than highway grade. Plus, there was some floral event going on at a farm, so the traffic was busy. But, I did the ride with only a minimal amount of whining. I'm soooo awful at hills.... I have to stop frequently on them, which drives BF nuts... He says he's never seen someone stop on hills before... Silly Boy, how else can I climb them??? But. I didn't walk any of them. The weather was HOT... 91 by the time we got home. Am I ever going to be ready for Bike Idaho????

[KnottedYet]

Had a Seatte-ite TE ride. Met up with Mimitabby and we rode 16 mi on the Burke Gilman. She was on her new bike, and I was industriously trying to cough up a lung, blow my nose, and readjust my nose ring *all at the same time*!!! So we did a little ride at a comfy pace. Stopped at my favorite bench (97th/Densmore and the BG) and Mimi bought some lemonade at a kids' lemonade stand across from the bench.

Oh my was it HOT. I'm a delicate and tender PNW slug and I was melting.

On the way back we stopped at Recycled Cycles to fondle their wares. And use their bathroom. (Thanks, guys!) There was a free bike outside the shop, and driving home I passed a guy who we'd seen looking at it. He was riding his bike and rolling the freebie Miyata along next to him with one hand. Lots of free wheels on the free rack, too.

Reminder to self: next time it's hot, pack 3 water bottles. 2 isn't enough....

Edit to add that we saw a big black lab riding in a bike trailer with doggles on. Looked like he was having a great time!

[Duck on Wheels]

What does PNW mean, and what are doggles? (Must be the cleaning fumes, or the late hour. I'm just not getting it.)

[makbike]

I rode the club ride this evening, appropriately named "Taste of Virginia." I HATE hills but because my BF was ride captain I felt I needed to participate. I was rather concerned the first 10 miles or so for my legs felt dead, nothing in them and I knew what awaited me. However, after the first long climb my legs kicked in and I felt my strength and confidence growing. I started to catch up to those who took off in the fast group but who were slowly falling back due to the continuous climbing. Eventually I found myself with two gentlemen, I passed the one and the other one became my carrot for the rest of the ride. He was determined to keep me from passing him and I was set on passing him for we seesawed back and forth. We came to a red light and as I pulling up behind him he turned around and said "pull you big, heavy steel frame up here and trigger the light." That was all it took, for I'm very protective of my little blue bike, I love it. I know it is old (1985 or so), I know it is heavy, I know it is out dated according to a lot of the club members but it is my bike, it works for me and I have a great time on it. When the light changed I took off like a bat out of h*ll, dumped him and finished with an average speed of 15.6 mph. I figured with all the hills my average speed would end up around 14.5 - 15 (if I was lucky) so I really surprised myself when I looked at my computer (it came with the bike so it too is old and always brings comments from the peanute gallery).

[salsabike]

If BF hasn't EVER seen anyone stop on a hill before...then he needs to get out more often! That's how we learn to climb hills--do the part we can do, stop and recover a little, get back on and do some more, etc. till we're strong enough to do it in one go. How else can you build the strength and lung endurance? Go girl---you're doing just right!

Did my first ever beyond 40 mile ride today!!! 42 miles, including major, major hills. BF's name for this ride is "Fox Lane", which is 5 or so miles and the majority of the hills on the lane are way steeper than highway grade. Plus, there was some floral event going on at a farm, so the traffic was busy. But, I did the ride with only a minimal amount of whining. I'm soooo awful at hills.... I have to stop frequently on them, which drives BF nuts... He says he's never seen someone stop on hills before... Silly Boy, how else can I climb them??? But. I didn't walk any of them. The weather was HOT... 91 by the time we got home. Am I ever going to be ready for Bike Idaho????

[SadieKate]

Today was sort of a sad day for me. We went up to Nevada City to help our friend Chris Kelly with his “shutting of the doors” sale after 20 years in the business. He made my gorgeous pink cyclocross frame in my bikejournal avatar photo and came out to my car as we were leaving so he could put a matching decal on my new bike board (notice how the board and bike coordinate). I know he’s going to find something big and grand to do, but it was emotional wrench. I can’t even imagine what he and his wife have been going through.



On a brighter note, check out the bug. Bubba and I took a break today to get dirty on the mtbikes again and look at what thwacked him in the head in the parking lot. I swear there has got to be a radio hidden somewhere to go with those 2 inch long antennae.

[KnottedYet]

Duck - PNW is Pacific Northwest. Doggles are goggles/sunglasses for dogs. They are very cute, and actually wearable. Protect dogs eyes just like sunglasses/goggles protect humans' eyes.