Saturday, August 26th Rides

[GLC1968]

We had an awesome ride today! My DH and I joined a large group training ride for our local MS bike tour (which is in 2 weeks) and it was well supported and fun. There were TONS of people, so we headed out with the A riders to avoid some of the crowds. It was a little annoying on the hills, as our strength is hills and that is most people's weakness. Every hill, we'd buzz on by, and then every downhill, they'd pass us. The frustrating part was when they'd pass us on the downhill approach to a hill...and then not move to the right when they started to slow. We had to cross the yellow line a few too many times for my liking.

All in all, it was a fun ride. We did 39 miles at a pace of 17.3 mph...not too shabby!! The weather was gorgeous and the route varied and fun.

Now the debate is whether or not to join a century ride next weekend. Can we do two centuries in two weeks?

How was everyone else's rides today??

[Crankin]

Today was one of my best rides in the last month. I figured out yesterday that I was sick and probably had a sinus infection. So, after getting meds, I felt great. For about 2 weeks i thought I was just burned out on cycling and maybe having asthma issues.
Anyway, we tested out a ride we will be leading 9/17 (me, husband, and 2 other leaders). We rode to our friends' house (4.3 miles) to warm up and then started. This is a "hill climb" ride, through many familiar country roads where I used to ride more frequently. But, the biggest climb was a street that I have never been on; a 3 part hill with little rests in between each part with one stretch probably a good 13-15% grade. The entire climb was about a mile. We tweaked the cue sheet a little and I showed everyone a way to head back that keeps us off of a major road that will be full of "apple pickers" on the day of this ride (people from Boston head out to the "country" and tend to drive very strangely). We got lost a little, but the weather was so gorgeous that I didn't mind. The difference between riding in 80-95 degrees and riding in 68-70 is enormous. Today was like the perfect weather, no body parts hurt, and the scenery was beautiful. The ride was a total of 49.5 miles back to my house. I considered doing another loop around my hill, to get to 50,but, I decided no one cares...

[mimitabby]

back on the tandem for the first time since the RSVP (3 weeks) i'd forgotten how stressful it was.
Someone almost doored us but DH yelled and got out of the way okay.
We rode 25 miles from our home to my husband's office in Lynnwood.

It's not a bad commute for 25 miles, 10 of which are on the burke gilman trail.

[SouthernBelle]

This morning I rode Black Beauty to the LBS to get tweaked and to look at shoes. 25 miles one way. She got tweaked, I got some nice Pearl Izumi Juice shoes. I got a quick lesson on riding clipped and I was off. I think I fell over 4 times. Twice I unclipped on the wrong side. Once I couldn't get unclipped. Once because I was getting so good at it. Several bruises but no blood.

50 Miles.

[7rider]

DH and I did our 40-mile "triathalon loop" this morning. I'm not sure where the loop got that name - a local ride club, I think- but all of our rides have names, and so there it is.
It was hot and sticky, but fortunately the breeze was nice and it was mostly cloudy, so the sun wasn't too bad.
My legs had nothing in them today, perhaps because we did 20 pretty hard miles the evening before and by morning I didn't have much time to recover. I tried not to whine too much, but I was really glad when we climbed our last hill! According to the Garmin, it was over 2400 ft of climbing - a lot by Maryland standards...well, maybe by my standards!

[Kalidurga]

I was really glad when we climbed our last hill! According to the Garmin, it was over 2400 ft of climbing - a lot by Maryland standards...well, maybe by my standards!

Where in MD, Regina?