Nov. 3 rides

[OakLeaf]

There is something just wrong about scraping ice off your windshield to go ride a bicycle.

(I rode from home, but if you saw my driveway you'd know why I drive to the end of it and park by the mailbox.)

First ride in almost three weeks, and it'd been two weeks the time before that. Family obligations, travel, early sunsets, weather. Plus my legs were still sore from my run on Tuesday. So I was dog slow. But it was a nice day, some fall color still left, wool kept me warm 45 miles.

[Aggie_Ama]

Well I wore sleeveless today and don't live in the southern hemisphere!

24.17 miles, got to go get ready for a wedding now. Darn, the weather is perfect for more miles- 78 degrees and no wind.

[Brandi]

hot and windy! Can not believe it is November!

[froglegs]

It's windy up there in Los Osos? I'm in Santa Maria and there is only a slight breeze. It's a great day for a ride, I got mine in this morning.

[bike4ever]

It got a little chilly here in St. Louis. Didn't ride but sold many cold weather pieces - wool socks, full finger gloves, and liners were the hit.

[divingbiker]

The TE-DC contingent (MDHillSlug, Kalidurga, Regina, and I) got together for our second DC Monument Tour this morning, on the occasion of Livin the Dream's visit to our nation's capitol from her home in Ohio. We met at the bike rental place near the Old Post Office Pavilion on a cold and windy morning.

We took a nice ride down Pennsylvania Avenue and stopped at the Victims of Communism memorial, then Union Station. We continued on (past many road barriers) to the Supreme Court, Capitol, Library of Congress, then down the mall past all the museums and the Washington Monument.

There were throngs of people on the mall for a charity walk, so we took some less-traveled paths past the World War II memorial to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial.

Then we crossed the Potomac via the Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery to see the Iwo Jima Memorial and the Netherlands Carillon. We rode back over the bridge down to Hains Point to the Awakening statue, then back up to the Jefferson Memorial and across the Mall to the White House.

We finished up the ride with a delicious lunch at a Peruvian/Salvadoran restaurant. The tour was about 19 miles; 35 miles total including the ride into town and back home.

It was great to meet Livin the Dream, and we invite all of you to visit DC so we can do another tour!

No people pics this time, just scenery...

Iwo Jima memorial (I really like this memorial)

the view toward DC from the Netherlands Carillon

a timely quotation from the FDR memorial

the Awakening statue

[Kalidurga]

Janice, that Iwo Jima pic with your bike is great! It was definitely a fun ride

[madscot13]

good to hear that the ride was a success. as for myself, I slept in!

[BikeDutchess]

Got up early and rode 26 miles towards my son's soccer state cup championship game. I left the house @ 8 am and it was soooo cold for the first hour or so (low 30's). I have to get warmer gloves or mittens or something! But it was a gorgeous fall day and a wonderful ride. DH and son picked me up on their way to the game. I would have ridden all the way but wasn't sure about the route to the game field.

P.S. the game was a nailbiter - tied after regulation, tied after OT, it came down to PK's and darn it, they lost. But they played so well, it was a pleasure to watch the game.

[Fredwina]

I was playing avoid the Santa Anas, too It seemed like everywhere you turned there was headwinds.
Had to laugh, I was riding with friend, and he wanted to do a different route than the usual club ride. I thought he told to do backwards than what he usually does, I started climbing but noticed he wasn't there. I got to a corner , he showed up at the same time.
I turned around .
Did about 62 miles
Pic! from the top of Euclid avenue in Upland:

It look like this for 12 miles and 1000 feet(downhill)

[7rider]

Great pix, Janice!
The 2nd Tour de DC with Team DC/TE was a sunny, breezy affair.
To get downtown in time from my home, I had to leave the house at 7 a.m. - before the sun was up (well, I could've left a bit later!) - and hook up with Janice. Including a side trip to the LBS afterwards to replace a lost bolt on my bikes' rack, I ended up with 56 miles for the day!

[RoadRaven]

Second race of the spring series... I headed out and after 1.5kms, a bug hit me on my sunglasses and bounced onto my shoulder... it must have been so p-offed with me it stung me. I stopped, assuming it was a bee and made sure it wasn't in my jersey, then hooked onto the tail end of my grade and set off again. A 1km climb and my shoulder felt worse and worse so I turned around and was a 'dnf'. Closer inspection shows I have three stings in my shoulder so it must have been a wasp.

Everyone is telling me I did the right thing as when your heart rate is elevated and your blood is pumping hard, a sting which also elevates your heart rate as well as poison being pumped through your system rapidly can make you quite sick qyuite fast.

So just a total of 16.7km for me on Saturday...

[jobob]

I've been in the riding doldrums the last month or two, so I let myself slack off, and gained over 5 pounds in the process ! gah.

So after the abject sluggitude of October I decided I'd start up again in November.

Today LeeBob and I went on a short ride from our home, along the bike path, up Mission Blvd to Mission Coffee (where we split an oh-so-excellent turkey/cranberry/walnut sandwich), and rode back. A whopping 25 miles.

I was starting to get tired in the ever-present headwind on the way back home. Kind of frustrating that only a couple of months ago I was able to barrel into that headwind without much trouble, today I was pretty sluggish. Oh well, I'll be back in shape, eventually.

[salsabike]

"Abject sluggitude" is a totally wonderful phrase, Jobob. Gee, I hadn't realized someone had invented an actual diagnostic category for my condition on certain days.

And it sounds like a fine ride for getting back into it.

[SlowButSteady]

After riding a desk since the last weekend in September, I rode with a group yesterday.

Easy pace, moderately hilly course, moderate wind and temps in the mid-sixties. My group was great and let me catch up at turns and stop signs.

We are just now having some marginally chilly days and due to extreme drought and warm temps, our foliage is about as good as it's going to get this year.

We're not in the mountains, but we rode some hilly, curvey and narrow roads around a monadnock peak. I could easily imagine I was pedaling in Vermont in autumn. It was bliss.

Not bliss: riding 25 miles on a new bicycle after not having ridden in six weeks.

Love the Iwo Jima Memorial!