October Rides

[ny biker]

Forecast was much warmer today, although it's still windy. I am having a bad issue with watering eyes when riding in temperatures less than 60. First this was only when I skied. Then it has crept in to riding at increasingly higher temperatures. A couple of weeks ago, I had a really bad allergy attack and my left eye started tearing spontaneously, not while outside. I've been wearing my glasses more, but it doesn't seem to help. I cannot wear my glasses while doing sports. A friend had this issue and was told to stop wearing contacts or wear those old lady goggle things while she rides. Ah, no thank you. My eyes were fine in June, when I mentioned this, but I think I might have to see an ophthalmologist. It's annoying. Anyway, I went out with no particular agenda. Thought I might do the hilly ride I've been wanting to do for weeks, but my legs told me no right away. Not that any ride around here is flat. I ended up doing 27 miles into Boxborough and Stow. I knew I should avoid areas around apple farms, but I was not prepared for the the cars parked along side of the road near Shelburne Farm. It turns out the orchard is down the road from the farm, so when I thought I was avoiding the crowds, I was not. There were cars about a mile on either side of the orchard, and tons of clueless people walking along the narrow country road . Who goes apple picking in a dress and heels? OY. I was being very careful when a Stow cop who was there for crowd control started pulling out in front of me! He saw me (geez, with a flashing front light) and stopped, I said "thanks," in kind of a sarcastic way, and he started going again. This was intentional. I feel like reporting him, but it's not worth it. I knew he wouldn't hit me, but I sped up and he turned in the other direction.
I stopped at the café 3.5 miles from home and had lunch outside. Listening to some of the conversations amused me. This place is a mecca for cyclists, but today, it was only dressed up families and people on dates. As I was leaving 2 other women pulled up on bikes, and I knew one of them, so I gave them my table. A nice ride, the leaves are getting more colorful, but I am glad DH is coming home from Japan in a couple of hours.

Um yeah, apple picking. I was supposed to do that near Charlottesville VA this past Sunday (same day you rode). I was meeting up with cousins who go every year with their relatives who live in that area. I was running late so I was supposed to meet them there. But the line of traffic leading up to the orchard was so long -- estimated 1 hour wait -- that they called me and said we were switching to plan B, lunch on the mall downtown. I don't know that area at all so we stayed on the phone and they gave me directions as I drove, until I reached a certain intersection and they said "what car are you driving" followed by "we're passing you now in the black truck -- pull out behind us!" We had a lovely outdoor lunch, walked around and hung out, had dinner, a very nice day overall. I wore jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers, figuring that apple picking would involved walking on non-paved surfaces and possibly sweating a bit in the sun. Anyway.

I had been planning to do a metric century outside of Fredericksburg that day but changed my plans when I was invited to join the apple-picking excursion. Instead I went for a ride on Saturday. A friend said she would be doing a B/CC ride with a local club that I am currently not a member of. We typically ride a CC pace. The route was in an area that I'd heard about because it's very popular with cyclists, but I'd never ridden there before. It included a climb up a small mountain/big hill -- about a mile long, steep at first, then leveling off, then it kicks up again and is even steeper. The total ride was 53 miles with the big climb more than halfway into the route. It was pretty chilly before we started; temps on Friday had hit 80 but then a cold front came through overnight and dropped temps to the mid-50s. I was wearing my mid-weight tights, long sleeved wool base layer, short sleeved wool jersey, a wind vest and my wool Moxie shrug. Plus a wool cap and toe covers.

So we start the ride and immediately everyone leaves my friend and I in the dust. I don't know if my friend told the ride leader not to worry about us, I just know that we never saw anyone else from the group again until we came back to the parking lot and found a few of them sitting around chatting about how they'd all averaged a BB pace -- faster than what was advertised. Which is typical for that club.

Part of the route was nice but a fair amount of it was on roads with no shoulder, a 50 mph speed limit and lots of traffic, including big trucks. I was pretty freaked out by the traffic. On roads like that, drivers do not slow down and wait until it's safe to pass -- they figure you're taking a ridiculous risk so you must be okay with the possibility that they'll hit you. If I had been alone I would have turned around and cut the ride short.

When we stopped at the rest stop I took off the shrug, and when we reached the base of the big climb soon after I stopped to take off the wool cap, unzip my vest and roll up my sleeves. It was warm in the sun by that point, temps in the 60s. As I started on the first part of the climb, my legs felt like noodles. I just have not been riding enough lately and am not on good form. And though the paralyzed vocal cord from last spring is mostly recovered, I could feel some wheezing in my throat. When things leveled off I felt better, but when the road kicked up again I could just tell that I would have an asthma attack if I kept riding. So I got off my bike and walked to the top -- my first time walking up a hill in 15 years. But as Tony Curtis once said in a movie I saw many years ago -- he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. I would rather walk than stop breathing.

I will say that the view on the way down the hill was very nice. And the roads around it were nice too. But as we got closer to the park where we started we were back on the high-speed high-traffic roads again. I do not expect to do any rides in that area again.

BTW as I walked up the hill I watched my friend spin away ahead of me. So after we regrouped at the top we had a nice conversation about gearing. I expect to have to replace my cassette soon, and will look into getting something that will make the hills easier.