Jan. 14 Rides

[btchance]

Had a nice 25mile group ride today. The weather was great, 70F with 10mph winds, but we were worried about the rain coming the entire way. Luckily it held off. We had about 10 people there with a pretty wide range in abilities. Two were racers who were kind enough to give hints too all of us about riding in a group, how a pace line works, and just general help in drafting.

The only bad part was when some people (who had their MTB and were fixing to go on a ride), had let their dog loose, and what did it do? It ran right into the middle of the group. Only about 2 people made it in front. I'm still amazed that no one went down. The dog went right across the road, and we all went left, the dog started to go back left, but froze for a second, and luckily when one of the riders yelled stay, the dog stayed there long enough for us to get by. It was a close one though. That dang dog came so close to taking out my front wheel it wasn't even funny. But hey, we all stayed upright and finished the ride without any other incidences.

Now I just have to wait and see how long this nice weather lasts. The keep saying that's it's going to rain the next day, but the day keeps ending up beautiful. Wonder how long my luch will hold out.

[Fredwina]

I hadn't done any Mountain biking in a while,so I got out Captian Peg leg (a Cannondale with a lefty front shock) and did about 11 miles today. Could have done more, but that pesky 2300 feet of vertical gain slowed me. The only real glitch was at the end. I was crossing a stream, and the was short, but steep rise afterwards, I put it in my granny, but I was spun out(too low of a gear) and had to dab to keep from falling over.

[Gidiup]

Today I rode my husband's Christmas present. I gave him a bike trainor and my bike. (He gave me a Specialized Ruby for Christmas) Anyway, it was my first time on a trainer and I actually enjoyed it. The trainer came with a training CD by Chris Carmichael so I was entertained. I rode for 70 minutes and I felt just like I usually do when I ride outside, GREAT!!

[emily_in_nc]

I did my first ride (outside - been riding religiously on the trainer 2x a week) since late October today. Couldn't let a 70-degree day in January (!!!) pass by without hauling out my mountain bike and taking a spin around the easy single-track trails on our property. We'd already done a five-mile hike this morning, and I'm out of mountain biking shape, so this was a short ride but great fun. I took it easy, not knowing how riding on dry leaves would be, but didn't fall, thank goodness. It felt great to be riding outdoors again -- and in shorts and short-sleeves in January, no less!

DH came out and took some photos of my riding, so I changed my avatar to my mountain biking persona! (I sure wish TE allowed just slightly higher-resolution avatars; I had the devil of a time trying to shrink a photo to under 10K and still have it look human!!) Actually, you gals will be the judge if it looks human or not!

Emily

[suzieqtwa]

I rode 25 miles in 30 degree weather this morning ,but it was sunny. I was so tired the whole ride, I wanted to fall asleep. I think the cold weather is taking all my energy ,and fuel. I want warm weather to come back.