February 17 Rides

[alpinerabbit]

very, very beautiful second ride of the year. We need to get out a couple times before Mallorca in early March (last year was a cold start - not good).

We indulged in some cool cold weather gear (bl@@dy expensive but we got a discount for being good returning customers) and started out in 5 degrees. Once we got to the sunnier parts it was up to 11. beautiful. Took a little rest on the sunny lakeshore...

Total riding time 2h and on my favorite hill (not too too steep) I am now down one gear from the granny gear.

My favorite cool gear, with the price tag that comes with cool, is http://www.zerorh.com/

[Celeste]

Saturday was our first official training ride for the Shiner BASH ride here in Texas with Team in Training. A group of just over 60 people broken down into smaller groups. Which is good because I was nervous to ride in a big group. But it turned out just fine. I had no wobble starts and consistant speed.

We rode at Memorial Park which has a nice smooth bike road with no cars. Thank goodness. We went 20 miles! My furthest yet! Yippee!! I am very proud of that! And it felt good too! My mentor says it is because I ride during the week too on smaller rides or trainer.

Last week I did over 6 miles at the local park on Tues. and then about 5 miles on the trainer Thurs. because I got home late. I am sweating buckets at the end. I would much rather be outside on the road.

Weather was really nice! started at about 43 degrees and ended up at about 65 degrees with sunny clear blue skies. My favorite weather!

And kudos to you Oxysback for being able to do an hour a day on the trainer! Wow! Rock on with your bad self!

Have a great week everyone!

[Aint Doody]

Eastern Oregon was fantastic on Saturday. The high reached 74! We took the river road from Pendleton to Echo--50 miles round trip. Had lunch at a new and really good deli/cafe in the town of Echo (maybe 300 people in the town.) We all had to pick bugs out of our teeth at the end of the ride from all the big, wide smiles.

[Barb]

We're supposed to reach the 40's this week. My wimpy self won't go outside til it's above 40. I really gott get on the trainer...I hate that thing!!!

[Brandy]

200 miles in the heat and wind! I did my first double century yesterday.

[Celeste]

200 miles in the heat and wind! I did my first double century yesterday.

Wow! Brandy, congratulations on your accomplishment! How awsome!

[emily_in_nc]

200 miles in the heat and wind! I did my first double century yesterday.

Congratulations! That's an amazing accomplishment. How did you do? How did you feel when it was over?

Emily

[Brandy]

Here's my post from the Ca. forum. It's not a full ride report, but I'm still too lazy to write it up...lol.

I started with the early group at 5:30 and by the time I left the first rest stop at mile 38, my friend George who started at 6:15, had caught me. I was leaving as he was coming in, but he caught me again a couple of miles later and I thought I would try to hang with him for awhile. Well, my "awhile" turned into the entire day...he was on a fixed gear but still had to slow his pace a bit for me and I was so appreciative. He caught my overheating before I did and made me pull off and dunk my head under a faucet and really took care of me all day. He was there to talk me through the lulls and assure me that I would recover and get my game back. Of course, I had to give him crap since he talked me into Butterfield saying "you want to get doubles in early during the season when it's cold because once it heats up, everything changes"...lol...it was SO HOT and windy yesterday!

So...having him there made all the difference in the world. I was able to finish in 14:25...totally exhausted and ready to SLEEP!

Oh...and my view for the day. I was NOT complaining.







before the start with my friend M.E.