March 3 Rides

[HillSlugger]

Well, the Mid-Atlantic chapter of TE ( ) - this day consisting of MDHillSlug and myself - met at the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge to ride a route smartly planned by DivingBiker, who could not attend herself, as she was tending a sick pooch (Hope all is well, DB!). I say "smartly" as she laid out the loop clockwise, so we had no major road crossings to contend with - all right turns. Yay, to DB!
We took off a bit after 11 - both of us were late. It was a nice ride - sunny, high 40's to low 50's temp wise. Got a bit breezy on the backside. Yucky headwinds! Saw quite a few other cyclists - none going in our direction however - so there has got to be more to explore in that area.
We got back to the parking lot, and MDHS was taking off her bike shoes and putting on running shoes to do the 3-mile run out to the main road (she's training for a triathalon, crazy woman!) when a ranger pulled up beside us - in a convertible Mini Cooper, not exactly a Government-issue vehicle! - and told us that "they" (i.e., Fish and Wildlife) don't want folks using their lot as a staging area for bike rides. He said if they had to close down the place and evacuate folks out, they wouldn't know where we were (?). He said they were fine with "ride in/ride out" but don't stage there.
Hmmmmm....
So, this scofflaw left, and MDHS went for her run.
17.9 miles at a 14.8 mph pace.

My 3 mile run turned into less than a 2 mile run/walk because it just wasn't really happening today.

Great ride, not so great run. Good thing my first tri isn't until July.

[missymaya]

I was so tired this morning and really didn't want to go but I did anyways. I went on my club ride but we went in reverse of what was the plan, starting off going east. This was done because there was a big rain coming in from the west. It was pretty cold, windy, and grey, not typical for this time of year. I'm finally starting to pick up speed with the group, especially on the pulls, so hopefully this energy will carry over to tomorrow's hill ride (definately NOT my specialty ). The ride itself was pretty good and quick because we had a tailwind for most of the first half of the ride and when we hit the head wind, we were almost at the end of the ride. I'm glad I went and got it done

[KnottedYet]

A little 8 mile errand-ride today on the Commutermobile.

When I got home from grocery shopping the sun was shining and it was just beautiful weather. So I tossed everything into the fridge and changed into a pair of bike shorts and the Best Cotton Biking Capris Ever. (an old pair of tapered-leg Gramicci climbing pants that I cut to capri length. Gusseted crotch, no flapping legs, and best of all NO plumber's butt!) Grabbed my bike gear and pannier and took off into the sunshine.

There is a bike route from my apt to the library. I usually take a different bike route to work, this was my first foray onto another route. Traffic was polite (and light) and I was able to "take the lane" thru every intersection.

The view of the bay was gorgeous: silver and titanium water, lavender/blue/gray/gold sky. A deep bank of slate-colored clouds completely hid the Olympic mountains and the cedars on the hills were just a stunning deep dark green. I love the colors on days like this.

The white-and-green ferries darn near glowed in the sunlight.

Loaded my pannier with a volume of the collected poems of William Blake (gotta read 'em after seeing Tomb Raider for the zillionth time last night... "grain of sand" and all that...) and Suze Orman's book about getting your sorry azz out of debt for the student-loan ridden underemployed.

The ride back was a bit different, as the sun had almost gone behind clouds. Lots of beautiful grays, and the ferries were a soft dove gray on the dark gray water.

[oxysback]

I had a fabulous ride today! Darcy and I met at Champoeg State Park around 1:15 and set off. The weather was cloudy...temps were in the high 50's.

On the way out we were doing 18 for a lot of the time, but as we turned back on our loop we hit a fairly strong headwind. Heck, I was lucky if I got up to 14.0! So my goal was to catch up to Darcy (she was a speed demon today!) and draft. I was right behind her the majority of the way back. So I owe you one, Darcy. You can draft off me next time!

I had an exciting moment where we were on a part of the road that didn't have much of a shoulder. A white car was passing someone coming towards me and if it would have moved over any farther I would have been a fatality. That shook me up for a bit! I don't think Darcy saw my close call since she was quite a bit ahead at that point, and I forgot to mention it when we were packing up. But yeah...would have been real ugly!

Oh...and I ran over a little quail on the way home. He just didn't run fast enough like the rest of them, poor thing.

Stats...
Distance: 30.06 (I lapped the parking lot a few times to get over 30. Yeah, I'm anal like that. )
Av. mph: 14.0 (WAY better than my last outdoor ride of 12.9! I didn't think I'd have anything left on the way back because I was working to catch-up to Mrs. Speed Demon the whole 1st half, but I probably could have done another easy 10 miles. )
Time: 2:08:15

Not bad. Not bad at all. And the most importand part...we had a great time!

Oh...and Darcy? My Diet Power program says I burned 2532 calories today!

[DarcyInOregon]

Ellen and I had lots of fun. It was awesome. We are both the fitness and fun cyclists, not the club going to race all the time cyclists. So for us, the averages we accomplished are significant. Ellen is a very strong cyclist and by the end of the summer she will be cycling some serious distance.

It was 60 degrees when we started and 55 when we ended, which is far better than a ride I had earlier this week with high wind, heavy sleet and snow, all combined in one ride, and with the temp about 34.

A flock of ducks or geese took flight from a farm field on our left at about mile 7. That was great to see and hear.

There were other cyclists out today. While I was waiting for Ellen to show up, a pickup truck with an extended cab parked, and out hopped 4 male riders. They took their bikes out of the back of the pickup truck, then spent the next 15-20 minutes prissing around with the bikes. I have no idea what they were doing. I ride almost every day, so I keep my bike clean and oiled. Before I load it on to the car's bike rack, I pump up the tires. When I park I unload the bike, spend a minute or two putting on my helmet and gloves and so on, and off I go. But these guys, they were poking and prodding each other's bikes, adjusting their clothing, and basically primping and prissing for 15-20 minutes. Then on their way out to the road, after maybe biking for 10 feet, they stopped and fussed with their bikes some more. Ellen and I left about 5 minutes later, and the 4 prissy dudes got back about 2 minutes after us. I figure they probably only biked 10 miles because they had to stop every 1/4 mile and fuss with everything.

Darcy

[margo49]

Round the lake / Sea of Galilee. 70 km +/-
Really spring-like day (tho' kept my under-helmet poly-prop rainbow hat on half the way). Tons of wildflowers (pale yellow mustard and bright red anenome mostly and a purple thistle like Bruno28's avatar), tons of kingfishers (my favourite bird), nice flows in the river and streams...

Nice stripes - I *always* wear folded up long sleeves (to cover each and both of my delicate arms) and my gloves totally cover the back of my hand so I get this gorgeous forearm-to-wrist stripe (by which I mean really s*xy)

Knot - you gave me an idea. I will pack a pretentious book from now on.

[KnottedYet]

The funny part about my trip to the library is that the library only has ONE computer terminal for the card catalog. (no actual CARD catalog) There are about 20 other terminals that get internet.

ALL the terminals were busy (it was Saturday) so I had to go ask the reference librarian to help me find the Blake book. I think I made his day! He walked me to the exact spot on the shelf and kind of waved his hands over the Blake collections, like Vanna White.

From talking to friends who are public library reference staff, they usually get questions about how to work the public access computer terminals... This guy's lucky day, I asked him to help me find a BOOK!