March 27th Rides

[Velobambina]

The dobie-dog showed restraint! None of my girls would have taken the time to carry the sandwich away---my goldens would have gulped it down where they found it! Must have been a treat, seeing that, Velo. Too bad you didn't have a camera. I wonder who lost their lunch?

I am working at home today, so I took a mid-morning break to get in 43 miles. It's summer-like outside---going up to 80 degrees--but mostly cloudy. I worked up a good sweat and when I got home, my face was it's usual summer hammer ride color--BEET RED. LOL. Happens all the time, and people sometimes ask me, "are you ok?" It's just that blasted Irish skin I inherited. Anyway, a super ride all around. All the flowering trees are blooming now so it feels like spring has finally settled in.

[liberty]

Well, I have to say I have been riding a lot so far this year. But I've only done flats, and today I did a 13 mile hill route. Used to do it all the time. It was my easy, "I only have a little while to ride" route. But it knocked me silly. Had to stop many times to catch my breath, drink something, and eat something. Guess this girl needs to forget the flats for awhile... The weather was nice though! The drivers were friendly, and there wasn't a dog to be seen!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Got in a nice 20 mile ride this morning. 45-50 degreesF, and foggy/drizzly. Very refreshing and I could smell the damp earth of spring (and the damp manure going past the farms!). Sad to start seeing road kill again, but glad the suicide earthworms aren't out in droves yet. Am enjoying my new stem and my nicely tuned derailleur.
Have gotten over my initial "spring thaw" soreness in my thighs and on my sitbones, and am feeling really good now. Now that Winter has finally retreated I'll be working on adding some strength beyond what I did last year. Actually, I was surprised how little I had lost over the winter- it only took about 8 rides to get back to where I had left off. Of course part of that is because we had another mild winter and I was able to get in 2 or 3 rides a month for most of winter.

[Crankin]

Did a 16 mile loop around Hanscom AFB and back. Usually, we do it in the other direction, but because it was rush hour, we reversed it, so we would have less time on the road with cars heading home from the city. So, except for my street and driveway ( ) it was a flat ride. I pretty much never have the chance to ride anything flat, so it was nice.The only weird thing was that when we left it was partly sunny, and after about 3 miles, the sky got really cloudy and dark. I mean so dark, I could barely see with my dark lenses on. It looked really threatening to rain or even thunder, but it didn't. As soon as I got home, the sun came out.

[makbike]

Rode into work this morning and spent the day trying to explain to my 7th graders how to balance chemical equations. By the end of the day I was in need of some time on my bike so off I went to check out a new road. According to RouteSlip the road I wanted to travel intersected another road I've been on a few times - a perfect connection that existed on the map but on in reality. So I climbed several hills only to find myself on a deadend road. Oh well, turned the bike around and headed home. Even though the ride did not turn out as I had hoped I was given the perfect opportunity to decompress and enjoy yet another picture perfect day (sunshine, 80's, little wind, etc). I got in about 25 miles and enjoyed every minute I was out and about on my exploration.

[silver]

Mr. Silver and I went on a fun journey today. The wind was blowing from the east so we decided to start our ride at the West end of the beach Road (West Beach). We drove out that way and parked the car and headed East. I led and Mr. followed. I could hardly manage 15 mph into the wind.

At Perdido Pass we crossed the bridge there. It's a pretty big bridge and qualifies as our only hill. I've never crossed a bridge on a bike before so that was a first.

We pushed east to the Florabama at the Florida/Alabama state line (about 17 miles). At the Florida line we lost our dedicated bike lane. Cars were very reluctant to give us space, but we pushed on. We wanted 50 miles. We continued to push on into Florida until the road turns away from the beach at Johnson Beach/ Innerarity Point). This was at 23 miles. We turned around.

With the wind at our backs we easily did 20-23 mph. Ahhh,,,so nice after the struggle into the wind. So we zipped back into Alabama. past the Florabama, over th Perdido Pass Bridge, past hwy 59. And back to west beach.

But we still didn't have 50 miles....just 46. So we turned back into the wind. Mr. says he's going to really push it and so he'll meet me back at the car. He passes me and cranks it. I fall in behind and him and suck his wheel. Surprised the ****ens out of him when he turned around and say me there a bit later. We turn back and finish out at 51. Near the end, I pulled up beside him and he tells me to go on, I challange him to race me and he pulls ahead and I can't keep up. He reaches the car first and looks like he's going to throw up. I avoid walking my bikeup on that side of him so that I'm not on the receiving end, but he recovers.

a very good ride!

However I had hoped to push my miles up a bit today, so later, I went out for a shorter slower ride in the neighborhood, adding another 13 miles to my total.

At the end of the day, I'm just so glad to be riding again after my horrible accident and witnessing Sam's even more horrible accident. I'm happy to be riding with my hubby. I've ridden 769.5 this year, and have moved up into the top ten of the riders posting to the Bike Journal, Team Estrogen club.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yay for you Silver, and Mr. Silver too!
Hey make sure he is eating and drinking enough on those long grueling rides- don't want him to BONK. Remember- eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty! (or is it starve a cold feed a fever? )