April 22nd Rides

[Crankin]

I rode 29 miles with Denise G. I had changed out of a sleeveless jersey to a short sleeved one, which was probably a mistake. It was only around 75, but it felt like summer! A very pleasant ride through residential neighborhoods, the Harold Parker State Forest, with no real hills, just rollers. It's nice to ride in different areas once in awhile. We had to cross a couple of places where water was rushing across the road from all of the rain, but it was pretty shallow, so we rode through it. Even though i had tons of sun block on, my right arm is a little red.
Back to work tomorrow.

[divingbiker]

I picked up my new bike from the bike shop (she needed a few minor adjustments) and left from there to head out to the wildlife refuge and back. Beautiful warm day, 22 miles.

I've decided my new bike's name is Miss Gulch.

[uk elephant]

a nice leisurely Sunday ride with a friend. 27 miles in glorious sunshine. I let him pick the pace, which made it a bit slower than I would have done which made me feel even fitter and sportier. Of course he was on a heavy front suspension mountain bike with knobby tires and I was on a XC bike with slick tires.....

[makbike]

I actually tackled two club rides today. I started with an MS-150 prep ride which took in some beautiful countryside in and around Louisville. It had several sections of rolling hills to challenge those preparing for the upcoming MS-150 in June. It was 23.83 miles and I averaged 16.5 mph I was quite pleased with this for yesterday's 60 miler was a tough one with lots of challenging climbs so my legs responded well this morning.

I left that ride grabbed a sandwich and headed to the next ride. It was a pretty flat 22.86 miler that has one long climb. There were a ton of riders at this one and that always makes me very nervous to be in a big group. I managed to worm my way through the crowd and settled nicely into a smooth cadence of 100 rpms going down River Road. By the time I arrived at the big climb my average speed was 17.1 but alas my legs were beat and the climb dropped my average speed . I managed to hang on and finish strong and ended up with an average speed of 16.6 this afternoon.

All in all it was a beautiful day here in Kentucky. Clear blue skies, a bit of breeze and temps in the 80's. Looks like the upcoming week is packed with a lot of rain so I guess I'll dream of riding.

[7rider]

DH and I did the Sunday morning shop ride at our LBS. He rode with the A/B group. Mike, the LBS owner wanted to pull the reins in on the A ride, which has gotten a little too competitive lately, so he had the A and B riders go together. It was, I hear, a pretty blistering pace. I went with the C-ride. Slower, but still speedy. We were cruising along MacArthur Blvd at about a 22 mph pace. By the time we got back to Beach Drive and into the park, the C group had pretty much broken up, so I dropped solo down into Rock Creek Park to add another 8 miles or so to my total.
38.75 miles at 16.9 mph pace. 1750 ft in climbing and 3800 calories burned. Yay! So, DH and I celebrated our first successful ride with the shop for the season by going to the deli next door and getting poppyseed hamantashen! Yummmm....
Oh, and I jumped up 2 more places in the 2500 in 2007 standings - to a whopping 27th place! (Nicole....I'm gaining on you!) Yay all around!

[Kalidurga]

Busy day for the TE-DC gang, I see.

I drove out to Williamsport, MD, to cruise the C&O Canal towpath. It. was. beauuuuuutiful. Rode 30 miles from Williamsport to the top of Big Pool (at Fort Frederick State Park) and back to Williamsport, then decided that I had more in me so I headed a few miles downstream of Williamsport and back up to make it a total 35 mile ride. Managed to maintain an average of just over 13mph, in spite of dodging other cyclists (lots of families with little kids on bikes, a few folks with panniers who looked like they were riding the whole 184.5 mile towpath), pedestrians, and dogs (leashed and unleashed). Probably only 100 feet of total elevation (if that), but I did have the excitement of taking the bike up to 20mph down a very gravelly slope at a spot where the canal used to drop through four locks in a row. I know that's not fast to some of you speed-demons out there, but the idea of wiping out on a gravel trail had me on pins'n'needles. Fun, though

Could the weather stay like this all summer, please, pretty please???