April 29 Ride Reports

[Mr. Bloom]

Silver and I did 40 miles in beautiful weather at 16.4mph.

http://www.routeslip.com/routes/35649

We pushed each other as much as the wind allowed us.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I just did my usual loop of 20 miles. Very pleasant despite some light drizzle.

[Velobambina]

The sun is rising earlier. Left the house around 5:30 and I could adjust the headlight from "see" to "be seen" after about a half hour. Did my usual Sunday ride--43 miles. It was a chilly 49 degrees at the start, but the humidity kept the edge off. Cool mornings keep the fair weather crowd inside, waitng for it to warm up. Memorable moment of this ride: A bird pooped on my face. Actually, on my lower lip. That was my most disgusting bike moment I've had to date (thank goodness I wiped it off, even though I initially thought it was just a drop of water).

[deedolce]

Did 36 miles with a nasty crosswind almost the entire way. Not as many riders out, mostly the orange and blue jerseys of the race team. I kept ahead of a pace line of 4 for a couple of miles before they they reeled me in and spit me out. Blue jersey had the best calves. White jersey had the best view from behind. But Red jersey beat them all for my #1 Eyecandy of the day, because he smiled and said 'hello' .

[makbike]

I decided to take it easy today and not push myself after yesterday's century. I decided I would ride a new route I put together on RouteSlip to make sure it worked before using it on a club ride in the future. Good thing I rode it for I discovered the side road I was to take at one point does not exist. I turned around and head home on this note - my legs did not have a lot in them (they were frequently asking me if I had lost my mind). I got in 31miles at a moderate pace (15.1 mph). It was a pretty ride - lots of emerald green pastures dotted with dairy cows. The skies were blue and temps in the mid-70's. I could have done without the wind today but I'm starting to think what is a ride without a headwind these days? I have a feeling I'll be in bed early tonight.

[HillSlugger]

I did the Bicycle place Sunday group ride with Regina and her DH. He did the A ride, we did the C ride. I think I was more a C-, just able to hang onto the back of the pack.

33.6 miles, 16.2 mph average.

[7rider]

You did awesome, Nicole (I apologize for calling you Erica so many times! I just get so used to having her as my only female riding partner on that ride, that I get all confused -- especially when chasing the group up some hill and the blood exits the brain to fuel the legs.) - A+ in my book!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I did the Bicycle place Sunday group ride with Regina and her DH. He did the A ride, we did the C ride. I think I was more a C-, just able to hang onto the back of the pack.

33.6 miles, 16.2 mph average.

33 miles at 16mph is a C- ???????? Geez....I need a bigger alphabet for me!!!!

[HillSlugger]

33 miles at 16mph is a C- ???????? Geez....I need a bigger alphabet for me!!!!

I was working so hard to hang on to the group that I have almost no clue what route we took or what the scenery was like.

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

After yesterday's 68 mile hill fest, I decided to only do a quick 22 today. (a few hills)

No notable items..except I'm looking forward to my recovery day (Tuesday!)..woohoo!

[Kano]

I need more letters too, Lisa!

My ride today -- According to DH's computer, almost 22 miles. Mine had a spontaneous reset, I think when we stopped to fiddle with is bike for a while. I'd sure like to know why that happened!

We started from home and headed out to the quarries this morning. I lucked into waiting at the first stop light. DH just kept right on going, and at first I thought about catching up to him, but then I decided to just ride my own ride, and eventually he'd be going up that nasty invisible hill, and I'd catch up with him. (HAH! my legs had other ideas) In the mean time, a group got between us, and they were kinda road hogs, with no intention of moving when cars came by and all (I was thinking "share the road" goes both ways, doesn't it?)

We got to that invisible hill, and I realized that I was hurting today when I wound up using my granniest granny gear to get to the top of it. This thing isn't all that big, and we just rode it on Friday afternoon, and I didn't need to go out of the middle ring to do it at like 12 mph, and here this morning I was struggling up at 6.... Like I said before, legs had other ideas today!

Next was the rolling road, on the way to the quarries. Things got better, but my poor thighs were hollering the whole way. And that road has two of those cow stopper things, you know, the metal grates in the road. I hadn't ridden over any of those on the new bike yet, so was a little nervous approaching the first one (on a downhill run) Needn't have worried, just extra vibration, bigger than chipseal!

When I finally caught up to DH, he'd stopped at the corner just before the hill to wait for me, and taunt me about needing to go home. Perhaps he wanted to, but was hoping I would be his excuse. I made him wait -- I really needed to stretch after our three mile warm up before tackling the next hill.

That pause to stretch those screaming muscles made a WORLD of difference! Nothing better than a good stretch!

I did it!!! It's a mile and a quarter long, and only about a 250 foot rise, so from what it sounds like, for many of you that's barely a blip on the radar, but I haven't ever climbed the whole thing at once before! Now, I was in my granny granny for the whole hill, but maybe that helped? Usually I try to go in as big a gear as I can as long as I can, then keep shifting down til I run out, and when that happens, my lungs are screaming, my legs are complaining, and my heart rate is through the roof. I also went faster than I've ever been able to go in that gear, a whopping 6mph up hill. I was sure proud of me when I got to the top!!!!

Then there was the lovely long straight shot down hill, another up, and then one more down. We turned a corner and had a really long mostly down stretch, where it was easy to run at 20 or more -- what fun!!!

DH was a bit ahead of me again, and when I caught up to him, I noticed that his rear wheel was wobbly. Told him he needed to stop at the next corner -- he always AARGHS! at me when I say that, but when we stopped, I told him about his wheel. He fiddled some, then rode off, and at the next corner (about a mile) stopped to fiddle more. Cussing a bit, he decided we should head for home.

A few miles later, I noticed that suddenly, I'd only ridden three and a half miles -- no, that was somewhere around the corner where we headed up the real hill. I don't think I did the reset button -- you have to do it for each function on the computer I've got on this bike, and ride time was reset too, so it seemed really odd to me.

Once home -- I discovered his seat rail is bent (I wondered why he seemed to be leaning to the left all the time) -- told him he has to at least change to my old seat for my old bike like his, if not my newest seat (that I don't like) -- and then when he started playing around with that wobbly wheel, he discovered the broken spoke. Very sad DH.

This necessitated a trip to the bike shop cuz we don't know from changing out spokes, much less have any spares around, or the right tools. Hey, wait, we got a printed from the web site coupon, we can get some stuff while we're there! So, as he puts it, tomorrow DH will have a lovely new $200 spoke on his bike -- two pair of gloves, one jersey, one pair of shorts, and a saddle later, we were out of there!

And now Tater's recommending the new Sierra Trading Post as a fun place to shop....

It was a good ride, in spite of the need for repairs, and fun shopping -- makes for a pretty good day!

Karen in Boise

[Kalidurga]

I drove up to Pennsylvania today to ride a new loop I put together around the battlefield at Gettysburg National Military Park. This was the first time I've dared to go off the park roads (aside from a short stretch through side streets of the town), so the route's still pretty short. The great thing about riding through the battlefield, though, is that there are so many roads that it's easy to loop back around through various sections to increase the mileage or get more hill practice, or just to take a look at a particular monument that I sped by the first time I ended up doing a total of 18.5 miles. One of my goals for this summer is to get to know the roads around the battlefield so I can create longer routes.

The other thing that's great about riding through Gettysburg battlefield is that it's a pretty little town smack-dab in the middle of some gorgeous countryside (if you ignore all the tacky little tourist shops, of course). It's also good for practicing dealing with un-observant drivers and pedestrians (i.e. tourists), and has a handful of killer hills. And on top of all that, there's the incredible history of the place. Definitely one of my favorite places to ride.

[mimitabby]

Well, X and Kit got to my house last night and before we were all tucked into bed for the night, I found out that my stepfather had fallen and got a concussion and a broken jaw. We're not sure why he fell. He's 80 something and it could be his diabetes, his BP, or perhaps the newly discovered heart valve problem. I found this out at 9pm and DH went down to the hospital to take my mother home; they'd been there since about 4pm and she was without car (they went in an ambulance)
So, i didn't sleep well last night.
In the morning, Teigyr called me sounding just llike the people you see in Nyquil commercials, she couldn't ride.
So the three of us went to the park in X's cool jeep and started the ride.
It was nippy out, and tried to rain on the way over, but as the day progressed, so did the weather, it was absolutely gorgeous. We rode 26 miles on the burke-gilman trail with a side tour of the University of Washington campus.
Kit tried to teach me how to jump my bike but I couldn't do it, and a squirrel tried to race with me. We turned around at Logboom park, and went back to Lake Forest Park (not a park) and ate subways for lunch.
I cut the ride way back because i had to go to the hospital. My mother drove down there but was too tired and stressed to drive herself home. We went down there and visited my stepfather too, who is feeling a little better. It looks like his jaw isn't so bad, they wont' have to wire it or anything.

[Shiraz]

DH and I rode to the next little town and back approximately 33 miles. We had a nice ride out stopped for a bathroom break and fluid refill then started back home. The wind pick up and made for a slower trip home but still very nice weather and time with DH. We realy are fortunate to have very little traffic and lots of farm ground. Can't beat it!!

[yellow]

What a superfun mountain bike ride I had today!

I've been overanxious about the Wine Country Century coming up next weekend, because, well, I've been running a lot and not riding much at all. So I thought I'd cram for the test this weekend. Stupid, I know. I'm mostly trying to get my butt used to sitting on the saddle again.

So yesterday I did a moderate 40+ mile road ride, flatted, and got sunburned in that space that only gets exposed when you are wearing a sleeveless jersey and are leaning forward. I had planned to do another long road ride today, but when I called my riding buddy in the am, I declared it a mountain biking day. I just really didn't want to ride on the pavement. I mumbled something about a "long easy-ish ride".

Well, it wasn't technical, but it qualifies as "epic" in my book (I'm not a very talented mountain biker). 20.13 miles, 4,136' of climbing, average grade of 11% (which explains why I feel so tired this evening). And it was hot (for Park City at this time of year), though I only almost melted down once. We started out on one of the standard trails and ran into a guy that was high on life and very chatty. He told us about a new trail, just opened this year, unmarked but open to ride. So we found it and went for it. The climbs were long but not really tough, so we chugged along. And the descents were a blast. What a great ride! But for meeting this guy, we would have ridden right by it and had to battle with the gagillion other people out on the more familiar trails.