May 26 Rides

[RolliePollie]

My name is Sara and I'm a Granny Gear-aholic.

17.6 miles today and I have a cold so it was a bit of a battle to get up all those darn hills that we seem to have around here. I actually did better than I expected. Germs should not be allowed to invade your body on a holiday weekend - not fair!

[IFjane]

My SO and I drove to the mountains of Radford, Virginia last night in order to ride in the Wilderness Road Ride this morning. Had it not been for Batbike, we never would have done it but she told me what a great ride it is. We had several choices, ranging from 14 miles to 78 miles. We opted for the 78 mile route. What a fun, challenging day! 88 degrees, humid, light breeze, 79 actual miles. Like sara, I am also a granny-gear-aholic so it took a while but I made it & loved every mile. SO flatted at about 20+ miles so that held us up for about 15 minutes, otherwise it was uneventful other than my sluggishness.

We live at the foot of the mountains, and our regular riding terrain is hilly - I would describe this route (thanks to three back-to back killer climbs) as our most challenging on steroids.

[Batbike]

My SO and I drove to the mountains of Radford, Virginia last night in order to ride in the Wilderness Road Ride this morning. Had it not been for Batbike, we never would have done it but she told me what a great ride it is. We had several choices, ranging from 14 miles to 78 miles. We opted for the 78 mile route. What a fun, challenging day! 88 degrees, humid, light breeze, 79 actual miles. Like sara, I am also a granny-gear-aholic so it took a while but I made it & loved every mile. SO flatted at about 20+ miles so that held us up for about 15 minutes, otherwise it was uneventful other than my sluggishness.

We live at the foot of the mountains, and our regular riding terrain is hilly - I would describe this route (thanks to three back-to back killer climbs) as our most challenging on steroids.

OH YEAH! awesome ride ... beautiful and a challenge!! I wish Icould have found IFjane, looked but never found, but knew she was there and very glad she came -- it is one of my annual favorite rides!!

[KnottedYet]

I did about an hour. No computer, but I think something like 10 or 12 miles. Bike trail, road, gravel, lawn.

I was test-riding what I hope will be my new utility bike: Surly Crosscheck.

Considered going for another ride on my road bike when I got home from the LBS, but wanted to get to work on my old utility bike that I'll be trading in. Took off the fenders, rack, switched out saddles, etc., and gave it one last clean-and-polish.

[Kalidurga]

I headed up towards the Md/Pa border for a ride on the North Central & York County Heritage Rail-Trails. Both trails are nice and smooth, but there's a deceptively slight uphill grade of 2-3% for about half of each direction (nothing like Sara's Sierra foothills, of course ). Today was definitely a summery day, with gorgeous blue skies and temp's in the upper 80's. Hot but beautiful weather combined with terrific farmland scenery made me stretch a planned 20 mile ride out to a total of 34 miles. It felt great! The only problem is the dust on the Pa portion of the trail. Throughout the ride, I felt like Pigpen from the old Peanuts cartoon, followed by my own little cloud of dust. By the time I got back to the car, my drivetrain was creaking and squeaking, and everything below the top tube of my bike was greyish-white (including me!). I've got some serious cleaning to do now...

[Veronica]

IFJane, your ride sounds gorgeous. And so does yours Kalidurga.

Keep going Sara!

KY enjoy the new bike! Fred, your rides always sound like fun.

I time trialed my way up Mount Diablo - 11 miles, 3500 feet of climb. I was hoping for a personal best, but I was 2 minutes over. Ah well, not every day can be a PB. I didn't really look at anything except the road and my HRM. It wasn't that warm, but I was drenched with sweat anyway.

When I got to to the 17% section I saw this lady walking up it who looked a lot my school librarian. It was her. They had passed me in their truck and she wanted to see me get to the summit. That provided a little distraction on that nasty section. My HR still topped out at 191!

My average HR was 181. The testing I did four years ago would indicate that I was anaerobic the whole time. Ninety minutes of anaerobic activity seems a little off to me. Maybe it's time to get tested again.

V.

[Starfish]

My average HR was 181. The testing I did four years ago would indicate that I was anaerobic the whole time. Ninety minutes of anaerobic activity seems a little off to me. Maybe it's time to get tested again. V.

Wow, that sounds pretty wild. I think you and I are roughly the same age, but my HR never gets that high anymore. The highest I've seen this year is something like 178, and during extended (approx 1 hour) all out efforts like spin class, it is still only around 165, and I know for sure that is anaerobic for me. Or, at least I am pretty sure.

I sure would like to get tested, though. I feel like it is all so much guesswork.

[emily_in_nc]

My first road ride this year -- 8 miles to and from the post office with DH to pick up a box of live mealworms (!) to feed bluebirds! I've been mountain biking once a week after work with a co-worker buddy but have been too busy studying (and hiking) to ride on the road on weekends. Now that it's too hot to hike, and the class is over and exam conquered, I'm back to TE and hoping that my cycling miles start adding up again!

Emily

[Starfish]

This was actually yesterday's ride. It was really amazing. God absolutely blessed my ride with so much beauty that I finally pulled over and just wept.

I went out for an easy endurance ride for 2-1/2 hours, and I drove my bike out to the one flat area we have around here to just relax and do an easy aerobic ride. But, I was feeling grumpy, because it was cold and not sunny, and I am tired of wearing my winter amfib tights. So, that was the mindset I was in, although also feeling emotional due to Memorial Day weekend and the recent loss of my Dad, a WWII hero.

Cruising through farmlands, with the salt water straits on one side, and a panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains on the other, here is what I saw, sprinkled out over the whole ride:

1) A large prehistoric looking, teradachtyl-like (sp?) heron, swooping through a river bottom
2) A small herd of elk
3) A doe and two fawns
4) Another, larger herd of elk
5) Two bald eagles engaged in what I assume was a mating dance, swooping and mirroring each other all over the sky
6) A falcon and another, smaller bird, engaged in what I can only describe as a dogfight, with the smaller bird finally shaking the falcon and living to see another day

I was simply overwhelmed with the abundance of natural beauty. As usual, I started out a ride grumpy, and returned home grateful.

[Meg McKilty]

Well, I saw a groundhog [try slowly to] trumble away from my sight today.

So there.

[Starfish]

Well, I saw a groundhog [try slowly to] trumble away from my sight today.

So there.

No, that groundhog was me, trying to waddle my way down the road! LOL

[Veronica]

Wow, that sounds pretty wild. I think you and I are roughly the same age, but my HR never gets that high anymore. The highest I've seen this year is something like 178, and during extended (approx 1 hour) all out efforts like spin class, it is still only around 165, and I know for sure that is anaerobic for me. Or, at least I am pretty sure.

I sure would like to get tested, though. I feel like it is all so much guesswork.

I'm a bird. My max HR is 202. What I think is so cool is how quickly my HR drops. I can be beeping because I'm too high as I summit I climb and in no time at all I'm beeping because I'm too low on the descent.

V.

[Aggie_Ama]

We only did our 15 miles "Dog Ride". I am breaking in some new Aline Insoles and opted to obey their instructions of only riding one hour. My feet need some help but I really want to be logging a lot of miles this weekend.

[Crankin]

I did a 44 mile ride from Littleton, MA to Hollis, NH and back. The first part of the ride is the same as another one I ride more frequently. It starts out with a steady 5-6% climb for the first five miles. At mile 6 we stopped and used a bathroom. Once we get to about mile ten, it becomes pretty rural, through Groton, MA and into Pepperell. It was really hot, about 90, but it was partly cloudy, thankfully, with a breeze. Stopped to refill the Accelerade with Gatorade and then rode to Hollis, to the Kimball Fruit farm, where we stopped and ate a picnic lunch, overlooking the Monadanock Mountains. There's a pretty steep climb right before the lunch stop. Then we go down through some pretty roads, back into Pepperell and Dunstable, MA. We stopped again for water refills at a store and then took a road that goes by Lake Massapaug in Dunstable and Tyngsboro. In fact, we were about a mile from the first house I lived in when i moved back to MA from AZ. It's just beautiful here. Then, back into Groton, to do the Lost Lake climb. It's funny, this used to seem so hard to me, but now it's not. After this, it's only a few miles back to the start; we were held up by TWO trains at a RR crossing. One was a commuter rail, but the other was a freight train that went very slowly by. Then, he stopped, past the gate, but not far enough down to trigger the signal for the gate to go up. So after waiting like five minutes more, we saw no more trains coming and went around the gate.
As always, i start feeling good about 30 miles into a ride! I purposely did not push myself and ended up with a 14.3 average for 3200 feet of climbing in 44 miles.