June 9 Rides - Great Weather Everywhere!

[Mr. Bloom]

It seems that there is a high pressure system that is keeping most all of North America sunny today! How many miles will be logged on this continent?!?!?!?!?!?!

SilverSon and I are about to go do Evansville's Tour de Bloom. At least 31 miles, but I'm trying to talk him into his first metric century!!! Wish me luck psyching him up to that.

Now that I'm not thinking, I don't get why they call it the Tour de Bloom. The "Blooms" are gone...they should call it the "Tour de Corn & Coal"

Silver is doing a sprint tri in Owensboro, Kentucky.

[Crankin]

Sorry, Mr. Silver, there is not great weather here in the Northeast. As I sit here, it is raining and thundering. My club had to cancel our bike rally, which is a major fundraiser. But, my husband and I went out at 8 AM, after watching the radar of the approaching front and got in a pretty good 16.5 mile ride. It was raining for the last couple of miles, but I had my rain jacket. There were tons of cyclists out, trying to get some miles in.
At least our dinner and speaker is still on for tonight!

[Aggie_Ama]

Well it is sunny in Texas but HOT!! I am waiting for DH and we will log some miles this afternoon. We have a goal of 100 per week and only have 15 so far, I am sure we will do a 30+ mile, maybe 50 miler. Better plan for one with water stops!

[SouthernBelle]

I put in a shorter ride this morning, have things I gotta do today. Though the temp was a pleasant 80, the humidity was a less pleasant 84%. Sad when the humidity is higher than the temp. But that will change as they climb back up into the 90s next week.

I was trying out new pedals that have replaced my spd 505s. Shimano A520s which I'll report on after a couple more rides.

But got in 20 pleasant miles, stopped at a tent sale full of books (going back there), loosened up the old legs.

[Surlygirl]

I just spent the morning at a lacrosse jamboree in the pouring rain at Fort Devens here in Mass and it was nasty and cold. They called off all the games when we could see lightning in the distance. Hundreds of kids all running around with aluminum sticks just can't be a good idea in a storm. The kids were bummed.

[NJBikeGal]

With the pro race tomorrow in Philly...this is certainly a bike happy weekend for me! Last night was the Manayunk Wall Hill Climb, in which my teammate Liz took first for the 3rd year in a row! She's part mountain goat, I think. This morning, several of my teammates did a Time Trial (top finish for our team was 6th! ) Then, we took a ride out and about town. I ended up test riding a Specialized S-Works Tarmac for 20+ miles. AWESOME bike! I took it up hill, down a hill at 40 mph, over cobbles (cobbles? what cobbles? I don't feel no cobbles on that bike!), did some sprints. All around kick butt bike! I highly recommend one if you have $5500 lying around! If you have $11000, give me a call and you can buy me one, too!

All in all, I was on or with my bike from 8am to almost 2. That's a good day!

Oh, and last night...they had a gathering at my LBS with the Health Net, Priority Health, Sierra Nevada, and Aaron's women's pro teams. My DH and I ended up winning a Health Net jersey signed by the team that is racing tomorrow...pretty rockin!

[Mr. Bloom]

Liz took first for the 3rd year in a row! She's part mountain goat, I think.

Does Liz know you called her a goat????

[7rider]

DH and I got out for the Patuxent River Rural Legacy Ride, hosted by the Oxon Hill bike Club. We did the metric century - our first "long" ride of the season. Was a beautiful day, sunny, warm - towards the end, that would be HOT - and breezy. The route is sort of a figure-8 shape and reaches down and touches various spots along the Patuxent River. It's really nice - much more variety of terrain than the Seagull Century. The cue-sheet alleges 3400 feet of climbing for the metric, but I'll have to see what my Garmin says. MotionBased.com usually shows something different, too...so perhaps I can get an average and use that!
I did have a first - a nasty hamstring cramp with 1 mile to go. I managed to spin it out in a really low gear, however.
So...62 miles (and change), at 16.3 mph.
Now it's nap time!

[HillSlugger]

A short 17.25 mile tune-up ride before my diabetes 50 miler tomorrow. I rode with my team captain, Chris. Apparently I'm the only one of the team who is in riding shape. Chris is afraid that I'll "leave them all in the dust." I might. I will if I don't like their pace

[Kano]

Helmet's off, still wearing gloves and camelbak -- drinking the water!

DH and I just had a delightful 23.5 mile ride, the one I didn't get to do with friends last weekend, since I was watching my grandsons. We got off to an interesting start --

FIRST, I didn't wake up early enough to suit him.

NEXT, I went out to put air in my tires, and wouln't you know it would be the back one.... Pumped up just fine, but then I went to take the gizmo off the presta widget, and all the air came out! First time I've had that happen, but WORSE, it wouldn't let me put air back in!

What to do, what to do....

Dig out spare tube, still in box. put a little air in it to be sure it holds air, and take wheel off bike. bring grubby thing into living room, lay blanket on floor to keep filthy light colored carpeting "clean." (DH says we will get new, so why have it cleaned, eh? It's not working, going to have to succumb to urge to get carpet cleaned) Remove tire and tube -- this was easier than I expected. You have to know this tidbit: first tire change for me!

Didn't have puncture, but inspected wheel rim as a matter of starting good habits. Tire too. put old tube aside, and got the new one to put into tire.

IT WAS TOO BIG!!!

Box says it's 700 tire, but tire says it's 27." I'm annoyed, make a proper fuss, then dig out my other spare, and fortunately, it was the right size. New tube into tire, tire onto wheel, also easier than expected, carefully inflate, inspecting to make sure I don't have anything pinched and everything is seated properly.

OH EXPLETIVE! DH comes running.

I put the tire on backwards!

We decided that if I'd been sitting roadside, I should let it go until returning home, but since we were home... Deflated it and did it over again, that's okay, right? Practice! (wait, now I'm relatively good at this, and DH doesn't know how yet!)

Now I go to reassemble bike. OOPS.

Thought I'd released the brake when I removed the wheel. Not so lucky there: it just came off easily with no air in the tire! "Honey, do you remember how bike guy taught us to release the brakes?" We fiddled a bit, decided to get the manual out. OOPS. discovered that somehow, we'd gotten a BMX/Single speed bike manual instead of the one for my Roubaix road bike.

Deflated tire, put wheel in place, and reflated the tire. Bike back right side up, we should be ready to go, yes?

Oops! By the time we got to the end of the driveway, I knew, something wasn't right, and I still haven't a clue what it was, but when I pedaled, the wheel didn't go. Brake was a bit off kilter, and that was easy to straighten out, but something was just not as it should be. DH loosened wheel nuts, and put it back tight again, and we were back in business.

I said, hmmm, well, not the best start, we're an hour and a half later getting out than we expected, but hey, we learned lots this morning, right? Down the road a bit, to a favorite beginning of the ride downhill run that is easy to ride about 20 mph. Hmm, we got headwinds this morning, that's a bummer. Now the downhill, can't go over 12mph. Something's GOT to be off yet. I stopped, checked to make sure I had air yet, and discovered the brake had gone off kilter again. Straightened it out, and fortunately, that was that for the ride!

ANd now we're off! (well, girly bits need some adjusting, but gotta go find a lonely spot where traffic and neighbors won't notice, but...) Not real speedy, that head wind is a bugger!

We're on our way to a hill that's got a GREAT road on the other side. We've had a rocky start. We're tootling along behind a mail truck we'd rather not play leapfrog with. Get to the corner where it's time to turn to go up the hill, and Son-in-law is on the phone to let us know that his sister will watch grandson for sure so we don't have to wonder (hooray!)

DH wants to turn around and go home.

NO WAY!

Tandem riders head up in front of us, coming from our left. I told him, look, they're going to need two people to get up the hill. Nother lady comes by, hollers, YIPPEE! HEADWINDS!

He wants to turn around and go home...

NO WAY! I've only climbed all the way up this hill one time before, and I told him I didn't know if I could do it again, much less with the wind, but we were danged well going up the hill.

He's better at hills than me.

I nearly passed him. If the hill had been any longer....

(DH was impressed)

We even almost caught up to the tandem and other rider, who had a big head start on us! (_I_ was impressed!)

I even tried my drops a little bit on this climb. Interesting difference!

Anyway, once one gets up this hill that I climbed at about 5.5mph today, there's a wee flat area, then a delight full down up down with a right turn halfway down that second down (keep speed in check!) onto a great gradual downgrade with no cars ever on a Saturday or Sunday and the hill barricading the wind, and we FLEW! Well, until we got back into the winds, when we slowed down lots again.

Our average speed ended up around 11 1/2, but we were doing an amazing, astonishing 20+ for several miles!

Now he's still in a bit of a tizzy about my bike's mechanicals -- that cool freewheel sound, when you coast? He's dead certain something's broken and I need the bike guys to fix it. He claims his doesn't make that sound, but it's just louder on mine than his, I think!

Now I'm cooled down a bunch, and ready for some FOOD!

Karen in Boise

[Fredwina]

we had clouds this AM, Mr s. Normal this time of year('june Gloom'). Condensation forms over the pacific and blows inland and gets trapped by the mountains. burns off by about noon
I did about 67 miles.
was going to do the long club ride, but I looked we had a wide variety of talents on the short one, so I changed my mind
He have one who hates to get passed by girls. I guess he was have a bad day
Afterwards, I climbed up into one of our local canyons. Normally, I stop a c-store for break on this route, but a strange homeless guy has taken up residence there , so I stopped at a ranger station.
Downhill for 15 miles and then 5 flat one, and I'm back home

[Aggie_Ama]

I ended up spending most of the day feeling a bit under the weather. Took some Promethezine (sp?) an hour ago and now I am done. DH is out for a 50 mile ride and I am feeling sorry that I didn't go. Come on be rational, I just ate a bagel as my second and biggest meal- I can't ride.

[liberty]

I did my first hill ride since my return from South America two weeks ago. Probably have only done 60 miles in the past two weeks, so I was a little worried how the hill ride would go. But I did fine. I was able to power up the smaller hills no problem. The one longer hill I took nice and slow. I did run into my two nemesis dogs though. Only did 8.25 miles, since there was a bike event today.

My club did a children's bike fix-it at a trailer park today. The kids had a great time, and so did we! 25 bikes were outfitted with repaired brakes, new saddles, personalized license plates... The whole works! It was a blast. You should have seen the looks on their faces. It was worth cutting short my hill ride.

[Tater]

Kano, you and E. missed a neat ride out in Nampa! I did the Bob LeBow century with the winds Kano mentioned. Guh. Report and pictures in the adventure section.

[madscot13]

Wonderful weather in St. Paul! However, I am so tired from yesterday's 40 miler (a personal best!) that I only managed to go downtown to the Farmer's Market.