July 22 rides

[ehirsch83]

went out to the crits. Did my warm up and my ankle felt a little sore but I thought I'd be ok- raced with the 45+ group, ended up pulling up in the middle- ankle was in excruciating pain:-(
Only good thing is that I had 2 different teams approach me to see if I want to join them!

[RolliePollie]

Just got back from a 24.75 mile ride. I intended to do more like 35, but when I stopped at my house to refill my water bottles, I decided I'd had enough for today. I didn't get out the door til 10:00 and it's getting pretty warm out. Good excuse to throw in the towel.

I'm very happy with my progress lately. I'm up to about 85-90 miles per week and my stamina has improved sooooo much! I can ride my local 20-25 mile routes without stopping to rest and the hills don't seem nearly as steep or long. Within the next couple of weeks, I hope to be able to increase to 100 miles/week with at least two 30+ mile rides per week.

[mimitabby]

well, Lisa has left me in the dust. I passed the 1500 mark yesterday.
Today I did another short hilly ride, 15 miles in all; amazingly, we didn't get rained on. We have the leftovers of a Pacific tropical typhoon here. IT's a good thing it's only 70 degrees or we would be dying here; it's so damp and humid.

[Aggie_Ama]

Congrats Lisa!! I am chasing you, trying to get to 2,000 by the 31st.

We did 53.1 miles today in the afternoon. By the water stop at 36 miles I was feeling a bit out of sorts from the heat. I wasn't to the danger zone so I tried the ice in the bra thing (some of the locals saw me- oops) and water over the head. Back 17 was a breeze and it is the hilliest part! It was good training for the century in two weeks, since we will probably be starting the back 20 around 1:00. It really wasn't a good feeling weekend for riding though.

[shawnada]

Did a nice 25 miles of rolling hills and one incredible steep hill that I have been working on. Even after 6 miles of running and 12 miles of biking yesterday, that hill was no problem today. Even looked forward to it. Thats my last hard workout until my race on Saturday.

[cosc]

Dh and I rode 41 miles. Especially nice to have a riding partner when the temps get hot. We had the select few trees landmarked to take breaks. We hoped to be riding Ragbrai today, but DH needed to stay close to finish combining at the farm.

[BikeDutchess]

DH and I rode 18.7 mi round trip to the top of Emigration Canyon and back. He hasn't been riding much at all yet this year, so I was impressed that he made it to the top! It was too stinkin' hot however (will it EVER cool down again around here???). The heat (late start) and the fact that I did quite a bit of climbing yesterday near Park City slowed me way down today. But that's OK, it was nice to be riding together.

[Crankin]

I just got back from my annual trip to the Berkshires. Can you hear climbing???
Our friends had mapped out all new routes. I won't make a long report, but on Friday we rode 52.5 miles and did about 4,000 feet of climbing. I found out I do better with shorter steep hills. There were 2 long gradual climbs and I decided my strategy on these will now be to keep my speeds down and save my legs. Not that I am super speedy, but I am not going to try to up the speed on this kind of riding. Yesterday we rode about 32 miles, with 3200 feet of climbing. This included one of the longest climbs I've done since I was in Austria. I was not happy, but I did it; about 4.5 miles. Then we did the "Tyringham Wall," aka, Main Rd. in Tyringham. At one point the Garmin said 25% grade, but I think it's more like 18 in spots. But, it's the third time I've done it. Today we did a 24 mile ride with about 1700 feet of climbing. One really long one, about 3-4 miles and then another one, about a mile that was steeper, but gorgeous. All of the scenery was awesome and the food was outstanding, too.
I am up to 1745 miles for the year. I predict I will hit 2,000 by August 10th, maybe before.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Congrats Lisa!! I am chasing you, trying to get to 2,000 by the 31st.

I feel you breathing down my neck!!

Mimi, don't worry- my weather has been way better than yours. Your new bike will be fabulous, too, and make the miles ZOOM by!

Robyn-
OMG that is some KILLER climbing!!!! I bow before you!

[ShubieGA]

I did 18 miles and got back to the car just as the rain hit! Good timing on our part. The best thing was I was finally able to get up this hill near our greenway, and I didn't get soaked!
Happy times!

[Kano]

Our ride today was short -- got about six miles out and DH said, let's go home. He thought it was too hot out! So, we ended up with about 11.5 miles.

BUT -- I had my fastest average ever, 13.5 -- that's pretty cool, and I'm pleased with that. I also had a little fun playing on the bike -- pushing myself a little harder on the inclines, getting up out of the saddle some, and practicing using my drops more. (that's challenging -- get thwacked in the belly with my thighs...)

I saw someone mention practicing Linus's downhill position in another thread, and that was neat, cuz it's great to know I'm not the only one who's learning from "the big boys" -- I'm not ready to try that one, but I do get inspired to try stuff I see those guys doing, and the Tour does seem to make me a better rider each year!

Equipment experiments tried -- I got a shorter stem on my bike, and I think that was a good change, since I felt lots more comfortable with the position change that gave me. I also adjusted the position of my cleats a bit and had happier feet in my shoes today. This could still use a bit of tweeking, I think, but it was a step in the right direction!

Sad to say -- while the ride left me energized, I ended up napping a lot of the afternoon away. I think that was the run to Sierra Trading Post in the convertible in the hot hot midday sun's fault!

Karen in Boise