August 18 rides

[redrhodie]

I'm a wind-wimp. I HATE the wind. Today, I am proud to report I went out in 30 mph gusts rather than stay in my warm comfy bed . It was also pretty cold, so I wore a long sleeve jersey and knickers for the first time in months. I kept telling myself it would be a tailwind on the way back, and for once, it was! Actually had a fun ride, but kept it short, only 13 miles (but I felt like I rode 30).

[Crankin]

Yes, the wind was pretty strong here in New England. I headed out for a 9 AM ride with friends, since my husband was painting some woodwork we had done. It was about 57 when I left, so I had arm warmers, knee warmers, and a vest on. Got to my friends and it felt great to be riding in refreshing weather instead of humidity and heat. I don't like wind either and one gust almost knocked me off of my bike! I did take the vest and arm warmers off after 4 miles. We rode a familiar route, all of my favorite streets in Acton, Boxborough, and Stow. It's a rolling route, with one little climb near my old house. I was able to stay with my friend's husband for about 3/4 of the ride. Then the little climb got to me and I couldn't keep up (he is really strong and about 10 years younger). He left us to do a long climb that we didn't want to do, so we headed back to her house. I decided to ride at my own speed and not slow for my friend; then when we were almost back i saw some other friends who were walking, so I stopped and chatted and eventually all 3 of us caught up and were riding together. There were lots of riders out today enjoying the weather. 23.5 miles, average 15.3.
I had to pass a tandem recumbent in my car going up Strawberry Hill Rd. on the curve. That was scary!

[makbike]

I joined the club for a 60 mile ride through southern Indiana. It has a fair number of hills tossed in but I felt strong and had a great ride. I have noticed this week that my legs feel really strong and I've been able to really push myself on my rides. I guess all my riding is paying off and I love the returns I'm getting!

We passed a baby opossum on the side of the road - it looked lost. I spied a yellow lab puppy lounging in an lazy boy recline on the front porch of a house we passed. The best sight of the day was the giant mushroom umbrella over a deck in a side yard. I wish I had a picture of this for it is hard to describe. It appeared to be a wooden frame with a giant blue tarp with yellow and red flowers painted on it stretched over the frame. It literally looked like a giant mushroom growing out the the center of this wooded platform.

The weather was perfect today - clear, blue skies, temps in the 70's when we started and low humidity. It felt a bit chilly after a week or more of 100+ temps. I think everyone enjoyed the cool air as we started out on our journey.

It was a great day to be on a bike!

It was such a great day here in Kentucky that I drove back into Louisville for the evening club ride! ExBF was the ride captain but we were civil to each other. I had a great ride - my little legs were packed with energy tonight! So I added another 25 miles to my day with an avg. speed of 17.5 mph. I think I'll sleep well tonight!

[Fredwina]

I thought about doing a century today, but My inner voice said wait. I did the short club club ride, had an iced Mocha Latte, and then set out for some additional miles to get a metric in. I was going to try and get you ladies a back view of Mt Baldy, but I had three flats in 100 degree temps, so I decided to turn around at the Lytle Creek Ranger station. I did take a pic on the way up:

Coming home I stopped at REI for more tubes, a patch kit(Ran out of glue) and more water

[Starfish]

Rain here today. Did gym cardio instead. Gorgeous pic, Fredwina!

[7rider]

It was beautiful here in Maryland today.
DH and I joined about 20 others on the N2 ride this morning.
In my rush to get out of the house (we were running late, as usual ), I forgot my Garmin on the computer desk. So, I had no metrics for my first "fast" ride on my new Seven ID8. I was distraught!
And....the group was insanely fast today for some reason. Thank goodness for traffic lights and re-group points, or I don't think I would have seen anyone all day. As it was, I barely had time to catch my breath again at those points, before they were off again.
A challenging ride, to say the least. My excuse: New ride, new riding position, so I'm using new muscles!
Best guesstimate, based on DH's computer (adding 10 minutes for how far ahead he was on me): 39.5 miles at a bit over 17 mph. Geez, it felt faster!

[lauraelmore1033]

Was going to do a longish ride from home and explore this city I've lived in and not really appreciated for the last 20 years (Everett, WA, a less attractive little sister of dazzling Seattle), but about 10 miles in, DH called from Portland, frantically asking me to check our bank accounts because he had left his debit card in a gas pump somewhere in Washington. I had made good time up till then, and discovered, at that point, that was because it had been mostly down hill. I have noticed a certain tendency to panic on hills which makes it much more difficult to breath, and have tried to stay as relaxed as I can when climbing. Today, I was in full on panic mode and those little bronchial tubes obligingly clamped shut to make the ten mile ride uphill to the house a very unpleasant (and excruciatingly slow) experience. I didn't see any unusual withdrawls from the account, when I got home, but noticed that Hubby's transaction at the gas station hadn't even been posted, so there could conceivably be other charges pending as well. Pooh! And now it's raining to boot!

[cwodiva]

Today I got up early loaded ds and the neighbor boy and all our bikes and away we went to the park. Ds got a new bike this week, so we were ready to try it out on the trails. Riding with seven year olds is what you need when you feel burnt out on your bike! We played follow the leader and found lots of mud and had a nice ride, with of course dunkin donuts afterwards. I was going to ride later in the day on my own after dh got home, but that didn't work out. I guess that means I 'll have to ride extra hard in tomorrow's heavy duty group ride. We sure had fun today. (my ds is in the blue)

[Kalidurga]

I went back out to Antietam National Battlefield Park to repeat the hill practice route I did on Monday. It was noticeably easier today Of course, the fact that it was less than 90 degrees and my brain wasn't broiling in my helmet probably contributed to that. Regardless, I did the full loop of 13 miles (yeah, it's a short one but, remember, I'm still a hill slug wanna-be). I had to smile as I made it up the "Jesus" hill without cursing , and I also made it up another hill that almost made me throw up the first time I tried to ride it last year.

Then, on the way home, I stopped at one of the many LBS's in Frederick, MD, and test rode both a Bianchi Axis (a 2006 model, I think) and a 2007 Kona Jake the Snake. Man, am I in love with Shimano 105 shifters now (currently have Sora's).