Sunday, Sept. 9 Rides

[RolliePollie]

Today I did my first organized ride...the Tour de Tahoe, aka Bike Big Blue. It went great! 73.6 miles and my average speed was 14.7 mph, which translates to almost exactly 5 hours on the bike...and I must admit I was really ready to get off the bike for the last 10 miles or so. I was pretty happy with my average speed considering this is the longest ride I've ever done and it's pretty high in elevation up there. All in all, a great ride. No flats, no dropped chain, no problems. And beautiful scenery to boot!

One bad thing did happen today. At lunch, while eating a Red Vine, I chipped and/or cracked a tooth. Evidently there was a little rock stuck to it (why there was a rock stuck to it is beyond me!) and you know how you really have to chomp down on Red Vines. Anyway, tomorrow I'll be making a trip to the dentist. Believe it or not, I think I'm glad I got a chipped tooth instead of a flat tire. But I may change my tune after the dentist gives me his verdict.

[Fredwina]

The guys that were going to do the midnight brevet with me decided to start at 6:30. Unfortunately , there's nothing open in that shopping center at the time. was going to ride a little with , but after yesterday.... so i went over and signed their Brevet cards, and then went to church, and then called my Mom and my Bro.
But this about bicycling, isn't it?
did about 30 miles no problems! went up to Etiwanda and Banyan and then worked my west To Mountain and Baseline in Claremont. I had hoped to see "my" randoneurrs, since I was doing the route in reverse, but no luck. Went back the Village and the Claremont Colleges.
Great Day!

[Starfish]

Hey Sara, nice job on the tour, despite the tooth! I'd say you ought to be plenty pleased with your avg speed.

I just got in a littl 12-miler. We actually had a truly sunny day...sunshine, no wind. Pretty amazing, so I just took a flat ride out to the end of the spit and had a little pseudo nap on a bench in the sunshine. Tootled back into town, stopped at the family business to do a little email/TE, and then back home.

O boy am I already much more out of shape than I was a month ago. Last week did a 46 miler that actually made my quads hurt by the time I got home. I have about a week to go before the owner of the house I'm in takes off for the southern climes, and then I'll bring the trainer into the living room and start hopping on before work so I can at least get a little sumpin' in if I don't work out after work. Working a lot of 11-15 hour days right now, so I HAVE to get something in so I don't just have to start ALL over with building my base!

[Popoki_Nui]

Yep, finally sunny here on the island, too. Did a 56.4km ride from home up to Victoria and back (strangely, 56.4 is exactly the same distance I did yesterday on a completely different route in a totally different direction). Yesterday's outing was fine, today I bonked majorly heading back home up some long steep grades. And to top things off, I somehow broke a spoke on my new bike. Track-standing at a red light; the light turns green, I put the pedal to the metal, and bang. Loud enough that another cyclist beside me jumped. I'll take up this unhappy occurance with my LBS tomorrow.
Oh well....bad day on a bike is still better than a good day at work....

[cyclingmom01]

32 miles of me & my peaceful cadence. Passed by an occasional car, but I explored new roads and enjoyed the "not knowing" of where I'd turn up. It's definitely a different type of riding when you're by yourself.

[divingbiker]

good days and bad days and going half mad days...

Ahh...Mr. Buffett's wisdom...

[Starfish]

32 miles of me & my peaceful cadence. Passed by an occasional car,

An occasional car...I am mourning the loss of this type of riding around here.

Your peaceful ride sounds wonderful. Glad for you!!

[KnottedYet]

I won't have to go mad afterall...

Finally got to go for a bike ride. Just a little wander down to the beach. Walked around the sailboats for a while, watched a huge cruise ship sailing up the sound, the ferry leaving the dock, some scuba divers, kite flyers, etc.

Found some very nice benches and just soaked up the sunset, islands, ocean.

Aaaaaah.

[Livin the Dream]

Today's ride was pretty short -- a little over 13 miles. I've been trying to lengthen my "regular" route that includes a very peaceful stretch of road that runs along the river, is wooded and shady and was just paved this year. I love riding that road and I've been trying to find a route that is low-traffic and includes some scenery that is longer. The most direct route around is 9 miles, the route I tried this evening is a little better than 13 miles, which will work well for an after-work ride for the next month or so.

Today's ride taught me a few things. At a stop sign about 3 miles into my ride, I saw and older, quite overweight man on an old Schwinn road bike. He followed behind me, and of course I was thinking that he would think I was fast Wrong. About a mile down the road, he flew past me (I looked down and I was doing 17.3 mph when he passed me). And he stayed ahead of me. He took the same route I did and I pedaled like crazy, but I never did catch up with him. I sure did push myself trying, though. I set a new personal speed record for a route that includes some hills of almost 15 mph average.

So, what did I learn? Don't judge others' riding abilities by their performance. I've got a lot of room for improvement. And, I will push myself harder when I'm trying to keep up with someone faster. (I've not yet ridden on a group ride.) All in all, a beautiful day for a ride!

[michelem]

Sara - Congrats on the Tour de Tahoe! Are you sure you can't make it to the Tahoe-Sierra Century on the 22nd? I know, I know . . . just thought I'd try throwing it out there again.

Yesterday I did approximately 42 miles with lots of climbing. I tried to do a routeslip on it, but it stopped calculating distance and climbing about 1/2-way through the route and now it won't save - over an hour of pointing clicking down the drain . . . grrrrr . . . I am beginning to hate routeslip!

Today I did approximately 27 miles with even more climbing. Somehow, I managed to shave 40 seconds off of one of the steepest climbs. Who know how with my balky shifting and me feeling pretty yucky.

All in all, a good weekend for riding - I'm SO glad we're out of the triple digit temps again!

[7rider]

DH and I went out for a 25 mile "recovery" ride on Sunday.
We did Rock Creek Park into D.C., which is relatively flat and has lots of tree cover, so it was cooler for our later-in-the-day start time. We treated ourselves by sleeping in and having a big breakfast after yesterday's killer century.
It took about 13 miles for my legs to feel like anything other than useless lumps of flesh at the end of my trunk. Was good to spin all the junk out of them, but I'm STILL beat. I suppose scrubbing the new kitchen floor didn't help matters any later in the day!

[cosc]

I enjoyed a 23 mile monthly ride with my dh. The cooler weather was a drizzily 57. Coming down a long descent we passed about 20 wild turkey on the shoulder of the road. About 20 minutes after the ride dh back tire had a blow out. Mighty glad we were home. My dh thinks the tires are too big for the rim. The last time the bike was used the tire had a blow up airing it up. Time for new tires I think.

[IFjane]

See my report under "crazy drivers"...