Sunday, October 21st rides

[RolliePollie]

An hour on the trainer for me today. We have this thing around here in October called Apple Hill. There are tons of apple orchards/ranches in the area and they have crafts, bake shops, pumpkins, etc. It's a really neat and fun thing for families, but the traffic on our little country roads is just incredible. There is no way you can ride safely. Last weekend I tried riding at 7:30 a.m. with my goal to be out of the main Apple Hill area by 9:00 am. Didn't work...the traffic was already crazy by 8:30 and I nearly got killed. Today I didn't feel like driving someplace else to ride so I just stayed in. The good news is, I've only been using my trainer for a week and so far, I don't really mind it. I thought I would hate it and I don't!

[elk]

Did a section of the amazing Springwater Corridor that runs alongside the Willamette River...about 8 miles .... according to my new computer.... and because it's pretttty flat, I got to actually speed....

Made me feel so lucky to live in this city...but I need to adjust my bike.

[indigoiis]

I rode the fall foliage ride with our local club. I did the metric. It had some hills, but nothing like last Sunday's hills. It was a beautiful day, beautiful ride. Oh, and I had my first fall. It was at a stop, and I came to a slow stop, and just sort of tipped over before I could get my feet out of the straps (yes, I know, I need toe clips.)

I did well. 63 miles in four hours. Beautiful colors, scenery. Nice ride.

[amy]

Aly should speak about the numbers... she is the one with the fancy bike computer. But we got together yesterday and did 50 miles! My longest ride yet. It started out rough. We were lazy and tired and it was intermittently windy, but after 30 miles or so, it seemed a whole lot easier. We had a great time discussing the Los Angeles scenery... at least 10 homeless people along the bike path, a guy we swore probably had a gun ... and shopping carts in the LA river (Or how about the guy in the speedo lying in the river face down? For a minute I thought he was dead.). Ahhh... LA... what a place.

But it means so much to me to have a new riding friend. I feel so blessed to have Aly in my life and so blessed to have found TE because that is where we met. We talked a lot about how important TE is in our lives. Thanks to everyone for making this such a great place.

[firenze11]

Kalidurga - I used to live in the Annapolis area so reading of your ride makes me miss MD a bit.

Yesterday I went on my first real ride on my new bike. The wind was pretty incredible but I was determined. Until it slowed me down to about 0 mph. Then I turned around and headed onto a dirt road near my house. All I have to say is thank goodness for cyclocross bikes. I wouldn't have been to happy if my only choice was wind or wind yesterday. Although I know as I get stronger wind will be my friend, a mean friend, but a good training friend. I also saw my first road kill. . .a snake (I'm terrified of snakes!). I thought it was alive at first and it gave me and extra push of adrenaline.

All in all it was a good, short ride. I can't wait to get stronger and do more exploring. My neighbor just told me of some really great riding trails close by.

~E.

[Geonz]

We had our "end of season" ride. 14 miles out to Homer Lake and back ... winds out of the south, between 28-30 mph (gusts to...?)
It was fun For unknown reasons I didn't have to work as hard as faster riders to stay on the road (I don't think their bikes are *that* much lighter than mine). I pulled my friend on a Madone pretty much all the way back and looked a lot better than him Any other day, he's as strong as I am (or at least as strong if he's on the Madone and I'm on the FX )

[cyclingmom01]

48.1 very hilly, beautiful miles. Our group broke up into two at about 12 miles and I ended up being the slowest of the long ride. I really had to work to keep up with those guys. I was fine on the flats, but struggled on those damn hills.

[aly]

Awww shucks, Amy. Right back at ya.

Too bad we didn't have our cameras for the guy in the speedo (yes TE, he was face down in the 1ft deep, dirty, smelly LA river while wearing a speedo- shocking.) It was an exciting 50 miles with loads of excellent chatting. I can't wait to see what we can do next time!!

[tygab]

I did a solo 18 mile ride around the home area. We too have several farms and orchards with all kinds of stuff going on now (pick your own apples, pumpkins, corn mazes, hayrides, you name it) and consequently city gawker traffic, but it was too beautiful not to ride. Still learning the area and took a few new roads, as well as busier numbered roads (since I wasn't sure how to get back). A few scary trucks went by but overall I was brave yesterday!

today I did spin class. sub teacher, pretty good tho. did more cycling style and not hopping around. she apologized for it being "boring" since she's taught 2 styles - hey speak for yourself. I get sick of all the hopping, let's focus on riding some too!

and sara, two trainer secret weapons. 1. really good music and 2. dvds (at least a few for variety). I have yet to get bored with that combination. some days I lock more on the tunes and the video people are there to entertain. some days I focus more on the vid workouts and the music helps to make the time go by. but it's all good.

[tygab]

We had our "end of season" ride. 14 miles out to Homer Lake and back ...

Awesome, Geonz... I've ridden to Homer Lake too! I think I was about 15 at the time. It was the longest ride I ever did as a kid and I thought I was going to keel over from exhaustion. It's not like I'd ever ridden more than 5 miles before that...

Little did I know back then.

[Jo-n-NY]

My Oct 21 ride put me just past my yearly goal of 2000 miles. It was a club ride from the usual starting place the Bethpage Library to Stonybrook. We tackeled some hefty hills before the rest stop which was the half way point. Total miles was 62.7.

I rode with two girlfriends which worked out best for me because we made our own group. The A's were riding at a double A pace and the B's were a bit too slow.

Of October on Long Island the day was gorgeous, sunny, temps got up to 74 and the wind was only 8mph from the west.

Next year my goal will be 2500

~ JoAnn