Sunday, October 21st rides

[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.

[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