april 12 Rides

[mupedalpusher]

Here in wonderful "winter never ends" Missouri, we got it all today. Wind, rain, sleet & snow. No ride for me, it's nasty out.

[Starfish]

36 miles, 2467' climbing. I'm very out of shape. It felt brutal & took forever.

I was looking at last year's log, and this time last year I did this:
17 miles, 2353' climbing. But the average miles/hour were the same as today (which should have been a lot faster with less climbing!).

OUT. OF. SHAPE.

[Popoki_Nui]

I'm very out of shape. It felt brutal & took forever.

OUT. OF. SHAPE.

Hoo boy...I am so with you with this! I managed just shy of 60km on rolling hills with no real climbing and felt like I hadn't ridden in years, not weeks. Yuk.
Still, what a gorgeous day! Lots of cyclists out, everyone smiling and happy. About darn time!
Time for a hot bath for my stiff, sore old bod.

[jesvetmed]

OK.. I slept thru this GORGEOUS day in the Pac NW. But am heading out for a run. (No... not lazy, worked last night and tonight!)

Rode 30-35 miles yesterday with the famous BIKERHEN and her sister and DH. They were in the Skagit Valley for a weekend getaway and were nice enough to let me tag along for a great ride around the valley. We hit the town of Edison for a bakery stop, cruised around Samish Island, out to Bayview State Park, and then I left them -- they were heading for the tulips for the afternoon! I had to go to work instead

I know they were heading for the islands this am for a ride, and I couldn't be more jealous! It must have been a BEAUTIFUL ferry ride and bike ride around the island! Can't wait to hear their adventures!

Thanks for a great ride ladies, and I hope all stayed "upright and wicking" all weekend!
Send in some of the photos you took!
Jes

[ibcycling]

I logged 43.7 miles today and went up a hill I hadn't done before. I'm still a newbie and didn't ride much over the summer so this was a accomplishment for me. LOL! We went up Webber Canyon which is about 7 miles and I think 1400ft of climb. Not huge but BIG for me and is also part of the century I'm hoping to do next month. We had a great lunch in Prosser and had to fight a head wind on the way home. It was a gorgeous day though and a great ride.

Lora

[RolliePollie]

I rode 28.6 very hilly miles today and I was HOT! It was WONDERFUL! It was about 80 degrees...maybe warmer. This is the warmest weather we've had so far, but it still needs to snow on the dogwoods so I know winter will be back. All the trees are leafing out, the apple orchards are in bloom, and the sky was pure sparkling blue. It felt so great to be hot and sweaty instead of cold and clammy!

[Starfish]

We went up Webber Canyon which is about 7 miles and I think 1400ft of climb.

Don't knock yourself, that's a good climb. Good job!

[mudmucker]

Went out on only my second ride this year, after working through some ailments over the winter. Really felt good to be back out on the bike and also not to have the body revolt afterwards. Things are getting resolved but I will take it slow and easy for the first few rides. Over the late winter while I wasn't riding I stripped the bike down to the frame and gave everything a good overhaul so I'm starting out on a happy bike. I still have to finish up the rear wheel build on my new set of wheels I'm building so I haven't test ridden them yet.

What a gorgeous day, and so nice to feel warmth again. I still had snow and ice in the yard about two weeks ago. Still some snow patches this morning, but they just about disappeared after today. After the ride I did yard work - raked the yard and applied milky spore. Hand turned a portion of the garden over. Peas are going in tomorrow. Tomatoes are under the lights with their 4th set of leaves. Today was truly a spring day up here.

[KathiCville]

I got in just 10 miles, on a picture perfect evening---high 70s, gorgeous sunshine, cows dotting the hillsides, rivers and streams rushing and gurgling, deer scampering here and there, majestic mountains in the distance----heavenly!

The downside was my pitiful mph average, which was a full mile less than usual, according to my journal. At times I seemed to be pedaling like mad, but the bike was going in slowwwww motion. Same thing on my 26-mile ride the day before. Ah well, here's hoping that it's merely a temporary dip in energy that will soon be cured/fixed/reversed/remedied!

[CindyVA]

I did an 11 mile ride around the area where I live. I wanted to go longer and farther but cut it short because it started to pour. Weather weenie that I am, I don't like riding in pouring rain.

[DDH]

DH and I did 25 miles in the bloomin Temple Tour. It was cold and windy!!!
But we did it. DH hasn't ridden much this year and thought he was going to go out and ride 25 miles without any problems. Shoot he was behind me for a change and that is unusal. Plus I bought him his b17 brooks for Christmas and he has not broken it in yet, so needless to say, his bottom was a bit sore on top of the cold and wind.

It was a really good ride. It was their first anual and they did really well, at least I thought they did. If it had not been windy, it would have been a perfect ride. The cold, well, you warm up after you start pumping and it was sunny and clear so the sun warmed you as you went. The problem with the cold is that we have NO, cold weather gear. We don't normally ride when it's cold so we have just never bought any and I really wanted to go on this ride since the first that we were going to go on was very cold and rainy and we ended up not going. I wasn't missing this one.

[jobob]

It was LeeBob's birthday on Saturday so we spent the weekend in Folsom, and on Saturday rode the full length of the American River Trail.

We started out from the Larkspur Landing hotel (great place to stay, btw!) and got right on the ART & first headed eastward to Beals Point which is the easternmost end of the trail, and where what little climbing there is on the trail is located. Then we turned around and headed west to the other end of the trail in Sacramento's Old Town area. We wandered about a little, had lunch, and headed back to Folsom. All told about 68 miles.


LeeBob says "hai!" to all his fans on TE:




jobob's all fredded out: microweight wool t-shirt (that matches my bike, oy), baggy cargo knickers over my shorts, Keen cycling sandals. Doesn't Dusty look loverly?




It was beautiful out along the trail:



more pics be here

Great ride, but it got pretty warm out, in the high 80's, much hotter than what I've been riding in until now. Even though I drank what I thought was lots of water & Cytomax, I probably didn't drink enough because (TMI warning) I didn't need to pee at all during the ride, and I felt pretty droopy near the end. Umkay, lesson learned. I'll probably break out the camelback on rides this warm in the future, and use Elete electrolyte drops.

[KnottedYet]

Spent a relaxed 4 hrs riding all over north Seattle. Found some cool alley cut-offs to avoid Dalai Lama traffic heading downtown, scoped out part of a much better commute route than what I'd been riding, did some errands, had lunch at Greenlake.

Watched Seattleites pour outside today. High 60's and sunny, clear blue sky!

[Starfish]

Oh, I forgot to add about my ride:

I saw 9 bald eagles all at once today. Two were circling at a lower elevation, and there were a full 7 others circling in pretty close proximity a LOT higher up. It is not unusual to see them around here, but I usually don't see so many all at once.

[kelownagirl]

Went for an easyish ride after my swim today. Rode an easy 10km to watch my son play baseball, then did a hard workout on the triathlon bike route and upped my avg speed from 25 kmh to 27.5 kmh this time, then rode back to the Y. 31.5km in total. Can't wait to try to triathlong route without having to stop at street lights...

Oh, and it was beautiful out! Sunny and warm - up to 21 C by the end of the ride!