april 12 Rides

[redrhodie]

I ventured out in the morning mist, fog horns still blowing. It was cool, and the gound was still wet from earlier rain. The clouds dropped below the top of hanging rock, and the beauty of it all was surreal.

I forgot to fill my water bottle, and stopped a woman who was heading into her house to ask for a fill from her outside tap. She was nice and offered to fill my bottle inside, but I was happy with the hose. I have to say, it was the best tasting water I've ever had. Must be the relief of not having to head back home, or the kindness of strangers that sweetened it.

A good day.

[PinkBike]

beeeeeeautiful day for a ride! today in the 80's, tomorrow the 90's. we were going to do the full century but the winds were blowing and so we decided on the 68-miler.

i couldnt figure out why everything was hurting, i just totally did not feel comfortable. 15 miles in i glanced down and saw my seat was cocked about 30 degrees to the left of center!!!!! duhhhhhhhhh. stopped and fixed it and voila instant comfort!

the ride took us a fiull 5 hours, why? the WIND was brutal. i could only go 10 - 11 mph for a big chunk of the ride.

then we turned - woohoo - downhill and a tailwind all the way in! reached 40+ mph on one tiny section of brand new asphalt.

at the end we had a free meal - pizza and a salad at a restaurant - the club done good.

[PinkBike]

Popoki_Nui

+1 on the nice hot bath!

[makbike]

I'm exhausted! I joined the club for a century today - "Roam to the Dome." We were promised hills and hills there are in southern Indiana and I think we hit them all. The ride started in Corydon and made its way to French Lick to the West Baden Hotel. This is were we ate lunch and an expensive on it was. I had a garden salad, a hamburger w/chips, a diet coke and a cup of hot chocolate and it came to.... drum roll please.....$25.00! Next time I'm stopping at the Subway! Back to the ride - it literally was one climb after another. On the way to French Lick not only were we climbing but fighting a strong headwind (10-15 mph). Literally at mile 40 I was ready to call it quits but had not a soul to call to come rescue me from the mean hills so I kept pedaling. There is comfort in numbers and each person I rode with was equally as miserable as I if that is any consequence. At the lunch stop (mile 56) my average speed was a whooping 14 mph.

The return trip was a bit better in that we were treated to a tail wind on numerous occassions but the hills kept coming. They were relentless! My legs were shot by about mile 70 and each hill I climbed after that was done on determination and grit for my legs kept telling me they were finished. I refused to walk so we crawled up each hill - at a snails pace of 4 mph. In end I was one happy gal when I returned to my car - legs are very, very tired! Ankle is talking to me and my neck and shoulders are very tight.

In the end we logged 107.76 miles and I finished with an average speed of 14.14 mph. Though I'm very disappointed in my average speed and very happy I finished the ride and have now added it to my "never repeat list!".

[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

[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.

[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!

[tc1]

Whoo-hoo! Sun in Seattle! I rode from the Lake Forest Park mall to Marymoor Park and back. I am guessing 30 miles, one of these days I will get my bike computer working. That is a long ride for me. And I even skipped the bakery at the mall!

Don't be envious of our one sunny day this spring. The rain is supposed to be back tomorrow...

[HillSlugger]

Only 18.5 miles today but it was the prelude for a 3.2 mile run.

[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!

[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.