Saturday July 19 Rides

[Mr. Bloom]

I guess I get to start this thread, because I did today's ride at 6AM...with a former Cat 1 racer no less!

35.5 miles at 17.8mph with 2,200 feet of climbing. Touched Lake Monroe and Lake Lemon. Fun Ride!

My riding partner is a serious cycling stud. For a challenge and to make things interesting, he chooses "epic" (aka - bad, potholed, graveled) roads...with the objective of staying smooth and vertical! Wow! he found some too!

There's clearly a difference between me (who buys his cycling equipment) and him (who has sponsor supplied equipment)!

With all the discussion in other threads about Garmin's...here's a link to the ride on motionbased:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/i...kValue=6288355

[NJBikeGal]

I did our local weekly Time Trial today. In part, I figured that riding at 7am fast was a better idea than waiting until it hits the upper 90s this afternoon!

It was a great morning, with two of my teammates joining me. I clocked a Personal Best of 20:43 for the 8+ mile TT.

Now...I'm resting, watching the tour, and prepping for my crit race tomorrow!

[mudmucker]

Did hill intervals early. They help sooo much. Short mileage. Gonna be hot later.

I didn't post about yesterday's ride so I'll put it in here instead of wasting thread space.

I did another personal best, this time on my commute. PBs are the only time I state my avg. mph, which today was 16.6 mph from Ayer to Chelmsford. I commute to Lowell but after Chelmsford and the consistent riding I'm able to do up to that point, the mph drops because of lights and so much stopping and slowing in the urban areas. It just keeps getting better with these PBs this year. It's the new road shoes ! It's the new road shoes!

But then this is an extremely flat route, one of the flattest I've ridden. And the commute is 22 miles one way - what is that term that Jobob or someone used - a mere bakery ride? Chuckle. Is that like a cakewalk? So yesterday I walked my cake, did my bakery ride but with no rewards of donuts or puff pastry at the end.

What did RolliePollie say? When you have a max speed of 45 and avg of 12.4 you know you have ridden hills. Nope, not with my bakery ride.

I actually felt really crappy in the car on the way to the parking lot before the commute; my stomach was upset, my heart rate seemed to be high. I almost decided not to ride and was gonna drive straight to work. I said give it a try. Even in the parking lot I didn't feel well at all. By that time it was close to 89 degrees and veryhumid so I think the heat wasn't making me feel well. I said, well, just take it easy and knock it down a notch. So I did, and I did the best time ever for this stretch.

I learned a little something today - that you always don't have to hammer to get a decent time. I actually relaxed a little more and brought it down a notch and my pedal stroke ended up being fairly good and consistent. But then I'm 2 weeks stronger than the last time I commuted. Consistent riding during vacation has helped.

Boy, the ride home was hot. In the 90's. As soon as I stepped out the door, this big wall of heat coming off the pavement hits you right in the face. I certainly don't have as much giddiup on the way home. Must be that 8-9 hr. work thing that happens in between.

[Geonz]

I went up and down the little hills in Maryland to get out to the produce stand that did not have corn. I rented a car to come out here to see my sister, and I realized how non-car-centric I've become since I automatically popped that folder out of the car to go explore for produce. I could head out and wander in the car to see if anybody *does* have corn (the guy said their delivery truck was having issues... I almost laughed, since that would of course include that perhaps they had to deliver said corn from someplace less than 'local...')

[7rider]

You're in Maryland??? Where? How long???

We did the N2 this a.m. I knew it was going to be trouble when about 8 Artemis riders showed up. Artemis is a local race club. Their reputation precedes them, and let's just say...it isn't good. But...my friend M.A. now rides with them, and after I clued her in on their rep ("Really? Well, yeah, I've been noticing that myself." ), we chatted about racing (she wants me to race - HA!) and training and the team.

The heat was really cranking up early today. The humidity just kills me and I thought I was doing awful all day. My legs felt like junk. I thought I was doing just average, and perhaps the group was dallying in spots. But I took a peek at mile 32 and my average was 18.3! Crazy. When the commentators talks about suffering during a race for miles and miles, I know what they're talking about. Why does it have to hurt so bad to go fast? I ended up with 39 miles at an 18.0 pace. This is the second week in a row where I thought I was crappy for the whole ride, and then surprised myself with a P.R. for speed. Stupid.

[Aggie_Ama]

I took my bike out for a short ride to test the new cassette before riding the hill country tomorrow. There is one pretty meaty hill near my house so I took off towards it. Early on I was Chased by bassette hounds, always amusing to see those dogs run. I spun up the hill and did see a slight improvement with the new cassette. My legs were lead today so it is hard to judge if the cassette was worth $100. Oh well it is Ultegra, not 105 I can pretend I upgraded because I am such a weight weeny.

Took one more long grinding hill in a headwind, that officially stuck a fork in me for the day. Saw a baby goat no bigger than my 8 lb miniature schnauzer, I love goats. Came home, took the pups to the groomers and am chilling before a mountain ride this afternoon. 21.66 miles, 13.9 mph (gotta love the climbing and headwind).

[mudmucker]

The heat was really cranking up early today. The humidity just kills me and I thought I was doing awful all day. My legs felt like junk. I thought I was doing just average, and perhaps the group was dallying in spots. But I took a peek at mile 32 and my average was 18.3! Crazy.

You are such a stud-ette. I remember that post where you did 75 miles or so with the boys at something like 17.X mph. Whew!