august 23 rides

[divingbiker]

I have the window down, enjoying the unseasonably pleasant August weather, when I hear "HEY!" Someone calling MY name!!! I look over and who's there, but the one and only DivingBiker! There! On her Glorius. Waiting at the light! In downtown Silver Spring!
Hey, DB!!! <<waves hello!>> Light turns green. We go left. She goes straight.

Yeah, that was funny. But who could it have been in a black SUV with two kayak racks on the roof and two Sevens on the bike rack, but 7rider and her DH???

I rode a whopping 6 miles roundtrip, to the gym for water aerobics, swimming and weightlifting, then a stop at Whole Foods and on back home.

Zen, glad you and Withm got to do a ride.

[Jiffer]

Hey Fredwina! Cool pics! The front inch of my face is in the first group photo.

So, my friend and I did a mile and a half past Neely's Corner before the group ride. Musta not paced myself well enough because I was done for shortly into the group ride. But proud of myself that I did as well as I did. My fastest pace after a group ride yet and added Neely's first with 1000 feet of elevation for a total of 2,134 elevation and 48 miles. I have another 35 to go tomorrow for a combined "long" ride in training for Amtrak century in a couple of weeks.

[jaydee]

I just love looking at the photos from your rides - thankyou so much for posting them so frequently. I have just put my camera in my saddle bag for my next ride so that I can take some photos too.

[OakLeaf]

I did a "brick," sorta.

The local Y was having its annual bike tour and untimed 5K/one mile fun walk. Unfortunately it was very poorly publicized, and there were fewer than 40 cyclists and four (count 'em) runners, plus four or five walkers. This is the third year they've done this event, and each year it's gotten smaller. There was no publicity at all that I'm aware of besides a mailer sent to past participants. With all the corporate sponsors they collected, T-shirts, a barbecue lunch, they'd obviously planned originally for a much bigger crowd, but whoever was responsible for publicity really neglected the job.

With three hours "budgeted" between the mass start of the ride and the start of the run, I knew I wasn't going to be able to do the 60 mile loop. But even though I'd gotten a late start, 15 minutes behind the pack, the 32-mile loop (publicized as 37 miles and marked as 30, as in past years ) was too short. I wanted more miles, and definitely didn't want to be standing around too long between events. So I just rode for an hour and 20 minutes, which turned out to be 20 miles even, and turned around. Actually, without the warmup and water/restroom break, the return trip was quite a bit quicker. Plus I pushed the pace a little bit on the way back, just for fun.

I was back in plenty of time to change my shoes, scarf a gel and hang out at the start of the run. One of the other runners was an attorney whom I hadn't seen since I retired, so we chatted for a few minutes, and then we were off. It was a nice course around the community college campus - a mix of grass, gravel and asphalt, with just a little bit on the brand new sidewalk to inaugurate it. Unfortunately either we were supposed to do another lap of the parking lot, or the course was just short (I suspect the former), so I had only 2.71 miles, slow-slow (10:38 pace). But it was fun anyhow, especially since I rarely do a brick.

Then we all laid into lunch. I chatted some more with the other attorney, with a guy I used to know from way back when I was racing and hadn't seen since the Y event last year, with a woman who rides with my club on Saturdays and the friend she'd come with.

It was a beautiful day, we were back before it got too hot, and everyone had a good time. If they have this event next year, hopefully it will be better publicized... maybe I'll volunteer.