August 31st rides

[ridenread]

Another perfect day in New England, although I could have done with a little less head wind. I did a beautiful 33.5 miles (another new record for me) along a new route, wonderful rolling hills with only a few short climbs. Past the harbor, along the ocean and through gorgeous farm lands. I felt like "one" with my bike, I think this was the best ride I have ever done. I just let my legs go and felt like the bike and I were one machine. The highlight of my ride was passing two people on a climb!! I've never passed anyone on a climb before!!

[Crankin]

Ditto for the beautiful New England day. We drove to West Gloucester with friends, about an hour away, parked the car and rode about 12 miles to Singing Beach in Manchester by the Sea. I have never been to this beach or done any rides in this part of the state. Beautiful farmlands, water views, homes. Going there, not too much traffic. I am always leery of riding in beach towns; too many people not paying attention. Many more cyclists than I expected. We changed into our bathing suits and ate lunch on the beach, which was crowded, but not packed. Very nice; clean and a well behaved crowd. The water was 63 degrees, though, definitely not for me. It really is gorgeous out today. We spent about 2 and half hours on the beach, then rode our way back, along the coast, lots of rollers. In fact, it was a bit hillier than I expected. Not really climbs, but not flat. There were a lot more cars on the way back and I had to yell at one one person who tired to squeeze by me as someone else was backing up and turning around in front of me. After we got back to the car, we drove a mile to an ice cream place, bought some cones and sat along the harbor, where the famous fisherman's statue is. We saw a wedding party taking pictures, which was cool and also discussed our bike tour with our friends and they told us about their bike trip to Nova Scotia. We are trying to figure out a possible trip to Sweden and Norway next summer.
22 miles 15.6 average
10 miles to hit 2,000 for the year

[Jiffer]

My August 31 ride resulted in a ride in an ambulance with my friend who crashed. Just posted "My friend crashed" if you want to read about it.

Only got 13 of a 55 mile training ride in. Was going to do 55 today and 45 tomorrow to prepare for Amtrak century next week. Now we'll do at least 65 tomorrow instead.