September 13th rides

[mudmucker]

Well, rain was predicted but it ended up to be a beautiful partly to mostly sunny day here. Yay. It also was pretty humid, which I enjoyed immensely. The humidity just gave one last inkling of summer-ness before the crisp weather really sets in. I ended up doing a really fun ride out to the Quabbin Reservoir in New Salem. I didn't do a long ride but I did reach one destination, which is a lookout along route 202.



First, I passed a farm with a neat silo.



Then, I peeked in at Quabbin Gate 29 because there's bike trails that bring you down to the northernmost edge of the reservoir. I just ordered some Vittoria Randonneurs, 28c with a nice tread. I'm taking a chance - my 25s fit fine with room to spare on my red steel bike. I measured with calipers but you never know so I'm hoping the 28s will fit and then I'll feel better about taking the bike off-pavement or at least on smooth dirt. I can't wait to have that option, it'll be fun. Here's the entrance to the gate; that second to the left blue sign on the tree is a picture of a bicycle. How nice that bikes are welcome.



Destination #1. A Quabbin lookout, near Gate 28. It is very pretty but of course the photo doesn't show that in its fullest because it's reduced and dark as I lost my sun at that time. Must return when the leaves turn with a better camera though. This is only 16 miles from the house, how fun. You can't see the reservoir from here - the northernmost fingers are below me, and then the main body is more towards the right out of view blocked by the trees. You have to go further to get good views of the water.



However, just to the left of that knoll you see in the previous picture is this (zoomed) - it is Mt. Monadnock in the last distance layer, a common theme in a lot of my rides it seems. This lookout is nice in that you can't see any development or roads.



Now I was going to go a different route home and stop at the Women's Federated Forest, also a part of the Quabbin Reservoir, except that it would take me off my course from Destination #2, and nothing was going to take me away from that!



This caught my eye on the way home, it was just so pastoral and restful to the eye.

[Alex]

After riding the roads exclusively for the last two months, DH and I took out the MTBs today. It was great just riding and not training. I felt spectacular and took off like a shot, leaving DH in the dust and passing lots of guys on the way up. Well, at some point, I realized I was pushing it just a bit too hard because I had to stop and it was all I could do not to throw up. Now, I'm not a ride till you puke kinda person, but I was so happy to be out after working around the clock all week that I guess I went a little crazy!

DH caught up with me and we did the rest of the ride together. At one point, I said to him, "Where did all these rocks come from?"

Riding the trails is a lot less peaceful for me than riding the road. All those switchbacks and rocks and waterbars. I'm still working on my technical skills, so I'm always thinking about what they told us at mountain bike camp, like "enter wide" when I come to a switchback and "cowgirl knees" when I'm on the downhill, etc. It was great, though! The leaves are turning. The sky was bright, bright blue.

Alex

[Crankin]

I did 41 miles, almost all of the "Cycle for Sight" charity ride route that I've done a couple of times. This route does not take me very far from my house at any point, but except for the last 10 miles, most of it is on roads i don't ride that often. I rode 8.5 miles to meet my friends in Acton and we continued through Sudbury, riding through Great Meadows wildlife refuge. There were lots of cyclists out at this point. The day felt summery, as Mudmucker said, and I was glad the sun was not fully out, because I dislike humidity. We traveled into Weston, up a long, mild grade hill and into Weston center, where we stopped to refill our bottles at the grocery store. At this point, we turn north, to head back west. There is one road that is a small downhill that is in terrible condition. I keep thinking it will get fixed every year and it's still full of potholes and big gullies. Why do the richest towns always have the worst roads? We head into Waltham for a short while, by a reservoir, and into Lincoln, another rich town with horrible roads. There seemed to be a lot of traffic out today, up until this point. Finally, we reached Lincoln center and did the only bigger climb of the ride; this quickly turns into another downhill on a crappy surface. Once this is done, we head over to Hanscom AFB, except I am riding the in the opposite direction that I did yesterday, so I get to go down a small hill, which I was able to do in my drops and not lose control. Score one for the new bars.
Once we get through here, we head into Concord center, where we promptly plopped down on the grass by the visitor's center until we realized our legs were getting stiff. With 3.8 miles to go, I tried to push it, but I was struggling up my driveway.
It was a good ride, but my speed was much slower than yesterday.

[Fredwina]

I did a Brevet and lost my camera. more to come

[chicago]

it has been raining non-stop for the last 24 hours. too dangereous to ride... but not to run... soooooooo I ran 6.5 miles in the rain

[RoadRaven]

Great pics, thanks mudmucker (spesh the icecream... mmmm, so long since I have had a snow-freeze...)

And like Mak, I did a club ride. We race every Saturday, and it was a flat race and I did lots of work and rode strongly but need to work very much on tactics... I am so stupid when it comes to tactics... now I am strong enough to stay with the lead bunch, and to even be one of the pace-setters, I need to get some tactical nouse...

On the last roller I was slightly dropped and had a drink as I crested the rise instead of going hard out and chasing the leaders who were only 20metres in front of me...

So I rode the last 7km in time-trial mode and came in 50seconds behind them.
I should have been with them.

But nevertheless a good ride, and I have learned a little more about riding smartly...

[tulip]

I did the Heart of Virginia metric century ride north of Richmond. It was very, very hot and humid. The roads are beautiful and there was very little traffic. I heard there were close to 500 riders, but on some roads, I was alone with my partner.

I was fine until the last 10 miles. I just couldn't go over 10 mph. I made it without completely bonking only because I stopped at a store in the last half mile and had my favorite recovery drink-chocolate milk- and some potato chips.

Usually a metric is not too much for me, but the heat and humidity really got to me yesterday. I kept thinking of Gabriellesca's story of her century, and that kept me smiling all the way.