September 13th rides

[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.

[Gidiup]

I rode in a local bike ride to remind drivers to share the road with bicyclists. This ride was in memory of a man, Frank Cabral, who was killed last year while riding on this route. There were probably 100-150 riders, a 25.5 mi ride. The group I rode with took a wrong turn and so we added some mileage on to our ride. I rode from home to the start and back home after, an extra 10 miles. All in all, it was my fastest ride ever. 41 miles (mostly double lane highway) 17.7 mph average. Riding on this major route is not my favorite. I prefer side roads but I could definitely keep my speed up on these long stretches.

[mudmucker]

OMG. LOVE THAT AVATAR. Classic.