Weekend Ride Reports

[wildhawk]

Makbike: Wow! And I am still working my way up to a full century - 28 - incredible!!
Jiffer: you rock!! Super pink for the win!!
Aggie: DH and I should have been working in our yard this weekend, but we had a bike ride to do two hours north of here. Hurray for you - I know that your place must be gorgeous - post pics sometime!
Jesvetmed: The pics from Virginia were gorgeous - sure makes me homesick (I am originally from Lynchburg, Va. and fall is indeed my favorite time of year!)
And what did I do? DH and I rode the 14th Annual Rails to Trails run out of Inverness, Fl. I took pics and will be starting another thread about our ride, but we complete our first 50k on an awesome trail!!
Great going everyone!!

[7rider]

I was wondering where the weekend ride reports were!

Saturday, DH and I, along with 7,000 of our closest friends, took part in the 20th annual Seagull Century on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Imagine a pancake flat century on lightly travelled, well marked roads, winding through some beautiful coutryside, out to the ocean, and well...you can imagine the popularity of this event!
Then, add sunshine, mild temps, and virtually no wind, and you have the makings for one EPIC (!) event.

I went with 2 main goals in mind:
1. Finish. Done! 97 miles completed (we skipped the first rest stop, which was down a mile-long or so dirt road).
2. Finish in 5 hours or under. Done! Ride time: 4:41, for an average speed of 20.6 mph.

Here are some pix:
DH and me at the start


Pancake flat roads:


On Sunday....we did the shop ride. 30 rolling miles at 17.5 mph. It was SUPPOSED to be a recovery ride. Well, today's commute will have to fill that bill.

[Aggie_Ama]

Aggie: DH and I should have been working in our yard this weekend, but we had a bike ride to do two hours north of here. Hurray for you - I know that your place must be gorgeous - post pics sometime!

And what did I do? DH and I rode the 14th Annual Rails to Trails run out of Inverness, Fl. I took pics and will be starting another thread about our ride, but we complete our first 50k on an awesome trail!!
Great going everyone!!

Well we think it will look better with the beds when they are done but still not sure. We are kind of at a stalemate on plant selection. DH manages a plant nursery so of course he has many choices and opinions. There are two beds combining to make a large sorta L-shaped feature we only have plants for the one smaller leg planned so far. The other bed we keep getting stuck and don't want the same plant across the sides. I am babbling about it!

I can't wait to read the report!

[indysteel]

Twenty eight centuries in one season?!!!!! A sub-five hour century?!!!!!

You guys are making me feel like a slug. Seriously; that's impressive.

My weekend ride was rather interesting. I went to Chicago with my BF to meet up with some people from RoadBikeReview's online forum. A rather "popular" member of the forum was in Chicago for a conference and that apparently motivated the get-together.

We met one of the fourm members for lunch on Fridya and then took our bikes on the train to Evanston on Saturday morning to ride. There were 8 or so of us altogether--three women and five men. We met up at a bike shop called Turin Bicycle in Evanston (great shop, btw) because one of the gang is the sales/marketing manager there. From there, we had breakfast at a bakery and finally got rolling after a delicious if not nutritious carrot muffin!

I think the ride itself was about 30 miles at a fairly social pace. From what I gathered, it went through several Chicago suburbs and we were mostly on fairly well-traveled streets. We stopped at a scenic overlook of Lake Michigan, which was very pretty (sorry; I don't have pictures). It was chilly that day, but sunny.

After the ride, we stopped for lunch in Evanston and chatted for a while. Everyone was very nice and very, very funny. While it was a bit awkward for me since I don't participate as much on that forum as I do this one, everyone was more than welcoming. We then hung out at the bike shop for a bit and later met up with a few of them on Saturday night for dinner in the city.

The only downside to the trip was having to cart our bikes around on the train. It was fine in the morning, but the ride home was a pain. They unfortunately don't have a dedicated space on the trains for people with bikes or larger items like strollers. I was exhausted by the time we returned to our hotel.

On Sunday, my BF and I kept to ourselves and went to the Art Institute of Chicago before heading home. It was definitely a fun weekend, althoug I'm tired today.

I've had various opportunities over the last couple of years to meet people from this and other cycling forums. I've thoroughly enjoyed those experiences. Cyclists, by and large, are just good people!

[jesvetmed]

Jesvetmed: The pics from Virginia were gorgeous - sure makes me homesick (I am originally from Lynchburg, Va. and fall is indeed my favorite time of year!)

Wildhawk: Not Virginia! It's Winthrop, Washington. Gorgeous place, too!

Great rides by all this weekend! Salsa.. that picture looked like the morning of Danskin for a second!

[wildhawk]

OOOPs my bad - got the places mixed up. Oh well, it still reminds me of home. That is what happens when I start typing on the forum before I am fully awake - LOL.

[salsabike]

Wildhawk: Not Virginia! It's Winthrop, Washington. Gorgeous place, too!

Great rides by all this weekend! Salsa.. that picture looked like the morning of Danskin for a second!

Yeah!

Those Winthrop pictures are GORGEOUS. Wow. And the ride sounds really nice.

[chicagogal]

ditto to everyone who said that you ladies are super impressive. It sounds like everyone had a nice weekend!

salsabike, the picture you posted of those storm clouds reminds of a ride I did here in chicago a few months ago. I knew it was supposed to rain, but when I checked the forecast in the morning, weather.com promised that rain wasn't coming until 9am, so I headed off at around 6. My doorman warned me not to ride, saying that he was just outside and that I storm was brewing. I confidently told him that it wouldn't rain until 9 (what exactly made me so certain that the forecast was right?). So I headed south along lake Michigan and while it was windy, the sky ahead of me was clear. After 15miles I turned around for the return trip and, um, the sky over Chicago was completely black!!! Got caught in a crazy thunderstorm, was soaking wet and completely wind blown, and later that day funnel clouds were spotted and tornado alert sirens were going off all over chicago - mental note, listen to my doorman when he tells me not to go riding!

This weekend I did a very nice 50mi ride in the forest preserve district (north branch trail). I was expecting more fall colors, but was not disappointed to see that we have a little more "summer" left.

[spindizzy]

Hills again. Light sprinkles but a cool, occasionally sunny day

King Road, Terra Cotta
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1223345381

Heritage Road
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1223345381


Maple Tree on Heritage Road
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1223345381

I love fall...

And I've never done this posting of pictures before, following jsdilks explicit instructions..hope it works!