Sat/Sun rides 17–18 October

[shootingstar]

Except for the baby ride in jeans yesterday during a non-rain weather break, no cycling yesterday. http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=34449

Today was 36 kms. No jeans....: there are several hills in this ride 5-10% grades each. I sit in my saddle and spin up hills, that's my style of doing ascents. Started off warmer and ended damper, colder since no sun today. Nevertheless cloudy days do increase fall leaf colour brilliance. Just gorgeous.

[kimikaw]

Hubby and I were in Chicago this weekend celebrating our 10th anniversary...and brought the bikes. So this weekend's ride was 32.5 miles along the shores of Lake Michigan using their Lakeshore trail. Beautiful sunny weather, great ride.

Doesn't she look nice in the hotel


And here's me along the route, funny how I needed a new purple fleece top to match my bike


Even wrote a little blog post about the ride (well, sorta)

[radacrider]

Did two rides today (Sunday), 1) sort of a recon ride to check out an area where I can take my son; 2) an errand.

The check the trail out ride was out near Hood River, OR (about an hour's drive) where they paved and cleaned up a section of the Old Columbia River Hwy, including constructing some tunnels. Great morning/noon ride, sun peaked out from the clouds and, except for the time getting there, will be a great place to ride with my son.

Very nice "path", wide, smooth:


The views are always so incredible and had me reminiscing about all the adventures I have had in the Columbia River gorge (hiking, skiing, biking, traveling).


Just me:


The 2nd ride I took some things to my son, who is at the ex' this weekend.

Total miles, about 18 miles or so. Nice fall day.

[pinkbikes]

I am riding in a team in a triathlon in two weeks. It is at Noosa and has a beastly switchback hill at about the 10km (out of 40km). So I have been giving the hills a good go in the last two weeks. This was my last weekend for going hard on the hills, to be followed by some speed work and some short and sweet stuff in the final week. So I was out getting me some hills in.

I decided on Saturday to do my "Nemesis Road" that I have not tried to ride in somewhere between fifteen and twenty years! I last rode it on my old roadie with horrid gearing and I vaguely remember getting only 100m up the worst hill and turning back, only to find the hill I'd just come down even worse! And then I rode home exhausted to the verge of crying and never went back!

This time it was different. Maybe I was faster back then. But I'm a lot stronger now, have better endurance, and I'm not too proud to ride a sensible set of gears now (and having 10speed cassettes these days helps there).

I headed out and rolled through the early hills on the road and then rolled down through the dipper to the really big sucker. Might not be a really big sucker to those of you who live in mountainous regions, but 12% for over 1km is big enough to get my attention. To my utter surprise I just slogged on up it in low gear, standing up for a count of 8 now and again just to change muscles, and never even *looked* like failing! Yay!!

I then rang DH to let him know I had managed to climb my Nemesis Hill, only for him to remind me the one coming back is even worse! So I turned around and hit it up. I did think about halfway up that he was kidding, because at 10% and a little bit shorter before it eased off it didn't seem so bad. That was before it kicked back up again and went for another nice long climb! It really was worse, but again I had no problems with it. Yay again!!!

So I have slain my dragons and nothing this tri can throw at me hill-wise is going to kill me. It will all just be a matter of "how fast?"

Sunday I was a bit tired in the legs after all the hills the day before, but I went out with a friend to do his favourite Sunday morning loop of 68km. The weather was a glorious and sunny 28degrees C. We took in Lake Kurwongbah and a lovely bit of shoreline around the Redcliffe Peninsula. The only hassle was the sprightly SE wind that was in our faces for much of the second half of the ride.

Got my first flat tyre in ages only 2km from home (picked up a nasty piece of wire) and to my shame, I was too lazy to sit in the sun and change it, too lazy to walk home in cleats, so called DH to come and pick me up!

A nice weekend on a bike!

[annielynn]

Yesterday was my very first official group ride at a relaxed B pace. I was so freaking excited. It was cold for us Floridians though. It was a brisk 50 degrees when we started out a 8am yesterday morning. I don't have ANY warm weather riding gear either. So i threw on a long sleeve t-shirt and my cycling kit and away we went. My hands were numb as were my ears and butt. LOL I rode 18 miles and was able to keep up with everyone. I felt so damn proud of myself. I have to thank my hubby for being a great coach and Robin (ride lead) for give me the push to keep up with the group. I cannot WAIT to ride again next weekend in a group. It is a lot of fun. Thankfully it will be a lot warmer next weekend.

[Owlie]

Late to this party: I went on the ride and got the flu or something for a week.
I was at home that weekend, and DBF and I took the bikes with us. We took a 15-mile ride on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. It was cooler than perhaps I'd have liked (it barely hit 50), but it was gorgeous. Also surprisingly easy, given that I've been doing 5 mile rides. I finally got some pictures uploaded, so here are the two good ones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96285366@N00/4043700541/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96285366@N00/4043701911/