Sunday, July 18th rides

[Catrin]

Owlie - glad to hear that you made it up the hill regardless of what happened!

This morning I went on the official "Noah's Ark" ride that my club has annually. I was surprised at the number of Cervelo bikes and other very expensive road bikes - some with Zip wheels! Needless to say the fast boys and girls dropped me pretty quickly on my slower yet beloved Wanderer. As it was I was pedaling between 18-19 when I got dropped so I am pretty pleased about that Then I dropped back to my usual speed and enjoyed the ride

Ride was great - though once we turned south for the return trip there came a bit*h of a head-wind - for the next 15 miles I think the hills were easier as there was a downhill side... Knees were a little tender from yesterday so went for the 30 mile option - wanted to do the 50 but am glad I didn't between the head-wind and my knees. I wanted to see the Bison on that route...but I have the map - I can go solo. I wind up riding solo on these rides anyway

[Crankin]

Did our first ride with our friend Brant who broke his hip in March. Despite the fact he still is limping, he is fine on the bike. Well, he's not the speed demon he was, so it was great. My DH stayed with him and I lead everyone up several big hills in Harvard. At the end, he got a little feisty, and the 3 of us rode together for the last ten miles. My friend (Brant's wife) was pretty far behind. Overall, my average was slower than usual as we took our time up the climbs. This ride went on some roads I haven't been on in at least 2 years; it was fun and shady. We left at 8 AM and were back early enough that we didn't get fried. The humidity is down, but it is still very hot for New England. I drank 1.5 bottles of Accelerade and then we stopped and I bought some Gatorade.
38.7 miles, 1800 feet of climbing.
Now I am avoiding doing my schoolwork.

[makbike]

I slept in late today so started my ride late. I was a typical hot and humid day in the Bluegrass region, my favorite type of weather. I decided to explore a new road today. I had heard there was a wicked hill on this road and decided to tackle it. When I turned onto this road I road myself racing down a long hill which soon leveled out and went for several miles. Part of me was thinking that wicked hill was the one I sailed down but as I approached the end of the road I found myself facing a short by very steep climb. All I can say is I love my granny gear as I made my way to the top. I stopped at the top to rest for a minute an spied a huge feather - a perfect toy for our new kittens. I picked it up and carefully placed in my back pocket. I quickly discovered I was not where I thought this road would dump me out and debated about turning around and heading the other direction. Decided to continue the wind and to fight the nasty headwind I had turned into. I would battle the wind for the next twenty miles. I stopped a small grocery store for fluids and a snack. The cashier spied the feather in my back feather and identified it as a turkey feather - explained it was a treat for my kittens and he simply laughed. Back on the bike I decided to head home as the headwind was taking its toll on my spirits and my legs. In the end I logged 40.4 miles.

The last 10 miles took me through an area that had been hit by a microburst early Saturday morning - the damage was amazing - trees down, snapped in half, uprooted and debris everywhere. It appears this was the outer edge of the damage from the storm. It always amazes me what Mother Nature can do when she sets her mind to it. Maybe tomorrow I'll ride a bit north of area and see how they fared. According to the National Weather Service this was a fairly large storm and it left a lot of damage in its wake.

[Road Viexn]

My friend and I are training for our first century next month. This ride is right up next to the mountains, so there are some nice rollers. This morning we decided to head off and do some climbing. We took off on our 42.3 mile ride and we felt great. The rollers were awesome. We have been really researching fueling our bodies the right way for riding and wow, what a difference it made. I also climbed my largest hill today!! It was a 9.76% grade. I actually suprised myself at how good I felt doing this ride. On the way home my friend and I had to go to the bathroom so bad, we began to count our way back to the nearest gas station by road kill. Morbid, but we knew how close we were to the relief of our bladders based on which road kill we were passing. Made the time go fast. We are for sure going to do this ride again and add a few more climbs in maybe next weekend. We loved our ride today!