Saturday, August 14 Rides

[Dogmama]

Every year during my birthday week, I "ride my age." Today I road 56 hot miles.

[azfiddle]

Happy birthday Dogmama! I rode 42.5 starting at 5:30 for the early morning cool. Only problem? I don't think 80 degrees at 5:30 am is actually cool... otherwise, a nice ride out to the end of the road going up to Reddington Pass (far eastside of Tucson).

[emily_in_nc]

Happy b-day, dogmama! You're the same age as my DH.

Just our usual markets (farmer's and food co-op) ride today, 13.25 mostly urban miles, but it was cooler and more overcast, so I felt great. I was tired this morning and couldn't imagine I'd feel good on the ride, but I felt fantastic! Couldn't wipe the smile off my face and could have gone a lot longer if we hadn't had some perishables to get home.

Tomorrow morning we are going to ride to Trader Joe's on a tip from a new neighbor who said that there is no traffic on the way there on Sunday mornings. Cool!

[Crankin]

Did a nice 30 or so miles, starting round 11 AM. Since I was cognizant of the Mass Bike rides that Huffandpuff spoke about, we headed a bit north for the first part of the ride, as I suspected they would be riding around Concord and Carlisle (and I guess they were!). Headed up Nagog Hill in Acton, a 3 part hill near the beginning of the ride and on into Littleton and Westford for a bit, then into South Chelmsford and back to Carlisle. We did pass Great Brook Farm and I could see there was a rest stop for a ride there. We headed on, and stopped at the country store for lunch, where we split a sandwich and refilled the bottles. At this point we were only 6-7 miles from home, but for some reason this ride was much shorter than I thought, so we headed in a slightly different direction and did our "flat" ride, so the total was a bit over 30.
It was a beautiful day for riding. Hope to do at least 50 tomorrow.

[mudmucker]

Nice ride today, rode what is the bike route for the Dennison Lake Triathlon through Winchendon and Templeton, except I rode to it from my house and added a few extra miles for about 26 in total.

Because of all the stuff that happened over the winter healthwise, this is the 'take it easy' year. The actual ramp up in April and May went rather well but slow due to a few setbacks that took me off the bike for a couple of weeks. Ramped back in June and didn't really push myself but just rode. I've been monitoring my progress with my Garmin. At that point in the beginning of summer the perceived effort was pretty high despite some good numbers. Maybe not as good as last year but surprisingly better on some days than in previous years at that time of year. Still though, good days were inconsistent and some days felt hard. It doesn't help that because of the abrupt surgical menopause, to this day, after 225 days I still haven't slept through the nite more than 4 hours at a time which has resulted in some real sleep deprivation this year. Eventually my body should equilibrate. However,about 3 weeks ago I felt strong enough to try to push it to another level without overexertion or overdoing it. I did some drills and intervals. I can honestly say that now, my riding is about as good as last year in speed and climbing endurance and standing climbs. My recovery after climbs is a matter of seconds. I don't really have any long distance endurance though. I can only do about 30 miles but I'm happy with that and have no interest in pursuing more this year. I feel good and I feel strong (aside from sleep deprivation that is worse on some days). I do have some leg lymphedema that occasionally comes up but I'm equipped to deal with it (thanks to Knott's guidance).

I've been making sure I do a lot of take it easy and enjoy rides and leave the computer at home too. When the days get chillier I'll be taking to the woods with the Mt. Bike. Life is good.

[Catrin]

Every year during my birthday week, I "ride my age." Today I road 56 hot miles.

Happy Birthday!

[Owlie]

No riding for me. Uncooperative flat before I left the house, followed by a huge thunderstorm. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow. I want to get a ride in before DBF gets back.

[badgercat]

Easy-going 24ish miles today--I'm doing a 45-mile event tomorrow morning, so I just wanted to limber up without sapping myself. I got a late start and so my eating and hydrating were a bit off, so I was kind of sluggish the whole time... especially when I turned for home, straight into a headwind. But at least I made myself get out there for a while!