Sunday ride!

[kermit]

I am stoked to report that my husband and I went for a cool 30 miler in huge winds, two hours. The really cool part is that my husband who has suffered from a bad back and back surgery complications was with me and thrilled to be biking. It's his second ride in a year. Hope we can keep it up!

[Catrin]

I am stoked to report that my husband and I went for a cool 30 miler in huge winds, two hours. The really cool part is that my husband who has suffered from a bad back and back surgery complications was with me and thrilled to be biking. It's his second ride in a year. Hope we can keep it up!

Awesome! Really cool that you were able to stay out there with the big winds & your husband was able to ride

I wanted a recovery ride today after yesterdays - but my hamstring is talking to me a bit - so when hiking instead Nothing against hiking, but I wanted to ride my bike! There is good improvement though, my leg is much better even after my 50 miles yesterday, so I think that later in the week I will be able to fire it up again

[pll]

Congrats kermit!

Over here, 45 mile ride, windy, too. Exhausted.

[redrhodie]

I did 23 hilly miles. I got out before the start of the "tour de Newport" and planned my route so I'd be heading back as they were heading out. It was fun when I finally saw the riders coming toward me. Didn't seem as big as I was expecting, nicely spread out. Wondering if Gabriellesca ended up riding?

Really perfect day here. Sunny and cool, and not too windy.

[azfiddle]

My Sunday ride was really short-but kind of cool. We started a program for training for El Tour de Tucson, which is being run through the U of A medical center and Carmichael Training Systems. We got our packets, rode to a nearby park and did drills on the grass, then came back and watched the overview presentation. We practiced clipping and unclipping, did a "buddy ride" drill, and a slalom course. Free Gu. It will go for 9 weeks, every Sunday.

[Crankin]

We did a 40 mile ride that is most of a route we have done on a previous charity ride for the Lions Club. I wrote about it on the Adventure thread, since Madei came with us.
It did finally reach 75 degrees today, but the weather this weekend did not live up to what it was supposed to be. Not very much sun. I've been riding at 5:45 AM a couple of days a week, so I haven't seen much sun while riding, for the last 2 weeks!
Getting within 100 miles of my "intermediate" goal of 2500 miles for the year. With a little effort, I might make 3,000 (if the snow doesn't come too early).

[nscrbug]

My Sunday ride was an 80-miler with my riding buddy. The forecast was for spotty showers, but it never rained on us and turned out to be quite a nice day. I did, however, feel a bit overdressed for the ride. Temps started out in the mid-50's when we headed out. I unwisely chose to wear knickers, a lightweight merino wool base and a jacket. I was sweltering by the time we hit mile 5. Made for a rather uncomfortable ride. I unzipped my jacket, but the flapping around was really annoying. I would have been much more comfy wearing just shorts, a short-sleeved jersey and arm warmers. I hate it when I dress all wrong for a ride.

Linda

[7rider]

Today was a head scratcher ride.
Just one of those bizarre group rides that isn't really a group ride, but is.
To start, DH and I got to the shop at 8:31. The ride officially starts at 8:30, but it never leaves until 8:45. We parked in the back, and rode to the front, only to find the group already gone.
"[Shop owner] is away today, so Phil got the group to leave on time this morning," reported one of the guys who was still unloading his bike from his car.
Grrrr.
So, DH, this guy, and two others, and I head out to East West Highway to take a shortcut to hopefully catch the group. We picked up another rider or two along the way. We finally caught them at a light about 5 miles in (Goldsboro and River, Pfunk, if you're tracking). Barely made it through the light myself and was at the tail end going up the Massachusetts Ave hill.
Sprint, sprint, sprint. That was about the sum of my ride thus far.
Caught the group again at the re-group spot, just long enough to pause to take off my arm warmers, and then they were gone. It was a hammer head group on the ride today, and I told one of the women that I was staying on MacArthur Blvd, rather than taking the route they do, as I didn't want to be dropped. There are some roads I just don't like to ride solo on.
So I rode solo for 5 miles on MacArthur, hoping to catch the group at the top of Angler's Hill. Caught up with two guys - including Hector, back for his 2 month visit from retirement in Chile! Yay, Hector's a great guy. Love to see him again.
Found out the group was way ahead of us. Hector and the other guy got dropped, too. Got to the top of Angler's, only to find the group had departed about 30 seconds before we got there. Grrrrr, again!
But from that point on, it was fine. I had 2 riding companions. We took a different way into the park (the "legal" way that avoids Democracy Blvd with its shopping mall and highway bound traffic), and while in the park, we kept seeing bits and pieces of our allegedly group ride. Two riders here - going one way. Three riders caught us and rode with us for a bit. Another two riders doing a loop through the park, where we rode with them, too.
It was a weird, fragmented ride today. I stopped cussing out Phil when I ran into Hector. Having Hector to ride with made things okay.
40 miles at 17 mph.

[warneral]

After church and lunch I took a ride in the high50's. Not much wind but it did end up sprinkling. I ended up riding 30mi in 2hr20min (my speed is slow!). I have some sort of bronchitis or viral asthma so I probably over did it. My lungs are not happy with me. But it feels so good to be out there

ETA Kermit I'm so glad your dh could join you! How fun I love riding with my dh but with the 2 kids we can't go out together unless we take off work!

[colorisnt]

That's great, Kermit!

After a week of nothing but stress over finances (I had to get a lawyer and everything grrrrr), I finally got out and did a good hill climbing ride. Still only about 20 miles, thought I would go further, but I had an asthma attack WELL after my climb and had to lay down in a patch of grass near a strip mall for about 10 minutes to feel like "me" again. And then I lost my seatpack.

Class act. But, I had the best hill climbs of my life today, so I think I will do great when the humidity and heat calm down.

[pfunk12]

I think I agree with everything that you said. I have no excuse for being late to the shop since I live 1 minute away. But when you wake up at 8:20 for an 8:30 ride...well... I had one sip of coffee while taking my dog for a quick walk. Saw you and Tom ride by and was happy to know that someone else was late, too. I didn't eat anything...didn't drink anything. I knew it was going to be a bad ride. BF and I time-trialed it for the first 10 miles or so. I was already in oxygen debt. We didn't do Mass Ave so that we would run into the group. They went flying by. I have to say - do we ride that fast??! And that was the B group. We did a U-turn and honestly...how in the world am I supposed to catch a group going about 25 mph when I'm starting out at 0??? We did eventually catch them but I was toast. I saw Hector on Clara-Barton (and yes, what a sweet guy). Ended up doing a pace line with 2 other guys and then decided to do Mountaingate on my own. From what I understand, I was the only one to do it today. So I rode most of the ride on my own until I got to Democracy and 2 guys caught me. One of them got a flat within the first 1 mile of the ride.
Frustrating ride for me. It's very difficult for me to push it sometimes when I am on my own. Especially when I had planned on riding with a group. I'll stop whining now.

Today was a head scratcher ride.
Just one of those bizarre group rides that isn't really a group ride, but is.
To start, DH and I got to the shop at 8:31. The ride officially starts at 8:30, but it never leaves until 8:45. We parked in the back, and rode to the front, only to find the group already gone.
"[Shop owner] is away today, so Phil got the group to leave on time this morning," reported one of the guys who was still unloading his bike from his car.
Grrrr.
So, DH, this guy, and two others, and I head out to East West Highway to take a shortcut to hopefully catch the group. We picked up another rider or two along the way. We finally caught them at a light about 5 miles in (Goldsboro and River, Pfunk, if you're tracking). Barely made it through the light myself and was at the tail end going up the Massachusetts Ave hill.
Sprint, sprint, sprint. That was about the sum of my ride thus far.
Caught the group again at the re-group spot, just long enough to pause to take off my arm warmers, and then they were gone. It was a hammer head group on the ride today, and I told one of the women that I was staying on MacArthur Blvd, rather than taking the route they do, as I didn't want to be dropped. There are some roads I just don't like to ride solo on.
So I rode solo for 5 miles on MacArthur, hoping to catch the group at the top of Angler's Hill. Caught up with two guys - including Hector, back for his 2 month visit from retirement in Chile! Yay, Hector's a great guy. Love to see him again.
Found out the group was way ahead of us. Hector and the other guy got dropped, too. Got to the top of Angler's, only to find the group had departed about 30 seconds before we got there. Grrrrr, again!
But from that point on, it was fine. I had 2 riding companions. We took a different way into the park (the "legal" way that avoids Democracy Blvd with its shopping mall and highway bound traffic), and while in the park, we kept seeing bits and pieces of our allegedly group ride. Two riders here - going one way. Three riders caught us and rode with us for a bit. Another two riders doing a loop through the park, where we rode with them, too.
It was a weird, fragmented ride today. I stopped cussing out Phil when I ran into Hector. Having Hector to ride with made things okay.
40 miles at 17 mph.

[chicagogal]

My Sunday ride was an 80-miler with my riding buddy. The forecast was for spotty showers, but it never rained on us and turned out to be quite a nice day. I did, however, feel a bit overdressed for the ride. Temps started out in the mid-50's when we headed out. I unwisely chose to wear knickers, a lightweight merino wool base and a jacket. I was sweltering by the time we hit mile 5. Made for a rather uncomfortable ride. I unzipped my jacket, but the flapping around was really annoying. I would have been much more comfy wearing just shorts, a short-sleeved jersey and arm warmers. I hate it when I dress all wrong for a ride.

Linda

I was just like you in terms of wardrobe in chicago today. I was "freezing" as we rolled out, so I put a warm jacket over my short sleeved jersey instead of losing the jacket in favor of arm warmers, and I, too, was dying of the heat!!!!!