April 27-29 Weekend Rides

[emily_in_nc]

Snow?! Poor you.

Today was gorgeous in NC. A cold front came through, so we waited until about 9:45 am to start our market ride. It was about 62 degrees then, perfectly sunny, with a bit of breeze. I wore shorts and a SS jersey with arm warmers. A bit chilly starting out, but quickly warmed up. We hit the farmer's market and food co-op, then back to the apt. to drop stuff off.

DH chose to stop for lunch then since he wanted to take his Trek out for a longer, faster ride this afternoon. I just grabbed a few cookies with Nutella spread on top, topped off my water bottle, and took off again for a neighborhood loop. Ended up with 28.5 miles total, and the temp was 74 when I got done. Gorgeous out! Didn't notice any pollen today either, a huge plus. LOTS of lovely roses and irises in the ritzy country club area I was riding through part of the time. Nice to look at other people's yards w/o having to do the work myself!

Tomorrow morning I'm riding with a friend, and the day promises to be a carbon copy of today, weather-wise. What a lovely weekend!

[Catrin]

I did a nice 20 miles today with Winding Road at a local park to try and beat the wind a bit - had a tight muscle in one leg that just didn't want to loosen up, so I wound up sitting out the last loop. Very nice ride though, I normally ride by myself and was glad to see that I had the wind for both riding AND talking I also got to show off my brand new pretty purple bike

Am considering heading south tomorrow to help out with trail building efforts at Brown County State Park, it will depend upon the weather. If'en I am looking forward to riding those trails, then I can provide a little labor

[owlice]

Took a nice 23-mile ride today on some of my usual trails. Was in the mid- upper 60s while I was riding, a lovely day but with lots of pollen in the air. I had to stop to wipe my face, it was so gritty. (I do this in a most ladylike fashion... I pour some water into one hand, pour a little from one hand to the other, splash the water on my face, then pull the neck of my [cotton] tee-shirt up over my face and wipe down. )

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

DH and I did a hilly 22 mile ride today, hit some headwinds too. I'm still trying to get slowly back in shape from a whole winter of no riding.
I did better than I thought I would, but man am I beat now! No way I'll be riding tomorrow again- think i'll garden tomorrow instead.

[Bike Writer]

Friday was nice enough for a commute but I was interviewing assessors and needed to dress in more than normal "business causal Friday's" so the commute was out but I made the most of it by a nice little ride yesterday after work, only 5 miles on a nearby path as a little warm up for a longer ride today where I more than doubled that mileage. Considering the calendar I figured I'd be on longer rides by now but the weather had not been cooperating earlier this spring. But I feel that I'll be catching up in no time.

Gosh it just felt glorious out today. Temps were not as nice because we had a lot of cloud cover (50's) but the wind was not howling like it had been so it was just great to be out. Particularly since I had just picked up my new bike today. I'm starting another thread about it.

[azfiddle]

I enjoyed a ride with my DH who is back on his road bike after 6 weeks recuperating from his accident. Yay! We did about 30 miles around the foothills of Tucson, back on a more urban route, with a stop at a French bakery. Getting back on the bikes to head home, I noticed the left side of his helmet was not pristine any more- apparently, he must have landed on it when he fell. How did he miss that? How did I miss that? He protested that it was fine, but I insisted! So we rerouted toward the bike shop to get a new helmet.

Then I ran over something metal. Funny clinky noises, and a flat tire. But not just a puncture- my tire had a deep gash. I fixed the flat but the tire is now bulging ....apparently trashed. So now I need a new tire. I put brand new gatorskins on the Fuji right before I bought the Ruby, plus we have a few other tires in the garage, so at least I don't need to buy one. I just won't have matching tires on my new bike anymore

[Savra]

I did my first group club ride yesterday. It was beautiful weather for once (it's raining again today). Lucky for me, the group only averaged 13.5 mph so I was able to keep up. We ended at 29 miles.

[azfiddle]

2nd ride of the weekend: a new destination, 50 miles round trip, to the Whipple Observatory located in the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson. Beautiful ride- 18 miles nearly flat, with a 7 mile climb (about 1000'), with picnic tables and a rest room available. The wind came up just as we headed back, so the descent was a little was less fun, but we ran a rotating pace line on the flat section for a lot of the way back to the car, which helped. Temperatures were perfect- cool enough for a windbreaker at the start and on the descent and otherwise just jersey and shorts. Nice to have DH back on board for the rides