Memorial Day Weekend Rides

[Reesha]

I rode out at 6:30 for a 42 mile ride with one of my bike friends. What was meant to be fairly leisurely turned out to be pretty challenging-- Sara is in better shape than I am in general and I think our bodies' definition of leisurely is fairly different. We ended up missing our turn, thus extending our ride by five miles. That said, the ride was much harder than I planned for it to be... I was hoping to spin my way to a proper cardiovascular base, but nahhh.

It's a slow start this year... avg speed of 14 mph. I'm not going to complain though-- there were some good hills in the mix and a stiff headwind coming home. My *** and hamstrings are complaining.

I'm starving though, so I'm going to go pick up breakfast!

[jamijo]

Dragged DH out to the rail trail this morning (after dealing with an idiot at our apartment who backed into the open drivers-side door of our car while we were loading my bike... apparently his eyes weren't working yet this morning). He walked, since I haven't been able to cajole him into joining the biking world yet, and I biked for an hour. Nice 10 mile ride, my longest & fastest so far now that I've actually been able to get on the bike on a fairly regular basis. Definitely will be heading out there again later in the season, and dragging my camera with me for some bird and critter recording. Two woodchucks, a great blue heron, a bunch of goldfinches, and a ton of dragon flies were just the start of my watchlist from today!

No rides for the rest of the weekend for me though, checked the bike in at the LBS for the '30 day' tune up... even though it's been more like 2 1/2 months. Figured I finally have 100+ miles on it, it's better to do it now than it would have been with 2 or 3

[grey]

Just rode 17 HILLY but rural miles, really pretty.

[skhill]

Wasn't planning on getting out on the bike today, but the weather couldn't be better-- mid 70's, not much wind, partly cloudy. Plus the garden is still too wet for planting.

Anyway, I headed out on a route that I used to ride a lot, but hadn't been on yet this year. There's this one hill that used to regularly whip my butt, and I was dreading it. But it was easy today-- despite a bit of headwind, I took it in a higher gear than I remembered, at a higher speed too. Pretty cool. It wasn't a long ride-- just 20 miles-- but after running a 5k race this morning, and putting in about 10 miles of transportation cycling, it's a pretty good day.

[indysteel]

DH and I did 50 hilly miles at the Horsey Hundred in Kentucky today, and we're doing another 50 tomorrow. It was a perfect day here for a ride. I'd really like to go back to doing the full century next year, but we just didn't have enough miles in our legs for it this year.

[azfiddle]

Arizona summer temps are here (100 and above) which means you have to wake up early if you want to ride! Went to sleep at midnight last night after celebrating the high school graduation of a friend's daughter and the alarm at 5 am was not welcome... DH said "It's my birthday, I'm sleeping in" so I headed off alone for the Sat group ride. We rode through town to the base of Mt. Lemmon and then about 5 miles up the mountain - 36 miles, and about 2300 feet of elevation gain. I actually passed 3 people on the climb... not from my group though I don't mind the steady climb- but I am quite the slowpoke.

Wind gusts up to 40 are on deck for tomorrow starting at 6 am, so I'll probably take today off and ride again Monday.

[KathiCville]

I did my longest ride of the year today: 39+ miles, on a beautiful rural route that I had never ridden before. My longest ride this year before today was 26 miles so I was a little nervous about whether I could go the distance without holding up my much faster BF. I surprised myself by staying pretty strong from start to finish, 'though my average (as usual) wasn't anything to crow about (12.8 mph). Nonetheless, a gorgeous day, terrific scenery, satisfying ride, and a perfect excuse to snarf down a yummy gyro on the way home.

[emily_in_nc]

Today was our market ride, and we had a LOT of places to stop. Here's where we went:

- farmer's market
- food co-op
- Trader Joe's
- Performance
- Great Outdoor Provision Co.
- Whole Foods

19 miles total at a VERY leisurely/urban pace (10.7 mph average) With all the stops, this was a long ride -- left home a few minutes before 9 am and didn't get home until after 1 pm! One thing that slowed us down a lot was a bike path by a creek that we didn't realize had flooded yesterday in the heavy rain. The water had receded, but there was leaf/branch debris and mud all over the (paved) path. A couple of places we had to get off and walk (VERY glad we were using Eggbeater pedals and not our old Speedplay X-2 -- the cleats would not have liked the muddy conditions at all). Kind of an adventure!

[owlice]

I got in one whole mile yesterday, just around my block once and up and down the street, and got the bike into the shed and me into the house before the sky opened up and dumped a lot of rain. Great lashing winds, thunder and lightning, too; it was magnificent, though I had really hoped to get in 12-14 miles last night.

Today, 20 miles on the trails; my legs felt like lead when I started. I finally hit a great groove... at mile 18. Oh, well, at least I finished strong! I then got in another 5 while I waited for my kid at a Metro station -- yes, that's five miles in the ginormous parking lot at the Greenbelt Metro, past hissing geese with their goslings in the lot's grassy islands and through the empty outer lots and the Kiss-and-Ride.

On the trails, I got hissed at by another goose out with goslings, saw a rabbit, plenty of red-winged blackbirds and (ugh) cowbirds, and heard a peewee crying from the woods. The water lilies are budding, so will be blooming soon, and oh, the honeysuckle!!

[Catrin]

DH and I did 50 hilly miles at the Horsey Hundred in Kentucky today, and we're doing another 50 tomorrow. It was a perfect day here for a ride. I'd really like to go back to doing the full century next year, but we just didn't have enough miles in our legs for it this year.

Sounds like fun! NEXT year I hope to do this, it just wasn't in the cards for me this year. It looks like it has great SAG support.

[skhill]

DH and I did 50 hilly miles at the Horsey Hundred in Kentucky today, and we're doing another 50 tomorrow. It was a perfect day here for a ride. I'd really like to go back to doing the full century next year, but we just didn't have enough miles in our legs for it this year.

I meant to get up early this morning and make the short drive up the interstate to do the Sunday Horsey ride.... didn't happen. Maybe next year! Funny that it's our local ride, and I've never made it...

[ivorygorgon]

Here is a photo of me and DH, basically at the top of Mt. Palomar - east of San Diego. We rode approx 52 miles and climbed about 5200. It was an incredibly beautiful day. The sky (at a little lower elevation than this picture) was sooooo blue. It was warm, but not scorching. We saw lots of birds, including pheasants and turkeys. We had just an absolutely wonderful day. I was toast though

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attac...1&d=1306676735

[indysteel]

I meant to get up early this morning and make the short drive up the interstate to do the Sunday Horsey ride.... didn't happen. Maybe next year! Funny that it's our local ride, and I've never made it...

Where do ypu live? DH's family is in Frankfort, which is one of the reasons we do the ride every year, but I did it before I met him, so perhaps it was fate! It's a fun ride. I prefer Sunday's routes because they're less crowded. It was hot today though. Really hot! Mmaybe we'll see you next year!

[azfiddle]

Ivorygorgon, the Palomar ride looks beautiful!

I didn't plan to ride today, but it was still relatively cool and calm at 7 am. So I snuck in a ride before the sun and wind combined to for adverse riding conditions. I rode 18.5 miles out to Saguaro National Park, and took a longer route home that took advantage of the brisk and rising winds. The last part o the route is slightly downhill but with the tailwind, my average for the last 5 mile section was a nimble 20-25 mph, except for negotiating my way through one intersection that was under construction. Amazingly, I enjoyed green lights at every other intersection on the homestretch.

Tomorrow is going to be calm and amazingly cool, so DH and I are planning a long ride (about a metric century or so).

[grey]

DH and I did 50 hilly miles at the Horsey Hundred in Kentucky today, and we're doing another 50 tomorrow. It was a perfect day here for a ride. I'd really like to go back to doing the full century next year, but we just didn't have enough miles in our legs for it this year.

Some of my friends are doing that again today. Maybe next year I'll go!