June 24-26 rides

[Roadtrip]

I'm also surprised that my dry-only tires behaved so well, but if I make a habit of being caught in the rain , I need to get some new tires.

if "someone" (not pointing at the slime trails) would return my txt, it might help

[chryss]

I'm going on my first organised, timed ride, with a number and all that, which is terribly exciting. It's the Chena Hot Springs Bike Classic (PDF), which basically takes place on a single road, Chena Hot Springs road, which starts a few miles outside Fairbanks and ends at mile 56 or thereabouts at Chena Hot Springs Resort.

The full version is about a metric century, but I'll do the 33 mile version, for a number of reasons. The first is that I live off CHSR myself, close to mile 21 and the start of the 33 mile version is at the local general store 2 miles from my house: I can cycle there, which is terribly convenient. The second is that I *am* slightly chickening out. CHSR is very hilly between Fairbanks and where I live, and then flat essentially for the rest. From previous years, the biggest starter group is at mile 33, and I'm sure many of my speed and ability will be there, whereas the fast people start in Fairbanks. I'd surely be one of the last to arrive from there... so I prefer leaving the full ride for next year. My goals are to have a fun, safe ride and to see how close I can get to a 2h time.

[Owlie]

That's pretty convenient, Chryss! Have fun!

if "someone" (not pointing at the slime trails) would return my txt, it might help

Sorry! My phone has been dead for the last few days. (Apparently it died quietly without my noticing. )

18 leisurely miles today in an easy gear. Didn't go over 15 mph, hovered closer to 12-13. I treated this as a sort of recovery ride, and was extra gentle with myself considering I'd only gotten about four hours of sleep. Weather was just about perfect. I had a nasty encounter with some kind of spiny plant stem, but other than that, it was pretty good.

[Catrin]

Didn't get much sleep last night due to picking up friends at the airport at midnight...but did head out for my Sat morning long ride - fantastic sunshine and no worse a headwind than usual

I've a couple of appointments in the afternoon, so I cut it short at 20 miles to have time for shower and travel time. If there is time this afternoon or this evening will take the Jamis out and toodle around in the grass at my favorite park and do tree loop-de-loops. It is supposed to rain, again, tonight - so road riding only tomorrow.

While riding with a couple of friends last Sunday, one of them pointed out that I never use the big ring when it would serve me well to do so. I consciously made use of it today when I was on flat ground with little to no grade and my average speed picked up considerable! Speed picked up, and my cadence dropped a bit. Legs felt pretty good! For the first half of my ride, where most of the flat stuff was, my avg speed was 14.6 - and it has NEVER been that high My avg speed for the entire ride was 13.4, and for me that is still pretty darn good.

[Catrin]

Chryss - have an awesome time, sounds great!

[tulip]

Today was my first ride in a month due to some crazy deadlines that had me working 14+ hour days withno days off for over a month. That's over now, thankfully.

I only rode 14 miles, but I prefer to go by time ... So I rode for an hour and felt really good. It's hot and humid, but I like it that way. So glad my work schedule is back to normal so I can ride regularly again.

[Crankin]

Got out for a short ride after getting totally frustrated with work stuff. Can't finish the on line training, system is down, and I did as much as I could with some other stuff.
21.5 miles, did pretty much the opposite loop of what I did with Hirakukibou earlier in the week. We rode with 2 guys from Newton who were "riding in the country." I dropped one on a hill, but the other was really fast. After about 5 miles, we split off from them. Then we stopped at Ferns to get a drink and some really obnoxious riders pulled up, wearing Harvard cycling jerseys/t shirts. They were talking really loud about their averages, enough to make me want to laugh out loud.
I have reached the 1,000 mile mark for the year, which is about 500 short of last year, but about 100 ahead of previous years. I will definitely make my "regular" goal and I still might get to my "reach" goal, depending on the weather.

[Roadtrip]

Got out for an abbreviated 9 mile ride, even tho the weather was nice (for a change-- but brought out everyone and their brother too) and fiddled with saddle height, while trying not to get killed by wee little dogs racing across the bike path, and got to try out my new skirt.

Shannon

[chryss]

Chryss - have an awesome time, sounds great!

It was indeed great. My computer says I rode a bit over 36 miles with getting to the starting line. The headwind was fierce -- we often have easterly wind here, and the road may bend a bit in the end but is overall going eastwards. I fell in with a 2-4 people that were beginners at riding pacelines, like myself, and just pushed me a little beyond my comfort zone. It was sunny, we were trucking along just fine, were polite and not competitive with each other, and in the end caught some of my riding partners who I thought I would ride with, but who'd gone out like a fire engine and gotten attached to a very fast group until they ran out.

We got bananas and cookies at rest stops, and a picnic at the end -- and I must say, I have barely had any sweetened drinks in months (maybe occasionally 1 tsp of sugar in my coffee), but today I had a can of Dr Pepper, two glases of sweetened ice tea, one of pink lemonade and three of sweetened coffee. Holy cow. Plus a rather fatty lunch -- what I thought was mashed potatoes turned out to be potato salad. My food diary is looking askance back at me .

We also got free entrance to the hot springs pool at the resort at the end of the ride, which was surprisingly hot. I think my numerous mosquito bites liked the sulfur-y hot water.

[Owlie]

Well, it is a hot spring! I'm glad you had fun, even with the mosquito (isn't that the state bird?) bites!

[owlice]

I rode tonight, just 13.5 miles, but fast (for me), despite, or maybe because, not having ridden since last Saturday (when I rode over the Golden Gate bridge -- the kid and I were in San Francisco for the weekend). I saw a fox at the lake, which is a first, and a beaver, deer, numerous frogs (which I managed to avoid squishing, woo-hoo), and rabbits rabbits rabbits.