Holiday weekend rides

[Owlie]

24 miles today, most of the second half in rain. I got out about half an hour earlier than I usually do (despite waking up 45 minutes earlier than normal ). Not too many people out on the trail, probably because of the heat and humidity and/or the rain. Of course, I was wearing my blue and white jersey from my alma mater's cycling club. The rain wasn't kind to it.
Because of this jersey, I ended up chatting with two older men who were just heading out from one of the access points south of me when I stopped to adjust my saddle. One's son went to my alma mater for engineering management and is now working for Dow Corning (he said "My son graduated last year and managed to find a job somewhere with worse winters than Cleveland!"). The other one's son went to the university where I'll be starting my master's in the fall--I got the impression he went to med school there.

Last ride for about a week, and 50 even miles for the week.

[owlice]

(he said "My son graduated last year and managed to find a job somewhere with worse winters than Cleveland!").

Made me lol here! Oh, that's great!

After spending most of yesterday inside catching up on some work, I stuffed my backpack in a pannier (a feat in itself, believe me), threw a pair of old baggy shorts and a high-vis vest into the other pannier, put the bike on the rack, and drove to my usual trail. Rode it to a bakery/cafe place (similar to Panera), pulled on the baggy shorts, got dinner, and sat there doing some work. Chatted some, too, with a very outgoing, interesting guy who was also doing work. (He was obviously bored with what he was doing!)

After sunset, I loaded back up and headed home, but went around the lake three times (small lake) just to get in a few more miles. Got back to my car at 9:50 PM, which is a little later than I usually like to be out riding, but okay.

Just 15 miles, 5.5 there, 9.5 back, but it was good to fit it in, and I may do the same today.

So I parted with mentioning that they needed to hydrate more, and pulled off. They each had small, capped, Gatorade bottles in one cage, and nothing in the other; only about an inch of liquid was missing, and they had ridden at least 11 miles by that point, and neither had taken even a sip in that entire time. Temperature was in the 90's.

Hmmm... I regularly go 11-15 miles without drinking. My maintenance rides are in the 14-16 mile range (okay, sometimes 8-14 mile range <g>), and I usually don't drink anything until the end of them. (And I drink just water; Gatorade is completely unappealing to me.) I do often drink before I get on the bike, though.

What affects me more than just plain heat/humidity is whether the sun is actually beating down on me. Riding in the 90s in shade is okay; in the sun... not so much!

[Catrin]

Mountain bike parking lot and grass drills this morning for about an hour or so, plus another 30-40 minutes just roaming around on my lovely Jamis

[Orange utopia]

29 miles in terrible humidity with lots of never ending hills today. I am wiped out but I did get my average speed up to 13.5 which is surprising because I felt like I was going super slow.

[Crankin]

Quick 14 miles to W. Concord and back. I rarely ride on some of the streets we cruised on, so it was fun. Stopped and had a cold drink, back in Concord center. It was supposed to thunder and be quite rainy, but we got home just as it started sprinkling. I actually stretched when I got home, which is needed, because tomorrow, we are going on a hilly 40-50 mile ride.
My last 3 rides have been in an average zone which is making me happy. Nothing super fast, but approaching where I was 4 years ago, before my mystery illness. I don't expect that on a hilly long ride, but it's good to see it on the rides closer to home.

[solobiker]

Got in 30 miles this morning before the heat set in. I was on my bike by 630am. Such a beautiful morning. Not too many hills on my route today. My back usually does not like any more then 20-25 miles and it was telling me so today too. Oh well. No ride for me tomorrow..have to work and by the time I get out it is supposed to be in the upper 90s. I may ride my spin bike. Have a great day everyone.

[nscrbug]

Saturday's ride was 76 miles in horrid humidity and temps in the mid 90's. Despite how dreadful the air quality was, I ended up having a pretty good ride. Wish I could say the same about today's ride, which was 103 miles of misery. Humidity and temps weren't nearly as bad, but I was just having a terrible "pain" day. Everything that could possibly hurt me today...DID. My hands, my back, my butt, my girly bits, my neck...about the ONLY thing that did NOT hurt me were my feet! At one of the rest stops we made, I really felt like crying but I held it together for the sake of not embarrassing myself in front of my DH and another riding buddy of ours. I felt bad because DH and our riding buddy had to keep slowing up to wait for my slow @ss. I finally told the buddy to just go on without us (which he did)...DH stayed behind to ride with me. We left our house at 6am and didn't get home until almost 1:30! I don't care what anyone says...that is just too damn long to be on a bike.

Sorry for venting and ranting...I'm just havin' one of THOSE days.

Linda

[PinkBike]

nscrbug -- dont beat yourself up, i'm WAY impressed with your 2 days of riding. 100 miles in 7.5 hours is more than admirable. and after a 76 mile day. you rock.

saturday fat cyclist tweeted that he rode 96 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing. woh.

but i think i got him beat. 35 miles, No climbing, No wind, but 118 degrees. you have no idea.

THAT's what post-ride naps are for!! and cold showers.

[Grits]

Ride from hell yesterday. Nah, I guess I've had worse. Still it is disappointing to really be looking forward to a ride and then have it turn out to just be a "bad ride day." 5 of us were doing a 40 - 50 mile ride. I started out leading and my legs immediately felt like lead so I dropped to the rear and then started feeling better after warming up. Was good until about 20 miles in, and then my legs started feeling really fatigued, and I had trouble keeping up the rest of the ride.
It was REALLY hot yesterday. The last few miles my on-bike thermometer was saying 100 degrees (102 for a brief time). The actual temps yesterday got to the mid 90's. Only explanation I can think of is it is the week before my period, and that can cause me to not have my best rides. The good news is that my average mph on a bad ride day was a speed that I would have been very happy with just last summer, so at least there has been improvement. One of the riders invited us to his pool afterwards, so that was heavenly!