Aug 27-28 Weekend Rides

[goldfinch]

My ride was all of 17 miles today, in two separate jaunts. One alone and one with spouse, in Marquette, Michigan along the paved MUP that hugs the Lake Superior shoreline. Very lovely and the conditions were about perfect. Sunshine and cool air. And a food festival in downtown Marquette. It puts me at 265 miles for the month.

[Catrin]

The more time I spend on my mountain bike, the faster my weekly mileage plummets. I still spend the same amount of TIME on my bike...and trail riding is certainly more challenging for me right now. I do need to get more TITS on the road though, I hope to do a 50-62 mile ride on September 17. So far my longest ride this year has been 45 miles - rather different from this time last year I am comfortable with my base, but it would be good to have one or two nice longer rides before then but that won't stop me.

Yesterday I spent about two hours on a brand-new not-yet-officially-open-to-the-public-but-unofficially-open-for-riders-to-pack-down-the-new-beginners-trail (whew). I found it far easier than expected, and I never thought I would ever actually SAY that

Today I intended to start out with some trail work, and then ride the more moderate half of an intermediate trail in the same park. Best intentions...but after 4 hours of trail building I was sore in so many places that I figured it wasn't the best time to ride a trail I hadn't yet ridden. I want to be well rested for that trail and with both sore hands and biceps...

My goal is to ride that trail tomorrow morning, and hopefully get a road ride in tomorrow afternoon. The latter will depend on how my body feels at that point. The weather is just so nice that I don't want to waste it!

[cosc]

I love hearing about everyone's ride, speed, improved skills and description of the countryside.
Today I rode 40 miles on the Tour De Corn, which is mostly flat. Pork sandwiches and corn on the cob was a nice treat at the end.

[Owlie]

I did 15 miles today in lovely weather. It was supposed to be a nice easy ride, but no, the "go fast! whee!" part of the brain with no sense of self-preservation kicked in. Apparently I don't understand the meaning of "recovery", and now I'm sore again.

[westtexas]

I did 27 miles this morning. The wind was from a different direction than usual this morning and miraculously under 15 mph. I rode a steady pace of 16 out (into the wind) and 25 back (tail wind) and completed the ride in 90 minutes. It's a pretty boring route - straight, flat, crappy roads, and no scenery (everything is dead/burned out here from the drought and the fires).

The one interesting thing this morning however was that the only riders I passed were women. I did not see a single man on a bike this morning and I found this very interesting since 1) the weather was only 85 out and 2) I only see other women cyclists once in a blue moon 3) the weekend before I saw at least 10 different men out on bikes on this popular route. So that was a good thing.

Due to work, heat/extreme weather and being exhausted, I only put 70 miles on the bike this week. Hoping to do better this coming week. Today was a nice ride - a good way to complement a good morning at the hospital (all my patients are getting better for once!)

[kermit]

An awesome easy 20 miles, high cadence low speed fat burner. Only saw one HUGE dead rattlesnake, whew I'm glad he was dead. The weather was 69 degrees when I left, a great ride.

[Aggie_Ama]

Yesterday I did 15 miles of technical mountain biking at Barton Creek Greenbelt. The first half was awesome, I cleaning rock gardens, riding strong, then as Paul Sherwen says "boom boom out go the lights". I couldn't even ride back to where we parked, I stopped at a different trailhead that has lots of shade and rested until DH came for me. I stopped early enough to not get in the danger zone (did that once this summer not pretty) but still had a pretty intense headache all afternoon/evening from dehydration and overheating. Still it was a great ride, I just don't have more than two hours in me until we get freed from this oppressive heat.

This morning I did a solo rode ride on some quiet rolling roads. My goal was active recovery, staying out of an anaerobic zone. I started at 8:00 and it was a very enjoyable ride. Lots of road riders take this popular route, everyone was friendly. Saw two roadrunners (my favorite birds), two cardinals, many goats, three horses, a heard of longhorn cattle and two squirrels. It was 28.8 miles at 15 mph, I really tanked on the last 3-4 miles as the humidity started to wear me out. I hope to do a century to train for the mountain bike marathon season (starts 11/19) but it is going to be hard to get those base miles!

Mileage for the week (for Catrin): Monday mountain biking with Ride Like a Girl Women's Ride (9), Saturday (14.9), Today (28.8). Mountain biking is a great workout but the mileage is not high!

[Roadtrip]

Was supposed to ride with Owlie yesterday morning, but woke up feeling less then fit to ride, so begged off and stayed home. Felt a little better this AM, but still wasn't feeling 100% and waffled until I saw DH really wanted to go out (big puppy dog eyes), so I sucked it up and got ready. Just as soon as we got going my legs felt like they had lead in them and my breathing was irregular and short, even shifting to an easier gear didnt help much. I felt like I was riding into a horrible headwind, but looking at the trees surrounding me, I knew that wasn't it at all.

Some days your the nail... Some your the hammer.

DH had an unclipping malfunction and toppled right over in the parking lot next to the car (after the ride)-- bent the bars and torn up bar tape... All easily fixed, but glad it wasn't me!

Shannon

[AppleTree]

Loved my ride today. 25.33 miles up to the Arboretum in North Everett...so peaceful and serene there and such beautiful gardens. I had the whole place to myself again. I stopped at the gazebo to stretch and have a snack and drink and this squirrel came running up to me. I stomped my foot at him, but didn't faze him a bit, he kept moving closer. Kinda freaked me out a little bit. I know people must be feeding him...idiots. So I had to cut my break short and walked my bike to the other side near the Japanese Maples...but I kept looking over my shoulder to see if he was stalking me.

It started out foggy this morning, but cleared by 9 am or so. The fog was still hanging over the sound and the tidal flats at the mouth of the Snohomish River though, such a wonderful view up there.