Weekend Rides?

[Fredwina]

Yep, That's Larry in th Stockade. He just got back from being refurbished.

[Catrin]

I wanted to do my long ride today - but haven't ridden since Monday so I will do that tomorrow afternoon after church - it will be warmer and less windy anyway. Today I chose to do a short (20 mile) ride, windy but fun! I am trying to remember to start out easy for the first mile or so, and to cool down at the end. I am very bad for not doing either...and my legs do appreciate that.

It was so hard to know how to dress, temps were in the windy high 50's at the start and while it is reaching 69 today (92 last Saturday), it was a mite nippy at the start. Since the sun is shining I went with regular shorts and a SS jersey and just dealt with being cool at the start. I warmed up

On my way home I cut through a park in which there was a Crit - I didn't know there was one today so took a short break to watch for a bit. It was fun! Amazing to me how close together they ride

[Crankin]

It's pouring today, but yesterday was one of the best riding days we've had, in terms of weather. I was supposed to meet Hiakukabou after my one client in the AM, which put me on a limited time schedule. Miraculously, the client called and cancelled and I couldn't really see them later, as I had an eye doctor appt. in the afternoon. So, we met at 9:30 and ended up doing a 38.5 mile ride. We did a ride I do fairly often, but last year, Hirakukibou and I had to walk part of the route, due to repaving, and the road being down to very deep gravel with open sewer grates, etc. There's enough moderate hill climbing to give you a workout and it's pretty. On the way home, we stopped for coffee in west Concord.
I got a taste of city riding near the end, when the Concord Academy graduation festivities were shutting down. The families were also loading all the kid's dorm stuff into their cars, backing the traffic up for about 3/4 of a mile. I did OK going in between the cars and the parked cars for awhile, but then it got a little narrow for me, so I got in the lane, where a huge septic truck was behind me, but he stayed FAR away. I was glad to get through that in one piece.

[OakLeaf]

I rode almost 14 flat miles! Yay!

Considering my last ride was two weeks ago and it sort of aggravated my neck and back ... and how little I'd been riding recently anyway for any number of reasons ... I figured to skip the club ride and take it easy today.

I have a choice of two farmers' markets on Saturdays that I don't do the club ride. One is farther away from me, much nicer, and near a 20-mile MUP. The other one is closer, adequate, and near a 2.75-mile MUP. I figured the shorter drive would also mean less temptation to ride farther than I was really ready for ... So, about two and a half laps. It felt really good to be back on the bike. My back felt okay too - we've really made progress this week, and the couple of twinges I had were easily corrected by changing the tilt of my pelvis. I'm probably going to try another bike path ride or two this week.

The bright side is that I found an ugly crack in the sidewall of my front tire. I've been riding so little that there's plenty of tread left on that front. I'll definitely have to replace it before I get on the road (and I already have a spare, figured I'd need it sooner than later). But it's okay for the bike path I think, and if I can get a couple more miles out of a tire that cost way too much, that's okay with me.

[BikeHN]

Did almost 30 miles today. Did some climbing in the Great Smoky Mountains then did a couple of (10+ miles) loops to add. Beautiful chilly morning.

[Catrin]

Did almost 30 miles today. Did some climbing in the Great Smoky Mountains then did a couple of (10+ miles) loops to add. Beautiful chilly morning.

You made me homesick - grew up in Knoxville, most of my family are in Maryville or Townsend. I didn't ride a bike in those days however. If I can get strong enough hill legs, would love to head down and ride the Foothills Parkway someday :-) Cades Cove, where you took the pictures, certainly, but I love the Parkway. Thankfully my Gunnar has a full mountain bike drivetrain, and this is one of the reasons I had it built that way

Thank you for the pictures!

[lovelygamer]

We did 10.8 today. My first over 10 in one ride.

[murielalex]

^ Congrats!

I did a slow 40 miles today, but was maybe a bit too slow as I got poured on about two miles away from home. I used the opportunity to stop at a cafe and have a happy pigout breakfast. Going to get together with three friends tomorrow morning for a short, social ride, where we'll probably spent most of the time at a local coffee shop making fun of each other.