Weekend Rides?

[Reesha]

Congrats Zen

This morning I went out for a ride with my coach and personal trainer and did 85 miles with around 4000 feet of climbing. I'd been sick W, Th, F, and Sat... so it was a miracle that I was able to do it, let alone hammer the last 20 miles or so. I learned a valuable lesson... eating 4 eggs and a cup of white rice for breakfast is like eating a BRICK before a long ride. I usually eat 3-4 eggs for breakfast on the weekend, just not an hour before working out. It took 3-4 hours for each of those eggs to settle/digest. Totally unpleasant. I did manage all 85 miles subsisting on 4 bottles of accelerade alone... I just couldn't stomach the thought of solid food after those eggs, even though I brought a few larabars with me.

Still, even though I'm really tuckered... it was a great ride. I do need to check with my doctor about renewing my inhaler prescription after 6 years-- some of those steep climbs had at the edge and racing this spring certainly underscored its necessity. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to get a new one.

That's me riding behind Zach.

[Catrin]

Reesha, you look great and Road Trip - congratulations on getting out there

ZenBiker, that just sounds awesome!

[goride]

No ride Saturday. I was saving my legs for a 75 mile organized ride today. There were 7,200 participants spread over 6 distances and routes, with varying start times. Some friends and I rode the 75 mile route, which was the earliest start at 7:00 a.m. The highlight of the ride was at the beginning, and was an opportunity to ride across a 2.5 mile bridge near the city lakefront that is normally closed to bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The bridge was closed to motorized traffic for several hours for this to happen. For the entire ride there was great traffic control, streets (urban, suburban, and country) that were in good riding condition, volunteers at every turn (saw some of them doing some gravel sweeping in a turn as we passed through), ride marshals on bicycles patrolling the route, sag wagons patrolling the route, good rest stops with decent refreshments, etc. The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at mile 48 really hit the spot! On top of that, we had perfect weather – 65 at the start and 79 by the end of the ride, sunny with a few passing clouds, and winds of only 10-12 mph for a change And most importantly of all, I got to ride with good friends!

[ZenBiker]

No ride Saturday. I was saving my legs for a 75 mile organized ride today. There were 7,200 participants spread over 6 distances and routes, with varying start times.

Wow, I thought Little Red was big at 3600 riders - your event was DOUBLE that! Sounds like a great ride.

Reesha and Catrin - thanks!

[Roadtrip]

Thanks Cat!!

[lovelygamer]

Reesha, you are killing it and looking great while doing it. It sounds like everyone had a great weekend of rides.

[goride]

Wow, I thought Little Red was big at 3600 riders - your event was DOUBLE that! Sounds like a great ride.

But your ride was a women only ride, and our ride was mixed, so that probably accounted for a lot of the difference. The name of your ride picqued my interest right away.

[chatnoire]

I'm checking in here, since it seems like a good log/conversation place. (still a TE newbie)

Got in 31 miles today on an organized ride. The ride details put it at 34 miles/2200 feet of elevation gain, but gps put it at 31/1400. No biggie, since it was the biggest/most intense climbing I've ever done.

Feeling pretty awesome about it! I topped out at 38 mph on a downhill, and worked hard to keep my feet in motion for most of the ride, which included some powering through on the last 1/3, including uphills that I passed people on.

Ours was a mixed ride, 7600 people, with 100, 62, 34, 25 and 7 miles routes, and they also do crits the day before, which I would kind of be interested in for next year. I like speed.

[Norse]

Did 61 miles on Saturday out in the horse country, slightly rural West side. For part of the ride I explored a new trail that took me into some real farm country and it was all headwind on the way out but a lovely tailwind on the way back to my rest area. Yesterday just a quick 19 mile jaunt to the Mississippi River and back. It was a beautiful weekend. Next weekend is the MS-150.

[Artista]

Got in 31 miles today on an organized ride. The ride details put it at 34 miles/2200 feet of elevation gain, but gps put it at 31/1400. No biggie, since it was the biggest/most intense climbing I've ever done.

Feeling pretty awesome about it! I topped out at 38 mph on a downhill, and worked hard to keep my feet in motion for most of the ride, which included some powering through on the last 1/3, including uphills that I passed people on.

Hey Chatnoire, I did the same ride. I overestimated the difficulty of Russelville Road and underestimated the hills on the last third of the ride. I used EVERY gear combo on my bike except for cross chaining on that ride!

I was really afraid that Russelville Road was going to result in a 4 hr ride for me. I finished in 2 hr 45 min. I was thrilled. 36 mph on some of the downhills helped my average speed a lot

What time were you there? We started about 9:15 and finished about 12:30.