Weekend Rides?

[chatnoire]

funkbunny, I dunno...we're you wearing all black and riding a blue and silver or black bike? I don't normally pay attention to people that I pass or those who pass me. I think that I was very aware of her, (maybe you), because I couldn't imagine riding in the heat dressed in all that black. I passed her right before we got back to the fair grounds, though. I'll bet the poor thing got overheated and slowed down

I think that they used to offer a 1/2 century route on the E Rock before the metric century distance got popular. I doubt that they'll bring the 50 miler back. We can expect the locals to be only so patient with intersection delays waiting for all of us cyclists. Besides, your secret is out. Chatnoire says that you can do the metric century!

Speaking of Chatnoire, I'll do the E Rock again if I can come to the wedding!

She can totally do the 62. She's doing one with us in July, already.

[chatnoire]

Hahahaha, weekend, yay! Guess who learned the importance of a patch/repair kit on today's ride? 9 miles in, no kit, got to sit and wait for everyone to finish and come get me with the car. I'm ready now though, have a full kit, strapped to my seat, spare tube, etc. woo!!!

PS: I love my bike shop. They love me too, it seems, since every time I go in I drop a load of $$

[indysteel]

I didn't ride today. My legs needed a break. But yesterday, DH and I took the afternoon off and went mountain biking. It was my first time out since returning from Utah and my first time on our local trail since last fall. The ride went well. I did a trail new to me and handled it well. I still find myself more breathless mtbing than I ever do on the road, even on road climbs. I think part of it is that I'm a masher on my road bike, but tend to spin a bit more on my mtb. I think some cadence drills are in my future.

It's funny how much my perspective has changed in my first year of mountain biking. We did some downhills in Utah that were seriously steep (at least to me) so the descents that scared my last year on my local trails don't bother me a bit now. Still, I always experience quite a bit of anticipatory anxiety before I hit the trail. I need to build up some confidence. I wish, too, that we could get out to the trails more often. It's hard to balance it, road biking and all the other stuff we like/have to do.

[Crankin]

Indy, I never wanted to give up my road biking time to get better at mountain biking, and that's what I never got better!
Yesterday, I did a short 17 mile ride in the afternoon, before going into the city for dinner and theatre, where I showed my DH some new roads I discovered while riding with one of my clients. There were severe storms coming in, and we took more time than needed because I kept hearing a click, every time I turned the pedal and I could feel something weird in my right pedal. After 3 stops, checking everything, shoes, cleats, pedals, we discovered 1) my front QR was loose and I have no idea how that happened, 2) my right pedal had something wrong with it, even though it didn't seem loose, and 3) my brakes were not working correctly. The brakes got fixed on the road, we continued the ride and about 6 miles from home it started thundering. We got home just as the first drops of rain were falling.
Today, DH rode my bike to try and figure out what was wrong with my pedal, before he ordered new ones. When he went to take it off, it was a little loose. All he had to do was tighten it a bit and all was good. We did a 21 mile ride into Westford and Chelmsford and back. It's a really pretty local ride, with enough climbing to make you work, but a stretch in the middle that is flat.
Tomorrow, hoping to do 50+, riding up one of the steepest local climbs and then having a picnic lunch on the grounds of the winery we ate at last week.

[lovelygamer]

We did 13.2 today in a shady wooded area. It was a great loop and my longest ride.

[azfiddle]

It's all weekend time for me right now (summer vacation!). Does Friday count? Yesterday I rode 31 miles, up to Molino Basin on Mt. Lemmon, with 2500 feet of climbing. I'm the slowest person up the mountain, but love coming back down.

This morning the alarm went off at 5:30, but we had been at a concert and after-party for the performers until 1 am. Just no way we were going to do 40 miles on 4 hours of sleep. So now that it's starting to cool down, we're heading out for a sunset ride at Saguaro NP. And maybe a gelato run afterwards!

[Crankin]

We rode to the Nashoba Winery in Bolton, in a round-a-bout way, going up one of the steepest local climbs I do. The winery itself is at the beginning of a long hill, but we actually went down that street for about a quarter of a mile.
You can pre-order a picnic lunch on line, so it was ready when we got there. We sat on a lovely porch, overlooking the winery and pretended we were in Italy! Lunch was delicious (I had a mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwich on a baguette) and the place was mobbed, with people who came out to the "country" for a day.
Poor DH had something wrong with his bike the whole way. It was either the front derailleur or the chain, so when we got close to home, we stopped at the LBS and they put a new chain on. It's very rare that my DH brings his bike to someone else to do the work. They were having a BMC demo day there, and there were lots of racer boy types hanging out.
The picture is from after we left the winery, at the bottom of the hill, where we could look up and see the vines. 43 miles, with about 1500 ft. of climbing.