Weekend Rides?

[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.

[goldfinch]

Crankin, that Guru sure is pretty.

[indysteel]

Sounds like a great day, Crankin. I love all the places that you get to ride to. My area is far less interesting.

DH and I did a 36 miler from home over familiar territory. He was feeling sluggish and I was feeling spry so I pulled a good part of the way. I definitely feel stinger this year thanks to our trip to Utah. I feel like I got my mojo back.

[Fredwina]

Got in about 30 miles before it started to rain pretty bad yesterday. My Nose was acting up today, so I stayed in.

[Catrin]

... I feel like I got my mojo back.

Awesome

I attended a women's mountain bike clinic all weekend, on the bike all day yesterday (drills and a ride) and a 2 hour ride today. Sweet!

[chatnoire]

Fredwina, those pics are lovely!

Got a ride in today! 32 miles, 700 feet of climb. We were going to go with a couple other people and a local club to do a mountain ride, but opted to sleep in instead. The weather was much cooler today, so we rode this afternoon without much trouble. It was great, though it was a bit hazy on the mountains, due to the big fires happening up north. This pic was at the top of our last hill....

[Antaresia]

62km day, all flat this time. Here in the GRVD you hear a lot of complaints about how terrible and boring Richmond is, all I can say is that those complainers have obviously never biked it. We went over the Canada line bridge (there's a bike path on the side, I bike it every weekday as part of my commute) and East on River road, kind of narrow but all waterfront and the traffic isn't too bad. Back over the Westmister hwy to the West side of Rmchomd, and down into scenic Steveston to have some fish & beer. And icecream. Biking back up the West **** trail was SO beautiful.

West **** trail:



The gravel road got annoying fast, but it was worth it.

[Antaresia]

oh my goodness, **** is censored. Lol. Anyway, if you're confused it's this:

Richomond **** trails

[chatnoire]

oh my goodness, **** is censored. Lol. Anyway, if you're confused it's this:

Richomond **** trails

That's hilarious that it's censored. That's a pretty trail though!

[Norse]

Did the MS-150 this weekend from near Duluth to a northern Twin Cities burb. This was my 11th straight year. Except for the first year, which I naively did on a mountain bike this was the most brutal year ever. I thought the constant southerly headwind, which caused my first sub-15 mph average in forever for this ride, on Saturday, was bad. That was a piece of cake compared to yesterday. It was AWFUL!!! Heat (90's) but worst of all - the WIND - the wicked CONSTANT 25-35 mph headwind with gusts over 40 that just about knocked me off my bike more than once and stopped riders dead in their tracks! I have never seen such misery on this ride or so many folks who looked like zombies. People were dropping by the trailside, sides of the road and just sitting, staring blankly. Everyone was joining up with drafting lines but nothing much helped.

On the bright side, riders raised $3 million for the local chapter of the Nat'l MS Society, and it was great training for my upcoming AIDS ride in mid-July - lots of heat training and, thanks to the awful headwind, what was the equivalent of hours and hours of hill climbing work.