Weekend Rides?

[Sky King]

Chatnoire - Ouch, glad you are on the mend.

After 7 days of car vacation with much beer drinking and a little fly fishing we went out early on Sunday before the heat. other than feeling the lack of exercise, all was fine until about 5 miles from home. The DH was experiencing testosterone issues and was chasing a "racer type" about 1/4 in front of me when I flatted - ugh. I had already changed said tire prior to the ride as I managed to pick up a goat head on Saturday.
Found a bit of shade and proceeded to change my tire, expecting to see the DH rolling back to find me - nope. So now I was hot, tired and cranky and feeling unloved. Rode home and yelled at him. He said he had turned around but couldn't see me so figured I had gone the alternative route (the one we normally take). Of course I just yelled more as we have an agreement to be group minded and to never go a different direction w/o letting riding partners know. As you can tell I am still a bit irritated. Discovered the flat was due to my patch on my tube failing. Sheesh

[Norse]

Heat and dewpoint finally broke a little bit this weekend. I got in 60 miles on Saturday and 57 yesterday. I feel like I am right where I want to be for my upcoming 4 day, 300 mile Red Ribbon Ride beginning next Thursday.

[Antaresia]

Ugh, it was hot here this weekend, for the first time this summer. I went out with my friend, who was recovering form surgery. He isn't a strong biker but otherwise he's pretty athletic, into running and weight lifting. We did a short, flat ride on the West **** trail.

It's hard to capture the beauty of the place, part of the appeal is the wide open spaces,the marsh, and hazy mountains in the distance. Doesn't really make for good photos though.


The trail


our bikes, taking a break. My friend is taller than I am, his bike is described as 17 inches (my bikes is 21"). We traded bikes for a while, for fun, it felt like I was riding a little kid's bike. I don't know how he does it, but he realizes it's too small and has plans to replace it.


We met some tiny cows. We also saw a bald eagle!


So, this friend isn't a bike guy, so it looks like I have another project : D
When we were heading out, we were comparing speeds and I asked what his PSI was.
"I don't know, 2.5. Or 200, or something"
"that doesn't make any sense to me"
"I'll show you"
so he stops, hauls out his pump, and shows me the point to where he's pumping his tires up.
me: "that's....25. You're pumping up your tires to 25?!"
I checked the side of his tires, it's 65. He didn't quite believe me, but pumps it up to 55, and he can't believe the difference

[sookiesue]

First - Chatnoire, I hope you heal quickly! I love seeing kids on bikes but they do make me wary - I know how unpredictable my own kid is when we're riding together, he has almost taken me out once or twice!

This weekend was my longest ride of the year so far - 55 miles! There was an unexpected detour (a road on the map turned out to be un-bike-able gravel so I had to go 10 miles around!) that took me through some beautiful country. I was a little nervous, though, because my husband and kids were meeting me at a campground that has no cell service, so I couldn't tell him I had the detour. We had set an estimated-time-of-arrival for me, and also an estimated-time-that-you-should-start-worrying-and-come-look-for-me, and I didn't know if I could make it around the detour and back to my planned route by the time he might come looking for me. So, I was trying to ride pretty fast.

Not too many cars passed me on the country road, but one of them had some punk in it who yelled at me and really startled me. It got into my head and I got a bit weirded-out about being off on a little country road, with no one knowing EXACTLY where I was, and then there are lots of loud barking dogs, and aggressive anti-bike people all around (yep, in my head, I know...).

I was telling myself how ridiculous I was being and starting to calm down when I could see up ahead a truck that had pulled off the road, and next to it was a really BIG dog. I figured the dog would be under the control of the people with the truck, so I didn't get too worried about that, but I was a little nervous about the people - were they going to yell at me like that other meanie had? As I pass them, it's a group of youngish (teenage? early 20's?) men. One of them yells, "Hey, you're making good time!" and another one yells "Right on!" Turns out this truck had passed me a while back. They smiled and waved and I smiled back, feeling like all was right with the world again, cycling in the country is awesome, and yes, people are generally decent and kind.

And the dog didn't even look at me.

[chatnoire]

Sookiesue - don't you love it when you get put back into that good head space on your ride? I find I'm really susceptible to that inner dialogue (especially the negative.)

Thanks for the wishes everyone. I find out tomorrow what the plan is for surgery, and other than that, I'm looking into a trainer we can get so I can keep everything else in shape.

[Catrin]

Chatnoire, I hope you are feeling a bit better, sending you gentle hugs and prayers.

They keep teasing us with the possibility of rain and thunderstorms...but keep pushing it back. Sigh. We are under emergency water restrictions and the grass is pure tinder, we so badly need rain.

Headed out for a 12 mile ride to test my recovery. The short ride was nice, overall my average speed was higher than it ever has been and my heart rate lower than expected. Time to start ramping things up again - will head out early tomorrow morning for a longer road ride It was also delightful to ride in cooler temperatures!

[Crankin]

Send those cool temperatures this way, Catrin.
So we were supposed to do the ride we had planned for last Sunday, when my friend spent the night before in the ER due to stomach issues. I woke up today to an email from her DH saying he now had a slightly milder version of what she had . We were up, so we went out at 7:40 AM and did about 22 miles of a slightly different way of one of our local rides. It ended up being flatter than usual in the beginning, as DH was tired from a lot of commuting and we were on main roads. When we turned onto the regular part of this ride, I had lots of energy and ended up going 12 mph up a steep hill. I guess I don't realize how hilly most of the "normal" riding I do is. On the way home, there was a para-cyclist in front of us, who was flying. DH decided he didn't want to draft him, so I had to book it to pass the guy and keep up with DH.
Thankfully, it stayed cloudy and was only about 80 while we rode. It is supposed to be brutally hot and humid tomorrow, when we are going to do the planned ride, which is about 35 miles. We're leaving at 8:30, I am hoping to convince the friends to make it earlier. Right now, it's about 90, sunny, and 45% humidity.
There was an MS ride starting out of Concord today, and the shorter route went right by my street and some of the route I did. That was another reason we went out early.
The heat isn't supposed to break until Wednesday afternoon.