May 17 Weekend Rides

[Catrin]

I KNOW there are others riding, and far more than I, so I will start.

Rolled out of my front door into a foggy morning, just after it was light enough to be considered "day", with all lights and blinkers going. After tweaking my grips a bit, I duplicated my ride from Monday and while one of my traps were complaining a bit, I didn't have the strange nerve pain in my forearm. My fit still needs addressed I think, but it was nice to see my efforts made a difference.

Lovely 14.5 mile ride though an empty park - lots of deer sightings, and I mean a LOT! It was beautiful riding on the road through the woods and seeing streams of sunlight cutting through the fog in the woods - it was worthy of a painting - but I didn't stop to take a picture. It was enough to enjoy it and let it go.

[thekarens]

Yesterday while my partner was mountain biking I decided to join our club out on a road ride. I ride with the no drop group. About 7 miles in we always regroup and the leader always says, "now is the time to start thinking about whether you want to do 20, 25, 35 or 40 miles. Normally I'm lazy and do 25. But this time Barb, one of the great ladies in the club, looked at me and told me, you're doing 35. Since I had been so informed 35 it was.

I was glad I did it. This route had more country roads and less feeder roads. There were still pretty wildflowers along the route. The only bad part was we had a head wind on the way back. Still, I managed an average of almost 14 mph. Traveling time was 2.5 hours. There was 40 minutes of regroups and one rest stop.

[Crankin]

I am trying to get myself ready for a hilly metric on June 9th. Much to my distaste (and usual course of action), because it is still earlier in the season than I would usually do something like this, I've been semi-training. Yesterday I did a 50 mile ride (first of the year) to Bolton Country Store with my DH.The way there is very hilly, and we were very conservative in our speed. It's almost exactly 25 miles to the orchard by the way we ride, and we had a sandwich there, deciding to skip the ice cream, for obvious reasons. The way back features a 3 mile climb of a moderate grade almost immediately after leaving the store, and it's unshaded. Thankfully, it was partly cloudy out, as it was about 75 and I am just starting to acclimate to the warmer temperatures. Once we got into Harvard Center, we stopped and rested for about 5 minutes, and then it's another short, but annoying climb to a big downhill, and then heading back through some of the local roads we usually ride on. Once we got here, we stopped and I ate the remainder of my Lara Bar. I'm trying to be better about eating and noticing my thrist/hunger. We picked up the pace a little, and when we were just about to start going up this little climb that always "gets" me near the town line of Acton and Concord, a young girl passed us, quite abruptly. Then, however, she slowed down a lot. We stayed on her wheel, as I was conserving my energy, but I think she was surprised. She turned off and we continued on toward home, through West Concord and Concord center, where we realized that we were going to be just short of 50 miles, so we rode a couple of extra miles, to achieve 50.21 miles, with 3,500 feet of climbing. Ouch. My moving average speed for the second half of the ride was 1.5 mile faster than the beginning. DH headed out to catch a plane to the UK and I went to dinner at a friend's house.
Today I met same friends at 10:30 to do the "Cycle of Sight" ride, which was a charity ride we used to do, but the Acton Lions decided it was easier to do a golf tournament to raise money! I rode 8 miles to meet them and then we set off through Sudbury, Lincoln, Wayland, and Weston, where we stop for lunch. On the way there, we ran into riders from the "family" ride on a charity ride for the Brain Tumor Society. Oy, kids weaving all over the road, and lots of adults who clearly were out of their league... I caught them when I was going up a hill and it was scary. Thankfully, by the time we finished lunch, most were done. We rode by the the start/finish of this ride and people were cheering for us, but we rode on. Anyway, the next part of this ride features a climb that I dislike intensely, mostly because I've had some bad car altercations here. That was OK, but my legs are dead today. The rest of the ride takes us through Hanscom AFB, back into Concord center, and then home. My toal was 39.6 miles today, not sure of elevation. I am really tired, but feel like I am making good progress. I've only ridden 531 miles this year, which seems like nothing, even though I've been riding pretty regularly. I did notice that today, I rode my Kuota, and because I was tired, I am missing the lower gears on my Guru. The Kuota is a triple, but has less gears on the rear than the set up on my other bike. I don't want to get too used to that, but I do use that bike on days like yesterday when I do a lot of climbing. I felt like I was struggling a little on the hills today, but I'll chalk it up to dead legs.

[Owlie]

I did 30 miles today with two of the other people from work. It was a somewhat rushed ride, since one is incapable of being on time and we were all working the morning shift. Longest ride on my own road bike this year, and my knee isn't freaking out. A good time was had by all.

[BikeDutchess]

We had signed up to ride the Cycle Salt Lake Century (the metric option) yesterday, but when we woke up it rained, and rained, and rained. So we skipped it. Didn't want a repeat of the cold & soggy Salt Lake City Marathon ride. I heard later conditions were definitely less than ideal, some folks had hypothermia. My daughter and I decided to ride the CSLC route today instead, and it was gorgeous!

Only one flat

Untitled by DutchRosie, on Flickr

And a beautiful day of riding

Untitled by DutchRosie, on Flickr

I haven't been getting my TITS this season, and I sure felt those 70 miles. I may have to rethink my Little Red distance!

[gocard]

I did a nice 26 mile ride today in the Shoreline area in perfect 70 degree weather. I've been looking for a way to get to more of the CA Bay Trail from the south bay, but I always get stopped by the gravel paths. I wish they were paved but maybe I'll have to come back with a mountain bike or look for other ways to access more of the Bay Trail on my road bike.

[Skippyak]

I did a sprint tri and as dutchess said, it was rainy around SL, and cold in American Fork. It was so cold waiting to get into the pool and my ride was really hampered by the rain (note to self, take gloves next time, I was slipping off the hoods because it was so wet) my bike time was not too bad for me (my 2nd ever tri and a real noob), but I couldn't do the descent anywhere near normal speed, the first waves out of the pool were luckier. I did an hour's ride tonight after today's rain and it was lovely.

[TrekDianna]

I only did a short 20 mile on Sunday. I had too much debris to pick up from having 4 trees cut down in the yard.

[Becky]

Does Thursday night count as "the weekend"? I'm gonna count it

Thursday: 17 mtb miles with some seriously strong, fast girls. This was after 10 days off the bike due to vacation.....ouch!
Friday: 13 singlespeed mtb miles. We were riding with a less-experienced rider (who's really fit otherwise), so it wasn't as fast as Thursday, but a darn good workout. I need to put a suspension fork on that bike so that I can ride it more places.
Saturday: 17 rolling commuter miles on the urban assualt bikes. I love that bike, but it's darn heavy. Great for training!

It rained here Sunday, so I went to yoga and made it a recovery day.

As much as I'm loving mountain biking right now, I'm really looking forward to some long road rides sometime soon. C'mon, 3-day weekend!!

[Trek-chick]

Did 12 on the road bike Sat. and finally got DH to go for a ride with me on the railtrails...we did 18 miles It is so nice to ride with someone, as I usually go by myself.

[luvmyguys]

First attempted century on Saturday. Oy.

Literature said that rider services ended at 3 (ride start at 7:30). I thought that meant I had to get to the last stop by 3, which I could have done, even with the 17 mph wind (with gusts to 25-30 mph). Minus the wind, I probably could have even gone all the way and gotten back by 3. But when they said, "Rider services stop at 3", what they really meant was, "Your car gets towed at 3" (ride start was at a (car) racetrack).

The first 1/3 went pretty well, except for the stuff that went flying out of my top tube bag on a steep, bumpy descent. The pace was good, but I was starting to get nervous about nutrition with the short breaks we were taking (I was eating whenever I could). We hit the next 1/3 of the route, and that's when the headwinds hit pretty hard. We completely lost our pace, and even after we hit the downwind section, I couldn't keep up a pace needed to make up for the miles that we'd be going into the wind - I was starting to wear out. At this point, one of the coaches was being hit with an epidemic of flat tires, and one team member wiped out on a sharp curve on a downhill and was sagged straight to the hospital (she was okay, fortunately). There was one point of no return, which I was to pass twice. I figured I could get to it the second time, and at least get 85-90 miles in. I hit that second stretch of headwinds, however, and I think I just bonked at about 66 miles (not knowing what bonking feels like, I think I bonked). I stopped once, and then I got back on the bike and went at a pathetically slow pace (still headwinds at this point). I got to one light and saw that the cops directing traffic were starting to pack it in. I got a ride with one of the SAG drivers, who took me to the next rest stop, where dh was - I think this was about 1:30 or so. I thought maybe I'd rest for a few minutes, and try to make it to that point of no return, which wouldn't have been too far. The rest stops were starting to dump ice and pack things in, and once I sat down, I realized that my head was spinning. I called it at that point. I at least made the metric century point, right? I wish I could have at least made a new mileage high, even if I didn't get the 100 done.

I was pretty disappointed - I keep asking myself if I had just hit a wall, and should I have gone on?

So I have a score to settle with that 100 mile mark. Next opportunity will be in July, so I'm aiming for that one. I'll take a break as we go on vacation, and then get back to it when I get back.

[Catrin]

Sounds like some great time was had by all!

Luvmyguys - congratulations on your accomplishment! A metric isn't a small mark, and there is a world of difference between a metric and imperial century. It sounds like you did exactly what you needed to do, and it might have been different without those headwinds. Headwinds take a lot of energy and bonking can become dangerous. That milestone is still out there waiting for you - and I've the same milestone still waiting for me

[ZenBiker]

Saturday was windy and generally unpleasant so that was an indoor trainer day. Sunday was sunny, though still a little windy and cool. Did 30 miles, flat to rolling with one short hill. Although I was grumbling a little as I started out and the wind was making my jacket snap as I pumped up tires, it felt great and I was glad I did it.

[Giulianna23]

Had a social ride scheduled last Friday had to cancel due to heavy rain. Went on a 25 mile ride with a group in Fishers Saturday....nice group and ride but the streets get very busy at certain spots so you gotta be very alert. It does not bother me to much because I usually commute to work and I am kinda used to the traffic. Then on Sunday had a very nice 18 mile ride that I organized . It was a small group of 5 but we had the best time ever...the ride was early in the morning at 9:00 a.m. and through back country roads around my area. A pretty nice ride with some nice rolling hills, some climbs and downhills that gives you in a short period of time a nice overall workout. There were hardly any winds and the roads were empty and peaceful . It was like everyone stayed at home to let us have the roads for ourselves. We even saw a few Turtles crossing the roads like even they knew it was safe to cross...LOL. After that in the afternoon spent some time with the family at Eagle Creek park and even scored about 7 more miles riding with the family. I can't complain I had a very good riding weekend.

[AppleTree]

Did the Haul Ash Ride (to commemorate the eruption of Mt. St. Helens) from Redhook brewery to Freemont - a 42 mile round trip. Sounded like a nice social ride, all on the bike trail, relaxed pace, etc. Only they let loose about 1000 riders on the trail all at once. Crazy-ness ensued... I will never do that again. I was behind a woman in the midst of all that talking on her freaking cell phone... The mid-point stop was a pub into which said 1000 riders tried to pack in all at once, and they wouldn't let you out of if you had any kind of a drink in your hand. I have issues being in a place that packed in and noisy for very long.

But, we were very fortunate with the weather, it threatened rain a few times, but never really did, stayed cool and overcast, perfect riding weather. And as crowded as it was, I managed to get a 13.5 mph, which is good for me!

Sunday was the antidote... we went out by ourselves on the Centennial Trail. It was like heaven, quiet and only a few other bikes. Although it did sprinkle a bit on us, I didn't care, and did a peaceful 16 miles of beautiful country riding.

Luvmyguys, 66 miles is no small thing, congratulations are due!