November Rides?

[Owlie]

I came THIS close to finally getting back on the bike today...but am not quite ready so went trail running instead. Perhaps next weekend It IS starting to sound attractive again however, and that is a good thing. Reading about the weekend adventures is helping a lot! Something rather traumatic happened a month ago that I am going to eventually post about that took me off the bike for a time. I've written 4 posts about it here, and deleted every one of them

(((Catrin))) Your bike will still be there. They're remarkably patient.


Did 19.3 miles today. I should not be this sore. I feel like I'm starting from scratch with every ride. I really should take the Charge out one of these days, since I got the brakes fixed.

[ny biker]

Damn it was cold out there today. The thermometer in my car said it was 50 degrees but that cold NW wind made it the coldest 50-degree day I've felt in a while.

I had originally planned to do a 30-mile club ride this morning, but when I checked the hourly forecast last night it showed temps in the mid-30s at start time, so I didn't bother to set the alarm. I figured I would do a short hilly ride close to home in the afternoon instead. When I woke up I found that the temps had not dropped as much as predicted overnight and I could have done the club ride. Oh well. Then I decided that instead of staying here in Arlington I would drive over to Maryland to ride in a nice rural area near the Patuxent River. I mapped out a 29-mile route, tried and failed to get my printer to print the cue sheet, hand-wrote the cue sheet and finally headed out around 2 pm. By the time I got to the ride start and began the ride, it was almost 3:00.

I tried something new today -- instead of wearing shorts under my tights I wore some old Shebeest knickers. My hope was that my legs would be warmer with the inner layer extending down below my knees. It definitely did help keep the cold out. I also wore my Showers Pass jacket with two layers underneath, and a wool cap under my helmet. Unfortunately I was still a bit cold. For the first half of the ride my legs were cold, and for the second half my legs were okay but my torso and ears were cold. I ended up altering the route as I rode and shortened it to 20 miles. Despite the chill, I was glad I made the effort.

I really need to get into the habit of riding indoors during the week in order to stay in shape for any weekend outdoor rides I manage to do this winter. I'm going to start this Tuesday night. I'm committing to it here so that you can all shame me if I give in to the laziness.

I also really need to start the cold weather rides earlier, around noon or 1:00, to take advantage of the sun while it at its highest.

[emily_in_nc]

Forgot to report on my week's rides. Before it got so incredibly frigid the last few days, DH and I did a couple of week-day rides last week. First one was a really short seven miler. The following day was MUCH better, though it was still quite windy. We rode the Indian Creek Trail west to the terminous in Olathe, around several detours/construction and back, stopping to run a couple of grocery errands at the end before heading home. Total mileage was over 46 and over 4 hours of saddle time (urban riding on mountain bikes is not fast). Fortunately, we had the wind to our back most of the way home, or I may have fallen by the wayside. It was an intense but good day!

Here I am, literally at the end of the trail. Kinda abrupt stop to it with no signage at all!

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