April Rides

[ny biker]

I know someone who led a 72-mile club ride to celebrate his 72nd birthday last year. On the flip side, there used to be a guy in this area who led a group ride of (100 - his age) miles each year for his birthday.

I hope I'm able to ride my age when I'm 65 or 70, even if I don't want to.

[Crankin]

Oh, yeah, I am one of the youngest members of the Wed. group I ride with, and I'm 60. There are a few new people, but they are all at least in their 40s-50s. Some of the strongest riders are at least 65, and a few years ago, I went on a ride led by a guy my father's age . He still rides, at 89, but not with the main group. There is now a splinter group that does Mondays on the bike path or other flat roads.
I did not go on the group ride today; not a particularly wonderful area to ride in for this early in the season, for me. DH worked at home, so we just came back from our go to loop, which is hilly enough. Hit my target average for the first time this season. It's really windy out... sustained 10-15 miles an hour with some gusts. Felt good after the initial climb and false flat on this route.

[Fredwina]

Last night, I did my first group ride since I left California. Mostly meandering around Midtown, and the pace was nothing to brag on, but it did feel good.

[ny biker]

I did my weekly hill ride last night. It was pleasant, not as chilly as I expected it to be.

Lessons learned:
1. the salmon and asparagus sandwich from Whole Foods tastes good, but it's small and not enough of a lunch to get me through an evening bike ride.
2. I should keep a box of cereal bars in my bike bag for days when lunch is not enough to get me through an evening bike ride.

I'm also thinking of moving the ride start from a park near my old office to another park that is farther west. I pass both of them on my route, and the one to the west is closer to my office, which means less time wasted in traffic driving to the ride start.

[pll]

Very happy to get a longish ride today (56 miles and change), my first ride with short sleeves and shorts of 2014! I had a nasty cold this week, which had me down with a fever on Wednesday, so I was pleased to bounce back and be able to ride today. I explored some roads in Maryland, going further NW than I in previous rides. I am not sure how I will handle the summer heat in this part of the country if it can be 76 in April (and 84 tomorrow)...

[Fredwina]

I did about 12 miles last night. This is an old railroad overpass:

I did a bunch of places today and got in 26 miles!

Martyrs Park:


The Civil Rights Museum. The wreath is where Dr. King was standing:



quite literally stumbled across this:

nice rack:

Mid-south Coliseum and the Liberty Bowl:

FedEx on approach to Memphis International:

[pll]

Always love your pictures Fredwina!

[Crankin]

First shorts/short sleeved ride for me, too. I did have arm warmers on for the first 6-7 miles, though. However, I only rode 21 miles. You guys are making me feel bad.
Nice out, about 70 when I got back. Kinda windy. Tomorrow we are riding the new route for our club rally, that we lead in June. It's about 30 miles.

[azfiddle]

I rode Monday, Wednesday, Friday and today this week. Since I started the coaching program this month, I am getting out with a purpose most days: high cadence, standing intervals, etc. It's hardly ever "just a ride"... But it has been good getting out more often. Today's ride was a longer than usual route out to Saguaro National Park, with one 8 mile loop through the park, for 40 miles total. It was warm, but not hot yet in the mornings - and windy.

[Crankin]

No pictures today...
We were supposed to do a test ride of our new AMC bike rally route with our friends, but it was rainy this morning and not so warm. They didn't want to ride in the afternoon, and went to the gym. We waited until 2:00 to leave, and voila, the sun came out and it was 70 at the end of our ride. The ride is fine, but it has a lot more elevation than last year's ride (we have a new start point). It's about 1300 ft of elevation in 29 miles. Not much for most of us, but we get people not used to hills on this ride. There's only one bigger climb, but a lot of rolling stuff. My legs felt much better today after wearing my compression tights for about 5 hours after yesterday's ride. However, one should not eat black beans and veggies before a ride, no matter how small of an amount.
Planning to bag boot camp and do a "dark" ride at 5 AM, since I can't commute tomorrow because I have to go right to my friend's house for Passover after work. Looks like the weather is going to thwart any commuting this week.