July Rides

[khg]

khg ~~ Your blog post is gorgeous, and I am sure it was an amazing ride! We were recently in the Seattle area for the first time for a few days, and the views of Mt. Ranier are indeed breathtaking and surprising! I had NO idea it could be seen from so many places...just stunning. We did not make it to the national park this time, but we are saving it for when we can go back and give it the time it deserves. I can't wait!

Thanks for sharing...

Thanks Emily! If you make a trip to see Rainier, you should try to make room in your itinerary for Mt St Helens too. More mountain spectacularness, and the blast zone from the eruption is hard to even comprehend. And I've heard great stuff about the bicycling on Helens too!

[Raindrop]

I live in the southwestern part of Washington and I've been out riding every day...but in the mornings because I really don't like riding in the upper eighties. (Sure, call me spoiled). Today I got up early to ride and for the first time in ten years I fell. And it was the stupidest fall ever because I simply didn't unclip. I felt a little more than stupid and inept, but I ended up with an amazing scrape tattoo and what will probably result in an amazing bruise. I even posted it on Facebook. Still....I fell a little dumb for falling over in such a manner.

[ny biker]

I live in the southwestern part of Washington and I've been out riding every day...but in the mornings because I really don't like riding in the upper eighties. (Sure, call me spoiled). Today I got up early to ride and for the first time in ten years I fell. And it was the stupidest fall ever because I simply didn't unclip. I felt a little more than stupid and inept, but I ended up with an amazing scrape tattoo and what will probably result in an amazing bruise. I even posted it on Facebook. Still....I fell a little dumb for falling over in such a manner.

I had one of those a few years ago when I leaned the wrong way while clipped in with one foot. I was disappointed that it didn't leave a scar.

(I posted a photo of it here: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=33152)

[Wasp]

We rode part of the Sea to Sky Hwy which connects Vancouver to Whistler BC. Had a blast, but I just don't have the legs to do the entire ride.....yet

[Crankin]

I rode with one of the guys from both of my clubs today. We finally did the route we were going to do the day my shift lever broke in April! I was pissed that my Wednesday group had a ride I really wanted to do, and they are doing it tomorrow, because it will be cooler out. Anyway, I rode 7 miles to meet him, and off we went. Of course, he sent me a GPS file of the ride that started in a different place, my device was going nuts, trying to direct me back to the start so I shut it off. I did restart it just to record the miles, but by that point, I had gone about 10. DH will have to add them in for me. The ride went into Westford, some on roads I've never been on, which is unusual in a local ride. Some of them I recognized from when I used to live nearer to there, when I first moved back here. It seems like a lifetime ago, and I guess it is... 24 years. Others I've been on. It's a really nice and shady ride, which was good, because it's 88 out, with 38% humidity. Not as brutal as yesterday, and there is a breeze. There was one big climb, that I've done before, but I just slowed down to 6-9 mph and I made it without any issues. The only thing I didn't like about this ride was there were 2 uphill stops, one being quite steep and at a busy road. Jack got across, but I had to stop and I had to actually walk across the street, because I couldn't get going. The other one is just a hard to see left turn on a small rise. I don't know why these things bother me, but I go out of my way to avoid them, on my own rides. Once we got through the big climb, though there weren't any others, just some small ones. I felt better today than on Saturday, even though my riding was about the same speed and it's hotter out. I took my inhaler before I left, which I believe helped. I really hate riding in hot weather, but if I don't, I won't get the miles in.
We got back to Ferns, neither of us were hungry, so we sat on the porch and drank iced coffee for about an hour, and then I pedaled off to home. Very glad to get home and eat by that time.
About 42 miles.

[emily_in_nc]

The only thing I didn't like about this ride was there were 2 uphill stops, one being quite steep and at a busy road. Jack got across, but I had to stop and I had to actually walk across the street, because I couldn't get going. The other one is just a hard to see left turn on a small rise. I don't know why these things bother me, but I go out of my way to avoid them, on my own rides.

I would too! I hate uphill stops, and it seems like DH always gets right across as he is usually ahead of me and a bit braver, and I end up having to walk across or cut across the road I'm on to get going again (only if absolutely no cars are around) and then cross. If I know one of these is on a route, I'll go another way to avoid it too. So, I don't think you're strange...or else I am too.

[Crankin]

Yes, and it's even harder for me to negotiate these on my custom bike! The seatpost is higher relative to the pedals and i have to think, just to not catch my shorts on the nose of the saddle, let alone try to push off on a steep uphill. I am not weak in the legs by any means, but I just avoid these. I took my Kuota today, even though I would have appreciated the 2 lower gears on the other bike, on that climb, but I had looked at the route before hand and recognized that one spot which had caused me trouble on a group ride 2 years ago. My DH also thinks nothing of these things, but he's learned that I hate them.

[cosc]

I am a wimp when it comes to getting going on a ascent, even at stops with a headwind.
Last week I had the dumbest of accidents though. My foot slid off my spin bike and I skinned/bruised my shin.

Yesterday I rode a solo 53 mile overnighter to a small town and biked back today after picking up a tractor seal for DH. I'm was very tuckered out when I got home.
Where do some cyclist get energy to go super long miles a day? I'll guess I'll just blame it on my age.

[marni]

Woot! 15.2 mph for 36 miles today in 2:15 in the 80/80% heat and humidity. This at a 7:30 am start. Guess leg pressing 220 lb x 40 per week is starting to pay off. Either that or it is so ****miserable on the road so that all I want to do is get off!

[marni]

You can tell when you have been riding to many days in a row when in the car, you find yourself taking your foot off of the gas pedal 100 feet from to stop light , hoping that the light will change before you come to a full stop or when you find yourself calling out" on your left" to the woman ahead of you in the grocery aisle.

sigh....

[Veronica]

We spent the first two weeks or so of July mountain biking in the Hood River, Mount St. Helens area. At some point I'll have pictures. It was a blast and I came home covered in bruises, so much so that I have had people ask what happened to me. My chiro said it looked like I had been beaten. We don't have much in the way of single track in our immediate area and these trails were a real challenge for me - technical, steep. I only had two falls and those were both in the first few days, but every day I had more bruises. We also "hiked" through a two mile lava tube. That was pretty cool. I say "hike" because it involved a lot of rock scrambling and one section that we had to scale. It had really good hand and foot holds though and was not very tall, maybe ten feet.

Yesterday we took the road bikes out for the first time in forever and rode 30 miles. We actually got rained on a little bit. It doesn't typically rain here until the fall. It was just sprinkles, so the drought is not over. My road bike is SO light! But on every hill I wanted a smaller gear than I had. I think my legs are use to the feel of climbing in my mountain bike gears. It wasn't a big deal that I ran out of gears. I think the steepest climb was 15% and they were super short. My road bike is a compact double so of course the gearing feels different.



I have decided to race tri again in September so this ride was kind of a benchmark ride to see where I am on the road bike. I'm pretty happy with how I felt on the bike and my average speed. It's a good starting place. I'll have different things to day about tomorrow's first run I'm sure. I don't think I've run outside in the last six months.

Veronica

[emily_in_nc]

This morning before our longer road ride we loaded up the Bike Friday panniers and rode the 4 miles over to the recycling place here, since there's no pickup where we're staying. It was a fun little ride and a good warm up for our longer ride. 8 miles for the recycling ride and 39 for the road ride. The wind was finally lighter than it's been recently, and the temperature was lower as well -- 70s! All in all, an excellent day.

Panniers loaded with recycling, plus mixed paper/cardboard strapped on top of DH's rack:

Attachment 17283

[emily_in_nc]

Owie, Raindrop!

I had a similar scrape (not quite as many scratches, though) on the outside of my right calf lately from a stupid fall lately too...I posted about it in another thread about stupid falls! The scraped area swelled up and looked pretty bad for a few days but has healed fast. Hope yours does too!