July Rides

[ny biker]

How old are you? Unless you are > 60, I am not sure you can blame it on age. My DH is 60 and is having the cycling year of his life...he's put in 7200 miles so far this year with multiple centuries (all unorganized, just on his own) and many more 60+ days.

I don't know how he does it either. I've done a few 70+ mile days this year, but most of my rides are in the 40-mile range. And I'm "only" 53. A lot of it is mental.

A lot is just practice. I ride with people in their late 60s and early 70s. Some of them are still very fast. They ride 4 days a week, sometimes more, can ride 60 miles today and 100 tomorrow. They're able to ride a lot because they've worked up to it.

[Crankin]

Emily, my shorts are definitely not too small... they are x smalls and I've been about the same size since I started cycling, well, at least once i got a road bike. I can't explain it, except that even the most minute differences in geometry bother me and I just feel more comfortable and my skills are all much better on my Kuota. So much for custom. I think for me, if I'm used to it, that's it. So while the Kuota may be a bit scrunched for me, I *like* that feel because I am used to it. Once I am riding on the Guru, I'm fine, and I like the feel of the titanium.
As far as the age thing, I'm 60, but I have always needed more rest than others, it seems. I don't know how some of the people in my groups do it, except perhaps, that riding is all they do! On the other hand, when I've done tours, I can suck it up and do consecutive 40-60 mile days. I could not do 100 in the mix, at least not now, without a little more training. It is mental, to a large degree, and the amount of suffering you are willing to endure. All I know, is that I felt pretty good on my hot and fast for me 42 mile ride yesterday, because I did nothing on Tuesday.

[Jolt]

7-mile round trip this morning to get groceries...so much more fun to do it by bike than driving! Tried out my new Keen Commuter sandals (still with flat pedals)...I think the stiffer sole does help but they actually don't give me quite the same grip on the pedals as my sneakers (slid off a couple of times) so I will probably go order a set of Power Grips today. Tonight is a group ride that will probably be 15-20 miles.

[cosc]

I've put in more miles this year since I'm retired. My biking is still sporadic between the winter and windy days though. I probably need to follow a better training plan to have more endurance and increase speed. The good and bad thing about riding alone is you don't have to push yourself. I've participated in tours this summer where I am always at the tail-end. Keeping up with some riders would be great, but still enjoy what I can accomplish.(However slow)!

[emily_in_nc]

As far as the age thing, I'm 60, but I have always needed more rest than others, it seems. I don't know how some of the people in my groups do it, except perhaps, that riding is all they do! On the other hand, when I've done tours, I can suck it up and do consecutive 40-60 mile days. I could not do 100 in the mix, at least not now, without a little more training. It is mental, to a large degree, and the amount of suffering you are willing to endure. All I know, is that I felt pretty good on my hot and fast for me 42 mile ride yesterday, because I did nothing on Tuesday.

Yes, my DH pretty much only does cycling; he's retired and rides 6-7 days a week. He also has a mental attitude that borders on OCD about mileage since he decided this was going to be his big cycling year.

I know I do better, like you, after a day of rest. I've been riding almost every day, but I took yesterday off and felt much more chipper on my 40-mile ride today. I really like 40 milers. They are long enough so you feel like you did something and burned enough calories that you can treat yourself to something yummy, but not so long that you're ruined for the rest of the day and possibly into the next.

[Crankin]

I commuted on Friday.
Yesterday I went with the other leader who is doing a ride with me in Mystic, CT, to do a test run. Of course, without DH, I felt slightly guilty, leaving him all day to recover from his injury. He was busy, though, took his bike to the shop for a checking out, and ordered a new helmet. Anyway, it takes 1.5 hrs. to get to Mystic and we got a late start. We added on 10 or so miles to the ride from last year, as people loved the ride, but didn't like driving so far for a 30 mile ride. We started at 11:30 and it was HOT. Part of this ride is along the coast or the Mystic River and part goes through Stonington Center, Mystic, Groton, and inland through some farm and wine country. It really is nice. So, the part we added on is a loop through west Mystic/Groton. This is all by the ocean, and on the way back out of the peninsula, there are 2 extremely steep short climbs, up to the main road. Then, there were 3 long, less steep climbs back into Mystic. My friend has a bike with higher gearing, that he always says he needs to change, but he hasn't and he was lagging quite badly. Finally, I got in the lead up the climbs, but it was tough.We also had a shorter, very steep climb about 2 miles before the end, as we decided to include this instead of a scary uphill left turn at a light, in lots of traffic. All I can say, is that Lamar better screen the participants carefully, because there was 2,175 feetof climbing; sometimes people get fooled about riding along the coast, thinking it's flat.
This morning, I got up early and went out for a short 10 mile recovery ride through Concord center. So nice to be out when it's cooler.
ETA: And, when I awoke at 5:40 AM today, I was greeted with an email, inviting me to join the "Free As In Beer" cycling group. It's a rag tag group of leaders from a few groups, most I know. I said OK, as I meet their requirements, and these people are funny and down to earth. However, I'll probably never be able to join them, due to my schedule, but I have a few opportunities this summer. I hope I can figure out how to use the Google Group stuff. The list manager said the reason for the name of the group is too arcane to remember.

[emily_in_nc]

Yesterday just rode to the farmer's market and Grocery Outlet on the Bike Fridays, then back with the big haul -- 8.3 miles.

Today did a 33.4 mile loop out in the country before it got too hot. Today's forecast high is 105, but I got back when it was "just" 94. With the low humidity here, it feels cooler than the temp, such a change from the southeast, where the humidity made it feel hotter than the actual temp. I prefer this!

Looks like we're in for 100+ highs until Friday, when we get a couple of days with highs in the mid-90s. That will actually feel cool in comparison...how strange!

I only need 43 miles to make 4000 for the year, so that's my goal for tomorrow.

[ny biker]

Emily, I did not realize that it gets so hot in Washington state.

Re: riding day after day, I think another aspect of it is pace. If you ride a moderate pace that you can sustain without feeling tired at the end, I would think you'd be better able to feel good riding again the next day. I say "I would think" because I haven't actually tested this theory. But I do know that when I ride on my own or with faster riders, I generally start out fast and then slow way down toward the end because my legs get achy and tired. When I ride with friends who do lots of touring, we usually ride a more steady pace that seems slow to me. But at the end of either type of ride, my average speed is not very different, but I feel better after the steady pace rides.

Anyway, I rode about 35 miles yesterday with a few friends. I designed the route, and it was supposed to be 49 miles in all, but one friend didn't feel well after about 28 miles so we took a short cut back to the start. She said she took a salt tablet, and the only other time she's ever taken these particular tablets she also felt sick. But her main problem was a fast heart beat, which I don't see on the list of symptoms when I do a search on "hypernatremia." She also thought there was caffeine in the salt tablets, so maybe that caused the problem. Anyway, it was also hot and humid, so we stopped for a long time in the shade and took our time finishing the ride, and afterwards we gave her ice packs that a couple of us had in coolers in our cars, and she drank lots of water and ate some mixed nuts, and we sat in the shade while waiting for a family member that she called to drive her home. Her heart rate returned to normal, but she still felt weak and fuzzy-headed until about 5 hours later, which was also about the time she started to pee a lot. So I don't know exactly what was in those tablets, but we all agreed she should throw the rest of the them away.

I was actually happy to cut the ride short, since I had just returned from 8 days vacation in California and I was very tired from jet lag. My legs felt pretty weak when we first started the ride, and we were maintaining a pretty good pace so I was feeling tired by the time we were halfway through our planned route. It would have been one of those start fast/end slow days for me even if my friend had been feeling fine. And it felt hotter than the weather forecast had indicated, maybe because it had been hot in California but not nearly as humid.

Today I took advantage of Trek's annual TdF sale and bought new water bottle cages for my bike. There's nothing wrong with the old ones, but they are black, and I think white ones will look better with the plum handlebar tape that I recently got for my new handlebars. I'm planning to donate the old handlebars to the nonprofit bike shop that works with local teenagers, so I'll probably donate the black bottle cages to them, too.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, I did not realize that it gets so hot in Washington state.

I didn't either, being from NC and spending most of my life there. And most of what you hear about Washington focuses on the Seattle area, where it is indeed cool much of the time -- though they're having a heatwave at the moment too.

When we started researching coming out here for the summer, we discovered that Washington has a very different climate depending on whether you are east or west of the Cascades. West of the mountains it's much cooler, rainier, and more humid because of the marine influences from the Pacific Ocean. East of the Cascades is actually "high desert", dry, sunny, and hot in the summer -- it has a "Mediterranean" climate.

My DH loves hot and sunny weather, so that's primarily why we're here. The road cycling is excellent, with roads of lightly traveled farm roads in the valley, and challenging hill climbs in the hills/foothills surrounding Walla Walla if you're so inclined. The scenery is gorgeous.

I have a lot of rides like the type you mention, where I start off fast (riding with DH), feel great, and end up riding solo and slow at the end. DH rides more miles than me, so we usually split up on the return trip so he can do longer loops, and I can get done sooner than him. Some of the sluggishness near the end of the ride is due to the heat building up during the ride just making it harder, but sometimes I don't eat or drink enough during the ride, and I trying to work on that.