august rides

[marni]

50 miles yesterday at 14.9 mph and temps in the high 80's. 38 miles today at 95 = and a5.9. The heat is making me strong. or I am so miserable that I am riding faster just to get out of it! And lets not even mention the sweat rings all over the garage and the humidity.

[Jolt]

40 miles today, average speed 13.4 mph, with a climb of Mt. Agamenticus (not really a mountain, but a good sized hill in the town of York). Elevation gain on the road up Mt. A is 896 feet, average 10% grade but up to 14%. Pretty small stuff compared to the climbs some of you do, but was a challenge for me. I was in my lowest gear most of the way, but didn't have to get off and walk. Need to remember the bug spray next time...there were lots of those annoying small bugs that like to fly right in one's face, and I couldn't go fast enough up the hill to drop them! On the way home a thunderstorm blew through so I ducked into a little farmstand store which had all kinds of good stuff; I had a raspberry-oatmeal square, an all-natural soda and tried some of their cheeses, jams and salsas that they had out for sampling. I will definitely have to go back there prepared to bring some things home. Once the storm had passed, the rest of the ride home was pretty uneventful although I have some tweaking to do on the bike since getting the thick-soled cycling shoes which required me to raise the saddle about an inch...my neck and upper back were getting uncomfortable either from a) having more weight on my hands because the saddle is now higher in relation to the bars, or b) having a little more reach because I did not move the saddle forward at all when I adjusted the height. I had no such discomfort before the shoe/resulting saddle height change, including on my 50-miler two months ago which I did in my very thin-soled Merrells, so I know that is the culprit. If tweaking saddle position doesn't solve the problem I guess the next step will be a stem with a little more rise, which will be annoying since I just changed the stem this spring (when I got the bike).

[emily_in_nc]

We've had a windy few days, and although the temperatures have been more reasonable, I think I prefer the heat and light winds to this. At least I haven't had a flat for the past few days.

Yesterday: 52.2 miles
Today 36.6 miles

Tomorrow -- utility ride to recycling place, farmer's market, and grocery. Short and sweet!

[Raindrop]

I must be a lightweight these days because you are all doing a whole lot more than me. I try and get out in the mornings before I have appointments, but even then, I only average about 26 miles a day.

My high point this week? My son is going through a divorce and I only get to see my grandkids for 1 1/2 days one week, and 3-4 days the next. Well, I often ride on the other side of our city and i was riding past a park where I knew the grandkids sometimes went with their babysitter. (no, I'm not a stalker). Anyway, I glanced down to the playground structure and saw several small children with some adults. As I rode closer I saw my grandson and his babysitter, (after seeing it wasn't "stranger-danger') yelled, "Hey! It's Bobbi! (My grandmother name)....Both kids (my grandson and my grand-daughter came running over. Hugging me they said, "yuck! you're really sweaty". The babysitter asked why I was so far from home and I just told her that the east side of town was more bike friendly in that there are a lot of bike lanes. My side of town has older roads with huge drop-offs and a lot of people that don't really like it if you take your lane,

Anyway, seeing my "angels" on an off day was sweet!!!

Adding that my picture is my grandson!

[shootingstar]

Sounds like your grandchildren really enjoy seeing you, Raindrop.

Perfect day today --bright, sunny and around 25 degree C with a slight cool light breeze. Cycled 45 km. Did some light grocery shopping midway, stopped off from bike path route to a local science centre for a huge cup of coffee and on way back, near home, stopped at street festival. I stopped the first time this year just to look around. Other years I passed this annual festival on bike. This year, it appears a much bigger event which is great to see since the area was damaged by the flood last year.

[Crankin]

I did a 37.5 mile ride from Acton to Bolton Farms for lunch, and back. My friend changed the first part of the ride from what DH and I usually do, and today it was 2 climbs I haven't done in ages (the first since last year and the second, I only remember doing it once, during my first year of riding). The weather was lovely, about 84, light breeze, and thankfully, becoming cloudier after lunch, when there's a moderate 3 mile climb that is not shaded. DH had worked on my bike a bit before I left and there were some shifting issues, but nothing bad happened. However, when I got home, he went to look at it and realized both of my bikes needed new chains. While he was "testing" to see what was wrong with the shifting, he got on my bike and rode it around the driveway; first ride since his crash. He felt good and may go out with me tomorrow. His 6 week check is Monday, and he knows the doctor will still say September, but he is getting antsy and frankly, we know people that have been back on the bike 3 weeks post surgery.
Anyway, my ride had just under 1,900 ft. of climbing and I am ready for the Mojitos DH is making.

[roo4]

About 24 miles of sharply rolling hills. Average speed was 13.7. I added a couple of miles by climbing the dreaded Bait Shop Hill, which I had never done before. Turns out it was steep, but short. Much shorter than the beast that loomed in my imagination. Take that, beast!

[cosc]

Cons: Headwinds for the first 3 days.
Putting tent up in the rain on the 1st day. A wet night in the tent.
3 nights of shredded pork or beef sandwiches.

Pros: Beautiful scenic country including flats-rolling hills-steeper hills, corn, soybean, sunflower, and flax fields-many small to large lakes and the Missouri river.
Around 200 great people
Very good support
Bike ride averaged 67 miles per day.
A loop ride.

I went solo to this N. Dakota ride and had a fun week. The route was close to the Missouri River. The cons were mostly controlled by Mother Nature. Tent service is available and I would of paid a lot for it the rainy evening.
Port-a-potties are adorned with geese dressed in their finest apparel. A beautiful thing in the middle of the prairie!
I'll try to get out of my comfort zone to attach some pictures.

Fun rock-n- roll rest stop with yummy oatmeal with all the fixings:


Port-a-Potty on the prairie:



North Dakota roads are rumble strip happy with a middle strip too. Blue is a beautiful flax field that looks like water.


My tent at fairgrounds with abandoned carnival rides:




Sunflower field with Missouri River in background:

[cosc]

A few more pics to share:

Close to Bismark with low ground fog over river :




Quad riders that have participated in many Candisc tours.



Celebration at the end:

[Crankin]

I rode 19.5 miles with 2 of my riding friends from the 2 clubs I belong to. I just am losing the will to drive far for a group ride. So, one of these guys doesn't drive and lives near me and is usually a willing riding partner. The other lives in Cambridge and comes out here to ride. He's about 76, and had a bad crash 2 years ago. Since then, he can't ride more than 25 miles, and he said he's working on "not trying to ride at 18." Thing is, he says he gets exhausted, and he is really struggling on hills. We paced him, riding at an average of 13.5 and he still was struggling on the hills. I am wondering if he's having cardiac issues and doesn't know it. Anyway, it was fun, though. Was getting quite hot, got to 91 yesterday, so we stuck to our little loop in Concord and then went for coffee when we got back to where he was parked. I kind of wanted to ride longer, but, the heat and having stuff to do on my day off made me ride home!

[ny biker]

I think you should try to bring up the possibility of cardiac issues with your friend, just to be safe.

I rode 20 miles after work last night. The guys at my LBS are beyond awesome. They replaced the broken spoke, trued the wheel, and also replaced the cable to the rear derailleur after I had mentioned that it's been needing more adjustments than usual lately. It's now shifting beautifully. Since my usual post-work route is ~20 miles from the LBS, I rode a different route last night, which included portions of some other rides I've done before. It was very dark for the last 10 miles (very few streetlights), so it's a good thing I knew where I was going. Also a good thing that I had just changed the battery on the headlight that's on my helmet, because I needed it to read the cue sheet.

[Crankin]

DH took today and tomorrow off and I don't start my Thursday clients until 9/11. Had all intentions of doing a 40-50 mile ride and I woke up feeling like a truck hit me. Who knows why. My weird autoimmune/allergy stuff has been acting up this summer, but since I know the drill, I push on, at least in a modified way! We ended up doing a more local route, that goes into Westford and Chelmsford for a bit and then stopped at Ferns for lunch on the way back. DH put a new chain on my bike a few weeks ago and I have had issues since, despite him fiddling with it continually. After the second "shift by itself" incident, of course, on a hill, and the third time we had to stop, he found the correct fix and it's finally back to normal. Yesterday I dropped my chain making a left in traffic and I could not get it to go back on with the "put it in the high gear" trick, so I actually had to pull off the road and lift the rear of the bike and spin the pedals to get it to move.
We sat at Ferns for quite a while; it got cloudy and was feeling a bit cool for the last 7 miles home, but it was fine. Actually averaged over 15, so, in the end, a good ride of 23 miles.
I am going to take a day off from riding tomorrow, probably hike in the afternoon, after I am done with work.

[Crankin]

Awesome ride to the Fruitlands in Harvard, MA today. It has to be perfect weather... 73 degrees, breezy, no humidity. DH did his first post surgery ride with bigger climbs, including Oak Hill. We are kind of experimenting for our Portugal tour, and we went at touring pace! We rode about 17 miles, ate lunch at the restaurant at the Fruitlands, where the view is outstanding, but we were surrounded by loud women, having lunch! This is where I have often seen the Red Hat group, but, it was just various random groups of people who had fun staring at our bike clothes. We went home a more direct way, past our old house, where the trees DH and DS #2 planted are totally mature. Total ride was about 37 miles, with 2,000 feet of climbing.