November Rides

[marni]

clocking in another 46 miles today. Can't saythe speed is great because of the headwinds. but it is dry, cool and relatlively sunny. That makes 130.5 miles this week. YAY ME.

[ny biker]

clocking in another 46 miles today. Can't saythe speed is great because of the headwinds. but it is dry, cool and relatlively sunny. That makes 130.5 miles this week. YAY ME.

Excellent!!

I went out last night after work, for about 17 miles. Yesterday the temps got up to the 50s with the sun, but we had a cold NW wind. I started to ride at 7 pm so it was dark, and temps were down to the mid 40s. Fortunately the winds were not as bad, and most of the route is pretty sheltered from it. I was cold at first, but comfortable for most of the ride. Toward the end the breeze picked up and I would have had to add a layer if I was doing a longer ride.

This is real progress for me. A year ago, I stopped the post-work rides when daylight saving time ended. But after last winter I've figured out how I need to dress for colder rides (down to 40F), and I've found a community center that I can use as a ride start location, which provides a safe place to park my car after dark as well as a restroom and water fountain, if needed. So I can keep riding as long the weather is dry and not too cold. I've also made some changes to my route to minimize the amount of time I spend on the multi-use trail, because it is not really safe after dark. Now I'm using it only to get across a few busy intersections, then leaving it and riding on nearby residential streets instead. I hate the cold and prefer riding in daylight, but it's nice to have the ability to ride outdoors instead of using the indoor trainer.

[Crankin]

I agree, NY.
I got out for just under 19 miles this afternoon. Even at 1:45, it feels like the sun is going down. I've been riding with a front flasher since DH's crash and rear flashers in daylight, all season. The front flasher is just a little thing that goes on with a rubber loop. My new light is so strong, I only use it in the real dark and it doesn't have a flash mode. It was about 46, clear, bright and sunny, with just a light breeze. I was dressed a bit too warm, but I did bring a lighter weight head cover, so when I stopped, I switched to it and unzipped a lot.
Saw quite a few riders, all going in the other direction. No one passed me, and I saw one guy pull out ahead of me, and zip off. I just feel slower than hell. Not sure why... I keep checking to see if my brakes are rubbing, but my legs are dead and my brakes are fine. It's like I came back from Portugal and had used up all of my gas. I will have DH check my GPS tomorrow, because a couple of weeks ago, it was recording wrong, about 2 mph slow. I know what speed I usually go on these types of rides, as I've done them hundreds of times.
Hoping this is what it is, but I doubt it! Oh well. Tomorrow I will make my yearly goal; I only need 24 miles. At least I did that. Last year, I was 500 miles short.

[shootingstar]

Squeezed in 30 km. today plus shopping, bakery stops and bike brake pad replacements. Before the snow flies into our area tonight. Quite nice right now. So am glad I made use my favourite bike routes to do stuff and some little hills.

[MarieV]

We've had two unusually sunny November Saturdays in Seattle. Last Saturday I organized lunch and a bike ride to go wine tasting with friends. I rode 25 miles to Redmond to have lunch at La Isla--love their plantains! The weather was overcast, but a lot of people were out on the Burke-Gilman and the Sammamish River Trail. Then five of us rode from La Isla to Woodinville and did tastings at Zerba Cellars and Lachini Vineyards. We had so much fun but totally lost track of time. It was 5:30pm when we finished, and I still had to ride the 18+ miles home. Luckily, I had front and rear lights since the last 45 minutes were in the dark.

Today was so beautiful and unusually warm! DH and I did the pre-ride for my new 100K (65.6-mile) Seattle Int'l Randonneurs Seattle Lakes and Trails ride. We started in Greenlake, rode up the Interurban Trail, down NE Perkins Way (nice long descent), rode along the Burke-Gilman to the Sammamish River Trail, down the west side of Lake Sammamish, up Newport and around Newcastle (a few more long descents), then counterclockwise along the bottom half of Lake Washington. We ended up at Husky Stadium about half an hour before the start of the UW-UCLA game. It was CRAZY but AMAZING!!! The photo below was before we crossed the street and got engulfed by the sea of purple. I wanted to take a photo, but there were so many people. I was afraid if I stopped, my bike and I would get carried along to the stadium. We had to walk our bikes across Montlake Bridge to the Hec-Ed bridge, almost half a mile. The Burke-Gilman Trail was so full of people, we were afraid we wouldn't make the 7-hour cutoff for the ride if we kept walking with the crowds. We eventually had to just ride on Montlake Blvd., which is usually scary since there's no bike lane and cars are either crawling bumper-to-bumper or speeding by at 35-40 mph. For the next half mile there was a constant wave of purple converging on the stadium from every direction--it was INSANE!!! We finally made it back to the Greenlake Starbucks with 35 minutes to spare, then we sat outside and had hot cider and coffee. What a perfect day!

[rebeccaC]

that sounds like a wonderful ride MarieV....purple and all

about to ride to the farmers market..... late season Tenerelli peaches ftw....and quinces and pears!!!

[Crankin]

I made my yearly goal today, by riding into just about every little pocket of Concord and up around the loop to Hanscom AFB. I knew we would be very close, and when I added up the totals, it was exactly 2,500, without even an extra .1 mile.
It was warmer today, but cloudier. I was dressed about right and all I did was take off my head cover at about mile 7, after climbing a small hill. Legs felt less dead today, although my speed was not much different, there were parts of the ride that I felt really good on. This is becoming rarer and rarer, it seems. I really want another 3K year next year, but I will have to get to more group rides, as I can't really motivate myself to do longer rides alone, other than the ones I do on the weekends. And I should work on my speed a bit. It was OK through the summer, and in retrospect, this is how I feel every year. Any riding I do until it snows will be "whatever" type rides.