April Rides

[Crankin]

Today was the first real warm day of the year. Rode in short sleeves with knickers and a vest. It was 69 when we finished, but there is a slight breeze. We rode into Sudbury, Lincoln, Wayland, to the border of Weston, and back, 37 miles. We went slowly on purpose, but kicked it up at the end. My average is still about 1-2 mph slower than it should be, but I am trying to be patient with myself. It was really nice out! Saw like hundreds of cyclists.
Going to commute tomorrow and maybe Tuesday if it's not rainy in the morning, and a 27 mile group ride on Wednesday, with lots of climbing. I want to do the 35 mile ride, but the hills are killers and I am not sure I can keep up with that group.

[Crankin]

I commuted yesterday, first this year with the pannier, as I had pre-planned a couple of weeks ago and brought my clothes in early. I really hate this. It changes the whole balance of everything when I am starting off from a stop. Especially not fun in traffic. I think I might try putting the Arkel trunk bag on, but the issue with that is that taking it on/off to bring into the office with me is a bit complicated, for me, someone who can't remember anything that has steps involving eye hand coordination/spatial stuff. DH has shown me before, I guess I should practice. But, the up side is, climbing my hill with a packed pannier certainly does make me stronger! Not particularly fun at 6:30 PM, but intense.
Raining this morning, I am going to rest today.

[rebeccaC]

I travel to Oxnard often for work. Sometimes I take a bike to ride the agriculture and/or the older small industry areas for photography. Flat paved rural roads with an interesting mix of the occasional farm worker riding to/from the fields and the shorts/jersey wearing people doing exercise rides on rural roads. Lots of dirt field roads leading to old, rusted and discarded farm machinery, old worn buildings and views of season/crop changing fields. Yesterdays ride was just 12 miles but a nice way to end my day there before heading home.

[Crankin]

Rode 30 miles with my friend, Jack ,this morning. Not the club ride, but more miles and almost as much climbing without having to drive to the ride. I told him I am slow, so he was kind in the beginning, but then we went up 2 hills in Carlisle. One I rarely go up and the other, well, I am usually going down this one! I was exhausted after that, but we took a short stop and then did a few flat miles, where we picked up the pace. When we parted ways (he was going to the Council on Aging to play pool), I headed home, about 8 miles. I had to stop and take my vest off, and eat my bar.
Faster than my last ride, but not fast enough!
My legs hurt.

[khg]

Thanks for the amazing photos, rebeccaC!

Perhaps my lazy time on the couch Sunday paid off--on my commute yesterday I felt like a superhero, and had close to a personal best on a couple sections. And this was on my bike that is all tricked out with fenders, a rack, a pannier, etc--not my bike that I ride for speed by any means.

The weather is looking really nice for the next few days, so I'm trying to figure out which of my responsibilities I can get away with procrastinating or giving short shrift to, and ride my bike instead...

[ny biker]

So I had reached a point where I really didn't want to ride my bike. Just due to overload -- lots of driving around the area on weekends to help out a relative who recently moved here while trying to plan and manage home renovations -- as well as being sick of cold weather. This past Sunday we had fantastic spring weather, so I decided to do a relatively short ride (30 miles) on an old familiar route that I hadn't ridden in a long time, and to go by myself so I wouldn't have to worry about keeping to a set schedule. In fact I didn't even decide on the route until a couple of hours after I woke up on Sunday. It ended up being a very nice ride, uneventful, seeing lots of flowers on trees and people doing gardening and yard work, but pollen counts not high enough to be bothersome. The route is mostly on residential suburban streets with lots of stop signs, so I typically have a low average speed, but I think I was faster than usual on Sunday. Afterwards I visited with my friend who broke her leg last month.

That seems to have done the trick, since today I've actually been looking forward to going for a ride after work. And in fact I am leaving for that right now...

[Crankin]

Today it reached 71 degrees a couple of hours ago... clouding up now. Normally, it would have been a 50 mile ride day, but poor DH has been so sick all week, and today is the first day he's been semi-human, so I wanted to keep him company. I went out this morning and rode 19 miles. Decent speed for me, I felt good, more like I am once the season gets going. I actually dropped 3 people, who weren't super slugs, either. I think my ride with my friend Wednesday put the hurt on and I kind of broke through my beginning of the season funk. This happens every year, so why does it surprise me? Plus, I've lost a couple of pounds in the past 2 weeks, so I just feel lighter.