May Rides

[ny biker]

Well I am still sick, but have finally managed to get back on the bike. I came down with a bad cold 3 weeks ago, and it triggered asthma symptoms from the very beginning so I knew I'd have to manage things to prevent it from turning into a serious lung problem. So I took it easy, with very little activity for more than two weeks. I went for a walk a few times to gauge my recovery, but even when I felt good while I was out walking I had problems with congestion and coughing afterwards. I suppose the high tree pollen levels contributed to the problem.

At any rate, by last Monday I was mostly better except for a hair-trigger coughing reflex (merely drinking water was enough to get me going) and a mild sore throat that caused my voice to be hoarse. I planned to go for a ride on Wednesday evening. Then it rained on Wednesday so I rescheduled for Friday. I think the two-day delay actually helped, because the laryngitis continued through the week and in fact has still not gone away. Friday's ride went pretty well, all things considered. My pace was a bit slow but I expected that. I also found that the laryngitis affected my breathing -- air has to pass through your larynx to get to your lungs, and when the larynx is inflamed the air passage is smaller. I used my asthma inhaler, and that helped. So overall I was happy to be back out on the bike.

I did have two incidents with idiot drivers on Friday, unfortunately. Virginia has passed a 3-foot passing law and has also passed a law allowing motorists to cross a solid yellow line in order to pass cyclists. However I don't think these laws have been publicized, even in the supposedly bike-friendly area where I was riding. Both incidents were on roads in residential areas with a 25 mph speed limit. Both are narrow with cars parked along the sides so it's legal and safer to take the lane. One of them is marked with sharrows. On that one, the idiot driver drove in the parking lane and passed on my right, way too close to me. On the other one the driver passed on the left but also came way too close. I tried to tell them both what I thought of them but the laryngitis prevented me from being heard.

On Sunday I joined some friends for a club ride. The planned route was 46 miles, which was longer than I wanted to ride given the lingering cold (I think this particular strain is the Rasputin virus). But on Saturday night someone sent out an email saying that he planned to ride a shortened version of the route due to some knee problems, so I decided I would ride with him. Five people came out for the ride, and as it turned out all but the ride leader wanted to do the shorter version. So we came up with a compromise route that was shorter than the leader's planned route but was about 5 miles longer than the originally-planned shortcut. The total distance was 34 miles.

I had more laryngitis-related breathing problems on this ride, and the asthma inhaler didn't help as much this time. But the route was mostly flat and I was able to get through it okay. Toward the end my sit bones were hurting. Who would have thought that I'd be having that problem on the second weekend in May.

So now it's three days later and I STILL have the laryngitis. In fact it was worse on Monday, due to many phone calls and in-person conversations related to getting my car fixed after being involved in a crash several weeks ago. I've been resting my voice yesterday and today, and will go out for a short ride this evening to see how things are.

[Crankin]

We led a 19 mile ride tonight. It's a show and go series, listed as intermediate level (av. 14-16)... 4 guys show up. One can keep up with DH, one has a road bike with 32 tires that are rubbing and doing other bad things, one is his first ride of the year (he's in chinos, t shirt, sneakers, creaky touring bike), and one is Ok, rides about my speed, but is having issues unclipping and falls back on hills. Oh, the fun. We made it back just as the sun was going down, but I was not happy. Two of those guys did not belong on this ride and one should not have come with a broken bike!
We had planned a GPS route, but the traffic was so bad on the first street when we drove to the start, we bagged it (none of them had GPS) and made it up in the parking lot.
We are doing 3 more of these this summer, so hope the people self select more properly.

[Crankin]

I rode with my friend, Linda, for the first time this season. She's the one I hooked on cycling a few years ago. She's much slower than me, but compared to those guys last night, I'd ride with her any time! She has good skills. Anyway, we started out from her house, near where our group ride started last Saturday, so we set out to do that route. I am exhausted... not used to riding at night (last night) and I could not get to sleep. That, and going to boot camp this morning, working the morning, and riding did me in. I thought going at a slower pace would be OK, and I wasn't dying, but I knew I needed to rest. When we got to a certain point, I asked her if she'd be Ok to head back, and she said yes, as she had done Cross Fit this morning. Still managed to do 18+ miles, and I am looking forward to sleeping in on a rainy morning tomorrow.

[Crankin]

Today we did our first ride of the season to Bolton Orchards for lunch and back. This is a hilly ride, so good training for France. Usually, it's 50 miles + a little, but because of grooved pavement on a downhill toward the end of the ride, we took a slightly shorter way home, so it ended up being 46 miles and about 2,400 ft. of climbing. We purposely keep it slow on these rides, so we feel good when we get to lunch! The majority of the hard climbing is right before the stop, but there is an awesome downhill to make up for it. After lunch, there is a 4 mile gradual climb, not shaded. It does flatten and go down a few times, but after lunch, it feels hard. DH was really going slowly, and I forced myself to stay behind. Good thing, because after this, there's one more annoying climb, and then a long downhill, when we get back to an area that's more local riding for us. This is where I started feeling like I was losing it, but I ate a Shot Block, which helped right until I got to the climb up my street. It was 81 today and the clouds cooperated and came out for most of the climbing that wasn't shaded. It was quiet out today; not so many cars or riders, and Bolton Farms was quiet, too. I think there's a lot of graduations and end of the school year sports stuff going on.
Yesterday, we did a fast 19 miles just around Concord and Carlisle. It was also my first beer and ice cream day of the season .

[MarieV]

We've been lucky with unusually warm and dry weather here in the PNW, so I've been bike commuting and doing more 100 km rides on the weekends. DH and I did my favorite Maltby-Granite Falls 100K ride last weekend, and I matched my fastest time on a 100K ride. I guess all the bike commuting, which involves uphill climbs both ways, is finally paying off. Yesterday, we did the Seattle Lakes and Trails 100K, which got kind of crazy since there must have been hundreds of riders going in the opposite direction on the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River Trails doing the Haul Ash bike ride commemorating the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

[Jolt]

Just got back from a 4-day tour with a friend...we started in Augusta, rode to Camden (about 45 miles) and camped in a state park there that night and the next (the second day was spent in the local area there, taking it easy), then the next day we rode 10 miles to Rockland, got on the ferry to Vinalhaven (one of the islands off the coast) and rode about 10 miles there before taking the ferry back and then riding to Rockport where we camped last night. Then today we rode back to Augusta, another 45-mile day which felt like it was mostly uphill (there was also a bit of a headwind for parts of it). Today was the hardest day...between the elevation/headwind and the fact that I think I waited a little too long to eat something and was probably in the beginnings of a bonk about halfway through; the rest of the ride after that just felt a lot harder than it should have. Despite the "off" day today it was a great trip and I hope to do more trips like that. Trying to figure out where I can pare down the weight of my load a bit, since that will make the climbing a little easier.

[Dragonfly5]

Sounds like a great trip Jolt!