September Rides

[Crankin]

45 miles on the north shore, starting in Topsfield, going to Ipswich Neck, and back through Rowley and one other town. A perfect blend of ocean in the beginning, rural, and semi-suburbia roads. It was very busy at first, but once we ate lunch, and got out of Ipswich, it died down, probably due to the Patriots' game. We saw house with 20 cars parked in front, so I guess lots were partying.
This ride is pretty flat, save for 2 hills after lunch, but it did seem long for the last 10 miles. Perfect riding temperatures between 60 and 70. I was a bit nervous, as it was 35 this morning...

[azfiddle]

Possibly the best ride all month: 8 mile leisurely loop through Saguaro National Park with the super moon and eclipse. About 11 of us rode together, including my son and one of my 7th grade students who is training for El Tour de Tucson. We also saw Cassiopeia, Ursa Major (The Big Dipper), Scorpius, Sagittarius, the Hubble Space Telescope (identified with the Skyview app on my phone), as well as a baby gopher snake, a Tiger Rattlesnake, a Western Diamondback and couple of rodents (maybe a pocket mouse and kangaroo rat.

[Helene2013]

Did 58km on gravel (with rolling hills) on Saturday. The last 10km were the worst ones as I got tired but managed to nail it all, and no walking up the hills. Yeah.
Yesterday we decided to go back and use another path (asphalt this time) but got there to a blocked entrance due to maintenance and it will reopen only in November (by then it will be too cold and probably snowing!) Deuh! So we took car and drove to a nearby city to get another path and faced to another...closed too. So we were only able to ride 13km but a very frustrating one.

But the good thing is that next spring those paths will be all freshly done, so very nice to ride on. yeah.

[ny biker]

I led a club ride on Saturday, 57 miles with as many hills as possible. More miles and more climbing than I've done in a while, with a strong headwind for much it. It was a good workout. I was overdressed, prepared for possible rain which didn't happen (not that I'm complaining about that.) The unneeded layers were wool so I was okay, though without the wind I probably would have been more uncomfortable. Afterwards I stopped at a deli for lunch then headed over to a bike club meeting to discuss our recent century ride. I was an hour early but feeling very sleepy so I took a quick nap in my car to pass the time.

So now I feel ready to attempt the hilly metric that I was planning to do this coming weekend. Except -- I looked at more details on the web page of the group that's organizing the ride, including rest stop information. For the metric route there is 30 miles between the first and second rest stops, with no bathrooms at the second rest stop, then 10 more miles to a stop that does have facilities. So that's 40 miles without a bathroom break and since those miles include some steep hills and 5 miles of gravel, my pace will be slower than usual. So I'd be looking at 3-4 hours without a bathroom break. Maybe that won't be a problem, but then again maybe it will and there's no way to know in advance. So most likely I will do the 45 mile route instead. It will still be a nice ride and a respectable distance. The extra miles on the longer route are like a lollipop -- out on a certain road, circle around and then come back on the same road. If I'm feeling good I can get some extra miles by making the turn from the 45 onto the metric course and then turning around early. On the other hand, we're in for heavy rain tonight and might get a tropical storm in a few days, so the weather might change my plans for me.

But I feel good about the last two rides I've done.

[Crankin]

Eh, it looks like heavy, tropical rain for about 10 days... so, I did a quick 11 mile ride at 5 AM. It was 100% humidity, which was really like fog in some places. DH drove by me, when I was half way through my ride and said my light is really, really bright.
Glad I went. I've been sick for about a week, with a cold/viral thing. Felt good when I woke up, and not too bad during the day. Normalcy is returning.
Not looking forward to being at the gym during the rain. I was really looking forward to getting some miles in over the next few days.

[ny biker]

This continues to be a Year Where Things Don't Go As Planned for me. The charity ride I was going to do this weekend has been canceled due to the weather. Even if it hadn't been canceled, I had already decided I would not go unless the chance of rain and wind dropped significantly -- I've done enough cold, wet and/or windy rides, and it would not have been worth the long drive out there.

So here are the rides I wanted to do but missed this year:

Ride to End Hunger in April - too sick to ride. This is the first time since they started this event that I was not there.
My bike club's annual May Metric -- still too sick to ride.
Firefighter 50 in July -- conflict with family event
Civil War Century in September -- shortened due to rain
Rappahannock Rough Ride -- shortened due to back pain and lack of fitness from previous canceled/shortened rides
JCCNV Wounded Warrior ride this weekend -- canceled due to rain.
Crop Hop scheduled for next weekend -- canceled due to problems with road conditions.

Plus there were many other weekends where I either was not able to ride at all or had to do much shorter rides than I wanted because of lingering effects of illness.

I am grateful that I have not had any serious problems, but I've been struggling with some stressful situations for a while now and being off the bike -- and completely inactive at times -- has really made things worse.

Maybe I need to learn something like knitting to fill in when I can't ride my bike (or go to the gym or for a walk).

Meanwhile I need to decide on what to do next weekend, in place of the Crop Hop. I've been planning to register for a metric century near Fredericksburg, VA. With all this rain I feel like I want a guarantee of sunshine before I commit the money, but I guess I'll roll the dice and sign up and then just keep my fingers crossed.

I'm glad Joaquin is heading out to sea, but this multi-day storm we've got now is pretty bad. The eastern shore of Maryland has been hit hard -- they actually canceled the Seagull Century this weekend -- and I hear things are really bad in South Carolina.

[Crankin]

Yes, it does seem like they are getting socked down south. Our coastal areas are getting pretty bad winds and rain tonight and tomorrow, but it is unrelated to the hurricane. I think it will be drizzly tomorrow, so not sure what I will do. It will be dry, but cold and windy on Sunday. Since DH is leaving for Tokyo at 10:45, I will get out there, no matter what. I have a 38 mile ride I've been wanting to do, and damn it, I will do it, and treat myself to a nice lunch during the ride. We had plans to do a club ride (either 35 or 55 miles) on Columbus Day, as DH gets back on Sunday and thought it would help him get back on the right time.. The lunch party after was cancelled, and now DH says they are coming to install the counters at the condo that day. I will probably do the ride by myself, though the 55 mile version will be fast. I can do it myself, at my own speed, since it is all familiar.
We are considering doing a metric or a century on the 17th. Haven't trained at all, but it's flat, and I am looking forward to riding in a new area.It's not supported, but it is organized. I know i can do the metric, especially with some good riding over Columbus Day weekend, but it might be crazy to try the century. On the other hand, I didn't train for the one I did, and I did fine.