riding into the heat of july

[north woods gal]

Cranking, my heart goes out to you. Might the stress be from the fact that when you do go on a group ride like this that you feel you must ride at your best? In other words, maybe you feel that you no longer have a choice in the matter, the decision has been taken out of your hands? I know there are days when I just want to cruise and enjoy the ride and then maybe push myself when and if the spirit moves me. Being something of an introvert, trying to make a good showing with all those other people around might be very stressful for me.

[Crankin]

Yes, I do feel the need to keep up, and since the ride was listed to be a certain way, and it wasn't, I can get quite negative in an instant. But, I think doing this once in awhile is good for me. A few things I notice are, that I am better at group rides in the early spring/winter or even fall, when this group is smaller, and even the fast guys slow down. I start feeling burned out with riding by this time of year, but it has to do with the hotter weather. I have a chronic issue (I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few years ago, but I don't have a lot of the common symptoms) that rears its head in heat, that is more than heat exhaustion. I push through it, because it's the same every year. I was way ahead in my mileage by the end of June, but I have not ridden that much in July, so it will end up the same. I really want to get to 3K miles this year, and the the years I've done this were years I did this Wednesday ride quite a bit. These people are nice, not typical azzhole riders, so I deal. They are not my best friends, but after 11 years, they know me. And, a lot of them overlap with the group I lead for.
I really wish I had started riding much earlier in my life, like when I started doing aerobics at the gym, in my late 20s/early 30s.

[Geonz]

Yes, I do feel the need to keep up, and since the ride was listed to be a certain way, and it wasn't, I can get quite negative in an instant. But, I think doing this once in awhile is good for me. A few things I notice are, that I am better at group rides in the early spring/winter or even fall, when this group is smaller, and even the fast guys slow down. I start feeling burned out with riding by this time of year, but it has to do with the hotter weather. I have a chronic issue (I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia a few years ago, but I don't have a lot of the common symptoms) that rears its head in heat, that is more than heat exhaustion. I push through it, because it's the same every year. I was way ahead in my mileage by the end of June, but I have not ridden that much in July, so it will end up the same. I really want to get to 3K miles this year, and the the years I've done this were years I did this Wednesday ride quite a bit. These people are nice, not typical azzhole riders, so I deal. They are not my best friends, but after 11 years, they know me. And, a lot of them overlap with the group I lead for.
I really wish I had started riding much earlier in my life, like when I started doing aerobics at the gym, in my late 20s/early 30s.

If wishes were fishes... yea, the one thing that will make me all kinds of cranky and negative is a co-opted supposed-to-be-cruising ride, and I *don't* get negative fast.
So... last year "caught up" with you... welp, you're still pretty even though, right? ... I'm reminding myself NOT to be a slave to numbers this weekend because if I ride long I could make up for this week's low mileage but... I wilt in the heat and it's supposed to get to 96 Friday (which since we're on four-day weeks is my "day off - ride long" day). Happily, I *can* tell myself that I am at least a small chunk ahead of last year.
Unhappily, my shoulder is still all tight adn hurting ... I guess I should dig out the heating pad, as absurd as that seems in the heat.
I promised to ride around in a gorilla suit Saturday... I think I'll find my shoulder bags and load them up with ice packs for air conditioning...

[Crankin]

Ha, ha, Sue. I am generally not a slave to numbers. I stopped weaing my HR monitor years ago, and while I do look at my stats after a ride, I don't upload them anywhere, except for writing in an old fashioned training log. Since I don't focus on average speed like I used to, most of my "numbers" focus goes to miles ridden in a year. But, any time I start doing more of another sport, it takes away from this. This year it's hiking. A few times, it was running. In the end, I always go back to cycling more. I can handle the gym 2X a week with the amount of riding I do, but not much more. I just am in awe of those who can do the 2x a day workouts on a regular basis. Yeah, I can go to the gym and commute to work, or take a shorter, slower ride, but not much else.

[north woods gal]

Being the largely internally motivated best I am, yeah, I can also get too hung up on the numbers. I still keep a log of miles ridden, every day and an ongoing monthly tally, but my miles are down quite a bit, this month, because of my mountain bike riding. Miles accumulated in that kind of riding, especially working technical single track, have little in common with miles accumulated via pavement riding on the road bike, so not sure why I bother. I suppose it might be more meaningful to use hours biked when comparing the two types of riding, but even that is iffy. I can promise you this: one hour of work on some of my local single track leaves me huffing and puffing and shaking like no hour of road biking ever has.

On the plus side, though, much to be said for mountain biking back in the deep woods on these hot days. Always shaded and cool, but once back out in the open on the pavement to get back home, the sun can be murder.

[Aromig]

Yes, I do feel the need to keep up, and since the ride was listed to be a certain way, and it wasn't, I can get quite negative in an instant.

This is me. I can usually keep up when I want to, but there are times I just want a nice bike ride. Sometimes I ride to lunch with work colleagues, and one of them has gotten to be a very fast rider. We're riding on a rail-trail with lots of runners/stop signs etc. and he just won't slow down. He'll try, but he just can't help but be pushing the pace. And I can't help but keep up and then at the end I've decided I didn't like the ride anyway. And why in the world would I want to get sweaty at lunch and take the time to shower, etc. if I'm not enjoying it? So I've been avoiding that ride... If I complain about the pace I'll hear "yes, but you were keeping up so I presumed it was ok." I just need to find a way to be more vocal that doesn't make me feel like I'm admitting failure or weakness.

[Crankin]

Our first ride on our vacation was 28 miles of a ride we used to do in the opposite direction. Beautiful and quite hilly, despite only 1,479 ft of climbing. It was warm, but not terrible. Came back and had rum swizzle a by the pool and now off to dinner at a farm to table place for our friend's birthday.
Going to do a short flatter ride tomorrow. There's storms coming in the afternoon.

[emily_in_nc]

Yesterday was our last ride in Jackson County, MN, as we have moved farther north in the state now. The wind was blowing hard again, 20 mph sustained from the south, so we chose to do an east-west out and back route. Mostly flat to very lightly rolling along a lovely, smooth county road, so even with a cross wind the entire way, it made for a pretty fast and fun ride. Only negative were the aggressive Red-Winged Blackbirds dive-bombing and squawking at us in various places along the route. Kinda scary! We experienced this back in 2014 when we rode some trails in the upper midwest in June. They get very territorial during nesting season.

Tomorrow we'll be riding part of the Lake Wobegon Trail. We rode a bit of it in 2014 as well, and it was nice, so I am looking forward to it and hoping there aren't too many blackbirds along the way. High is supposed to be in the low 90s with oppressive humidity, so I am not thrilled with that, so at least it will be mostly flat, but sunny. Ugh.

NWG, that's interesting about many MTB manufacturers moving away from 26-ers. Like all other bicycle fads, there's a good chance that things will swing back to smaller wheels eventually, but in the meantime, this makes it harder to find a bike with that wheel size. Have you thought about looking for a used one on ebay? I was lucky enough to buy my wonderful Jamis from Catrin here a few years ago -- a fullie, which was what I wanted, 26" wheels, and fits me perfectly. I will not let it go, especially since 26-ers are getting harder to find!

[north woods gal]

Emily, yes, I will be looking for used if need be and I suspect you're right about about that size coming back. Probably some good deals out there, right now on 26s, what with all the marketing folks pushing people to buy the bigger wheels sizes

Went to the same technical single track trail that I rode with the 29er, yesterday, but this time with the 26 and I just can't deny the results. Third time I've done this test with both bikes, just to be sure, but results always the same. The 26 climbs better for me because I can accelerate, quickly and instantly, just enough to get me over some steep climbs that had me stalled out with the 29er. The 29er is a better bike for some trails and uses, but I need time to work up some momentum with it to get me over the steep humps. Just not a luxury I have on this single track with all its sharp twists and turns. Also, can make turns with the 26 that I just can't make with the 29.

On the other hand, in this same area, we have some loose gravel and deep sand trails and the 29er plus Trek is a MUCH better bike for that kind of trail and the fat bike even better. This stuff just swallows the 26.

I might see if I can try a 27.5 on this route for comparison.

[Geonz]

Well, the forecast lied -- happily. We had pretty big showers around 3 a.m. and it was just plain pleasant, which was good 'cause I didn't get out the door 'til after 9:30. I'd figured I might just do 9 miles but ... ended up with 28, changing the route to avoid the crop spraying... going by people working on roofs and the likes made me really glad it was taking its time to warm up... i'ts 84 now at 12:18 so I suspect we won't get to 91 after all, which is adjusted down already.
Just like last Friday, but a different person -- somebody was out *undoing* my loop! We went by each other twice on the four mile grid Since it was abou ttwo miles apart, we were goin' about the same speed... I prefer clockwise 'cause it's right turns.
Love my Fridays off, tho' ... I'm going to do some work related stuff...