May flowers... and bike rides

[Crankin]

No riding here. The weather was quite weird today. The rain stopped at around noon, was still cool. It was 49 at 10 am when I got to work.
At 4 pm, I had a free hour, the sun was out, so I walked for 20 minutes. It was warmer, about 70. Nice. By the time I left work at 6:45, it was windy, getting cloudy and felt cool.
Have no idea what it will be for my group ride tomorrow, except windy.

[Crankin]

My ride today was nice. About 60, partly cloudy, and yes, windy. There were about 30 people on the longer ride and 6 on the 30 mile ride I did. The others were slower than me, but the leader, who is very good, was going a bit faster and I stayed with him. I took my arm warmers down, so the wind cooled me when I started sweating from the climbs. I've done this ride before and the middle part goes through a section of a town not known for it's beauty, but this is very rural and delightful. I think DH and I are going to steal the route and lead it for the other club!

[ny biker]

I did 30 minutes of spinning on an indoor recumbent bike last night after work. After last week's rides I developed a lump in addition to sore spots from trying a different saddle position, and while the soreness is gone and lump is much smaller it's not gone yet. So I wanted to give it a few more days to subside before getting back on my road bike -- with the saddle back in its original position.

Looking ahead to this weekend, we might have rain and/or wind on Saturday. This time of year wind = pollen sandblasting my eyes, so either condition will keep me indoors. Hopefully Sunday will be dry with low winds, even if it ends up cloudy and cool as is currently forecast.

[north woods gal]

Hope the soreness leaves, NY, but if you've developed a lump, riding will probably aggravate it and possibly lead to an infection. Been there. You're right to hold off a bit.

My allergies (pine pollen?) have been going nuts, too, this last week and every day being windy doesn't help.

Tried the Trek Stashe with its 29+ 3" tires for trail work, today, but forgot that I had the tires inflated more for road work with almost max psi. Way too hard a ride on my trails. Felt like my teeth were rattling. Rather than mess with changing the tire pressure, just switched out bikes and headed back out with one of the fat bikes. Tire pressure is such a big deal with these plus size bikes and fat bikes. A little makes a big difference in the ride.

[Crankin]

Sigh... had to cancel our ride this morning. Rain is predicted through noon time.
This is a pretty low stress ride for us to lead, despite being show and go. We may re-post it, but it would be limited to people who can do the faster speed, as our co-leaders doing the slower pace will be away on the days we could do it.
Anyway, we probably will do a short ride after lunch, as then DS and family are coming over later for an early Mother's Day, since we will be coming back from CA next Sunday.

[Crankin]

Ended up taking a 3 mile walk yesterday, as time got away. It was humid and sprinkling as we walked.
Did a low stress 20 mile ride today, mostly in Sudbury and Wayland. We ended up on a couple of main roads, which interestingly had the most climbing of the ride. DH commented that he can't believe he rode this rather longish hill home everyday, when he commuted from the last town we lived in. It was a 44 mile round trip commute, too. Well, he was younger .
It was breezy, but we had a tailwind on the way back. I actually was a bit too warm with what I wore, but, I dealt with it.
Probably will commute tomorrow and hoping the group ride Wednesday has a close start, as I have a hair cut/color appt. at 2:30.

[azfiddle]

May is flying by!

I have 4 commutes for the first week of May- and one that didn't happen due to a flat tire - 2 failed attempts to fix it and so much panic in having my husband drive me halfway i thought I left my regular glasses at home and ended up driving!

Friday-Saturday we did the Tucson Audubon birdathon by bike. Friday sunset at Lakeside park, then a mostly moonlit and peaceful ride to Saguaro N.P. to look for nightbirds. We had 30 species including one Elf Owl... then got up to leave at 5 am to hit the east side desert and a little oasis before going up Mt. Lemmon.

We did well with bird sightings but Chuck has been off his bike a lot this year and for unknown reasons, started feeling weak in the legs and a little light-headed just 5 miles up at Molino Basin. He made it to mile 7 and then we decided to turn around. Besides, the wind was starting and predicted to be sustained in the 20's with gusts to the 30's by noon, which is NOT good on the mountain. So we had already changed our original plan to go to the top and would only have gone to milepost 11.5 anyway.

69 species - not too bad, and we raised over $500.
Anyone who wants the full report, PM me with your email.