September riding

[salsabike]

As always, love love love your photos, Rebecca.

[Crankin]

I woke up really early, so another "dark ride." My back is reacting to the 5 hours sitting in the car on Sunday, I probably should have rested, but it looks like tomorrow will be rainy, so no group ride, or any other ride, most likely. It's really warm and humid out. I had arm warmers on, which I pulled down, near the end of my ride. I kind of did an aimless ride of ten miles, with plenty of hills. I've come to the conclusion that these early morning rides were easier when I lived on the other side of town, in that they were flat, until I had to climb the hill to get to my house. Now, it's flat out my door, but any ride I do is full of rollers and small hills. At least that makes it easier for me to justify only riding 10 miles! This morning I was out the door at 5:05, so early, that it was realy quiet out. But, in the 12 years I've been riding at this time, it has become busier and busier.
Tomorrow I am going to rejoin the health club I went to right after I got out of school, 6 years ago. Looking forward to twice a week, killer bootcamp, which my aging body severely needs. The ritzy club I just left kept cancelling the early morning classes, except for spin, which I only go to in the dead of winter.

[rebeccaC]

@ salsa....

[ny biker]

We also had rain on Saturday from Harvey, nothing major but not a pleasant day to be outdoors. I visited relatives in Charlottesville for a Labor Day "cookout" which was mostly indoors. I'm sure some of my friends went out for a bike ride, but I was glad that I had other plans that day. I got home late, slept late on Sunday and went out for a late afternoon bike ride. I decided to do an out-and-back on a rail trail that I used to ride often. Since I haven't been on it in a while, it was a chance to see some changes that have been made -- some good changes to eliminate busy at-grade intersections, some that really are intended to speed up car traffic and do not improve trail safety, plus some new development next to the trail. The main reason I don't use it anymore is that it's become too crowded as more homes are built near it -- good for the people living there, not good for someone who just wants to ride a long distance. Except there are still plenty of people who think the trail is a good place for time-trialing and have no concept of how to pass others safely. Really it would be a nice trail if there weren't so many jerks on it. But since I started late in the day, I saw fewer and fewer jerks as my ride went on.

There are some long unshaded sections on this trail which are not good for hot sunny days but were okay on Sunday, especially since I started after 3 pm. I wasn't sure how far I'd ride, but ended up going all the way to the western terminus before turning around. In all I rode 54 miles. This trail is basically flat, but there are sections of 2-3% slope that last for several miles. For much of the upward sloping sections I used a gear that was just hard enough to make my legs work, so I was pretty tired out by the end. It was good workout.

On Monday our bike club had our annual century ride. We had a good day for it, in terms of weather. I volunteered as SAG driver for the late shift, from 11 am to the end of the picnic. There weren't too many people who needed help, which was good. One person did crash and was injured, but thankfully it was not too serious. I was in motion quite a bit, stationed at one rest stop until it closed at 1:30, then driving part of the course to make sure there were no stragglers, heading to the last rest stop to help break it down, then to the picnic. In all there were more than 900 riders. I think everything went smoothly overall, though I know there will be debriefing and reviewing of rider comments in order to address any weak spots for next year.

There was one person who needed a ride back to the start from the rest stop at mile 62 because his Di2 battery died and he was stuck in too hard a gear. I'm at a point where I have lights to recharge after every ride and my Garmin needs to be charged every 75-80 miles. I am glad I don't have to worry about charging my derailleur, too.

[Crankin]

NY, you have to be an idiot to not know that your Di2 needs to be recharged. I know there were issues with some of the first models, but my DH has had his for 3 years. He rides 2-3K a year and really only has to charge it once, although he does do it twice. First a yellow light comes on, then a flashing red light, then a red light. Of course, you have to look at it, to check! I would not have gotten it, if there were issues and mine is a better model than my DH's, since they have made improvements. So, I would say, user error.
My Garmin stays plugged in all of the time, except when I am using it on the bike. I have 2 rear lights (the same model), that I interchange and charge after a week or so. That way, I always have one fully charged and ready to go. I have 2 different kinds of front lights. One is very heavy duty and if I use it in true darkness, like my 5 AM rides, on high, it has about 2 hours of use. However, I am rarely out for more than an hour in true darkness, and if I switch it to the lower setting, it more than doubles the time. I use it on flash mode, for late fall and winter daytime riding. My other light, which I use for daytime rides in the spring, summer, and early fall, is always on flash, so it lasts about 5 rides or more, depending on the length.
It poured today. My group ride was cancelled yesterday evening, due to the forecast. I did go to the new/old gym, signed up, and stayed for a step class, with some intervals with weights. I sweated like crazy. Friday I will go to an early morning boot camp, then co-lead the Friday morning ride. It's scheduled through September, but I can only do 2 more of them, after tomorrow. My women's group is starting back up on the 29th. It's only an hour and 45 minutes, so as it gets colder, I can ride after lunch, when I get home from work.

[ny biker]

re: the Di2 guy, I felt bad for him but also did feel that it was a self-inflicted problem due to incomplete ride preparation. Which of course happens to all of us at one time or another -- it can be easy to overlook or forget something. He was also very impatient to be returned to the ride start and not happy that instead of taking him directly there we shuttled him to another rest stop so another driver could take him the rest of the way. The system we used was not necessarily the fastest way to get one rider back to the start but it was the best way for us to support all riders who needed help over the entire route. But I felt like he expected us to be a personal taxi service. Anyway.

I also have different lights for day and night rides. I try to take all lights off the bike as soon as I get home and charge them right away. After each is recharged I either put it back on the bike or into a big plastic bag that I keep in the duffel bag with all my bike gear so it won't get lost. With the Garmin, I charge it and put it right back on the bike so I won't forget or lose it.

We had rain here today too. I think it might be gone now but the roads are still wet. I decided not to try to ride my bike tonight -- tomorrow I'm taking a furlough day and the forecast looks good so I'm going to join a weekly club ride. I might cut it short, though -- the planned route is 39 miles, which is a bit much for me given that I'm planning to do a 50-miler on Saturday and I'm trying to not to overdo things and make the torn ankle tendon worse.

[north woods gal]

5 straight days of rain squalls, gloom, mist and temps in the 50s for a high. Don't mind the 50s, but, as a lot of up here in the north woods, do, I suffer from a bit of depression for lack of sunshine. Having lived all across the country, though, I've discovered that no place is perfect, so I can put up with a little gloom. Really am blessed to live in such a beautiful place as my north woods.

Have been riding the trails and a little on pavement, too, despite the rain. Riding in the rain is a luxury from having trails right outside my door and some excellent, very low traffic pavement riding, too, also right out my door. If things get really nasty, I can bail out, quick, and get back to the house. Rarely rode in the rain unless I had to when living in the city.

I'm thinking it will be an early color season for us, with some color already on the trees. Definitely see more leaves laying on the trails, each time I go out, too. I'll drag a rake behind me to tear off the worst of it before the snow falls. The trails really do disappear under the leaves. I could probably run a mower down the trails or use a leaf blower, but I HATE any powered stuff on my trails other than people power.

Given I have a choice of fat bikes and trail bikes to ride - and I do alternate them on a daily basis - I'm constantly amazed at the difference in feel between my aluminum trail/fat bikes and my steel trail/fat bikes. Oh, the aluminum bikes I have are truly excellent in all regards. They have very sophisticated and up to date geometry and handle like a dream, but there's still something about the classic steel that I love. Just hard for me to love an aluminum bike, the way I love steel, though. I could sell off my aluminum bikes and not lose any sleep over it, but the Surly Krampus and my beloved Surly Pugsley and my old pal, my Kona 26er, no way. When I really need one of those "make me smile" kind of rides, it's one of the Surlys.