October rides...

[north woods gal]

Speaking of night rides, had a passing thought about trying to ride our trails at night, using a good light. I know the trails by heart, so that's plus. Might be fun, though, I jump into my PJs right after dinner, too.

Lots of rain, overnight, and still raining, this morning. Not sure if I'll be able and/or willing to ride, today, so just doing some laundry and around the house things. Oh, well. Won't be long before that rain is snow.

[Crankin]

I rode 26 miles with DH today. Unplanned and we kind just decided on a direction to head out, and we went. Not very many cyclists out, which is weird, as it was 75 degrees out. But, schools are closed on Monday and a lot of people are away. Kind of humid, but a little cloudy, so not bad. We avoided apple orchards and big climbs, so I had a respectable for me, though not fast average, despite the fact that just before we started, my right glute started hurting. I have done nothing that would do this, thinking it's referred pain? Well, I've been stretching like crazy since I got home, massaged it with the shower head, foam roller, and ice.
I guess i have a pain in the azz!

[ny biker]

Years ago when I used to actually ride single track, I would join up with a group of people who rode at a local park at night. In some ways paved vs unpaved in the dark is pretty similar -- you need to be prepared for bumps in the terrain that you don't see. I always followed others when mountain biking in the dark so I don't know how hard it was to know when and which way to turn.

I have always been a night owl, never a morning person even during times when I had to get up early every day for many days in row; getting up early never gets easier with habit. When I was in college I would stay up until 4 and sleep until noon during holiday breaks. I could go to bed at 10 pm but wouldn't sleep for hours.

Yesterday I did a 46-mile club ride. Every year one of my friends leads a 60ish mile ride to Gettysburg that spends a fair amount of time meandering through the battlefield. This year I'm not in shape for that many miles, especially since it's a pretty hilly ride. So I and another friend started at a park in a town north of where the longer ride started and met up with that group at mile 8 on their route. It was another unusually warm and humid day, mid-60s to start and 88 when we finished. As we arrived at the battlefield we passed an observation tower where we climbed to the top to see the view. As I started to climb the steps I remembered that when I had gone up to the top of the same tower a few years ago I had cramps in my calves for the rest of the ride. Fortunately I didn't have cramps yesterday but my calves are sore today. So lesson learned: don't climb lots of steps in road shoes with cleats. I did come close to hamstring cramps after the ride and had to stretch a few times before starting the drive home, probably due to a combination of not being acclimated to the heat and not being in shape for riding steep hills. In spite of the discomforts, it was a fun ride. As I mentioned last month, Gettysburg and the surrounding area is a great place for cycling.

[Crankin]

No riding for me.... the little pull in my glute has morphed into something sciatica like.
I've had more injuries this year than all of the previous years combined. I know what caused this (not sport related), basically a missed step, followed by a jump like maneuver, where I probably twisted my right side. I have the day off, more time to heal, call the PT for tomorrow, and hope I can lead my ride on Saturday.

[north woods gal]

Had two plus inches of rain on Saturday, which we probably needed - our woods were getting pretty dry. The good news is that my problem areas on the trails where water collects are still no longer a problem, thanks to some platform bridges my hubby built for me to lay down in the trail in these spots. Love that they allow me to ride in our low swampy areas without damaging the environment or tearing up the bike with a ton of mud.


Other fun stuff

Rocks to roll over


Logs to hop


Humps to roll over


Lots of steep climbs/drops. Halfway down a long one (green Pugs at top)

[emily_in_nc]

Love your trails, NWG! Thanks for sharing the photos. Love the platform bridges your husband built. Those are great for the mucky parts.

Crankin, sorry that you are still ailing. Sounds pretty miserable! I hope it will heal up quickly.

NY, sounds like a good club ride. Hope your calves are better now!

Had a good ride today, and I was thinking I'd have my fastest speed all year, except I lost .6 mph at the end of the ride, dang it. We've moved to a different RV park in the same city, just a bit down the road, really, but it requires a different route to and from the bike path we ride on. We are still working on the return trip to see which roads are best, have the fewest stop signs and least amount of traffic. Today we made some bad decisions and ended up riding through downtown on lots of brick streets and hitting a lot of stop signs. Oh well...it was still a fun ride with 33 miles total. Tomorrow we'll try a different route back after studying google maps again.

[rebeccaC]

Emily have you looked at (mapmyride)? It can show bike paths and connecting roads in any area you want.



Great photos NWG….you’ve also done a great job on making your woods into interesting trails for your riding….any chance that one of these days you’re going to come upon someone else who finds them?

For a different kind of landscape/ride…from our Sunday ride into one of the lesser steep canyons going into the santa monica mountains.