April Rides

[rebeccaC]

Whoa…three posts in a row about improving weather…….glad to hear it.

NY…..maybe I missed it but how did the floors come out?

Emily….30A looks like our 26 mile beach path…ours may be less crowded because of its more isolated location right on the beach for the majority of its length but it can also be too busy going through parts of venice and santa monica during the day, especially weekends and summer times. A couple of miles on quiet side streets and alleys can get you through both areas, quicker and easier than riding the path, and then back to a much less crowded path for the final 8 miles north. Here is the part of the bike path that goes by the back of our building and then for 16 miles going south on the least populated part of the path. Most of the path has a separate walking path which does help some.



I run 26/1.5's on my urban bianchi commuter and luv them for city riding and not so well paved roads/alleys.
....just commutes for me….a nice rain this morning made it interesting

[Crankin]

It's sunny!
I just saw a FB post from Prospect Mountain, in southern Vt, the last place I went Nordic skiing. They are *still* completely open and had 4 inches of snow yesterday. The place is at elevation, 2,200 ft, but it's only 8 miles from Bennington, VT. To say that this is most unusual for a nordic ski center to be open on April 20 would be putting it mildly!
Boot camp was really hard today; she tried a new format, so I think I am going to skip riding to my lunch. Of course, if it's really nice when it's time to go, one never knows.

[north woods gal]

Love the post, Emily, about riding from town to town with all that shopping and things to see along the way. It's one thing we do NOT have in our rural area and one of the things I do miss from my years of bicycling and commuting in more urban areas. I'll always be a country girl at heart, but having bike paths and places to stop and shop made city life bearable for me. I miss it, sometimes. Thanks for the post.

[emily_in_nc]

Love the post, Emily, about riding from town to town with all that shopping and things to see along the way. It's one thing we do NOT have in our rural area and one of the things I do miss from my years of bicycling and commuting in more urban areas. I'll always be a country girl at heart, but having bike paths and places to stop and shop made city life bearable for me. I miss it, sometimes. Thanks for the post.

You're so welcome! I do enjoy this kind of a setting, but it's not the most ideal for real fitness, since there is more stop/start, slow riding, and of course those stops off for yummy things to eat! But, this is a vacation for us, only a week (minus one day since I have to get back for an orthodontist appointment), so it's not an everyday thing. We'll be back to our longer rides in Winter Garden soon enough!

The path does sound similar to yours, Rebecca (nice pic, btw), and here too, there are ways to bypass the busiest stretches in a couple places; we've discovered one already. We were able to detour off the path and ride through uncrowded neighborhood roads most of the way to a Publix 3 miles away, which was great.

Today has been super busy here as lots of long weekenders have arrived, or just people playing hooky from work for a day, since it's so beautiful out. We haven't ridden yet but are going to take a short ride (an hour or so) in a few minutes -- I'm waiting for DH to get ready. We did do an 8.5 mile beach walk this morning, with a couple of detours off the beach for a healthy lunch AND a donut, so we have gotten some exercise in, but we're missing the bikes too much to stay off them altogether, so a short ride just to enjoy the breeze and the sunshine is in order before wine-thirty and then dinner!

Here's our campsite:

I sure will miss this spot!

[Crankin]

We went out to ride with our friends, into Historic Deerfield, about 12 miles from their house in Western MA. Clear and sunny and it got up to 57. But, a vicious headwind, for the first half of the ride, I could barely get my speed above 11 at a few points. It was about 20 mph, wih sustained gusts. That, plus my hamstrings screaming from yesterday’s boot camp, was demoralizing. Went through a few places I haven’t seen and we did have tailwind for about 8 miles near the end. A 22 mile ride turned into 27.5. It was tough.
Afterwards, we went to the spring wine release event at the winery down the street from our friends house. It’s 8.15 and I am ready for bed.

[emily_in_nc]

The wine event sounds fun, Crankin!

We ended up riding today after all. We did a loooong beach walk this morning, and DH's achilles started bothering him from stretching too far in the sand, so we walked back on the path along the road. We noticed it was not as busy as we'd have thought for a Saturday, because most people were on the beach, even though it was a mostly cloudy day. So, we headed out around 3:30 pm and rode for an hour. Very nice. We found a spur trail that went 2 miles north and was free of cyclists and walkers, and only one road crossing, so we enjoyed that little bit very much, and even the main trail wasn't super busy. Between that and riding to the beach to walk a bit after dinner, ended up with 15 miles on the day. Not much, but combined with all the walking, still a fairly good fitness day.

We leave tomorrow morning and drive back to the Orlando area. I am sad. This beach is so beautiful! I will miss it. This really does feel like going home after a wonderful vacation, something that was always a letdown for us. Even RVing, some spots are like "home" and some like "vacation".

[rebeccaC]

just a quick 22 miles on the beach bike path to clear my mind from working all day and then a nice dinner out with some of Alex's colleagues.