July rides

[north woods gal]

Glad you're feeling better, Emily. I, too, love that feeling that I'm "baaacck" after being sick.

Today was a lazy day for me. Just sat around the yard and house, no morning walk or afternoon workout on the trainer. Was a good girl and wore my neck brace all day, but it now does more harm than good, since keeping my neck stuck in one position all day causes my neck muscles to cramp up. Taking the brace off and giving my neck more flexibility actually causes less discomfort, now. Oh, well, couple more days to go and it's over - I hope!

Did stop at the bike shop, though, to see how they're doing on the Log Lady single speed. Having new, faster rolling and more road worthy tires put on it because the road, paved or gravel, is the ONLY place I'll be riding it, now. Yeah, my road bikes are all flat bar bikes, now, and a skinny road tire for me is now 2.25". Ha! Go figure. I'm not the only wide tire freak, though. The owner of the shop told me he has another customer who has sworn off narrow tires for all of his trail work, too. He's riding only plus or fat tire bikes, now. Our trails really are on the rough side, up here. Wider tires are more forgiving of mistakes in technique and they are definitely more comfy, to boot.

Still nervous about doing any trail riding at this point, though. Will have to push myself into trying it, again. Mentally keep re-living the day I had my accident. Not sure if I can handle it. If all my riding from now on is road or rail-to-trail kind of riding, so be it.

[emily_in_nc]

Still nervous about doing any trail riding at this point, though. Will have to push myself into trying it, again. Mentally keep re-living the day I had my accident. Not sure if I can handle it. If all my riding from now on is road or rail-to-trail kind of riding, so be it.

I feel sure you'll eventually be back on trails as you become more comfortable again on the bike. After I had my crash in '05, I got into mountain biking and gravel road riding for awhile and would not ride on paved roads, as I was really nervous being out there in any situation where dogs might come into the road (which caused that crash). It took awhile, but once I started riding on the road again, I was fine. I always had my guard up for dogs -- but I had that guard up before, always, riding in the rural south, so I was only a bit more hyperalert than before. I have found, though, that this nervousness about loose dogs has made rural rides anywhere in the southeast much less fun for me. As a result, I tend to avoid them. I much prefer trails now (paved or unpaved) or riding in parts of the US where loose dogs are unlikely. The south is the worst for people letting their dogs run free, and that still freaks me out. We never run into that problem riding here in central Florida. With the traffic here, loose dogs wouldn't last a week.

[Crankin]

You are right Emily, the only time I have had a loose dog run out in the road by me was in a very rural (like you feel you're in Appalachia) part of central MA. That does not count the time my dumb azz neighbors couldn't control their dog in their own home and it ran out of the house into the street, right as I was going up the hill on my bike. In fact the dog problem in my town revolves around unleashed dogs on the trails. Dog owners insist their dogs are "under control" off leash, but that is not always so. The law has been changed so that dogs have to be on leash on most of the conservation land trails and the owners are so up in arms, it's constantly being contested. The law doesn't apply to them! I am one of those people who gets scared when a dog runs up to me on the trail; I don't know what it will do. These owners are extremely nasty if you say something to them.
I did my little early morning 13 mile ride this morning. I went out later than usual as I don't have to be at work until 11. So, leaving right before 6, there was more traffic and more riders, but still fine, since there's no school buses. The last time I did this route, the sun was blinding me going down a hill, but it was cloudy this morning. We're in the midst of a humid, semi-stormy week. I saw a big crack of lightning on my way home and it did spritz, but overall, just humid. There's scattered thunderstorms predicted for tomorrow, and the group is doing the Mt Wachusett climb tomorrow (will likely be cancelled), so I am going to a museum with my granddaughter and DIL. I still might ride, depending on the weather, though, either before or after they come here.