It's August! Riding through the heat.

[Crankin]

My Guru is ok on the gravel. Not great, but there were some packed sections, where I get a reprieve and it is flat. Also not going more than 10-11 mph. As long as there is no sand, I am ok. We did not know about the dirt parts!
Will be ordering the rest of the parts for my Ariel on Wednesday, so they will be there Saturday, when we get home. My plan is to ride it to work the first Mon or Tues I am back and then hit the Battle Road Trail in Minuteman National Park on Wednesday. It’s packed dirt.

[Crankin]

Sheila, I bought the Ariel Sport because it met all of my requirements for around town and commuting, plus it had the extra factors of front shocks and disc brakes. It was on sale and one of the few xsmall bikes in this category available. They make them, but most brands sell out so quickly, they are gone in a flash.

[north woods gal]

10 or 11 miles per hour is pretty normal on dirt and gravel, so you did good, there, Crankin. Packed dirt is actually better than gravel as long as it isn't too loose or rutted. My favorite kind of surface, unless it rains, of course.

95 degrees, Sheila? Wow! Glad you got out away from home to ride, though. It's good for the spirit, every now and then.

We have our last upper 80s day, today, then down into the 70s, tomorrow and the rest of the week. Got out early to beat the afternoon heat, then. After a couple of laps around the neighborhood with the hubby, struck out to do a bit more pavement riding for a humble 14.4 miles, total. It was on the single speed Gunnar, though, so all sprint and a very good workout. That's what I love about single speeding. I don't have to go as far to get the same workout. The single speeding has really improved my road technique. Have to maintain a much higher spin rate to maintain my speed, so lots more pedaling per mile. Better aerobic workout than with a standard geared bike, not to mention no shifting, needed. That's pretty cool, too.

[north woods gal]

Sheila, we're never officially out of shape, we're just on the road to be in better shape, right? I know the feeling, though. I really don't know if I'll ever get back to my pre-accident shape before the snow flies, this year. Ah, well, maybe next year. I'm still riding and that's what counts for now.

Added another two miles of trail work, this afternoon after it cooled down a bit. Rode the Krampus with its 29x3 tires. Definitely more comfy than 29x 2.25 tires, but way short of the comfy I get with one of the fat bikes. Makes over 15 miles for the day with the single speed work I did this morning. There was a time I never would have thought riding 15 miles plus in a day, every day, would be enough to make me proud, but it does, now. Might be the new normal for me, after my accident, but if so, that's fine. Probably time to cut back, any way.

[Crankin]

Sheila, I did not buy the carbon! Since I have 2 carbon bikes, this one one needed to be cheaper. It’s aluminum, very light.
So, today’s ride was an adventure, and what’s an adventure without some excitement? We left the inn at 9:30 and decided to go for the 50 mile ride, since it was cloudy and tomorrow is definitely rain. It stayed cloudy for the first 20 miles or so. Totally quiet farm roads. The feature of this ride was an out and back to a peninsula that is a provincial park. We were getting tired as we got near the end of the peninsula and planned to eat our snack there. About 1-2 miles from the end, the road became gravel, with some poor pavement under. I was riding in the middle, when it became washboard. I get this weird thing when I ride on cobbles or washboard, where I get tunnel vision. As I was making my way across to the right, I am not sure what happened, but I think I was going too fast and I may have slammed my brakes. Down I went. Result, road rash and blood on my left knee, with bruising. Thankfully, I had my Bacitracin and lots of tissues. After several squirts of my water and applying pressure, we rode on to the end. We ate a bar and I recovered. We headed back, and of course the sun came out more. Made another stop to eat a Shot Block and we soldiered on to a supposed fabulous cheese shop at mile 40. DH said he was losing it, and so was I. The cheese shop had no actual food, but they had ice cream, so that was our lunch. This was a fail on the part of the tour company. With 10 miles to go, we were toast and right when we left, there was a climb with about a 10% grade. After one more stop, we made it to the inn, where our car and luggage were awaiting. Total was 49.7 miles and I will say I rode 50!
My road rash is already scabbing and healing, but it is stiff. I applied lots of Arnica and DH got me a huge bandage that’s like skin. We walked a bit to get a beer and app, hoping that helps. Dinner is not until 8.
It is going to be crappy weather tomorrow, so more wineries and some shopping is in order. I am fine with riding 130 miles in 4 days. Wednesday, we head to Montreal.

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, Crankin, so sorry about your fall! There seems to be a lot of that going around lately. My DH is just about healed up from his (due to cleat failure). He is down to regular-sized Band-aids (from large bandages) on the side of his left elbow and knee, and the scabbed areas get smaller every day. We did our usual route yesterday -- the full length -- for the first time since his crash exactly two weeks earlier. My 35 miles put me at 3001 miles for the year! Pretty happy about that. We had a building headwind on the way back, on top of the usual heat and humidity (temp 85), so the last third or so of the ride was not so pleasant, but we got 'er done.

What tour company did you go with? We did a Bike Vermont tour many years ago in the Connecticut River Valley, so some of it was actually in New Hampshire (Hanover area). I still have such fond memories, but whew, the hills were tough. I can't imagine riding 50 miles in that kind of terrain these days, so I give you huge props!

[north woods gal]

Crankin, you are tough, no doubt about it. 130 miles in 4 days and a fall in the mix, to boot. Glad your fall wasn't worse. Road rash is the pits, though.

Congrats, Emily, on a great year of riding and it's not over, yet. I hope to try some biking when we're on our Florida visit in September, but I suspect it will be limited, given the heat and my current level of conditioning. Don't know when I'll get back into your league or Crankin's, but I know for sure it will be awhile. Not likely this year. It sometimes depresses me to think about how much I have lost as far as my physical conditioning, though, in truth, I'm actually in good shape. I'm just not in my former peak shape for riding. That always makes me nervous and tense, though. On things like this, patience is not my strong suit.

Stopped in at the bike shop, yesterday, to see how the guys were coming on changing the new Pugs over to better all around tires and setting them up tubeless, to boot. I know I'm one of the only fatties fans around here, so I'll just tell everyone that with these monster tires, tire design and going tubeless is very important. (Fat bike inner tubes weigh a ton.) Hope to bring the new Pugs home in the next couple of days and do some more trail riding with it. This winter, the fat bikes will all be my plowed road, road bikes, too. Have decided not to tear myself up trying to keep my trails open this winter like I did last winter. My snow riding will either be on the roads or local groomed trails and, yes, in snow bike country, we have groomed snow bike trails, same as we have groomed cross country ski trails.