It's August! Riding through the heat.

[Crankin]

Took our granddaughter on a 14.6 mile rt ride on the rail trail. This time, we drove to the terminus (so we wouldn't have to ride 5 miles uphill in spots to where we usually catch the trail). I rode my Ariel, with DH pulling the Burley on his Guru. It was a lovely day, partly cloudy and about 79. We have a terrible heat wave coming next Monday through Thursday, so I really enjoyed this. The first mile and a half was a new part of the trail for us. It now ends near where it will take a path to a new bridge that will be built over the highway and come out about 1.75 miles from my house, in 2021. We rode to a pond in South Chelmsford, where there's a little beach and a swings, picnic tables, and near a Mobil mini Mart. It's really a beautiful spot, that doesn't require a resident parking sticker to park or use the beach.
This was the first time we had annoying cyclists on the trail, but nothing like I've experienced, say like on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. I have a bell on my Ariel, but apparently no one around here knows what it means when you ring it! We were going a long a good clip for a person with a trailer and me on a heavier bike. We sat and had a snack and let her go on the swings, but she didn't want to go in the water. On the way back, we called out to an older couple going really slowly, and the woman weaving all over. She told me I scared her, so I did retort that she was weaving all over the road. When you don't respond to the bell, you get me calling out in my "teacher voice."
It was really fun, I feel like I actually worked, and she is now calling it "my trailer" and my "birdie helmet."

[north woods gal]

Day started with rain and thunder and more storms in the forecast today and tonight. Could feel the change in my neck, as in a slight flare up of arthritis. Time to put the comfort bike back on the trainer where it belongs. Yuk! I hate riding, indoors, but I suspect I'll be doing it more when winter hits this year, so might as well get in the habit. Will still ride the roads with the fat bikes when the snow falls, but NOT going to try to keep the trails open, like I did last year. That was nuts. At least my neck and shoulders are comfy when riding, indoors. There's that.

Can feel the season changing. Most of us, up here, have given up trying to predict what the weather will be come fall and, especially winter. Been here going on nine years, now. Two winters set a record for heavy snowfall and one set a record for lack of snow fall. No matter what, hoping to get in as much riding as I can before the snow falls and I expect most of that will be road riding. Leaves are even starting to fall in the woods and I'm not too crazy about keeping the trails free of leaves for the sake of safety like I did last year. Did I mention how much work it takes to maintain trails? Not worth it for the little trail riding i still do.

[Crankin]

NWG, we have one tree behind our townhome that has a few red leaves. It's in the edge of a small wetlands area. Every year, we have a few red leaves at the end of August, but I haven't seen any others, besides behind my house. I feel climate change is here to stay... tomorrow we begin a 3 day horrible heat wave, up to 96 and high humidity. My friend from Amherst is coming in tomorrow night, to meet up with former colleagues. We plan to ride early Wednesday, but it may be very early and very short, possibly on the bike trail. I have a short day Tuesday, but I am sure it will be brutal at 4 PM whenI get home.
We did 50.5 miles today, and I was never more than 12-15 miles from home, which felt nice. Explored some new neighborhood streets in Concord in the beginning, and then rode into Sudbury and Wayland, through the Great Meadows Nature Preserve. At mile 13 we stopped and ate and drank and I said my goal was to get to West Acton, where we could stop and eat lunch at a farm market and then decide if we would continue. It was exactly 25 miles! It scares me to see how well I can estimate distances in my area. As we ate, we decided to press on, and I decided we would make another decision when we got near our former town of Boxborough. I thought we might have to do a long a steep climb to get the miles, but when we got to our old neighborhood, we were at mile 38, so that was not going to be necessary. We stopped and I ate a Shot Block and rued our decision to move from there! We decided to ride into West Concord village, as we knew we'd be a bit short at this point. So, we got to go down a long downhill we usually miss and stopped for ice cream, 1.8 miles from our house, but needing about 4 miles to get to 50. So, we rode around some lovely neighborhood streets and headed home.
It was partly cloudy and got up to about 82. You can feel the humidity rising. But, it was breezy. I really appreciate the shady roads around here and the beauty. I think it makes me jaded when I travel. A good day. Hope to do a metric next weekend.

[north woods gal]

Crankin, that's some impressive miles. I begin to wonder if I'll ever do 50 miles, again. Keep up that pace, though. Gives me encouragement.

I actually did get to do some riding during an afternoon break in the storms. I figured I better get in shape with theft bikes, since I'l be riding them, exclusively, come winter. Today was a better day for my neck on our trails, given that they are a bit softer, now that it has rained. I also dropped the tire pressure down lower than necessary for this time of year and that also helped with the comfort.

Did 5 mikes of laps on the trails, then headed out around the neighborhood paved roads with the fat bike for 10 miles worth of laps. Wanted to stay close to home in case the skies opened up, suddenly. One thing I noticed, immediately, was how being able to go faster out on the road really helped to cool me off in the very humid air. Almost like having AC after riding in the woods with no breeze. Yeah, pedaling the fat bikes out on the road is more of a workout, but, of course, fat bikes do offer some advantages. One is comfort, regardless of thread conditions. No weather and no road can stop a fat bike. Kind of gives you that invincible feeling, though, of course, that's mostly a state of mind. Fun, though.

[emily_in_nc]

Yeah, good going, Crankin! That sounds like a fun ride (especial the food stops!)

I can't remember if I've even managed a 50-miler this year. Last year we rode 50 on the Long Leaf Trace, when we evacuated to Mississippi to escape Hurricane Irma. Coming up on the anniversary of that and can't remember any other 50 milers since then (too lazy to check my logs, also). I just have too much lower back pain from about mile 30 on to enjoy longer rides now, so I try to hold my rides to around 35 miles. One of these days I'd love to test ride a recumbent to see if I have the same issues in that very different riding position.

Next ride will be tomorrow, as I have another orthodontist appointment this morning, and it's too hot to ride later on.

[Crankin]

This is only my 2nd 50 miler this year. I am toying of doing a century on Columbus Day weekend. It's flattish, probably similar terrain to yesterday. And, it's in an area I have not ridden in. Instead of suffering like I usually do, I am trying to train a bit. I can also just do the metric as it doesn't matter which you sign up for.
My right wrist is hurting, I think from getting used to the flat bar on the Ariel. I rode my Silque yesterday, of course, but it had been 3 days of riding the Ariel before that. I won't be doing long rides on it, so I will deal with it. It doesn't hurt when I am riding, though.
I feel a little crappy this morning, probably a combo of the ride, pollen, and getting up for boot camp and doing it. I should have stayed in bed, but, I will live.

[north woods gal]

Not at my best, either, Crankin. I'm fighting off a seasonal change cold and pollen and insane humidity between storms, but I still ride, of course. Oh, well.

A couple years back, I switched to all flat bar bikes because it was too hard on my body switching back and forth between drop bar bikes and flat bar bikes. If that flat bar is causing any pain issues for you, you can change to a different handlebar. Looking at the specs on the Ariel, the stock handlebar only has 9 degrees of sweep, back. That's not much. Lots of options, now, for handlebars that sweep back, more. More sweep in the handlebar my make it more comfortable for your wrists. It's helped me on some bikes. Have a Salsa bend handlebar on my Krampus with 23 degrees of back sweep. Very comfortable. My touring model Salsa have a Moluku handlebar with over 30 degrees of sweep. It also offers different hand positions. Very comfortable for long rides. Be sure to explore different grip styles, too. That can also help. I use ESI foam grips on a lot of my bikes and they do help reduce buzz. (Have your shop put them on, though. They can be real buggers to get on the handlebar.) Lastly, I always use good padded gel MTB gloves (not the skimpy gloves some road bikers use) for my riding and they also help.

More storms in the forecast for the next couple days, so no long distance rides away from home. Will do laps around the local roads so as not to get too far out in case I get caught in a storm.