September rides, bringing in the fall.

[north woods gal]

We're getting a last delicious taste of summer for the rest of the week with temps right at 80 for a high and lots of sunshine. I'm enjoying it while I can. time to also catch up on some yard work and trail work, while I can. September is a fall month for us and snow is possible.

Mixed a short 6 mile ride with trail work, yesterday, then off to town for some errands.

Emily, I know you have family in N.C., so I hope they will be safe from this approaching storm. Does sound awful.

[Crankin]

Oy, my son just bought a home outside Fayetteville... right in the predicted torrential rain zone. They won't be moving until 12/1, but I hope the house is not damaged.

It is raining here. Had a good spin/core class, where so many people asked me how to set up their bikes, I felt like I should have been paid. I may skip boot camp on Friday, to do a 30 mile ride with fresh legs, since I already have my 2x a week weights, etc.

[north woods gal]

Hoping for the best for all those folks in the Carolinas. Not looking good, though.

Beautiful ride for me, today. Sunshine and 80 degrees with a bit of wind, but not too much. Just a great day to be out and riding. Did 22.1 miles on the Log Lady single speed. Even added a mile of rough gravel and sand road for a little variety along the way. This LL is geared a bit too low for pavement work, but it's still doable. Was just a matter of me choosing a very hilly and challenging route to take advantage of this bike's rabbit-like ability to accelerate and climb. Flying down one hill at nearly 30 mph at times and then scurrying up the next hill as fast as I could spin, one hill after another. Talk about fun!

Riding the Log Lady and my other fast single speed, the Gunnar, has changed my riding, radically. It's not just the single speed thing, though that's an important part of the equation. It's also very much the pure joy that comes from riding a very quick, agile, easy rolling, oh so easy to pedal, light weight steel bike. Really makes me dread taking the fat bikes with their big heavy wheels for any long rides, now. They really are collecting dust, especially now that I have the Krampus set up for single speed trail work. Will still need the fatties for my winter riding, of course. You do need those fat tires for snow riding. For warm weather riding, though? Why ride a lumber truck when I can ride a sports car? These two racing single speed MTBs have really put the joy back into my road riding. Definitely one of my best ever biking decisions to try.

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks for the well wishes re. my NC family. I have family all over the state, from west to east, including my brother in Wilmington, which looks like ground zero for this awful storm. Fortunately, he's lived there for decades and knows how to prepare. He and his friends have helped each other board up and eat up the food in their freezers! They are as ready as they'll ever be, and are in the highest elevation in town, not near any water, so should be okay re. flooding, though they may have to deal with an extended power outage.

We also have family on my husband's side in SC, mostly in Columbia. They may get some high wind and lots of rain but should be okay that far inland, we hope.

This is gonna be a doozy, and although I feel super thankful that Flo is not coming to Flo-rida, I am super worried about people in the Carolinas, since I know so many of them!

Back in our neck of the woods, we did our usual ride yesterday and today, and it remains hot and humid. Nothing new there, but we'll take boring over hurricanes!

[north woods gal]

Keep us updated, Emily and anyone else affected by the storm.

Back home, our lawn rake is getting a good workout on our trails, now that the leaves have started to fall. My main problem with the leaves is that they make the trail, ahead, hard to see and distinguish and that can be dangerous when doing a downhill run. Wet leaves are also notorious for causing wheels to slip, though this really doesn't affect fat bikes or plus bikes with their wider tires. Have been working hard, though, to make most of the trails safe and enjoyable to ride with standard MTB wide tires, now that I ride a couple of the single speed MTBs with standard 2.25" wide tires. Again, running these standard wheel MTBs on the trails is a very different experience than running the big heavy fat bikes. Nice to have the option to ride any of these bikes on the trail when I feel like one or the other.

Have definitely reverted back into more of a roadie, though, wether it's pavement, gravel, sand or smooth trails. In our low traffic area with decently wide roads, road biking is about as safe as road biking gets. Our MTB trails, though, can be very challenging.

A friend of my hubby is coming for a visit, today, and then my in-laws, next week, so lots of housework to do. Will get out and ride when I can.

[Crankin]

You are busy, NWG...

So, I did ride today, but only did 23/30 miles. It is still partly cloudy, a bit humid, but not too hot, about 75. I slathered myself with #50 SPF for babies, which is very thick, and #70 on my face, so as not to get the sunburn side effect from doxycycline. I also wore my LS Terry jersey that is UPF. It's very thin, and people say they wear it riding in the desert or FL, but I was sweating like crazy. Did not want a repeat of what happened last time. As usual, it was just Jack and I. He knows my capabilities and I generally have been feeling great riding, but not today. I think it was the meds and some Brussel sprouts making my tummy very unhappy! After just a couple of miles, I felt like my breakfast was coming up, and I did not eat anything unusual. This ride has climbing, but by the time we got to the super climb (steep, like 12% in one spot), I said no way, so we rerouted a nice way to long crazy downhill and then on to what used to be one of the worst pot holed roads in the area. It's all paved, yay! But, I knew after the climb at the end, again steep, but shorter, I was going to head back on the main road. The part of the ride that comes after this is kind of ugly, anyway (business park and bad roads).
My average never went below 14, was close to 15 for the first half, which is good for me, but I don't want to pay the price. Hope to do a longer ride with DH tomorrow and hope the sunblock works then. It's my last day on the meds.

[emily_in_nc]

Ugh, Crankin. I feel ya on med side effects. You were smart to detour away from the big, bad hill, if your tummy was feeling off. Can't blame you a bit!

NWG, I slipped and fell once in wet leaves on a MTB trail, so I know of what you speak! It was a very low-speed fall, so I didn't really hurt myself, but it happened so fast it kinda freaked me out. I normally don't ride if it's wet out, so it was a surprise.

Got in our normal quota of three 35-mile rides this week. Today's was the fastest and best. Conditions were good, with light winds, so in spots I felt like we had a tailwind -- turns out it was just absence of wind. What a concept! I still only averaged 13.8, but there is a lot of urban riding in this route, plus many road crossings, so I was happy with that. Most of the time, I'm riding at 14-16, but the urban stuff really impacts the overall speed. Not complaining, though. Just happy to be able to ride in shorts and short-sleeve jerseys. It felt just a tiny bit less humid this week, though still plenty warm. Today's high was 95, but that was well after we were done riding. And it certainly beats a hurricane.

I ticked over to 3500 miles on the cyclocomputer today, another plus!