May 28 daily ride report

[mimitabby]

well, it sure was barely 50 in the Seattle area. we waited until it stopped raining, about 330 or 4pm and looked at each other; and said; "let's go for it"
and we dropped all the other stuff we were doing and hopped into our bike duds.
I wore my new 8 panel bike shorts WITHOUT underwear (for the first time)and put tights over them. We rode 31 miles; partially up the green river trail. We turned around when the clouds in front of us got too black. IT was just in time, it started to rain on us on our way back, but we missed the brunt of it. Now I am safe and warm and dry in my warm house.
All body parts okay!

Tomorrow we hope to do a longer ride!

[Pyannyplayer]

Today is our 18th wedding anniversary, so we decided to bike some of the Katy Trail as a family. This was my sons' first BIG ride and they did great! 10.3 miles total distance at 8 mph average.

Once we got home (it's a two hour drive from our house to a Katy trailhead), we got our road bikes out and went for a short ride without the boys (the road bikes were early anniversary presents that we got a week and a half ago). We did a hilly loop, 17 miles, in a little over an hour, averaging 16 mph! What fun! It was a gorgeous afternoon to be riding!

We did have a cross-wind for part of our ride which just about knocked me over, but even that couldn't put a damper on our ride(s). My youngest is HOOKED and the oldest will be when he has his bike fitted properly (he was sitting a little low). All in all a GREAT biking day!

Lorie

[Geonz]

Lots of firsts happening! Wish I'd had some of that coolness...

Did 72 in the HOT hills of Kentucky... on the Xtracycle. It was different - I"m not used to passing people on the downhills and them passing me on the uphill, but when you're riding something like 45 pounds of bicycle... yesterday's 53 was a piece of cake... today's was hillier, hotter... oh, and I didn't have my tea. Heck, I could have stood **coffee** getting that thing up the hills - but it's been a long time since I've recalled what tired, stiff and sore feel like - and usually then I've got some monster mileage to brag about. Ah, well, good for the character!
The Xtracycle came in handy... the ride is in a dry county, so my buddies could get that 12-pack at the Last Chance County Line Liqour STore and toss it in and I didn't really notice it. The blender drew a crowd and the Xtracycle in general got amusingly diverse reactions. It's interesting that some people wanted to know exactly what specific function it was supposed to serve (was it especially designed to carry a certain cargo?); one person wanted to know what it's purpose was (I mean, it's not obvious?); most people didn't believe I had a blender :=) and a lot of people were impressed at its elegance. (Okay, and the volunteer at the end who asked how far I'd gone ... just said, "Holy cow!" So I could get chuffed )

[bikerz]

BTW, I'm becoming a cadence watcher. That seems to me to be the best way to get faster for the Mt. Tam Double (why do they HAVE to have time cutoffs?) and not blow out my knees. Today's average cadence over 30 fairly flat miles (1000 feet of climb) - 91 RPMs with a high of 122.
V.

Thanks! I think it was Yellow who told me all about the benefits of a cadence meter - I installed one at the end of last year, and I love it - I think it's has really helped me with keeping a constant speed and spinning better. Today I was working on SK's advice about keeping my upper body still, and I noticed that whenever I really paid attenton to my form, I felt more comfortable, and I went faster. Well, whaddya know. I guess there's something to all this!

Looking at Jo's photos of me, my first thought was "get those shoulders DOWN!" My second thought was "good thing those photos aren't time/date stamped" - it was a looooong time between the first and second pictures!