June 28 Ride Report

[MomOnBike]

Yesterday I found a great hill-repeat loop to add to my route. So today, I rode 3 hill laps. My family thinks I've gone nuts.

Total ride was a bit under 21 miles, the average was slow, but there were those hills... and I was pretty tired at the end, but I did it.

Tomorrow, I think I'll try for 4 laps. Maybe I'll leave some of the hip flab on the side of that hill.

[Fredwina]

did some more am exploring today.

[makbike]

Rode 16.1 miles today on my Giro. I took it out on a course which starts will a 5 mile stretch of rolling hills. I managed the hills but boy were my thighs talking to me. Today's average speed was slow, 13.6 but I'm sure that had to do with learning how to ride my recumbent on hills and fighting a head wind for part of the way. However, it felt good to be out on the road and I'm looking forward to riding later in the week. I've decided to take my Giro with me on my trip home (Tennessee) this weekend. I'll ride it around my parent's little town, out to the park and home. I'm going to avoid the major roads for there are some big hills and I'm not ready to tackle them on this bike.

[betagirl]

Today I had the bright idea to try to outrun a thunderstorm. I got about 2 miles into my commute and pulled off at a gas station as the lighting flashed all around me. The rain started about a minute after I pulled off. So I got to hang out for about 15 minutes or so. The roads were nice and wet, so I got that familiar swamp a** from water spraying up my backside. My normal commuter has a fender, but the rear tire is flat. So that was groovy. After class, I rode up to Performance to get new tires, then home. 26.8 miles all together. Oh and a great headwind on the way home. Blah.

[salsabike]

Ah, the Seattle heat wave is over. 75 and breezy today. I rode 42.5 miles on the trail. It was delightful. My average, however, is resolutely 14.3, week after week. I would say there's something wrong with the computer and it's stuck, but it doesn't seem to have any trouble going DOWN, only up. Still and all, nice day, nice ride.

[KnottedYet]

Just the commute. Gorgeous weather. Still loving my Brooks saddle.

[Lise]

Today I had the bright idea to try to outrun a thunderstorm. I got about 2 miles into my commute and pulled off at a gas station as the lighting flashed all around me. The rain started about a minute after I pulled off. So I got to hang out for about 15 minutes or so. The roads were nice and wet, so I got that familiar swamp a** from water spraying up my backside. My normal commuter has a fender, but the rear tire is flat. So that was groovy. After class, I rode up to Performance to get new tires, then home. 26.8 miles all together. Oh and a great headwind on the way home. Blah.

Yeah, what was that yesterday?

The 4th Wed of the month is "Street Cleaning Day", aka, "Large Revenue for the City Day" in the neighborhood where I work. So the options are:

1. Drive 3 miles (15 min) to work, drive around for 25 min, walk a mile from the parking place you finally find
OR
2. Ride the bike (18 min), lock it up in the basement of the clinic, go to work.

A no-brainer, right? Unless it's lightning, thundering, and hailing when I need to leave for work. Sigh. I knew I'd end up spending $$ on gas just trying to park, and then walk in the rain/hail anyways, so I dug out my yellow rain poncho and took off on the bike. Luckily didn't get myself killed with that big yellow plastic thing flapping all around me. "Who's a duck on wheels NOW?!", I thought. Am I right that the rubber in the wheels makes me safer riding a metal contraption with lightning flashing all around me?

Coming home it wasn't raining anymore, but quite a wind out of the west. Whopping total of 6.11 miles, the standard ride to work mileage.

Maybe I'll turn up some rain gear at Turin on the 8th.

[betagirl]

Lise, I have no idea but did you get hit around 9pm lastnight too? I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up to quite the storm. I had a window open in my office, and spent a few minutes drying out some old papers

As for riding in storms, I've always thought to pull off if there's lightning. While there are rubber tires, I think it'd still hurt if you got hit. I pulled off more because of the lightning than the rain, though I had no rain gear so it was a plus to stay somewhat dry.

Wild weather. Today looks much more promising. I replaced my rear tire on the Trek, but I either bent my rim or it needs to be trued. I hope for the latter. So we'll see how the ride in goes today. At least at this hour I can hop the blue line if need be and take my bike with me.

[Lenusik]

I don't know how much I rode. I stayed at home on a trainer. I was pedalling pretty hard for about 45 minutes watching Wimbledon. It was 113F in Phoenix yesterday. I had to stay indoors.