Saturday, August 7 rides

[Catrin]

The weather was so very nice here today! I went to a local club ride that I could actually RIDE to There were three loops possible, each about 25 miles and we could ride them as we chose. There was a fast and flat loop, a hilly loop, and a rolling loop. I did the hilly and rolling loops, which brought my mileage for the day to 55.5 miles

I felt really strong during the ride, and think I am finally drinking enough. It was a beautiful ride - and NEXT Saturday will be time for my first metric century I think.

[Crankin]

We did an out the door 41 mile hilly ride. Well, the first half has all of the climbing, including a nice, 3 part 3/4 mile 10-15% grade climb to the top of Old Bay Rd. in Bolton. We rode there a slightly different way than we usually do, since we were not with our friends, but this variation also involved several hills before the steep climb. We always stop at the top and eat lunch in front of an abandoned house that is front of an apple orchard. Not too many cyclists out today; I guess they are all riding the PMC. Seriously, there was a noticeable difference in how many other cyclists I saw, which tells me that i am correct in my suspicion that everyone training for the PMC likes to ride where I ride and live. After the climb and lunch, there's a steep downhill that ends in a stop sign, and then some nice flat riding on a busy road at 23 mph. We stopped at gas station where I was going to refill my bottle in the bathroom, when 2 other cyclists offered us what was let of the half gallon jug of water they bought. So, I use it, mixed up my Accelerade and we headed home. I decided to cut the ride a bit short by taking an alternate route home, but it involved a final climb right before the climb up my street. DH and I were tired, so we went really slowly.
Came home, drank my chocolate milk, and decided that the "touring" pace of the first part of the ride was quite nice. DH was going so slowly, looking at scenery at one point, I yelled at him as I thought I was going to crash into him. We are getting old .

[emily_in_nc]

Nice ride to the farmer's market plus added on a bit of extra mileage. Total mileage: 15.8. The humidity was down a bit, and there was a nice breeze out of the north (rare in the summer in NC), so a great day to get out!

[jdubble]

I went on a nice mellow mostly flat 32 mile spin with two friends, complete with a relaxing coffee stop mid-way, where I was served the most lovely latte ever, made by a very talented barista.



then home for a quick shower and off to downtown on the xtracycle for lunch with the family, so another 6 miles of tooling around on that.

[7rider]

I went on a nice mellow mostly flat 32 mile spin with two friends, complete with a relaxing coffee stop mid-way, where I was served the most lovely latte ever, made by a very talented barista.

Very clever.
When I was in San Francisco last week, a few of us went to a coffee shop at the ferry terminal and the barista made a leaf design in my friend's latte. She took a picture of it and was afraid to drink it. It was almost too pretty to ruin!

I did the Poolesville loop with the N2 crew. They held a decent (read: moderate) pace, so I did go out to Poolesville, rather than cutting it short - which I was tempted to do, having suffered a bout of insomnia last night.
57 miles at a 17.4 mph average, which was pretty good, considering.

But...I really need to get multi-day long rides in...and I have very few days left to do it. My commutes are too short to serve that purpose, and lately I have too much going on to tack on extra miles at the end of the day. Our bike trip is coming up very soon, and I only hope I'm ready. Tomorrow, I plan to add extra miles to the shop ride - ride to it, do the extra loop through the park, and then drive home with DH (do some shopping along the way...ewwwww...stinky).

[jdubble]

Very clever.
When I was in San Francisco last week, a few of us went to a coffee shop at the ferry terminal and the barista made a leaf design in my friend's latte. She took a picture of it and was afraid to drink it. It was almost too pretty to ruin! .

Latte art is so ubiquitous here that I almost didn't even notice the bike, I just don't look anymore! I was about to take a sip when my friend called out "Wait! Is that a bike?!" You must've gone to Blue Bottle at the Ferry Building. They make delicious drinks! My favorite is the Gibraltar. Mmmmm coffee.