May Rides

[Crankin]

I am assuming we still want a monthly ride thread, in addition to Murienn's random on/off topic riding thread.
We went to a leader's ride/party today. There were 2 rides, 26/14 miles. Now, AMC has lots of slow type rides led by some of the people on the ride. Unfortunately, there was no discussion of speed requirements for the 26 mile ride and I volunteered to sweep. After 2 minutes, a group broke off of the front. DH stayed with me, and then the fun began... there was a woman who was so slow I really was not sure if I could keep my commitment to sweep. She should have gone on the other ride. Now, I know speed and length of ride are not always connected, but, I truly forgot these were leaders I was on a ride with. Squirelly riding, not approaching turns assertively, etc. But, I was really nice and only once did I tell the woman (and a guy) I was going to pass them and wait at the top of a hill. Beautiful weather today, first ride in shorts and short sleeves.
After the ride, we had a happy hour and dinner, and then filled in our rides calendar. Upside is that DH and I are leading a few more than our usual 2... starting with a Thursday night series ride, the week after next.

[OakLeaf]

I got out for the club ride yesterday! It was the shortest, flattest loop they do, and farmers' market season hasn't started yet, so what the heck. I was still a little hesitant about going the whole distance (38 miles) and they laughed at me until I reminded them that I was 12 days out from a big PR marathon, I'd run two more miles than I'd wanted to on Friday (stupid Google), I'd ridden the road bike a total of four times all winter, and hadn't ridden more than 30 miles together in three years ...

It was a glorious spring day, not even any wind, and it felt really good to get out and to see my old riding buddies again. The route is a VERY gradual climb outbound with some steeper descents on the return, so I hung with the slowest riders and by the time I was getting tired, I got to coast for the better part of the last ten miles. Little bit of diffuse soreness today, but I don't think I did my recovery any harm.

Yay.

[Crankin]

That sounds like fun, Oak.
Just got back from 41.6 miles doing some of my favorite hills in Harvard, MA. I've been out on my bike for 6 weeks and have avoided these hills like the plague, but with my trip to Provence in 6 weeks, I gotta get my azz in gear. Was feeling very anxious about this, and it bugged me until we actually got done with the first climb (Westcott Rd.). My strategy was to maintain a steady slower speed and high cadence all the way up the hill, even when it flattened out. After that, the anxiety was gone, but there were more hills to climb! We ate lunch at the Harvard General Store, and after being 80 degrees and sunny when we arrived, the clouds came. I was thankful, because riding in hot weather, with no transition (it was 70, clear, cool-ish yesterday) gets to me. However, I knew rain was forecast for later in the afternoon, so we headed out, stiff and tired. The first thing was an annoying climb on a busy road, to get to a long downhill. When ever I do this, it reminds me of when your mom tells you not to go swimming after eating! My legs were dead. But, the downhill is nice, and after that, we rode through our old neighborhood, and saw people in our old house, sitting on "our" porch furniture. Creepy.
Anyway, made a couple of "rest" stops between there and home. Ended up with about 1,850 feet of climbing. Need to do a lot more before June 17.

[rebeccaC]

Rode into the Santa Monica mountains on a canyon road I’ve only used a couple of times cuz memories of it’s really long steep climb with no road shoulder a lot of the way immediately come to mind when I think about riding it again. 76 miles with temps in the high 60’s.....and a wonderful tail wind coming off the ocean helped push me home. I needed a good challenge and this ride gave it to me!

[smittykitty]

23 on Sat. With a quick stop at DQ! 58 on Sunday. A few good hills, no pictures, sore butt, sore quads. Boy am I out of shape!
Good weather and enjoyed riding with DH as usual.

[Crankin]

Great ride today with a new group. See the off topic thread for details.

[Catrin]

Was it the same today, or do you commute every day?

[Crankin]

I work 3 days a week and usually commute 2 of them. Sometimes only once. I was ready to ride today, but thunderstorms were predicted for my ride home, so I bagged it. The traffic was not as bad, and I left the office at the same time. I would have been riding in rain that would have been Ok with my rain jacket, but I needed a rest day. Planning to go out for a "dark" early AM ride tomorrow, as I have a workshop scheduled on my day off.

[Catrin]

I hope you enjoyed riding today! I used to commute on Fridays since I could leave home at 5:30 am and return home at 1. I wasn't about to ride to downtown Indy during either rush hour I did enjoy riding through several scenic neighborhoods.

How long of a ride do you have?

[Crankin]

I had an awesome ride this morning! I left at 4:54 and rode 10 miles. Wanted to do more, but it was a good thing I didn't, since when I got back, I realized it was at a different hotel than the last one (same town) and I had to figure out how to get here, in addition to showering and eating. The cool thing was, I saw 4 other cyclists and hardly any cars.
My commute is only 5.2 miles. Really nothing, but I do go through the center of town, past a prep school, and cross a highway. Monday was humid and warm enough that when I got there, I had to use all of my hygiene supplies. I have bought a few outfits that I can ride in and wear all day, but I was glad I realized Monday was not a day to do that!

[Catrin]

Sounds like a very nice morning's ride, nice!

[ny biker]

Well I am still sick, but have finally managed to get back on the bike. I came down with a bad cold 3 weeks ago, and it triggered asthma symptoms from the very beginning so I knew I'd have to manage things to prevent it from turning into a serious lung problem. So I took it easy, with very little activity for more than two weeks. I went for a walk a few times to gauge my recovery, but even when I felt good while I was out walking I had problems with congestion and coughing afterwards. I suppose the high tree pollen levels contributed to the problem.

At any rate, by last Monday I was mostly better except for a hair-trigger coughing reflex (merely drinking water was enough to get me going) and a mild sore throat that caused my voice to be hoarse. I planned to go for a ride on Wednesday evening. Then it rained on Wednesday so I rescheduled for Friday. I think the two-day delay actually helped, because the laryngitis continued through the week and in fact has still not gone away. Friday's ride went pretty well, all things considered. My pace was a bit slow but I expected that. I also found that the laryngitis affected my breathing -- air has to pass through your larynx to get to your lungs, and when the larynx is inflamed the air passage is smaller. I used my asthma inhaler, and that helped. So overall I was happy to be back out on the bike.

I did have two incidents with idiot drivers on Friday, unfortunately. Virginia has passed a 3-foot passing law and has also passed a law allowing motorists to cross a solid yellow line in order to pass cyclists. However I don't think these laws have been publicized, even in the supposedly bike-friendly area where I was riding. Both incidents were on roads in residential areas with a 25 mph speed limit. Both are narrow with cars parked along the sides so it's legal and safer to take the lane. One of them is marked with sharrows. On that one, the idiot driver drove in the parking lane and passed on my right, way too close to me. On the other one the driver passed on the left but also came way too close. I tried to tell them both what I thought of them but the laryngitis prevented me from being heard.

On Sunday I joined some friends for a club ride. The planned route was 46 miles, which was longer than I wanted to ride given the lingering cold (I think this particular strain is the Rasputin virus). But on Saturday night someone sent out an email saying that he planned to ride a shortened version of the route due to some knee problems, so I decided I would ride with him. Five people came out for the ride, and as it turned out all but the ride leader wanted to do the shorter version. So we came up with a compromise route that was shorter than the leader's planned route but was about 5 miles longer than the originally-planned shortcut. The total distance was 34 miles.

I had more laryngitis-related breathing problems on this ride, and the asthma inhaler didn't help as much this time. But the route was mostly flat and I was able to get through it okay. Toward the end my sit bones were hurting. Who would have thought that I'd be having that problem on the second weekend in May.

So now it's three days later and I STILL have the laryngitis. In fact it was worse on Monday, due to many phone calls and in-person conversations related to getting my car fixed after being involved in a crash several weeks ago. I've been resting my voice yesterday and today, and will go out for a short ride this evening to see how things are.

[Crankin]

We led a 19 mile ride tonight. It's a show and go series, listed as intermediate level (av. 14-16)... 4 guys show up. One can keep up with DH, one has a road bike with 32 tires that are rubbing and doing other bad things, one is his first ride of the year (he's in chinos, t shirt, sneakers, creaky touring bike), and one is Ok, rides about my speed, but is having issues unclipping and falls back on hills. Oh, the fun. We made it back just as the sun was going down, but I was not happy. Two of those guys did not belong on this ride and one should not have come with a broken bike!
We had planned a GPS route, but the traffic was so bad on the first street when we drove to the start, we bagged it (none of them had GPS) and made it up in the parking lot.
We are doing 3 more of these this summer, so hope the people self select more properly.

[Crankin]

I rode with my friend, Linda, for the first time this season. She's the one I hooked on cycling a few years ago. She's much slower than me, but compared to those guys last night, I'd ride with her any time! She has good skills. Anyway, we started out from her house, near where our group ride started last Saturday, so we set out to do that route. I am exhausted... not used to riding at night (last night) and I could not get to sleep. That, and going to boot camp this morning, working the morning, and riding did me in. I thought going at a slower pace would be OK, and I wasn't dying, but I knew I needed to rest. When we got to a certain point, I asked her if she'd be Ok to head back, and she said yes, as she had done Cross Fit this morning. Still managed to do 18+ miles, and I am looking forward to sleeping in on a rainy morning tomorrow.

[Crankin]

Today we did our first ride of the season to Bolton Orchards for lunch and back. This is a hilly ride, so good training for France. Usually, it's 50 miles + a little, but because of grooved pavement on a downhill toward the end of the ride, we took a slightly shorter way home, so it ended up being 46 miles and about 2,400 ft. of climbing. We purposely keep it slow on these rides, so we feel good when we get to lunch! The majority of the hard climbing is right before the stop, but there is an awesome downhill to make up for it. After lunch, there is a 4 mile gradual climb, not shaded. It does flatten and go down a few times, but after lunch, it feels hard. DH was really going slowly, and I forced myself to stay behind. Good thing, because after this, there's one more annoying climb, and then a long downhill, when we get back to an area that's more local riding for us. This is where I started feeling like I was losing it, but I ate a Shot Block, which helped right until I got to the climb up my street. It was 81 today and the clouds cooperated and came out for most of the climbing that wasn't shaded. It was quiet out today; not so many cars or riders, and Bolton Farms was quiet, too. I think there's a lot of graduations and end of the school year sports stuff going on.
Yesterday, we did a fast 19 miles just around Concord and Carlisle. It was also my first beer and ice cream day of the season .