Sept 13th rides

[Tater]

Just a quiet morning commute for me. Today will be the last day for having eighties for highs as we have a cold front moving in tomorrow. The temperature for my afternoon commute tomorrow won't be much higher than it is right about now! Predicting highs only in the mid sixties. Woo-hoo!

[Geonz]

A quiet commute here, too - in the 50's and trying to drizzle, but it's a temperature that induces euphoria in me (or maybe it's the drizzle, I don't know!), even though I wasn't going anything like fast enough for endorphins. Contemplated what to say if our news guy *does* do a story on cycling safety.

[Cassandra_Cain]

The standard morning commute with a different route than last time. Which, for the most part, was a significant improvement.

Nonetheless today it wasn't a motorist but rather another 'cyclist' who proved to be a real prat. Here was the epitomy of git - passing downhill at a stoplight in the bike lane, then weaving in and out of the bike lane, then when I go to pass the guy - well naturally, he's wearing his bloody headphones. A bullhorn would not have made a difference. Oh pet peeves where art thou!!!!

Other than that it was NICE

[CorsairMac]

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAA I got the Baby back and Holy Smoking Guns is she fast!!!!!!! Screaming downhill to work at 30+ mph wihtout even using all fastest gears!!! I can't Wait to try her out tonight on the ride home since I've gained 2 more climbing gears in addition to the smaller cog and the bigger chainring! She is one fast little bike!!!!

[Cassandra_Cain]

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAA I got the Baby back and Holy Smoking Guns is she fast!!!!!!! Screaming downhill to work at 30+ mph wihtout even using all fastest gears!!! I can't Wait to try her out tonight on the ride home since I've gained 2 more climbing gears in addition to the smaller cog and the bigger chainring! She is one fast little bike!!!!

Heh....as if you weren't fast enough already.....I'll see if I can get a TT helmet and booties for the afternoon commute in hopes of keeping up

[Haudlady]

Well, my ride in this morning went well enough... I was tired, and allergies seemed to have kicked in, so it wasn't my best ride. But, I was glad I rode.

Now, nine hours later, I'm really wishing I hadn't taken the bike! Allergies? What allergies? I guess I should have figured out that it wasn't allergies - I seem to have caught DH's big bad cold.

I hate to give in , but I realized that instead of looking forward to my ride home, I am dreading it. I can't picture myself riding the seven miles back to the Park & Ride! So, ugh... I called DH to come pick me up after my last appointment. Good thing he's feeling better - it looks like it's his turn to make the chicken soup!

I hate being sick!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Enjoy your new better zippy bike, Corsair!

Go up early, ready to bike into town for coffee and to buy fresh bread and greens, etc...then it started RAINING and was yucky out.
Bundled up and walked down instead- haven't done that in a while.
A young ponytailed man sat next to me at the cafe counter while I had breakfast. After a while he said "Hey you ride a lot of long distance bike, don't you?" I asked why he asked, and he said he sees me on the road when he drives around the area, and I'm usually miles from town, in various other towns on my bike. Too funny really, because those other towns are not so far away, maybe only 10 or 20 miles away! And my all time longest ride so far is a modest 40 miles. But I accepted the compliment anyway, and it felt cool to be thought of by someone as a "long distance biker".

[Kano]

DH came home this afternoon, and I asked him, "so, if I ask you about going down to George's and getting my derailleur fixed thsi afternoon, you're probably going to say NOOOOOOOOOOOOoo aren't you?" and he said "YES!" I then said, "you mean we can?" He said, "no, I meant yes, I was going to say NOOOOOOO"

However, he changed his mind, and I said, long as we're loading up the bikes and going down town, how about we ride some of the greenbelt after we're done at George's?

So, I've got my low gears back, which is good (got yours fixed yet, Tater?) and he's got his handlebars tight again (he's been putting that off) and we had a 14.5 mile ride at an average of 14.1mph. That's a personal best by a LOT! We started by the zoo, which meant we had close to a mile on each end of the ride that's pretty high traffic on the path, so our speeds were fairly slow for a while. But, slow is 10mph now, and I remember that being "like a rocket" when we started this spring!

(isn't nostalgia fun?)

Karen in Boise

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Kano that's a cute story.

[Kano]

Thanks, Lisa! I just re-read it, and noticed I forgot the part where he said "AAARGH!" at the idea of a ride too!

Poor guy, I don't think he expected me to LOVE riding when he decided it would be a good thing for us to do when there's no skiing! "For exercise" he says. He tells people I drag him out and keep him at this. Since he's riding "for exercise" rides fast and hard "to get it over with." He'd happily ride once a week, do way too many miles that day, and figure that was a good thing.

I also forgot to mention that while they were fixing whatever on his bike, my feet just happened to wander me off to the road bike department. Probably because they have a "chick magnet" display right inside the front door, to start us women drooling, you know? (Ruby Comp - black - and two Cannondales yesterday) "Come on," he said when he finally found me, "you don't belong back here." (yes, I knew there would be no bike buying yesterday, and he had a bit of a resigned sense of humor -- he knows, and is simply trying to slow me down...) So I lovingly petted the prettiest ones, and something drew him to a strange brown Cannondale touring bike that he needed to pet, and then off we went for our ride!

Oh -- I just noticed: it's almost the time of day when stores are opening up! That means it's almost time! I need to get some knickers today, since it's the first day of the cool weather riding season! (and then I'll have to try them out, right?)

Karen in Boise

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

So I lovingly petted the prettiest ones, and something drew him to a strange brown Cannondale touring bike that he needed to pet, and then off we went for our ride!

Oh -- I just noticed: it's almost the time of day when stores are opening up! That means it's almost time! I need to get some knickers today, since it's the first day of the cool weather riding season!

Too funny!!! I totally understand. Me and my husband are sort of like that. Mysterious packages always arriving in the mail...mine usually contain biking clothes, his contain various gears and brackets and pedals and such...but we seem to have developed a non-spoken aggrement to not ask each other too many details about the contents. Now he just says "Sweetheart, package alert from Team Estrogen!" and I say "Sweetheart, package alert from Shimano!"....
He thinks "Team Estrogen" is a pretty funny name. Does kinda make it seem like I'm getting online hormone replacement therapy. Sigh..well, these lycra SheBeest pants DO make me feel younger and sexier...so I guess it IS a "sort of" hormone therapy.

[uk elephant]

No big ride for me on Wednesday. Did circuit training with some people at work instead to give my butt a little break from the bike. But I did cycle back to the station late in the evening after a massive thunderstorm had just passed. It was pitch black on the bike path and I had forgotten to bring my bike light so I could barely see where I was going. I've gone up and down that path every day to work since January so I know it well enough and I figured I'd notice if I got off the path as it is edged by big prickly bramble bushes most of the way. I just took it slow and made use of the occasional lightning flashes in the distance to see. Made it safely back to the station and even saw a bat fly past along the way.

[Duck on Wheels]

Hey there UK, I thought you said you couldn't write well. I love reading your posts.

Ok, so I'm biased. But I do know good writing. Anybody else out there think UK could earn some money for her ALC ride by doing a series for the local paper or something? A page on "what on Earth have I got myself into?", one on "finding a saddle I can ride for 6 days", one on "hill practice without hills", and finally a diary from the event itself?