May 19 ride report

[DrBee]

I went on a nice leasurely ride this morning. The weather was gorgeous - mid 50's (very unusual for this time of year here) with low humidity and only a light breeze. Those AV arm warmers were nice today!

I hope everyone has a glorious day!

[HillSlugger]

I got up early this morning (same time as for my morning workout before work) to do "Joe's Ride", a local charity event: 45k (28.8 mile) ride + 1.8 miles to the ride start (I got a ride home).

I was surprised by the many inexperienced riders that started this event. Some of them showed up without helmets (luckily for them, there were helmets to lend) and some had obviously never been on the bike they were riding. This wasn't a little family ride (there was a separate 10k ride), it was a hilly, fairly challenging ride. I was very glad when I got past them without incident. The weather was clear, but cool. Overall, a nice ride.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yesterday (May 18th) DH and I started out for a 20 mile pleasant ride.

8 miles out, he got a rear flat. There was an obvious chunk of glass right through the tire. We put on a new tube and were about to get rolling but suddenly before we even got on the bikes the new tube exploded. Sounded like a gun!
So we figured it was a defective tube. Got MY new spare tube (a different brand tube) and fixed the flat again, checking for odd things inside the tire, etc. Found nothing obvious.
Got on and rode about 5 miles then stopped for a rest and BLAM! the OTHER new tube exploded!
At that point he had had 3 flats in a row, were out of fresh tubes, and we decided to call it quits and bring the bike home to fully investigate where the problem was (aside from the original glass puncture).
So I rode home, got the car and came and "rescued" him. At least I got 17 miles riding in and also got to watch a lot of flat changing!
Happily DH has another bike to ride while he investigates the problem in the comfort of his little basement "bike workshop". I have no doubt he will find the issue easily.

Funny, we both have ridden about a year with no flats at all, and suddenly within 2 weeks we had FOUR between the two of us! Time for a new tube order!

[Aggie_Ama]

DH and I got up for a long ride. Out the door at 8:15 to 60's and no wind! Finished at 11:30-ish with temperatures still mild. This crazy weather (it has been wetter than normal) we have had is keeping the wildflowers blooming longer than I expected, it is quite pretty. I forgot how much I love riding early in the morning when most of the area is just getting up. We saw hardly any cars! Of course the bulk of the route is ranch roads and county roads but I still liked how quiet it was.

50.05 miles
3 hours, 15 minutes
15.5 mph average.

[Tater]

77 miles today. Most of that was the Ride for Independence metric. Beautiful day for the ride, but the winds out of the northwest made the first part of the ride a real bear! What sucked was having to pedal downhill just to keep from slowing down! Still, I finished with a better time than I did last year, so I was pleased with that. Next up, LRRH century in Logan, UT.

[Fredwina]

I did my metric for the week. wound leading the long club ride, Had to double back and encourage some of the slower rides up some hill, and then took off and did my own thing. we had the "May Gray" in the am - fog from the ocean that's about 2,500 feet deep. One ride turned around when he realized that he was going to have to do about 2 miles of 8% grade.We climbed above it and it burned off by noon, leaving us with gorgeous afternoon in the 70's. Great day

[makbike]

I set out to explore a new route and to test my legs. I took Monday-Wednesday off in hopes of allowing them to recover from the 240 miles I had riden the previous week. My rides on Thursday and Friday did not go as I had hoped - my legs were still very tired. I could not maintain my normal speeds. I decided today to try this new route and see how my legs felt. Right out of the starting gate they were saying good things to me and I quickly fell into a very smooth rhythm - I was having the time of my life - new roads, beautiful weather (70's, slight breeze, clear skies), the birds were singing, I was singing all was good. At about the 25 mile mark in my 38 miles my cell phone rings - it is my mom. She wants to know what I'm doing. I tell her I'm on my bike. I can tell she is quite excited about something - she tells me she has some very good news for me. "What?" I ask - seems I won third place in a my niece's softball raffle. I am now $400 richer. Not a bad return for $5. I am just so excited I'm about to pop. Sadly $100 of that money will go to replacing the brake light on my car. BF and I broke it last night while we were trying to move an old washing machine out to his truck. However, the other $300 is going in my savings account. So my good ride turned into a great ride for the remaining 13 miles had me singing and smiling. Life is good, so good.

[SouthernBelle]

Set out early this morning with Meg. I programmed a new route into my Garmin, which is very cool and worked well. I'll post about that elsewhere. It was rather chilly for starters, but overall was a beautiful day. We did 75.47 miles which is a new PB for both of us. Had to contend with a little construction which left lots of stuff in the bike lane. Also rode some greenway which was very nice and pretty. It was overall a great new route and I'll ride it again.

[Running Mommy]

This is the time of year where there are lots of desert quail and little rabbits running around in the early morning hours. I esp. like the rabbits because they have little white butts and one of those cottonball tails. But I also enjoy seeing the quail families out and about.
Well this morning I saw a quail family with "newborns". These guys were tiny- like maybe 2-3 inches!! The family was trying to get across the road and the little guys were having a hard time keeping up. It was so freaking cute that I stopped to watch them. Well when I stopped the little guys got scared so they "made like a rock" and froze in the middle of the street. They really did look like little rocks. I didn't want them to get run over, so I blocked the lane (it's a closed road anyway) until dad came along to shoo them along. Well on my second pass a few minutes later I noticed that they were struggling to get over the curb. The poor little guys were jumping with all their might and just couldn't make it. Mom and dad were on top of the curb pacing. So I stopped and placed a large rock near the curb so that they could get over it. I was afraid that I was going to scare them away, so I tried to do it as carefully and slowly as possible. I didn't want mom and dad to abandon the kids. But it must have worked because the next pass I made they were gone.
Man were they cute!! Now THAT is the kind of desert wildlife I enjoy! Not the venomous kind..
Other than that my ride was just a 3 hour stroll in the sun. My legs seemed dead today so I didn't push them. Avg 15.8 mph for somewhere around 47-48 miles.
It is really warming up here. I think it was at least 90 when I finished at 10:30. My noggin was hot!
I came in the house and put on the running shoes, but I opted for the treadmill. I think I got enough vitamin D for one day!
I just did two miles, but it was two miles more than I wanted to run in the sun.
Hope you all had a great day in the saddle as well!
Ciao!
Denise

[Aggie_Ama]

Set out early this morning with Meg. I programmed a new route into my Garmin, which is very cool and worked well. I'll post about that elsewhere. It was rather chilly for starters, but overall was a beautiful day. We did 75.47 miles which is a new PB for both of us. Had to contend with a little construction which left lots of stuff in the bike lane. Also rode some greenway which was very nice and pretty. It was overall a great new route and I'll ride it again.

JUst wanted to point out you have 1,000 posts.

[SouthernBelle]

Yay Me!

Do I get a party?

Anybody??

[Popoki_Nui]

Checked the met before leaving home: the forecast was sunny, calm, and warm. So naturally it was very windy, cool, and rainy. Quelle surpise. (I shoulda been a meteorologist. In what other profession can you be dead wrong most of the time and still get paid? )
Still, a soggy day on the bike is better than a good day doing almost anything else; managed 55 soaking kilometers on the Goose, Lochside, and Pat Bay highway.

edit: congrats on your 1000th, SouthernBelle!

[Mr. Bloom]

SilverSon and I did 17miles along the Ohio River this morning. A perfect ride.

His first ride on "real roads" with REAL TRAFFIC. He did great!

I almost left my bike at Home #2 this weekend to enjoy a long drive with the top down (I haven't put a rack on the red zoomzoom yet)...but I'm glad I didn't. I wouldn't have traded that 17 miles for anything!!

[SouthernBelle]

Have you forced the poor child to wear a Crimson Tide jersey?

[Zen]

I don't like even cool weather so I don't think I'll be riding in the winter like I had imagined.

I had also imagined doing my 20 mile out-back-out back ride but it was not to be. Had to stop after only about .5 miles to zip up my jersey, got to maybe three miles out and decided its just too cold. And windy.

The one bright spot was a lamb romping through a field calling for its momma.
Which sounds like maaaaa-maaaaaa! maaaaa-maaaaa!
I'm sure they found one another.

Tomorrows forecast is not good for me either, I've resigned myself to Bob's 9AM spin class.