May 4th Rides

[kelownagirl]

Woo hoo, I finally did my first group ride and had a great time! We have two groups rides in Kelowna - the "A" group and the "B" group. We were planning to join the "A" group last Sunday but I wasn't feeling 100% so DH went off without me. It was a good thing I wasn't there because he had to work very hard to keep up and was always at the back of the pack. I would have been dropped like a hot potato. So - today we both joined the "B" and it was a great, yet challenging, ride. We were able to stay in the middle to front of the pack most of the time and it was still a good hard ride with lots of climbing. I even passed some men climbing It was sunny, and warm, 13-18 C (60-70 F?). 39 miles ride - 15.5 mph avg speed, 2400' of climbing. Yeah baby!

[shootingstar]

We had the same temp. here too today, kg. I made sure I escaped on bike just after 6:30 am. This is the time of major running events that begin/end near home. Today was the Vancouver Marathon...2 wks. ago it was the Vancouver Sun Fun Run ..59,000 runners.

So escaped over to North Vancouver, and eventually came back, grocery shopping towards end. Around 62 kms. Being on bike today causes the heart to sing! Just beautiful, perfect weather. could have done more,...but need to go home and chat with my partner in a few min. in France.

[spindizzy]

I think it was about 5 degrees C here when I started at 8 a.m. Missed my group. Suffered alone. Was quite grumpy the last hour, so tired of the wind! Had a NW wind at 24km/hr with gusts up to 35. But, on a good note, it turned out to be clear and sunny. Needless to say my LSD ride today was a bit slower than usual - did 62k, 22kph. My cadence was 91 (yay!) and AHR was where the coach wanted it - 155. Earlier this week was doing some nasty hillwork on bike and some sprint work on the track. Anybody have a new pair of legs to sell?

[mimitabby]

rode 40 miles today; then washed my bike. It's beautiful again.
went from Seattle to Kent and back.

[Susan126]

Most excellent kelownagirl! Glad you did well and had a good day plus beautiful weather to boot!

It was also gorgeous down here near Seattle today! Started off cool and cloudy but the sun came out and just wiped those clouds away! I was up at 3:30 AM. I had to take dh to the airport. He will be in St. Louis this week. When I got back home I went back to bed! I had planned on getting up at 7 AM so that I could drive to Federal Way for the May Day Metric but didn't wake until 9 AM! I had slept in! So I did a ride straight out my front door. I picked up the May Day Metric route in Orting and rode most it. I then meandered through Wilkeson, Buckley, and South Prarie before arriving back home. I got 63 mile in today! Woo Hoo! I'm beat though! Tomorrow back to work and according to our local news station it will be our last nice day until the weekend. So as soon as I get off tomorrow I want to do a 20 mile easy ride to rest my legs.

Glad to hear that you got out Mimi! Wasn't it nice here today?! I was so happy. Shootingstar my heart was singing too!

Oh I was chased by a mean, snarling, lip curling, barking dog today on my ride. Usually Joe handles them but today I had to. I slowed and looked at the beast and yelled in my most authoritative voice, "NO! Go HOME!" and he stopped.

I think I will have trouble sleeping tonight!

[Midmichigangal]

Hello, I did seven miles riding around the neighborhood enjoying the tulips and flowering trees. Spring is so pretty. Temp was around sixty degrees this evening. One interesting thing I noticed this evening was that I saw a guy riding a recumbent bike. Recumbent bikes are sure unusual with the pedals and chain ring out in front instead down below and in the middle of the bike. I don't know if pedaling with your legs upright is more work than a normal bike but the large seat with a backrest sure looks more comfortable than sitting on a saddle.

[Geonz]

Yea kg Kewl that everybody had a good time.

I rode 56 miles yesterday doing very early marking the route for today's organized fndraiser ride, and then leading my ride... by the time I led my ride the winds were at 25 + mph. Thing is, at 7:30 it was warm, sunny with 12 mph winds. It would have been jus tplain *weird* to say "yo! beginner riders! today is like not a beginner day!"
The fast group said they were doing "a perimeter ride," which I took to mean was the 50 mile loop around the outskirts of town... and I thought they were NUTS.
Turned out they had sized up the wind and were taking the in-town bike paths for the relative shelter! (Now, the other fast riders had started at 8 and I'd met them coming back from my arrow painting as the 14 or so of htem were in a very precise echelon..)
So we head out and 6 of us go all the way to Tolono (10 miles) including an amazing 1.5 miles into the wind at, for a slightly eternal stretch for this very cold woman blocking the wind for the slowest rider and very grateful for the other friend hangin' back with us, 4 miles per hour. (My hands were blue. THe friend loaned me his gloves for hte last part of the ride. If I'm workin' they don't get cold.)
(Still, I confess... I was getting my satisfaction from 56 miles on a truly adverse day )

So, today is much sunnier, and we've got actual stacks of paper on picnic tables that are staying there. Snork! Yesterday they'd have been 50 miles to the East.
I got 11 miles in riding back and forth... so I'm only a little behind on getting a 1000 mile month and I *do* want to get out early tomorrow.
There were 10 people on the ride.
The amazing hting was the folks organizing it a: honestly know how to get volunteers together and motivated and b: saw this as a situation with incredible potential that they simply hadn't quite known enough to realize. And while today's weather was really nice, the fact that winter was sitll here last week has a lot to do with the fact that people weren't ready to get out and ride 25 miles...
(and my stupid sunscreen was at the other house. My little ears are red.)
(and can you *get* zinc oxide sunscreen anymore?)))

[Fredwina]

I did 32 miles
I rode to to start of the womens we had a new gal , and she had forgotten part of her QR(she had taken it completely apart. I told to got to REI (near place that sells bike stuff) and get another one we took off into the wind. Halfway thru Tia (ms QR) met us , she had found the missing piece of the QR.
About halfway through, I was a bit out in front. I came across a man standing on the trail next to an electric wheelchair/scooter. His battery had ran out , and need a push to next street so his buddy could pick him up. so I got some bonus cardio in!
Coming I remembered that the minor league team had a home game today. Last time, I rode by just as the game ended. So I took a detour today

[kelownagirl]

I got sunburned today. Guess it's time to dig up the sunscreen...
And you know what I loved the most about a group ride? Hearing 35 people 'clipping in" at the same time. Cool.

[indigoiis]

I followed old faded arrows for a local club ride that leads through quintessential new england countryside for a total of 38 miles. I got a flat at mile 10 and didn't have any levers. I won't be forgetting those again! But I changed it and kept going, and so glad I did. What a beautiful ride.

On one of the climbs, a long, slow rise out of a ravine, someone had painted "Ay, Mama!" on the road with a smileyface. It made me grin.

[effy]

I waited for my hubby to come home from work and we went for a 11 mile ride with one major hill. The wind was at 15-20 mph but I managed to keep the bike going forward. Nothing fascinating with me but I must say that reading all of your posts here inspires me to keep pushing myself to go a little further.

[chicago]

did not ride... ran a 1/2 marathon... chip time 2:02:47, not bad for me. boyfriend ran it too... his 2nd race ever. he was ahead of me most of the way, but the last 3 miles I caught up to him, and raced him to the finish and beat him he did great... with a chip time of 2:02:58

[tc1]

Lake Forest Park to Marymoor and back. Still haven't got the computer working, so I don't know how far. About 3 hours 45 minutes including a couple long breaks. Killer winds coming back, I tried to muscle on in too high a gear and got sore in new places.

[solorider]

was a beautiful day here in MI - started at 40 F and ended at 60F so not too warm, but sunny, and a challenging but not unbearable wind-
did my favorite ride of the year the Metro Grand Spring Tour in down river area- and managed to pull off the 65 mile route in 4 hours- the earliest in the year I've been able to ride that far, and the quickest i've been able to ride that far...not sure that's my abilities, or the fact that I finally replaced my cross tires with city tires- it felt good either way though!

[jesvetmed]

I finally braved the outdoors for my hill workouts... until now I've been spending those with Coach Troy. So today I rode to this REALLY steep (ok.. that's my point of view, but it really is huge with switchbacks and everything!) hill that is all set up for a new development called "Avalon Heights", but no homes or construction yet, so no cars as a result! Figured it was a great place to slowly climb, descend, turn around and do it again and again.

The first one I got 2.5 minutes up (supposed to do 6x5 minutes with 3 min rests)... and dropped my chain. Couldn't bear the thought of starting from there, so descended. Did 3 more 5 minutes up and back down. Pedaled down the road about 5 minutes to another long hill, but not quite as steep, and did another 5 minutes there, and then another pedal down the road and another very long, but rolling hill -- 10 minute climb on that last one. It was a good workout, but the legs were tired by the end. Overall ride: 1 hr 35 min, 20 miles total. (IS THAT ALL?!!)

I'm amazed I could keep going so far at only 5.0 mph without falling over! The little engine that could!