May 26 (Memorial Day) rides

[KathiCville]

I'll kick off this thread with a shameless boast: This morning I logged my 1000th mile since January 1, yeeehawww!!

Gorgeous early morning ride west of town on some of my favorite roads. Love getting in the miles before heat, traffic, other cyclists pop up! My poor bored pooch sat in the truck for the duration, but I rewarded her with a short, happy hike at the reservoir where my ride ended.

My mileage goal for the year is 2000, so I'm doin' cartwheels (well, kinda) that I'm already halfway there!

[divingbiker]

Another perfect day in the DC area. I did an easy ride on the bike path over to College Park, 29 miles total.

[HillSlugger]

Congrats Kathi!

No ride today, but I did a 4 mile run/race. Beautiful weather.

[makbike]

Woke early to light rain showers and the question quickly became "should I attempt today's century?" I convinced myself that I would make the drive to southern Indiana for the the century. I decided the worst thing that could happen would be the ride would be cancelled or the ride would be shorten given weather. Only 5 club members decided to attempt today's century but each is a very strong rider and four of us had completed yesterday's century (a hilly one at that). It was decided we would ride to the first store stop and decided what to do at that point so off we went. The route was nice a flat and the pace was quick. We arrived at the store stop and we debated what to do. Locals told us the heavy rain/wind/lightning would not arrive until late in the day, the radar screen on a cell phone showed a massive storm front moving in our direction. We decided to ride out another 10 miles and make a decision there and off we went. The winds had picked up and the skies were growing dark so ten miles out we made the call - turn around and head back to our cars and so we started the back tracking. A light rain started with about ten miles to go but the wind was blowing strong. I was glad the decision had been made to turn back for I was not looking forward to yet another century where we had to fight the wind and ride in the rain. We arrived safely back at our cars a tad bit wet but all happy with the decision. In the end we logged 62.6 miles - so our 100 mile century became a metric century - not bad. Time to shower and crawl on the couch for I'm really tired.

[7rider]

Congrats on hitting 1,000. I hit that mark yesterday!
Today, DH and I went mountainbiking.
After 2 days of hard road riding (plus 3 commutes prior to that), my legs felt like lead. DH road his flatbar road bike with cyclocross tires. The park was packed. There were 2 big groups from MORE (the regional mtb advocacy group) and lots of individual parties. We crossed paths frequently with the folks from MORE. I recognized one of the riders - who's now riding a tiny custom ti singlespeed. Sweet. DH saw a former co-worker and the guy who bought his old road bike there. It was like a big reunion, and consequently we spent more time at the cross-trails gabbing and catching up than riding! It was a verrry casual ride....and a whole lot of fun.

[indigoiis]

I was supposed to do a long ride to prep for a century next Sunday. But we have one of our animals due to give birth so we decided to do short rides out and back and check on our girl. So we did a quick 11 mile "chase the rabbit" ride where my husband went ahead and my job was to "catch" him. Of course he is way faster than me so it was a good workout.

we got back... no baby.

So he said, you want to take the mountain bikes out? So we went up the road to a dirt trail and went down a couple miles. At the bottom he goes, "you want to climb back up?" and I'm like, heck yeah! So we went back up. At the top, he said, "do you want to keep going?" I was thinking, if we go 15 miles and get back and she has a dystocia or some other terrible thing I will kick myself... but yeah let's go. So we went up the pike and back and it was wicked fun. A little playing around in the woods on the trails... I am not as experienced as he is but I sure had fun. Sand was a little twitchy though! I'm still screeching every time I come near to falling. I fell twice. Not too hard, and not enough to bleed. So it was great fun.

Got back... no baby. ARRRRRGH!

[Trek420]

Explored the area around the Rosie the Riveter exhibit/museum/memorial area in prep for planned family picnic & potential ride.

Happy Memorial Day TE.

[Kano]

I suppose it WAS an event -- we haven't ridden in the rain before. It doesn't do that much here in the Boise area once what we call "riding season" gets started. Ski season, yes, it rains, but not bike season! Well, and if it does, it's just not really rain, y'know? A few drops fall, and the sun comes back out.

I kinda slept in this morning. DH was grumbly yesterday, cuz we got recruited to do a shopping errand for our daughter, and had to deliver some outdoor chairs to her house. (the benefits of having a truck) He said he was NOT going out at all today. I finished breakfast this morning, and got a text message from same daughter: are you coming over for burgers today?

I showed him the message. He whined, he growled, he complained. I suggested we could bike -- we hadn't done the 50 mile ride he had suggested for sometime this weekend. (a scenic route, he said, past the dump) This new option would not be as far as his ride plan, but it would be a good ride, with ample food and drink at the half-way point. I was planning to go for some kind of ride today, though I wasn't planning to bring him along, because he didn't want to go out at all. A ride did appeal to him though, so he decided, We can go if you can find a good route.

Daughter and her family live pretty much a straight shot from us, about 17.5 miles west. Anyway, there are easily three or four roads to choose from.

Weather.com showed us that there MIGHT be some "scattered thunderstorms." (20-30% chance) That's been supposed to happen all weekend. Didn't materialize either Saturday or Sunday. We weren't worried. It also said NNW breeze at 4mph. We were riding west, but that's nothing.

They lied -- we rode with significant headwinds the whole time. The up-side is that the ride was gently rolling, mostly flat, and generally gently downhill. (don't know what the total climbing for the day was, but overall, the altitude change between my house and hers is 400') Still, we made good time, and had an enjoyable couple of hours with DD, DSIL, and their boys. "Small Daughter" and her fiance joined us too.

And then came the ride home. We decided to take one of the other roads eastward, and looked forward to tail-winds. They had changed the name of "our" road somewhere along the way, so we ended up an extra mile south. Oh well, it goes where we're going and we get an extra couple of miles in the ride. That's good stuff, right?

DH stops us, about 5.5 miles from DD's house. "I forgot my wallet. Let's call and make sure it's there." So he calls, on my phone, and tells her he's left his wallet and phone on her kitchen counter. She decides to bring them to us, and we give her directions. DH hung up, and I said, well, let's ride back that way. She doesn't have to come as far that way, we don't sit here like lumps, and we get some extra mileage. That will be good, yes? We'd been getting hit by a few raindrops here and there, and the wind had been kicking up a bit. Backtracking took us "behind" the weather. That was a good thing too, right?

Back on track, still thinking the weather is north and east of us, we're cruising along, making pretty decent time, enjoying our ride. We come to an intersection where it looks like we're going to head even farther south, so we decide to head north to the next east/west road. (a mile north) After a while, the wind shifted, kicked up, the sky got darker, and we saw a bit of lightning. Still okay, we figured, cuz it's still north of us, down in town. But the wind was getting really nasty, and bogging us down. (I think getting hungry was having an effect here too, at least for me) There was also that lightning... We were looking for shelter, just in case. Pulled into a church parking lot to take a butt break -- I forgot to mention, those county roads, the chip seal is boulder size! -- and stretch our legs a bit, along with a wee snack. It started to rain. One of those rare downpours that's usually over in under ten minutes. Fortunately, the building had a covered driveway for dropping people off by the door, and we took shelter there. Stayed dry, so did our bikes.

We might have been there about a half hour. The rain settled down, the wind settled down, and the lightning had moved on, so we decided to move on. DH was impressed with the rooster tail my tire was kicking up behind me. My butt was soaked. Note -- no fenders on my road bike. (I know in Seattle or Portland, you guys are laughing your heads off. It doesn't rain here, though.) Might want to get a fender for emergencies. Can you even do that on a carbon bike? (when I got home and took them off, I'm pretty sure my shorts weighed about 25 pounds)

No rain jackets -- remember, it wasn't going to rain. Don't have them anyway. Got windbreakers, but those would just have clung to us, soggy too.

Still, we learned that we can ride in rain, and most drivers were pretty decent about staying well left of us as they passed, and waited patiently when there wasn't room to pass. Even the driver of the minivan full of idiot teens who yelled something pretty unintelligible as they passed left plenty of room. What the idiot kids didn't know was that despite looking like a drowned rat, I was having a blast!! (not sure about DH)

The whole ride ended up at about 41.5 miles, about 7.5 of them in a steady, not quite miserable, cold rain. There might have been 12-15 on the nasty chip seal. The extra five miles tacked onto the ride home put us somewhere pretty safe as we waited out the storm. I'm not sure where we would have stopped if we had been that much closer. Not much in the way of gas stations, or other public buildings on that last stretch, though I can't imagine home owners begrudging us shelter on a porch if we'd needed it!

There, now I've shared -- we got wet!

Karen in Boise

[Geonz]

Brave souls!!! Glad you didn't get too miserable Amazing... I guess you're not the Wicked Witch of the West after all 'cause you didn't melt ;D :P

We had very grim forecasts but six people showed up for the 50-miler I'd posted. We modified and shortened the route so that if things got grim we could bail (the route was riding around Champaign-Urbana).
Of note was that 5 of 6 of use had toe clips... and then there was me with nothin' but sneakers and pedals. Not a cleat in the bunch. I suspect there is a correlation between people who are more willing to risk dampness and people who have the older, cheaper stuff I was on my folder 'cause it has fenders but is lighter than the Xtra so I could keep up better.
Still, we turned in when it started spitting at us and found a Starbucks (not the first ... or second or third or fourth choice! ... but just about everything was closed).
Then it just stayed in "spit" mode so I took that bike out and knocked off some four minute miles and did the 100K that was half of what I'd kinda hoped to do. Given that I feel chilled, feverish and puny today it's just as well I didn't. (I did *not* get chilled riding. I think if I were riding now I'd prob'ly be warm... but it's raining for real and, oh, I'm at work. I HATE FEELING CRAPPY (I am spoiled ) ... I *want* to get 1000 miles in may but that is 192 miles away... kind of a long shot.