Nov 9th Sunday rides

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Today was a good biking day. 45-50F degrees, partly cloudy, not much wind...so that was all good.
DH and I had a nice hot breakfast at Ralph's and then a 20 mile ride that is my personal climbing 'nemesis'...the series of hills that are my extreme limit for climbing....the dreaded "Route 7/CrowHillRoad". The crows are waiting to pick my bones on this ride, like vultures.
This was the 3rd time I've done it- the first time (last year) I had to walk several of the hills, 2nd time (in June this year) I rode the whole way but felt like keeling over and had a lot of real discomfort. Today was a noticeable improvement over the first two times- a major heart pounding effort, but I never felt I was about to keel over and was not in any pain. I think my breathing is stronger and my leg muscles are stronger than in June.
I was proud that I did it today for the first time without feeling like I was dying.

[redrhodie]

Nice ride, BSG! You show them hills who's boss!

I had my first flat (rear tire) in over 3 years today. I know this sounds crazy, but it was totally fun fixing it on the side of the road! I was riding with 3 other people, and they all waited for me. Luckily, it was right at the end of the ride. I'd never used my co2 pump before, and it worked great. It all went surprising well (I was even pretty fast). One thing I'll be putting in my saddle bag is a pair of tweezers, because the hardest part was getting the shard out of the tire.

The ride was fast and fun, with 4 of us pacelining. We averaged 17mph over 30 miles, which is really fast for me. I did around 38 miles total. It was gorgeous out, light wind, and sunny.

[Crankin]

Good job, Lisa! I'm glad you didn't feel like you were dying.
We did one of our quick routes, as we got up late, then I made huevos rancheros, healthy style, read the paper, etc. It was 12:30 before I got in my cycling clothes, which is most unusual for me. We did the Hanscom Base loop, which is the flattest ride I can do out my door. One hill, besides my street. There are so many leaves on my street from the last 2 days, it was a little dicey going down the hill, with some of the leaves still being damp. We had a strong tailwind going out and I was fine going pretty fast (16-20) until the small climb by the airport. Then all of my physical things start kicking in as soon as I start climbing. Oh well, it's a confidence zapper though. Steve got so far ahead of me, he had to slow down a lot after awhile. Plus there's a slight uphill for about a mile, one of those false flats I don't enjoy. Of course, by then, we were riding into a headwind.
We made a stop in Concord Center where I ate and drank for the 3 mile trip home from there. The temperature was perfect today, about 55 when we were out. There were tons, I mean tons of cyclists savoring the warmth today. And mostly a very speedy bunch. Some guy with a Harvard cycling team jacket passed me right after we had left our stop. I thought it was Steve and started to yell at him, but I realized even he wouldn't be pushing it that fast!
I was glad I rode, but I think I might have to go back to PT for awhile.

[makbike]

To chilly for me to ride outside (yes I'm a weather weenie) so I spent some time on the trainer in my living room. I logged 22 miles and listened to some good music.

[jobob]

I was planning to ride my 215K permanent route today but I still have the vestiges of a head cold I picked up during my travels last week. And the howling wind kept me awake most of the night.

So when my alarm clock went off at 5 am I muttered "skay-rew that", rolled over and went back to sleep.

Later (much), Lee & I went out for a short ride to Mission Coffee. There, we chatted for a while with some folks we vaguely knew from our club ACTC, then headed back home.

Really just as well I didn't do my perm today, after 25 flat miles I was pretty creaky.

[Blue_Wildflower]

Today was a nice 50+ degrees. We (ex-bf and I . . . its complicated, lol) headed out to Shirlington ( a really cool, dog, bike friendly neighborhood in Arlington) for a group ride. Both of us are members of the Potomac Peddlers Touring Club.

The ride is a 17 mile loop consists of 4 popular trails in the area. The group meets at 10am. We picked a place for lunch and headed off. We rode to the W & OD trail, once on the W & OD we rode to the Custis Trail. Made a left onto the Custis Trail. The first hill was a bit difficult for me. We did an out and back (total of 15 miles) on the Mt. Vernon Trail yesterday so my legs were a little sore at first, but I kept a 10mph pace. After the first hill the Custis is a fun downhill coast towards Rosslyn. We then hit the Mt. Vernon Trail. The last time I was this end of the Mt. Vernon Trail was 3-4 years ago. It brought back lots of good memories. We headed south for 4 mile run trail and then cut through a neighborhood to go back to Shirlington.

Had a pretty good breakfast at Busboy & Poets. Next time I will suggest Luna Grill.

Going to take a hot bath tonight. Have to prepapre for my commute ride.

[DebW]

I got out for a ride a little after 4 pm. Came home by headlight about 5 pm. Rode the loop around Water Row Rd. and up and back on Pelham Island Rd.

[cycling_sarah]

I had such a fun time on the bike today! Did 42.86 miles in all with DH and a couple of friends, including redrhodie. Btw, she is amazing at fixing flats

The weather was sunny and gorgeous and we saw a beautiful deer in a marsh. I've already posted a few pics to my blog of the paceline, the deer and redrhodie, so I don't think I'll post them again here...feel free to click my blog link to see them.

Glad so many of you had good rides today as well. Well done Bleeker on those hills!! It's so cool when you find out you've improved a bunch

[RolliePollie]

Kudos to you on those hills, Lisa! My nemesis hills are still hard and still painful, but they're better than they used to be.

I thought the weather here was supposed to improve as the day went on, but by early afternoon we were overcome by a low flying cloud (totally different than fog ) so I drove down to Placerville where I thought it would be a lot warmer and maybe even sunny. It sort of wasn't, but it was better than at my house so I did a 22 mile ride which took 2 hours because there are lots of slow hills (like 5 mph) on this particular loop. I wasn't expecting the traffic to still be so bad from Apple Hill. There were a few miles of good climbing where it was basically like a curvy 2 lane freeway with no shoulder...that was scary. Normally that stretch of road is pretty deserted. At one of my left turns which also happens to be the site of a popular Apple Hill ranch, I actually got off the bike and walked across the street and past their parking area. I'm sure I would've been hit if I tried to ride through the traffic jam. So, I guess what I'm saying here is that I didn't have that great of a ride! But at least I got to ride.

Oh, and one other thing...wet acorns are slippery. I wouldn't recommend running over them. I don't know how I stayed upright when at one point my front tire bumped up onto a huge wet acorn and then slid off. I thought I was going down. But I didn't!

[7rider]

I got my old Seven Axiom back out on the road.
Yesterday, DH and I took it out for a ride through Howard County (our "French Countryside" loop). For today's shop ride, we swapped out the wheels with my ID8's wheelset -- replacing the old Shimano Ultegra wheels for the Mavic Ksyrium SL3's. Holy smokes, what a difference! The bike felt so much stiffer, so more planted to the road. I loved it. I don't want to go back to my Ultegras. Crud. Now, I'll be scouring the net and the shops for a good deal on SL3's. Or...maybe I'll go with some less pricey Aksiums, since now that I flipped the stem and rotated the handlebars up to more closely mimic the fit of the ID8, I my ride this bike a bit more as my "winter" bike.
Oy. And I thought I was DONE with Jones-ing for any bike bling.

[Biciclista]

For me, the first ride all year on our tandem. We did 37 mostly flat miles. We rode in between rain drops. It stopped raining this morning when we got on the bike, and right after we put it on top of the car, it started to rain again!

Two flats, no problems.
we started in Woodinville (at the brewery) and rode back to the UW and returned to Woodinville.

[Aggie_Ama]

Rode a few miles up and down fire trails on a friend's bike to watch DH and then LANCE race a mountain bike race. DH placed top 10 in Cat 2 which was pretty decent since he had been sick all week. He was darn proud of himself even though before getting sick he was gunning for top 5.

Lance Armstrong of course won the pro division. It was pretty cool to see him out and in a relaxed environment. He seemed much less self absorbed than I imagined, looked like he had a great time playing in the dirt.

Now I am getting sick so that is not fun at all, hopefully I can get better soon.

[DebTX]

Way to go Lisa, on those hills! Gives me hope that improvement is possible!