Saturday Feb 7 rides

[Mr. Bloom]

Can you tell which half of the ride was directly into the 25mph wind (35mph gusts) - this is a straight out and back ride:



The 65degree temps were therapeutic! The wind, well....

[7rider]

It was sunny and mild in the metro-DC area today.
DH and I decided to not do the N2, and just cruise down through Rock Creek Park and take in the sights. An eventful ride:
1. Ran into our friend, John. Stopped to chat with John (who was returning from the N2 ride), and while chatting, his wife drove by and also stopped to chat - with the family dog who is prone to car-sickness and was DROOLING all over the back seat of their gorgeous E-class Mercedes!! Fortunately, they had a doggy blanket down on the seat, but...blech. Doggy drool. Bunnies don't drool like that.
2. Nearly run off the road by a guy in an SUV who decided to pass me, just as an ambulance was going by (lights and siren going) in the other direction. Geez!
3. But, not all idiot drivers drive SUVs. I got buzzed by an old lady in a Honda Civic about a half mile later.
4. Had the unexpected joy of having Ross Ave in the park closed to traffic (MDHillSlug - that't the hill we did that right off Military, by the ranger station). Usually, it's open to traffic, but the gates were closed, so we got to bomb down it, not worrying about cars coming around the corners. Yeee-HA!!! But....at the bottom, right by Military Rd and the switchback, the road was covered in slush and ICE! Yikes. A sure party-killer.
5. Stopped in the LBS (required for any ride in the park ). A friend there had just gotten back from a trip west, as his FIL passed away. Got an earful of ranting about family issues. Ahhh, nothing like a funeral to bring out the luvin' in a family. Sigh.
6. Discovered my injury from the Great Treadmill Accident really does bother me on bike rides (commutes are too short to enflame it). I really need to work on my hammies, and will give my Chiro a call, first thing on Monday a.m.
32 miles....and if my hips and hamstrings (hammies) are okay...I may do all this again tomorrow. Cool.

[jobob]

melissam, dachsund and I had our first TNT Death Ride team ride with coach maillotpois. Since we had some clinics to start with, the ride itself was very short, just the Tiburon Loop starting from Mill Valley.

The group I rode with took a bit of a shortcut over a windey, nicely wooded backroad and we wound up with about 22 miles and a little under 1000 ft of climbing.

Afterwards we went out for Mexican food (and margaritas) with a bunch of our teammates. Go team indeed.

[Zen]

I lubed a chain
then drove into town for a fried oyster sandwich and a piece of coconut meringue pie as big as your face.

click it

[Aggie_Ama]

The 65degree temps were therapeutic! The wind, well....

DH rode today in similar conditions, although I am not sure we had the forecasted 40 mph gusts (we did yesterday). I did a 7 mile run training for my half marathon. We are both sore and tired.

[shootingstar]

42 kms. today. It was cloudy, about 5 degrees C or less. But a good ride. I had not done part of the ride for the last 3 months.

Towards the end, I went grocery shopping but with only 1 medium pannier. Fitting in 5 bananas, 1 large loaf of freshly bread, 1 double size tub of tofu, Chinese lettuce, grapefruit, dragonfruit, a container of shrimp dim sum, 1 large daikon size of newpaper roll, bag of freshly made noodles, large cup of fresh water chestnuts.... really, it was cycling safely homeward overweighted on 1 side.

[Fredwina]

I was the only person who showed up for the club ride, so I could pick my own route got in about 40 miles. and had some stiff headwinds too. At the end I thought my arm was going to fall off.
So I drove out to Van Nuys, and got fitted to my new bacchetta and did about a 2 mile ride on it. lot better!
getting it home was another matter - would up disassembling it and then almost could get it back together (Hopefully, I won't have to buy a SUV or a van)
pics -maybe tomorrow

[salsabike]

Today we did a 40 mile tandem ride with 2328 feet of climbing, including one hill at a 15% grade for 1/4 mile and then 9% for another .15 mile. We had no idea we could do a 15% grade hill on the tandem. We were SO pleased with ourselves.

[jesvetmed]

SALSA: Whoa... that's some climbing! Great job.

Club ride today -- what a gorgeous day in the Pacific NW! 40 miles around the flats and the sound. The eagles were out everywhere (as were the lookey-loos), the herons, hawks, and lambs, calves and lamas.

Good day to be out on the bike! That was a pretty long ride for me -- I was excited to finish. I'm sorry no pics -- the batteries were dead. I tried!

[hirakukibou]

I rode with DH and then at the half way point, we met up with members of our club and rode back. It was warmish, comparatively at 37F. It was good to get outside after being in for weeks.

[Triskeliongirl]

Did the club ride, one of those brutal combinations of wind and hills..........but nevertheless it was great to be out there in shorts and short sleeves without arm and leg warmers. I did wear my PI vagabound II (they I got right here on TE) for wind blocking and visibility in the fog, and pulled the arms off after about 10 miles. Despite the wind, we had a good turn out with the warmer weather.

[tulip]

I had a great 30 mile club ride north of Richmond. There were some hills, which are good for me, and some flats, which I like. I was happy with my ride even though I haven't been out a whole lot this winter.

[Crankin]

I didn't ride.
I went x country skiing at the most challenging place I've been to. I guess I should have known, since the name is Northfield Mountain. The blue trails were all climbing. Like in cycling, I prefer short, steep climbs while skiing. This was just all climbing. I was so far behind my friends and I had to stop a couple of times because my HR was going through the roof. I need to warm up before stuff like this! We then zoomed down the loop, which was fun, only to start up another trail, which lead to an open hut with a fire and hot chocolate. We ate our lunches here, but I was so sweaty and zipped down that i got cold. I purposely wore my Craft base layer instead of wool because it was in the high thirties. A mistake. But, I just couldn't get warm again. When we started up after lunch I was so tired that I fell going up a little hill, so my friend and I returned on a long downhill green trail, about 2 miles, while her husband did a little more climbing. It was awesome, but I never felt warm again.
I decided I need a wool bra...
But, I am really proud of myself for doing this. Then last night same friends cooked me a delicious chicken dinner with home made bread and wine. I am very sore today, but my husband finally comes home from his company cruise/trip to Miami. I actually am not jealous though, because the snow is now melting in our 45 degree temperatures.

[Fredwina]

A really wide bike path:

I was going to return my phone to phone mode, but this caught my eye:

uphill and snow:

[HillSlugger]

I took advantage of the warm weather to do a longer ride; 41 miles total but the last 18 miles were All.Into.The.Wind. It was my longest ride of the year and I was really hurting at the end.