July 22 Weekend Rides

[grey]

Thought I'd start the thread this time, didn't see one started yet. Fridays count, right?

Was very humid (95%) and it feels really hot, but it was only in the mid-70s to low 80s on the ride this morning. Amazing how humidity is a joy-killer, those temps should have been fantastic.

Rode 52 miles, 2,500+ feet of incline. Started out with a good bit of fog which was kind of fun, like riding in a cooling mist. Once it burned off though, we were in trouble! Had a stretch in the sun and it wore me and today's riding partner OUT. We were both very ready for this ride to be over! However, it was an excellent route, the climbs were challenging (and toward the end, I was really sagging out and wishing I had a compact double - legs. just. don't... have.... anything. else. to.... give!) but all roads had very little traffic, lots of fields and remote areas. The rest stop was in the perfect spot, just over halfway through the ride. I had only downed one water bottle at that point so I didn't refill - MISTAKE. From now on, I'll always top off. Running out or running low and needing to ration it is not cool.

Was so hungry post-ride I ate a 12-inch sub at Subway. Never managed more than the 6 inch before. Don't think I'll be riding tomorrow, if I do it'll be an easy 8 mile loop.

[Becky]

DH and I were determined to ride today but, with a forecasted high of 101 and a heat index of 115+, it wasn't going to happen during the day. So we did the next best thing: did it at night!

We mounted our big LED headlights for commuting onto our road bikes, added a couple tailights each, and headed out at 4:15 am. It was 80 degrees and humid as all heck, but certainly nicer than our daytime temps have been! Best of all, there was no sun and no sunscreen!

We saw maybe a dozen cars up until we turned back into town, when the rest of the world was up and moving. The scariest part were the deer, some of whom were quite close to the road. I kept my speed down because of them.

I like riding at night, and I think this might have to become a regular thing

[TrekTheKaty]

When I get adventurous, watch out! Today's ride turned into a scavenger hunt. Two mistakes:
1) Heading out on a route that we found on mapmyride, on roads we are not familiar with (last time we did that, we carried our bikes across a creek and I was nipped by a dog)
2). "I drove the first part the other day and it was mostly rolling."

So instead of riding from our house, down to the Rail trail, then hopping off onto a flat country road so my husband could climb two big hills -- we headed out on a new route. Then next thing I knew, my easy Sat ride (because we've got a long ride tomorrow), turned into:

My husband passing me up a hill, yelling "I've got 21% on my gps!". Not info that is helping at this point in time. Then, Dh says, I know where we are. I follow him. We end up back at a highway we already crossed. "oops (look at wife for help)". I get out my iphone map. After several more missed turns we come out on Pittman Road--one of my husband's fav hills. "the road is closed, but we rode on it the other day." Suddenly, I'm off-roading on my new, clean baby. And shouldn't it be all downhill from here? Back onto the rail trail (this is what I kept my other bike for!), up a monster hill from the trail head and home on the road.

I finally cut my DH loose to sprint home ("I can't ride this slow forever!"). I arrive home, walk through the front door, and DH walks in the garage door. "what are you doing?". He took a different route, and sat at a busy stoplight for 10 min

We laughed afterward, but not very clever when you're racing the 100 degree temps and DH forgot his water bottles, so we're sharing (Thank God for Camelbaks!)

[blue_angel]

I haven't been riding much since I did the century on July 9 (and went out of town for a few days). But today I drove up to a nearby town to ride through one of the city parks that has a nice scenic drive with wide shoulders (and a 6 mile section that's completely closed to car traffic on Saturdays). I have ridden this route 3 or 4 times this season, but usually only when I'm doing a long ride, because I don't like to drive to my ride and it's a minimum of 50 miles roundtrip just to get there. But anyway, I have "stats" for my performance on this road and today I blew them all out of the water! I did the whole 32 mile there-and-back in 1:50, which is an overall average pace of 17 mph. Already this is almost a full mile per hour faster than my usual pace. But the first hour was even better: I did it in 18.25 mph! It was phenomenal and really tiring (hence the pretty significant drop-off for the remainder of the ride). I actually managed to stay in my Zone 5 heart rate for 30 minutes, which is not typical for me. Guess taking time off after the century to recover, switching my cycling up with some trail walking/running, and waiting for a cooler/less humid day really makes a difference. Mostly I'm just encouraged that I can[ get faster.

[azfiddle]

Humid for the desert (50-60%) but overcast and high 70's, low 80's, so I did 23 miles to Saguaro NP and the loop road inside the park. The summer rains have turned the desert green and all the birds that enjoy the insect feast also produced by the rain are nesting (or nesting again), so there were lots of birds singing.

It's a rare pleasure to be able to ride home at 9:30 am in the summer and not be overheating

Tomorrow, we're going to ride partway up Mt. Lemmon.

[Crankin]

Yesterday, at 5:30 AM, did 17 miles. It got up to 102 here, with humidity, so that was good.
Today, well we got up and were ready at 5:30, but dilly dallied a bit. Left at 6:30, well knowing rain was on the way. Got to the top of Strawberry Hill, heard thunder. Rode past the point where we could have turned off to make an 8 mile ride, and then it started raining on our way back, on Lowell Rd. We didn't stop and take shelter under some tents set up on the Middlesex School field... it was pouring, lightning, and thundering. DH got ahead of me, as I am scared of riding in the rain, mostly because of the braking situation. It let up when I got into my neighborhood, and just when I was about to go downhill, it started pouring again. I took my bike up my neighbor's driveway and hoofed through a little path in the woods, because I had had it. DH wasn't happy with me for getting my bike dirty, but we washed the bikes, and came inside and laughed. Not worth it for an 11 mile ride.
Tomorrow we have a 23 mile charity ride for domestic violence funding. We are going to ride to the start and back, so it will be between 40 and 50 miles when it is done.

[goride]

There were 10 of us on our group ride today and at our 8:00 a.m. start, it was only 74 degrees out, which after over a week of 90+ temps was a rare treat. Of course the humidity was high - high enough that 15 minutes into the ride, we encountered a gentle rain that lasted for about the first hour of the ride. It really felt pretty good, but my bike required a major cleaning when I got home. When the rain finally broke and the sun came out and temps were in the mid-80s with high humidity. Really pretty mostly rural route, with some gently rolling hills and except for a few short stretches on more major highways, traffic was light. I am so fortunate to have found a couple of really nice compatible groups to ride with this summer. I have learned so much from them.

[sfa]

16 miles Friday, 33 today, both in the early, early morning to get out ahead of the heat. It was still humid as all-get-out but only in the 80's and into the 90s by the time I made it home (and since when is that considered cool weather?). I discovered that I'm faster than the Saturday riders out at that time of the day. I'm used to being passed endlessly by the club riders out later on Saturdays!

One bit of weirdness that has me puzzled: yesterday I was riding along a road that runs beside a river and noticed all these little brown twig things on the road surface, all about three or four inches long. Hundreds and thousands of them. I thought at first it was something that had fallen out of trees, maybe odd seed pods or something, and then I realized they were dead earthworms. This went on for a half mile or so. Today, same general vicinity but a different road, same thing (but not so widespread--only a couple hundred feet of road surface covered with dead worms). I tried taking a picture with my phone, but it didn't really turn out. You can't see them in the road surface picture and the closeup is just a couple of dead worms so you don't get the full effect.

I googled it, of course, but didn't come up with much (except apparently Ohio was hit with this back in June, but much more widespread). I figure it must have something to do with the heat, but why just in that area and not anywhere else on my route? Other theories from Ohio are mating season (not the right season now), electrical currents, or acidic soil. Just weird. My theory is that an enormous robin has taken up residence in that area of the woods and it's driving the worms out, like the spiders fleeing from the basilisk in Harry Potter.

[Owlie]

14 miles. I went south first, got about a mile or so into it, then realized that I'd left my water bottles in the car. Don't know how, considering how humid it was. (I felt like I was riding in a jungle. That's how bad it was.) Headed back to the car, then continued north. I wanted to do 30, but given how I was feeling with the humidity and the rapidly-climbing temperature, I turned around at 6 miles from my starting point.

Someone complimented my bike. That never happens. (She's pretty, though.)

Apparently I'm getting to the point where I notice weight. The sans-water bottle parts of the ride were zippy! Also, I came across a mixed group of teenagers on road bikes. They seemed to be part of the "hey, look, aren't I awesome?" crowd whose parents bought them their bike...that they only vaguely know how to use. I passed them. I think I heard one of the girls say "damn, she's fast." I nearly had to stop because I was laughing so hard.

[Crankin]

So we didn't ride to the charity ride, as it was raining in the early AM, stopping just about the time we would have had to leave. We drove.
It worked out fine. This was a small local fundraiser for domestic violence services in Middlesex County, started by the friends of a teen who was killed by her dad in a domestic violence incident. There was a 22.8 and 6 mile ride. We got in the front when leaving, as there were only about 30-40 people on the "long" ride. One group of 3 sped off ahead of us, but after that I couldn't even see anyone behind us. Finally one guy caught us and asked if we were on the ride (we had #s on the bikes). The ride was well arrowed and there were cue sheets. The group started following us, making lots of wrong turns, even though we were signaling and there were arrows. This ride was nothing special, in that it was on one of our local routes, except in the opposite direction. A group of 4-5 people passed me. And we had caught the first group.
Let's just say I woke up feeling crappy, a combination of chocolate cake, wine, mojitos, and a very good dinner for a friend's birthday. I knew we were going fast (for me). Finally, when we got to the hill on Monument St. DH went ahead, to "reign them in," as they were riding fast, missing turns, and skidding out. As we got closer to my neighborhood, I felt better and passed 2 of the people in the group. Then, I waited for the fun to begin as we turned up Strawberry Hill. I got behind a guy who was riding my speed or a bit slower, but as soon as we got to the steeper part of the climb, I started passing riders like crazy. All of a sudden, I hear a woman say "Oh no," as I passed her. She obviously was in too high a gear and crashed in the middle of the S curve, with tons of others in close proximity. Thankfully, no cars were around. I just couldn't stop to help on this part of the climb, and then saw I was right behind DH's group. He waited for me at the top and off we went for the last 9 miles.
The first group passed us and then they made a wrong turn about 6 miles from the finish.... DH and I were the 3d and 4th people to finish and I had a PR of an average of 16.5 , on a hilly ride. I've had higher speed averages, but on shorter, flatter rides, but very few and far between. Of course I felt like I was going to puke, but I guess the TdF riders spurred me to suffer.
The BBQ lunch was good, came home and had a badly needed cup of coffee and a shower. I am exhausted.

[azfiddle]

Sfa- very weird - were the worms actually caterpillars?? Your local Audubon group might know.

[sfa]

Definitely earthworms, not caterpillars. I've seen caterpillars swarm like that before (and, ewww, pantry moth larvae in my kitchen once). I'm going to ask the father of one of my girl scouts about it--he work as a biologist/wildlife expert with the state and although he's not necessarily an earthworm expert, he'd probably know who I could talk to.

[TrekTheKaty]

First sag wagon ride today. Temp over 100. I hydrated and DH pulled the first 25, but I just ran out of juice. At mile 43 of 53, pulled over to check mileage to the next rest stop and drop some more electrolyte tablets in my camelbak, when the van appeared like an oasis! LET ME IN!

We had a "Kevin Bacon 5 degrees of separation moment." Five people in the van--all sag virgins. Two went to college together and were in the same sorority (what are the odds!), 2 were in finance, two worked at the same company but didn't know each other, two of us live in the same suburb (I drove an hour to this ride!). Small world.

We pulled into the parking lot right in front of my husband. The van driver said, "Where's your car! I'll dump you out so he'll think you beat him!"

I've been talking about volunteering at a ride, and now I WILL! Thank you Trailnet Sag wagon!

[KathiCville]

I got in a very pretty 33 miles before 8:30 this morning, courtesy of a 5:45 a.m. start. Finished up just as the heat was kicking in. Thanks to the high 90s temps all week, this was my third longish dawn ride in six days (26 mi, 26 mi and 33mi)! It's a bit of a push to get up early enough to drive out of town to the country, but---wow!---the chance to catch the sunrise as I'm pedaling along is well worth the effort!

[indysteel]

How pretty , Kathi!

DH and I rode 15 miles yesterday. Nothing to write home about, but we had an errand to run by noon (which was a total waste of time as it turned out), and with the heat, I was just as happy to keep it short.

We did another 8 or so MTB miles today on some of the trails I'm cutting my teeth on as a new rider. It was fun, but hot. At least it wasn't overly crowded.