April Rides

[Crankin]

Oh, yeah, I am one of the youngest members of the Wed. group I ride with, and I'm 60. There are a few new people, but they are all at least in their 40s-50s. Some of the strongest riders are at least 65, and a few years ago, I went on a ride led by a guy my father's age . He still rides, at 89, but not with the main group. There is now a splinter group that does Mondays on the bike path or other flat roads.
I did not go on the group ride today; not a particularly wonderful area to ride in for this early in the season, for me. DH worked at home, so we just came back from our go to loop, which is hilly enough. Hit my target average for the first time this season. It's really windy out... sustained 10-15 miles an hour with some gusts. Felt good after the initial climb and false flat on this route.

[Fredwina]

Last night, I did my first group ride since I left California. Mostly meandering around Midtown, and the pace was nothing to brag on, but it did feel good.

[ny biker]

I did my weekly hill ride last night. It was pleasant, not as chilly as I expected it to be.

Lessons learned:
1. the salmon and asparagus sandwich from Whole Foods tastes good, but it's small and not enough of a lunch to get me through an evening bike ride.
2. I should keep a box of cereal bars in my bike bag for days when lunch is not enough to get me through an evening bike ride.

I'm also thinking of moving the ride start from a park near my old office to another park that is farther west. I pass both of them on my route, and the one to the west is closer to my office, which means less time wasted in traffic driving to the ride start.

[pll]

Very happy to get a longish ride today (56 miles and change), my first ride with short sleeves and shorts of 2014! I had a nasty cold this week, which had me down with a fever on Wednesday, so I was pleased to bounce back and be able to ride today. I explored some roads in Maryland, going further NW than I in previous rides. I am not sure how I will handle the summer heat in this part of the country if it can be 76 in April (and 84 tomorrow)...

[Fredwina]

I did about 12 miles last night. This is an old railroad overpass:

I did a bunch of places today and got in 26 miles!

Martyrs Park:


The Civil Rights Museum. The wreath is where Dr. King was standing:



quite literally stumbled across this:

nice rack:

Mid-south Coliseum and the Liberty Bowl:

FedEx on approach to Memphis International:

[pll]

Always love your pictures Fredwina!

[Crankin]

First shorts/short sleeved ride for me, too. I did have arm warmers on for the first 6-7 miles, though. However, I only rode 21 miles. You guys are making me feel bad.
Nice out, about 70 when I got back. Kinda windy. Tomorrow we are riding the new route for our club rally, that we lead in June. It's about 30 miles.

[azfiddle]

I rode Monday, Wednesday, Friday and today this week. Since I started the coaching program this month, I am getting out with a purpose most days: high cadence, standing intervals, etc. It's hardly ever "just a ride"... But it has been good getting out more often. Today's ride was a longer than usual route out to Saguaro National Park, with one 8 mile loop through the park, for 40 miles total. It was warm, but not hot yet in the mornings - and windy.

[Crankin]

No pictures today...
We were supposed to do a test ride of our new AMC bike rally route with our friends, but it was rainy this morning and not so warm. They didn't want to ride in the afternoon, and went to the gym. We waited until 2:00 to leave, and voila, the sun came out and it was 70 at the end of our ride. The ride is fine, but it has a lot more elevation than last year's ride (we have a new start point). It's about 1300 ft of elevation in 29 miles. Not much for most of us, but we get people not used to hills on this ride. There's only one bigger climb, but a lot of rolling stuff. My legs felt much better today after wearing my compression tights for about 5 hours after yesterday's ride. However, one should not eat black beans and veggies before a ride, no matter how small of an amount.
Planning to bag boot camp and do a "dark" ride at 5 AM, since I can't commute tomorrow because I have to go right to my friend's house for Passover after work. Looks like the weather is going to thwart any commuting this week.

[OakLeaf]

We tried out Columbus' bikeshare last night! Kinda cool, but also kinda fail. We drove into town to hear a band and decided to park near the club and ride the bikes to dinner a couple of miles away. It was a beautiful night.

Renting the bikes was pretty straightforward. The way it works, you get a 24-hour pass but you can only have the bikes out 30 minutes at a time. You can check availability of both bikes and parking slots online. If you want to take multiple trips, you swipe the same credit card you used to rent the bikes initially and it gives you a new code. So far there are a lot of kiosks in the downtown area, and a handful in some more popular destinations within a couple of miles downtown.

They were rideable enough - the only available adjustment is seat height, but both DH and I were able to set up our bikes well enough for a very short pedal. Super heavy, which we expected since they have to be pretty bulletproof. They weren't well lit though - just some flashing LEDs front and rear that seemed to be powered by an onboard generator - no basket or luggage rack, and we both really missed having a rearview mirror. Luckily traffic was pretty light. I think it would be pretty nerve-wracking trying to maneuver those behemoths around in rush hour traffic, especially with no mirrors.

We rode to dinner and snagged the last two parking slots in the kiosk closest to the restaurant. But when we went to head back to the bar, the kiosk wasn't working. It was only about a three-block walk to the next kiosk and there were plenty of bikes there, but it was kind of annoying for our first experience with the bikeshare.

Still, we'll probably do it again. I think I'll bring along my mirror though ... DH prefers a handlebar mirror, so he'll still be out of luck.

[Catrin]

Interesting comment about the bike share Oak! We are getting that in Indianapolis as well, they've been installing the bike share stations all over the place.

[colorisnt]

Interesting comment about the bike share Oak! We are getting that in Indianapolis as well, they've been installing the bike share stations all over the place.

Will you test ride it? My Dad (up in LaPorte) is curious about your bike share program. He set me a link about it a little bit ago and wants to know more. I told him to go down there and ride a bike haha.

[Catrin]

Will you test ride it? My Dad (up in LaPorte) is curious about your bike share program. He set me a link about it a little bit ago and wants to know more. I told him to go down there and ride a bike haha.

It depends on what the bikes look like and if they are small enough for me. I AM very accustomed to mirrors on the bike, and the thought of riding downtown without one isn't a comfortable feeling, we will see.

[colorisnt]

It depends on what the bikes look like and if they are small enough for me. I AM very accustomed to mirrors on the bike, and the thought of riding downtown without one isn't a comfortable feeling, we will see.

I know. That seems scary to me, too. Thankfully, I have a glasses mirror again! And yeah, size is an issue with these things. The Bixis I've seen aren't awful for a short sprint around but they aren't great either. They are pretty tank-ish.

[Becky]

I raced Michaux yesterday. Actually, "raced" is probably too strong of a word. I paid money to ride my bike on a really tough course with some very fast, very talented women. But I had a good time and feel a sense of accomplishment for having done my first endurance race.

(If you're curious, click on the link and scroll down to the preview video and the Strava map & elevation profile.)