May Rides

[Crankin]

I am assuming we still want a monthly ride thread, in addition to Murienn's random on/off topic riding thread.
We went to a leader's ride/party today. There were 2 rides, 26/14 miles. Now, AMC has lots of slow type rides led by some of the people on the ride. Unfortunately, there was no discussion of speed requirements for the 26 mile ride and I volunteered to sweep. After 2 minutes, a group broke off of the front. DH stayed with me, and then the fun began... there was a woman who was so slow I really was not sure if I could keep my commitment to sweep. She should have gone on the other ride. Now, I know speed and length of ride are not always connected, but, I truly forgot these were leaders I was on a ride with. Squirelly riding, not approaching turns assertively, etc. But, I was really nice and only once did I tell the woman (and a guy) I was going to pass them and wait at the top of a hill. Beautiful weather today, first ride in shorts and short sleeves.
After the ride, we had a happy hour and dinner, and then filled in our rides calendar. Upside is that DH and I are leading a few more than our usual 2... starting with a Thursday night series ride, the week after next.

[OakLeaf]

I got out for the club ride yesterday! It was the shortest, flattest loop they do, and farmers' market season hasn't started yet, so what the heck. I was still a little hesitant about going the whole distance (38 miles) and they laughed at me until I reminded them that I was 12 days out from a big PR marathon, I'd run two more miles than I'd wanted to on Friday (stupid Google), I'd ridden the road bike a total of four times all winter, and hadn't ridden more than 30 miles together in three years ...

It was a glorious spring day, not even any wind, and it felt really good to get out and to see my old riding buddies again. The route is a VERY gradual climb outbound with some steeper descents on the return, so I hung with the slowest riders and by the time I was getting tired, I got to coast for the better part of the last ten miles. Little bit of diffuse soreness today, but I don't think I did my recovery any harm.

Yay.

[Crankin]

That sounds like fun, Oak.
Just got back from 41.6 miles doing some of my favorite hills in Harvard, MA. I've been out on my bike for 6 weeks and have avoided these hills like the plague, but with my trip to Provence in 6 weeks, I gotta get my azz in gear. Was feeling very anxious about this, and it bugged me until we actually got done with the first climb (Westcott Rd.). My strategy was to maintain a steady slower speed and high cadence all the way up the hill, even when it flattened out. After that, the anxiety was gone, but there were more hills to climb! We ate lunch at the Harvard General Store, and after being 80 degrees and sunny when we arrived, the clouds came. I was thankful, because riding in hot weather, with no transition (it was 70, clear, cool-ish yesterday) gets to me. However, I knew rain was forecast for later in the afternoon, so we headed out, stiff and tired. The first thing was an annoying climb on a busy road, to get to a long downhill. When ever I do this, it reminds me of when your mom tells you not to go swimming after eating! My legs were dead. But, the downhill is nice, and after that, we rode through our old neighborhood, and saw people in our old house, sitting on "our" porch furniture. Creepy.
Anyway, made a couple of "rest" stops between there and home. Ended up with about 1,850 feet of climbing. Need to do a lot more before June 17.

[rebeccaC]

Rode into the Santa Monica mountains on a canyon road I’ve only used a couple of times cuz memories of it’s really long steep climb with no road shoulder a lot of the way immediately come to mind when I think about riding it again. 76 miles with temps in the high 60’s.....and a wonderful tail wind coming off the ocean helped push me home. I needed a good challenge and this ride gave it to me!

[smittykitty]

23 on Sat. With a quick stop at DQ! 58 on Sunday. A few good hills, no pictures, sore butt, sore quads. Boy am I out of shape!
Good weather and enjoyed riding with DH as usual.

[Crankin]

Great ride today with a new group. See the off topic thread for details.

[Jolt]

Short 12-mile ride today with a couple of good climbs in the first half. Would have liked to do a longer ride but had limited time, and figured a short ride is better than none! I have a 4-day tour coming up in about a week so am working on getting ready for that, I've figured out pretty much how everything needs to be packed and maybe my next ride will be with the full load to make sure no tweaking is needed. I am still not entirely happy with the Selle An-Atomica and just ordered a Brooks Cambium C17 from wallbike.com...debating whether to put it on before the trip (and get a couple shorter rides in on it at least) or wait until after.

[Crankin]

Did an 8.6 mile recovery ride today. I felt incredibly good after my long ride yesterday, in terms of nothing is hurting. However, as soon as I got on the bike, I adjusted my plans. My quads were tight, and unfortunately, a short ride for me involves around 600 feet of climbing. But, I am glad I did it. It was about 84 when I went out, and it's so dry, I had the "oven" feeling, reminding me of AZ. Not sure about tomorrow; I definitely will go to boot camp, so I might bag commuting. I will be leading a 20 mile ride Saturday and plan a longer ride after Mother's Day breakfast.

[Crankin]

Our New Member's ride went extremely well. We changed the route to a different area, with less traffic and less cyclists. Only had one guy with a mechanical within the first 2 minutes. He was riding a borrowed bike and the derailleur snapped off. Back he went. About 5 women started with my group and quickly decided to stop and wait for the slower group. As the sweep, I gently help them make this decision. Then there was the guy who kept telling me he was out of shape, had cramps, but wouldn't listen to me try to help him climb better, by actually gearing down. When he fell back and I stayed with him he said, "You're still here???" Like he was mad a girl could go faster. I was so nice and really tried to help in a non-condescending way. Finally after 6 miles or so, I asked if he wanted to stop and wait for the other group and he said no, he would just ride on his own, for me to go ahead. Thing is, he came in after some of the riders in the second group. Oh well. We had lots of compliments on the route, great weather, and no real problems. Afterwards, about 10 of us went out for lunch.
A fun 20 miles.

[rebeccaC]

A weekend without any hard physical challenges is what I need. Today just a pleasant morning ride down the beach bike path to Redondo Beach and a late breakfast with some friends. No climbing, just a relaxing 26 mile ride with a great conversation and good food in the middle

[lauraelmore1033]

Did the Skagit County Spring Classic metric century on the recumbent. Started out fine, but as soon as I hit the climby bits of Chuckanut drive, I started having problems shifting. The chain wouldn't drop down from the middle ring to the small ring, so I had to dismount and move the chain myself--all old-school like. After a couple similar instances, I just decided to keep it in the small ring until the lunch stop, 20 miles off, since there were a lot climbs and rolling hillyness, and I couldn't continue to hop off the bike and move the chain to the small chainring manually every time I encountered a hill, or it would have taken forever! The mechanic at the rest stop really knew his stuff and adjusted the FD, and then hopped on and put the bike through some loops, making hard shifts, making sure it was shifting correctly, but wasn't set too far to the inside. It shifted like buttah after that, and I didn't tip that guy enough! The rest of the ride was pure pleasure, and I enjoyed the long descent after Bow hill, the scenic farm lands, and on to the beautiful views of Fidalgo bay. I was happy as a clam until I was almost killed by an on coming truck, swinging wide to pass a slow moving farming implement on Farm to Market Road. Screamed like I was in an 80s slasher movie, I did, then dropped a lot of f-bombs at the driver, who did luckily, see me at the last second, and narrowly avoid hitting me head on.
This remains one of my favorite rides, in spite of the fact that it seems to get more dangerous every year.

[azfiddle]

LOVE all the photos!

I have been getting in a few rides- Last Saturday was Mt. Lemmon. I had a long, long week at work and was pretty unmotivated so climbing to milepost 11.5 (from about 2400 feet at the base to about 5900 feet at Bear Canyon) was further than I expected. With the ride to the base and back, it was 42 miles. Sunday, quick ride to Saguaro NP and just out on the short road to the picnic ground. A "half-commute" on Monday and then the rest of the week was really windy so I opted out of riding in the afternoons.

Yesterday I rode with a friend out east of Tucson. It was pleasantly and unseasonably cool all morning- about 15 degrees below the normal 90 degree high for this time of year. We had a great ride and conversation and covered about 42 miles.

Monday I noticed shifting (rear) was a bit weird, and yesterday it quickly got worse. I had my suspicions that the cable was fraying and sure enough, that suspicion was confirmed when I took it in to the bike shop on the way home. They were able to replace the cable that afternoon but this is the third time I've had the problem. Their advice was just get the cables changed more often so I don't end up with a more expensive repair to replace the shifter.

[khg]

Nothing epic to report on for a while now. But for the last few weeks, I've been on the bike quite consistently commuting and doing errands. The miles pile up pretty quickly for not having done any "real" rides. At some point I need to put some training rides back on the calendar so that I don't suffer unduly on some upcoming events. But I feel like the consistent riding is helping too--or at least I like to tell myself that I've put up a few personal best times recently while weighted down with panniers or my messenger bag, which has been gratifying. I also think I've added some muscle, as my weight is right now at the higher end of its usual range, but my muscle visibility/definition is the same as when I'm at the lowest of my usual weight range, and my tight jeans are going on without the elaborate squeezing and shimmying that they sometimes require...

Meanwhile, Bike Month and good weather have a ton of cyclists out, and I've been running into full bike racks quite frequently... If I wanted to hunt for far away parking, I'd be in my car--half the time I ride my bike somewhere, it's because I'm feeling too lazy to deal with driving!

[Crankin]

It's almost 90 degrees here; humid, too. Stayed up a little late to go out early, so we did a quick 20 miles around to great Brook Farm and back. Hot, dry, windy. When I got back, I was so red in the face, I thought I had forgot to put on sun block, but it was just the heat. The ride was uneventful, glad I did it, but also glad it's over. Definitely need to do some more 40-60 mile rides over the next month, before I go on my tour, but this week, at least I did one 40 and one 50 miler. KHG, it's my little 10 mile commutes and short rides that generally keep me in shape and I don't worry about it!
Off to Harvard Square to meet DS and DIL for dinner.

[Catrin]

Looks like everyone is having fun, and Rebecca, I LOVE your photos!

Sounds like a fun, hot ride Crankin! I loved/hated riding in that combination of heat and humidity - but there is just something about riding in those conditions that is very satisfying, though I can't say why. At least for me.