riding through the days of August

[rebeccaC]

met a woman and her daughter awhile ago on a ride into downtown LA. They are spending the weekend with me and we enjoyed a sunrise ride this morning. we rode south on the beach bike path to breakfast in manhattan beach. an easy ride, good conversation, lots of smiles and just an enjoyable time. we are now off on a ride to do some school clothes shopping.

photo by 11 year old gabriella, we are going to do a print of it tonight


why i ride

learning the real contours of back country roads
realizing that it's not always about getting somewhere, but rather the joy of randomness
having a curious young girl want to talk to me about bicycling
testing my potential
learning that pain is temporary
turning lifes friction into momentum

[Crankin]

Today I did a ride that was new for me. In fact, I've rarely even driven in some of these places.
Met our friends in Harvard center (we drove there, as we didn't want to do 75 miles today) and headed out through Bolton, Berlin, and Clinton. The first part of this ride was the same as a ride we did before we went to France, but it is quite rural and almost Vermont -like. Lots of hills. There was one kinda scary left turn onto a busy state road, to climb up to a viewpoint at the Wachusett Reservoir. I had done this once, but so long ago, I was riding my first road bike, and definitely took an easier way to get there. We stopped and took pictures, as DH had never seen this. Then, on to a ride around the reservoir, or part of it, actually. It's really pretty, but we spent a lot of time on 2 busy roads, mostly with good wide shoulders. It stayed cloudy for this part of the ride, thankfully, after a hot and miserable ride yesterday. We rode through the towns of West Boylston, Lancaster, and back to Bolton. First, we stopped at the town green in West Boylston and had a snack/porta potty stop, and then headed to Bolton Orchards, a lunch stop on a lot of our rides. After that, we only had 7 hilly miles left, where we took the scenic route, going up by the Fruitlands Museum, back to Harvard center. We rode about 40 miles, with 3K ft. of climbing. It always amazes me how rural Massachusetts gets, not too far from where I live. And, what's sadder, so many people who live in greater Boston never see any of this.
It's raining out now. Very glad we left at 9 AM and were back home by 1:45.

[azfiddle]

Another day, another ride up Mount Lemmon for me. Today was the final day of a series run by a group called the Tucson Tri Girls: The easy peasy Lemmon squeasy rides. They start in June, going higher up the mountain each week, and today they finished at The Cookie Cabin in Summerhaven. My 3rd trip to the top this summer, total of 59 miles with my husband delighting in riding his brand new Trek Domane and one of my good friends.
Untitled by Sharon Goldwasser, on Flickr
Untitled by Sharon Goldwasser, on Flickr


She's wearing the our Team Soul women's cycling club kit.

[khg]

I just did the Ride the Hurricane event today--the road up to Hurricane Ridge is closed to cars for half the day, and it's so fun! The quiet is lovely, and when not looking out for cars, and trying to keep squeezed to the right side of the road, you can look around and enjoy the views so much more. This is my second year doing it, and it is becoming one of my favorite events.

Here's part of why:


(Forest fires aren't the best, but lingering smoke from them did did make the views very atmospheric)

[marni]

todays ride started at 7:00 am with a feels like and real temperature of 75. 29 miles and 2 hours later it when we finished it was a real temperature of 84 and a feels like of 97 degrees. Add water and increase heat is also a good way to steam food isn't it?

[rebeccaC]

I just did the Ride the Hurricane event today--

no couch time for you i see ....beautiful skies!!!!!!

[khg]

no couch time for you i see ....beautiful skies!!!!!!

There's couch time now! (And between RAMROD and Hurricane Ridge, I spent as much time horizontal as I could...)

Today was the wonderful other side of bicycling--instead of giant mountains and delighted exhaustion, I tootled along as low-effort as I could. Home to work to dr's appt to home to haircut to grocery store to home. 21 miles all told, and it took me all day Some days I ride my bike for the challenge--some days I ride it because I'm lazy. I never once hunted for parking, nor had to walk further than 50 feet from my parking spot to the front door of my destination. Driving would have been way too much effort...

[khg]

Another day, another ride up Mount Lemmon for me.

Love it

[Crankin]

First day of our annual trip to the Berkshires. We drove out to Lenox and met our friends, who came out Monday. The ride we did today was one we got from Ride With GPS. Won't do this again. Pretty ride, new roads, but a big fail for me. We had to climb Becket Rd., about 5 miles up, with up to 20% grades. I did about a third of it, up the steepest part, but my legs were toast, and I was afraid I'd fall over. I walked, got back on for a bit, where it flattened, and had to walk again. So demoralizing. Only had to do this once before, out in this area, too. The rest of the ride had plenty of climbing, too, with 2 good downhills. Got back to Lenox, ate lunch at almost 3:00, bought some wine, and finally got to our B and B in Great Barrington at 4:30. Sat by the pool and collapsed. Hey, my average was still in double digits, even with the walking.

[marni]

todays ride was one of minor incidents and pickle juice solutions. I got to the meeting place for the group in good time only to discover that I had forgotten my helmet. Piled the bike back in the car, drove home to get helmet and then drove ahead of the group to meet up with the groups. This meant that I actually started riding atan hour later than usual- think an hour of temperature and humidity increase. We rode off on our usual route and I realized that in spite of not being warmed up, we were going at the goodly clip (for me at least) of 16+ mph and then I realized we had a fairly sturdy tailwind. So much for delusions of adequacy. Shortly after, one of the others last a light and went back to pick it up while having to play frogger to get it before the big trucks ran over it. Then at the halfway stop, she lost a pad off of her glasses and rode on for about 5 miles before she figured out what was going on, and so she and another rode back to search for it. Myself and my bbff rode on and about 4 miles before the car I cramped out. Thankfully I had a shot bottle of pickle juice which solved to problem long enough to get me back to the car. I finished limp as a soggy green bean and just glad to be off the bike. 31 mph at 13.7 in 2:13.

[rebeccaC]

pickle juice ftw!!!....once on a 400k brevet in college i bought a jar of dill pickles, drank the juice waiting in line, paid for it and left the jar and pickles on the counter

[Crankin]

Yesterday's ride in the Berkshires was one of our old favorites, done in reverse. So, instead of climbing the Tyringham "wall," interspersed with flats and rolling hills, we did about 11 miles of steady climbing, a few downhills, went down the wall, more ups into Stockbridge, with rollers for the last 9 miles.
I like this better, but it was tough. Roads were so quiet, although some not in great shape. The weather has been perfect, high 70s and dry.

[Crankin]

Yesterday we did the prettiest ride in the Berkshires. We rode out of our inn , into Alford, where we always stop at the town hall to use the bathroom. Then, up, up, up into West Stockbridge, stop for a snack, and then climb up Lenox Mountain. After that, a descent that ends at Kripalu, and on into Stockbridge for lunch. By Friday, the crazies from NYC and Jersey arrive, pretending this isn't Massachusetts. Seriously, I don't know why people from the Boston area don't come here. Ate lunch on a bench in the center of town and then headed back the long way to Great Barrington. More climbing, of course.
40 miles. We are all feeling it today, so we are going to Williamstown to see a Van Gogh exhibit at the Clark.

[Sky King]

Had a very quick S24O last weekend. Seems funny to escape the heat by going to the high desert but that's exactly what we did. Was hazy on Sunday due to some fires east of where we were. No smoke smell though.

[Helene2013]

1st ride of August for me. Did a 100km (50km is mostly flat false but hills are frequent). The return is easier as mostly down. Yeah. Although I ate and drank well, I think the heat and sun (even if not hot with a 22c) I had a mild headache half-way through, wanted to vomit a few times. So hubby coached me in breathing and slowing down my cadence (which is always too high due to sparing my knees). Gotta choose the best of the two battles.

I thought I would never be able to finish and hubby would have to go get the car for the last 13km. But thanks to his help (he also pushed me a bit up a hill) I was able to finish. Always such a good feeling to finish.

Dinner was sooo good. haha So was the bubble/epson salt bath.

Now I'll take an Aleve night as my knees are killing me. Break tomorrow. I'll stick to some filing and grocery shopping. haha