October rides...

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks, ladies, for your commiserations on my DH's shoulder injury. I have not been on TE for a few days as we were without internet.

He didn't get to a doctor since we are traveling, so it would take a pretty major emergency to go to the effort of trying to find someone to see and to actually be able to get in on short notice, but his shoulder has slowly improved with rest, ice, heat, and gentle stretching. He thinks it is his rotator cuff. He is much, much better than he was a week ago and finally got out for a short bike ride (first time since this happened) today. He was very careful and avoided using his upper body as much as possible. He has been able to walk and do easy hikes for the past few days, after several days of resting it.

Yesterday I took the MTB out for a ride in the park where we were staying (Bob Amos). It is a city park in Pikeville, in eastern Kentucky that had a really nice mostly unpaved bike trail. They had paved the climbs, I guess to deal with heavy rains/runoff, but that was very helpful to keep from spinning out, as each climb was steep. The trail was disappointingly short at only 4.5 miles round trip, but there were some tough climbs and gorgeous scenery in the autumn woods. I also rode on a very, very steep road in the park up to an overlook (had to walk part of the steepest hill). Only 8.5 miles total, but it was an excellent interval workout.




A few days earlier I had done another campground ride in West Virginia. Had to ride the same road over and over, but it was a nice one, with pretty lake and foliage views. Got in 20 miles on that one.

[north woods gal]

Looks like a beautiful ride, Emily, and a good workout, to boot. Can't beat that.

We had over 5 inches of rain, Monday night, so first thing the next morning, hopped on the fat bike to check the trails around the house. Pretty sure which sections would be flooded from past experience, but how much water was the question. Pretty bad in some sections, for sure. The good news is that the flooded sections are a small percentage of my trails and even those sections could be ridden with the fat bike, but no sense in tearing up the trails and cleaning the fat bike, later.

I did try a 29er, later in the afternoon, but found that it was digging in too deep on soft spots and prevented me from getting up enough speed to climb some of the hills. The fat bike is no speed demon, but have to admit that when things get soft and gooey, it is the bike to ride. An hour's worth of MTB work on a beautiful day, though, so happy, happy, happy!

[Crankin]

I went to a workshop today, a 79 degree day in the middle of October! I was angry about this, but I need the hours for keeping my professional license.
So, I went out to ride at 5:10 AM. Did a very short loop, like 6.5 miles, as I had to shower, eat, and drive 20 miles. It was longer than my commute is, and I actually felt great. Too bad after breakfast, my stomach started acting up. Not sure why.
I am exhausted, going to chill out. I hate sitting all day.

[rebeccaC]

lovely ride emily...so glad you're finding and sharing all these wonderful roads!!!!

Afternoon temps have been in the unusual 80’s for the last two days and the next couple. My commutes have been in the high 60’s mornings and low 70’s evenings though which are perfect for me. My commutes are one of my favorite parts of the day. I do wish more people could see the mental and health benefits to commuting by bicycle. Because of the hours I work I usually get to ride into a sunrise and then a sunset along the ocean this time of year. What a wonderfully calm way to start and end my workday. ….and especially like today stopping to reflect on the oncoming day at my favorite coffee bar at 6am and having a chocolate affogato

[north woods gal]

Good ride, yesterday. Did a bit over an hour of pushing myself on my MTB trails around the house and tallied over 6 miles. I know that doesn't sound like much, but lots of tight turns, obstacles to work and, especially, plenty of steep climbs. I now have over a mile and a half of trails I've built over the summer, but they consist of over a dozen interconnecting loops, so there's an almost endless variety in how you can ride them. An hour of pushing myself, aggressively, on these trails leaves me huffing and puffing, but in a good way. Have definitely noticed it takes more leg strength and wind than my usual road biking on pavement. My private little trail system has also been very informative as to how the various types of mountain bikes handle and perform. Be glad to share what I've learned if anyone has questions on mountain bikes. Lastly, I'm never more than a short walk from the house to warm up with a cup of coffee.

[emily_in_nc]

NWG, I totally get what you're saying. After managing just a bit over an hour on my MTB the other day due to the steep climbs, I was wrung out! Huffing and puffing for sure! I think 1 to 1.5 hours of tough mountain biking is a tremendous workout and probably equivalent to double or even triple that on a road bike, depending on terrain. I always feel like I should get extra credit when I ride off road.

[north woods gal]

Okay, you get extra credit (from me, at least ). When the trails are soft, as they have been for me, this week, rolling resistance goes through the roof, so even more extra credit when you ride those kinds of trails.

Never got out of the 40s, today, but did a little pavement riding after spending most of the afternoon repairing flooded out trails from our big storm. Trying to keep one foot in the road bike world and one in the MTB world as much as I can before winter sets in. When it does, will do some fat bike riding and indoor riding on the trainer till spring. Love the snow and will be doing my usual cross country skiing, but hate to see my road biking and regular trail riding shut down for the winter. I do sometimes miss living in an area where I can ride pavement all four seasons. Oh, well, can't have it all.

[ny biker]

I rode last weekend -- a 65-miler that I was not in shape for, with temperatures ranging from 42 to 73. Knowing how warm the sun can be this time of year, I dressed in easy-to-remove layers and went with toe covers instead of booties. As a result I was too cold for most of the first hour, and my feet were very cold. The irony was that I had ridden similar routes on several very hot days this summer when I sought out whatever shade I could find to try to cool down, but last weekend those same shady areas were too cold in the morning when we started. The other negative was that the route was planned by a fast rider who has no trouble going 28 miles between rest stops. But for me that's a good 2 hours of riding, which is never my preference; 60-90 minutes between breaks is much better, otherwise I start to ache from sitting on the bike too long and I'm way too hungry several miles before we stop for food. So the start of the ride was cold and the finish was achy. But things were pretty good in the middle, and the suffering will make me better able to enjoy one or two more long rides before the cold really sets in.

On Wednesday I went out for my post-work hill ride. It's been hot here this week, with record breaking high temps in the 80s. I enjoyed it, but would have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so insanely humid. The local electric company had some equipment problems that caused blackouts in parts of the area where I rode, so I went from totally dark neighborhoods to normal lighting back to the dark for almost half the ride. At one point I stopped to check the local news on my phone, to see if there was any explanation for the blackouts, and the sweaty humidity was so uncomfortable. But while I was riding it was okay and I generally enjoyed my last short-sleeves-and-shorts ride of the year. And despite overdoing things on Saturday my legs felt mostly okay on the hills.

Now the hot weather is gone. The rain on the edge of the cold front just passed through minutes ago, and the wind will change from the SW to the NW now. And we're expecting gusty winds tomorrow. I have to run errands -- going to vote in-person absentee, among other things. So I'm watching the forecast for Sunday. I had hoped to do a ride by the Chesapeake Bay but they're still expecting it to be breezy. I think something farther west might be better. So I will probably decide the night before.

[ny biker]

NWG, I totally get what you're saying. After managing just a bit over an hour on my MTB the other day due to the steep climbs, I was wrung out! Huffing and puffing for sure! I think 1 to 1.5 hours of tough mountain biking is a tremendous workout and probably equivalent to double or even triple that on a road bike, depending on terrain. I always feel like I should get extra credit when I ride off road.

I totally agree with this. Just riding my mtb on the dirt trail next to the local paved rail trail is enough for a really good workout, harder work than riding the road bike on the adjacent pavement.

[wnyrider]

I rode last weekend -- a 65-miler that I was not in shape for,...The other negative was that the route was planned by a fast rider who has no trouble going 28 miles between rest stops. But for me that's a good 2 hours of riding, which is never my preference; 60-90 minutes between breaks is much better, otherwise I start to ache from sitting on the bike too long and I'm way too hungry several miles before we stop for food. ...

I was relieved to read that you feel a need for a break in a shorter amount of time with less miles between! I appreciate your honesty. So often I read of all these fast high mileage rides and beat myself up because I haven't been able to match up. After having signed up for a springtime cross country tour, this has had me second guessing my ability. I know that I am not exclusive in this respect, but it just feels reassuring to read of someone who validates it. I don't know if this makes any sense. I just wanted to put it out here : )

[ny biker]

I was relieved to read that you feel a need for a break in a shorter amount of time with less miles between! I appreciate your honesty. So often I read of all these fast high mileage rides and beat myself up because I haven't been able to match up. After having signed up for a springtime cross country tour, this has had me second guessing my ability. I know that I am not exclusive in this respect, but it just feels reassuring to read of someone who validates it. I don't know if this makes any sense. I just wanted to put it out here : )

We may be not be in the majority, but we're definitely out here. When I look at the ride classifications for bike clubs, I fall right in the middle in terms of my usual average speed (13-14 mph). But for the longer rides that I like to do, I am on the slow end. There are just a few people in the clubs I belong to who ride a similar pace and do longer rides. Actually some of them can ride more often and do more miles than the faster riders -- because they know how to pace themselves.

When I consider doing an organized ride (usually a metric century because I don't enjoy longer rides than that), I always try to look at the route and see how far apart the rest stops will be. If they're all more than 25 miles apart, I will make my own plans to stop more often, usually just bringing my own snacks and stopping at the side of the road for a break. Sometimes I will conclude that the ride organizers do not want to support slower riders and I will decide not to do the ride. And even if the stops are only 10 miles apart, I expect that I will be dropped early on and will not have much company on the road for much of the ride. I also look for information from the ride organizers about minimum speeds or cut-off times for reaching certain points along the route. As long as I can ride within their parameters, I figure I'll be okay even if I am one of the last people to finish.

As for last weekend's ride, which was just a club ride, I really should have stopped and taken a break after about an hour, and again about halfway between the second and third stops. I kept going because I wasn't too far behind the main group (for a change) and I didn't want to drop back further. Also I was riding with someone and I didn't want to hold him up. But lesson learned, in the future I will have to tell my riding companions that I need a break and will understand if they don't want to stop.

As for not being able to match up and second-guessing anything -- as I said, some of the slowest long-distance riders I know are the ones who can ride the longest. They do week-long tours, they ride in the mountains, they stop when they need to stop and they slow down if they need to slow down. And they enjoy the scenery while they ride because they're not suffering in a paceline trying to keep up with the wheel in front of them.

[north woods gal]

NY, thank-you for all the perspectives on group riding, Amazingly, in all my years of riding, have never done any group riding other than with a friend or two and even that has been infrequent. It's not that I'm anti-social - far from it - it's just that I've always worried about being forced into a pace other than my own and my pace very much changes with my mood and interests. Our local bike shop hosts weekly rides and divides them into average speed for assignment to groups. I'd also fall into the 12-15 mph average speed, but just worry I'd be a drag on everyone. I suppose I should try a group ride before I turn up daisies, but I'm content riding my usual solo. I very much enjoy reading your posts and others who do group rides, though.

[Catrin]

I did solo rides for the most part as I would be dropped by seasoned riders within the first few miles. I did metrics regularly (in the first year every week - yeah that wasn't wise), and once I recovered from the overuse injuries from THAT I averaged 25-45 mile rides for the most part. I don't think I every got higher than 12-14 mph on the average for a ride. Regardless I enjoyed all of my rides. There were 2 group rides a year I generally did because I liked their atmosphere, they supported a good cause, and here was entertainment at the SAGS. I was fine riding solo, but I HATED group starts. I think I never really got faster because certain physical issues required an upright riding position.

My point is I never felt forced into a pace that would be beyond me, and those who knew me also knew I didn't expect them to hold back and ride with me. A couple friends would from time to time, then take off. It was a good balance. I just made sure I had a good map - I remember a couple remote rides where the Dan Henry's were poorly marked and I got lost. I always figured it out however. At least the last SAG was always still open when I got here for all of my group rides. They may have been on the verge of packing up, but they WERE still open Wynrider - don't let that fear of holding others back make you second-guess yourself on the spring tour. Enjoy!

I totally agree that MTB riding is far more challenging to the body than road riding. I consider it almost a different sport as it has such a different skill-set (speaking specifically of cross-country). I think the longest mtb ride I had before my crash ended that activity was 12 miles, and I was quite proud of that!

[Crankin]

I pretty much am the same. I can average 15 on a shorter, flatter ride, but on a 50 mile ride with climbing, it's more like 13.5 or less. Sometimes it's 12. I ride diifferent speeds for different purposes. I am lucky i have a group i fit in with, but i still dislike group rides, unless
I am leading.

[emily_in_nc]

I am right there with most of you! Depending on which bike I ride (Bike Friday is a bit slower than my Trek) and the terrain, I can average as low as 11.5 to 12.5 mph on a utility ride and 14-15 mph on a flat, shorter ride. I have occasionally averaged 16, but that's usually for only half the ride -- then we turn back into the wind, and I end up at 14.5 for the overall! For most of our longer recreational rides with several stops, I average 13-14.5 mph.

On longer rides I like to stop approximately every hour to stretch, give my posterior a rest and sometimes have a snack and/or bathroom break. The longer the ride gets, the more I have to stop; i.e., the first stop may be at 90 minutes in, but then it goes down to 60 and finally maybe 30-45 minutes at the end, when I'm petering out!