August Riding

[Crankin]

Good luck, Emily. You can deal with the heat for one season and perhaps you can get away for a couple of weeks if it goes into next summer. I only had to see the dentist once a month at the end.

[ny biker]

Yay Emily!!

A dairy allergy for a baby... that can present a challenge. Do they think she might grow out of it? Either way, happy birthday granddaughter!!

I was going to go out and ride after work tonight but my ankle has been bothering me and there's been a chance of pop-up thunderstorms. So I'm going to wait until tomorrow night. In the meantime I'm trying to plan a ride for Sunday. The weather looks like it will be great, not too hot at all, so it will be a good chance to ride in rural northern Maryland (there's no shade for miles up there so it's not good on a very hot day). I had a route all ready to go, but then learned that the road in front of the park where it starts is closed for construction until January. So now I'm working on rerouting it from a different starting point.

[Crankin]

Yup, and there is a slight possibility that she has a soy allergy, too. Sigh... she inherited all of the bad stuff from my family. She's going to have to drink almond milk. Still on breast milk. Anyway, she went to the allergist Monday, so the dairy thing is official. They do think she may outgrow it, but only time will tell. She has an Epi-pen. She barely eats to begin with. My son looked like a concentration camp survivor between ages 3 and 6, because of his pickiness. She does not, she is just very little. I think it's behavioral. She actually pushes you away if you try to feed her. However, if you just ignore her, she will start eating, as long as it's something she likes. I think they will have their hands full with this one. She is very sweet, but fierce and determined as hell.

[emily_in_nc]

Good luck, Emily. You can deal with the heat for one season and perhaps you can get away for a couple of weeks if it goes into next summer. I only had to see the dentist once a month at the end.

Yes, it totally depends on the ortho, type of braces, etc. I'm on a couple of ortho boards, and some people are only going in every 6-8 weeks. That would still give us time for some traveling! Once a month appointments would limit our options a bit, but not totally. And I'll be having to make semi-frequent trips to NC (unfortunately the part of it where we are and cycling is terrible) to visit my mother. She needs a lot of help now with my step-father's poor health and her being 82. I feel guilty even leaving her, but we've been here for over 3 months now and have gotten a lot of things squared away and where they will be easier for her between my visits.

NY, so sorry your ankle is still bothering you. You've been dealing with that for awhile!

[north woods gal]

Emily, that is wonderful news, just wonderful. I am happy for you. You'll do fine in that Florida heat. You've done it before. Plus, you'll need to keep rides short to get back into shape, anyway. Best of luck and keep us posted.

August is a transition month for us, up here. We go from our short summer season into a more fall like weather pattern by the end of the month. Already cooling down, it seems. Highs in the 60s, today and rain. It's a bitter/sweet thing for me. I ride all year long, even in the snow, as most of you know, but I do enjoy my short summer riding season. Nice not to have to bundle up and just ride with a top and bike shorts.

NY, I've been tuning the new Krampus to get it where I want, including the seat. You mentioned the seat shape in the July thread and I've also noticed the wide variety of seat shapes on some WSD saddles. Some do have more of a dome shape on top and some are flatter. I find the dome shaped saddles to be trickier to adjust. Not sure why that dome shape is there. Maybe it's a performance thing. I don't know. Anyway, best of luck.

[Crankin]

Did the same 25 mile ride as last Friday, but it was just me and Jack, the other leader. No one showed up. He did change the end, but it was really hot and humid, and my stomach was reacting to some red onion I ate last night... so I didn't want to do the extra 5 miles. We both agreed to just go back to the start, as he was ready to go to the senior center and play pool! Without the stress of keeping up with the group, I actually had a faster average than the other times I've done this repeating ride.
Despite the heat and my stomach, I am glad I went. Tomorrow is my granddaughter's first birthday party, so unless I am organized and do a short ride in the AM, before we go and before it starts raining, we will be doing a long and hilly ride on Sunday.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, that is wonderful news, just wonderful. I am happy for you. You'll do fine in that Florida heat. You've done it before. Plus, you'll need to keep rides short to get back into shape, anyway. Best of luck and keep us posted.

Thanks, NWG! Fortunately, I've gotten pretty used to heat and humidity again in NC this summer, though this last week has been much nicer than usual (lower humidity and temps -- I even wore a light fleece to walk my dog a couple of mornings, unheard of for here this time of year!!) But you're totally right that I will have to ease back into rides. I have been riding the trainer on my MTB but have managed no more than 45 minutes once a week, as it's so bloody boring, plus a pain to set up in our motorhome. It's just enough to keep me from getting serious saddle sore when I start back to riding in Florida. Hoping to get out on the trail sometime in the coming week. A bit nervous -- but excited too!

[north woods gal]

You can do it, Emily, if anyone can. Go for it, girl.

Added the simpler Jones Bend H-bar to the Krampus and love it. Gets me all my favorite hand positions and the same comfortable ride as the standard H-bar, but with less weight. Makes the Kranmpus the long-distance rider I hoped it would be.

[ny biker]

Thanks Emily and NWG. The ankle saga continues, unfortunately. Long story short, an MRI showed that the tendon we thought was hurting is actually fine, but the one next to it is torn, and some of the PT exercises were making it worse. Not sure what the next step is. And as for domed saddles, they make no sense to me -- the shape just makes the effective saddle width smaller. Anyway.

This past week we had heavy thunderstorms popping up in the afternoons, somewhat unpredictably. The ultimate lesson for me was: prepare for a post-work bike ride, get rained out; prepare for either a bike ride or a workout at the gym, it won't rain so the bike ride is on. It took until Friday for me to learn this lesson, however, and even then I wasn't sure if I'd get soaked near the end of the ride or not. Just in case, I plotted a shorter route than usual, building on the improvised short route that I did last week when I was worried that my newly-repaired flat tire would go flat again. On paper it was 11 miles; near the end I decided the rain chances had dropped enough to loop around and do the last part of the ride a second time. Total distance was just under 16 miles. It was warm, very humid and very breezy bordering on windy at the end.

Afterwards I took advantage of the fact that I had my gym clothes with me -- I changed from bike shorts to gym shorts (but kept on my loose-fitting sleeveless bike jersey) and stopped at Target on the way home to pick up a few things. I had serious helmet hair and I don't think I smelled very good but oh well.

[Crankin]

Our weather was similar this week, NY.
I decided to walk yesterday morning. Good thing I went out when I did, as it started raining heavily about 30 min. after I returned. Oy, we had a lot of stuff to bring to my son's for the birthday, in the rain, and I *forgot* the damn vegan cake! I felt really, really badly. My DIL ran out to a bakery and got some great chocolate cake, but my granddaughter broke out in hives from just a taste of the frosting. A wash and some prescription cortisone cream cleared it up in minutes, though. I sliced it up when we got home and froze it and will bring it to them next week.
Today we did a lovely 30 mile ride, locally. DH was feeling a bit off, so he did not want to do a 50+ mile hilly ride. So, we went through like 5 towns, without being more than 10-12 miles from home, including some climbing. One of the roads is designated as a scenic bikeway; we used to ride on it a lot before I moved to the condo. We stopped at a large Mobil station/convenience store that has a patio with tables, by a bike path and on a pond we sometimes swim at. First, we were going to eat elsewhere, but I got hungry very suddenly. It was nice. It was quite cool, 72 and windy, and almost fall feeling in the shade, until we got back into Concord. As we rode into Concord Center, the temperature went up about 6-8 degrees and the sun came out more. So many more cars, too. I mean we are not talking about Boston here, but despite the fact that parts of my town are rural and farm-like, it has become noticeably more city like in traffic around the 2 town centers. Otherwise, it was really quiet out on the roads.
With a temperature of 72-78 and low humidity, couldn't ask for a more perfect day.