September rides, bringing in the fall.

[Crankin]

Yeah, they need to do a better job of predicting the strains and developing a universal vaccine. I think that will take awhile. But, with my risk factors (asthma and a tendency toward bronchitis) I will take the risk. This year, I am going to get the pneumonia vaccine, too, but that's only once. I never want that again!
We had rain all day until 2 pm. I needed a rest day, so I did a 30 minute yoga dvd before work. My dvds are so old (2004) they are starting not to work so well. So despite some sun late in the afternoon, we will be having another rainy morning tomorrow. I already signed up for spin/core and that is probably OK, since the antibiotic I am taking has that sunburn side effect. I had that happen last time, for the first time ever. I will be riding Friday and Saturday, so I hope I can wear long sleeves and perhaps use my granddaughter's 50 spf sunblock that I have here.

[north woods gal]

We're getting a last delicious taste of summer for the rest of the week with temps right at 80 for a high and lots of sunshine. I'm enjoying it while I can. time to also catch up on some yard work and trail work, while I can. September is a fall month for us and snow is possible.

Mixed a short 6 mile ride with trail work, yesterday, then off to town for some errands.

Emily, I know you have family in N.C., so I hope they will be safe from this approaching storm. Does sound awful.

[Crankin]

Oy, my son just bought a home outside Fayetteville... right in the predicted torrential rain zone. They won't be moving until 12/1, but I hope the house is not damaged.

It is raining here. Had a good spin/core class, where so many people asked me how to set up their bikes, I felt like I should have been paid. I may skip boot camp on Friday, to do a 30 mile ride with fresh legs, since I already have my 2x a week weights, etc.

[north woods gal]

Hoping for the best for all those folks in the Carolinas. Not looking good, though.

Beautiful ride for me, today. Sunshine and 80 degrees with a bit of wind, but not too much. Just a great day to be out and riding. Did 22.1 miles on the Log Lady single speed. Even added a mile of rough gravel and sand road for a little variety along the way. This LL is geared a bit too low for pavement work, but it's still doable. Was just a matter of me choosing a very hilly and challenging route to take advantage of this bike's rabbit-like ability to accelerate and climb. Flying down one hill at nearly 30 mph at times and then scurrying up the next hill as fast as I could spin, one hill after another. Talk about fun!

Riding the Log Lady and my other fast single speed, the Gunnar, has changed my riding, radically. It's not just the single speed thing, though that's an important part of the equation. It's also very much the pure joy that comes from riding a very quick, agile, easy rolling, oh so easy to pedal, light weight steel bike. Really makes me dread taking the fat bikes with their big heavy wheels for any long rides, now. They really are collecting dust, especially now that I have the Krampus set up for single speed trail work. Will still need the fatties for my winter riding, of course. You do need those fat tires for snow riding. For warm weather riding, though? Why ride a lumber truck when I can ride a sports car? These two racing single speed MTBs have really put the joy back into my road riding. Definitely one of my best ever biking decisions to try.

[emily_in_nc]

Thanks for the well wishes re. my NC family. I have family all over the state, from west to east, including my brother in Wilmington, which looks like ground zero for this awful storm. Fortunately, he's lived there for decades and knows how to prepare. He and his friends have helped each other board up and eat up the food in their freezers! They are as ready as they'll ever be, and are in the highest elevation in town, not near any water, so should be okay re. flooding, though they may have to deal with an extended power outage.

We also have family on my husband's side in SC, mostly in Columbia. They may get some high wind and lots of rain but should be okay that far inland, we hope.

This is gonna be a doozy, and although I feel super thankful that Flo is not coming to Flo-rida, I am super worried about people in the Carolinas, since I know so many of them!

Back in our neck of the woods, we did our usual ride yesterday and today, and it remains hot and humid. Nothing new there, but we'll take boring over hurricanes!

[north woods gal]

Keep us updated, Emily and anyone else affected by the storm.

Back home, our lawn rake is getting a good workout on our trails, now that the leaves have started to fall. My main problem with the leaves is that they make the trail, ahead, hard to see and distinguish and that can be dangerous when doing a downhill run. Wet leaves are also notorious for causing wheels to slip, though this really doesn't affect fat bikes or plus bikes with their wider tires. Have been working hard, though, to make most of the trails safe and enjoyable to ride with standard MTB wide tires, now that I ride a couple of the single speed MTBs with standard 2.25" wide tires. Again, running these standard wheel MTBs on the trails is a very different experience than running the big heavy fat bikes. Nice to have the option to ride any of these bikes on the trail when I feel like one or the other.

Have definitely reverted back into more of a roadie, though, wether it's pavement, gravel, sand or smooth trails. In our low traffic area with decently wide roads, road biking is about as safe as road biking gets. Our MTB trails, though, can be very challenging.

A friend of my hubby is coming for a visit, today, and then my in-laws, next week, so lots of housework to do. Will get out and ride when I can.

[Crankin]

You are busy, NWG...

So, I did ride today, but only did 23/30 miles. It is still partly cloudy, a bit humid, but not too hot, about 75. I slathered myself with #50 SPF for babies, which is very thick, and #70 on my face, so as not to get the sunburn side effect from doxycycline. I also wore my LS Terry jersey that is UPF. It's very thin, and people say they wear it riding in the desert or FL, but I was sweating like crazy. Did not want a repeat of what happened last time. As usual, it was just Jack and I. He knows my capabilities and I generally have been feeling great riding, but not today. I think it was the meds and some Brussel sprouts making my tummy very unhappy! After just a couple of miles, I felt like my breakfast was coming up, and I did not eat anything unusual. This ride has climbing, but by the time we got to the super climb (steep, like 12% in one spot), I said no way, so we rerouted a nice way to long crazy downhill and then on to what used to be one of the worst pot holed roads in the area. It's all paved, yay! But, I knew after the climb at the end, again steep, but shorter, I was going to head back on the main road. The part of the ride that comes after this is kind of ugly, anyway (business park and bad roads).
My average never went below 14, was close to 15 for the first half, which is good for me, but I don't want to pay the price. Hope to do a longer ride with DH tomorrow and hope the sunblock works then. It's my last day on the meds.

[emily_in_nc]

Ugh, Crankin. I feel ya on med side effects. You were smart to detour away from the big, bad hill, if your tummy was feeling off. Can't blame you a bit!

NWG, I slipped and fell once in wet leaves on a MTB trail, so I know of what you speak! It was a very low-speed fall, so I didn't really hurt myself, but it happened so fast it kinda freaked me out. I normally don't ride if it's wet out, so it was a surprise.

Got in our normal quota of three 35-mile rides this week. Today's was the fastest and best. Conditions were good, with light winds, so in spots I felt like we had a tailwind -- turns out it was just absence of wind. What a concept! I still only averaged 13.8, but there is a lot of urban riding in this route, plus many road crossings, so I was happy with that. Most of the time, I'm riding at 14-16, but the urban stuff really impacts the overall speed. Not complaining, though. Just happy to be able to ride in shorts and short-sleeve jerseys. It felt just a tiny bit less humid this week, though still plenty warm. Today's high was 95, but that was well after we were done riding. And it certainly beats a hurricane.

I ticked over to 3500 miles on the cyclocomputer today, another plus!

[north woods gal]

Emily, those are great numbers! Congrats. Pretty hard for me to gauge my average speed with everyone else's because almost all our roads are gently rolling with some pretty steep hills thrown in. Very little in the way of actual flat country. Our daily neighborhood ride, for instance, has no flat sections at all. For me, I'm really happy of I can make 11 mph for an average speed.

Did 15 miles, today, all on the Log Lady. 12 miles of that was an early morning pavement ride, then followed it up with 3 miles of laps on my trails. Love that bike. Got it geared too low for long distance road work, but love the way it climbs those hills. I do have it geared for the trails, though, and it really flies. Yup, one gear really can do it all, as the old single speed saying goes.

[north woods gal]

Got a new (and long overdue) shorter stem for the Krampus. It's been wearing the too long 70mm factory stem since I got it. Should have changed it to a shorter stem, long ago, but never got around to it. Why I waited so long, I don't know, since changing to a shorter stem on these unisex sized bikes is standard procedure for me with my long legs and short torso. The new stem is a 55mm stem and I can't believe what a difference it makes, not only in the fit, but the way the bike handles, now. Finally, finally, have the the Krampus I always thought the Krampus should be. Going single speed on the Krampus also helped renew an interest in it, so now I have the Krampus setup just the way I want it.

[Crankin]

We rescheduled our dinner from last week, so given we have to be there at 5:30, decided to go out around 11:30 for a shortish ride. It was foggy earlier in the AM, and blessedly still cloudy and about 70 when we left. No wind, either. As we were leaving, we decided to switch our plan and did our favorite "flat ride," which is 20 miles. I really like this ride, because it makes me feel like I can ride fast, although there is one short hill at the end. I also like this ride in the spring and fall, because a good part of it is not shaded.
Nothing crazy, although I can tell I am finally at the time in the cycling season where I do not need to use my small ring for certain small hills like the one on this ride. There is a road at the turn around part of this ride that is a U, and is really lovely, going by some conservation land, teeny rollers, and shade. When it's really cold out, this road is freezing!
Tons of riders out today. We did one variation at the end, so we didn't have to stop at a light, and went across the highway by my office and through a parking lot of an office park to get back to West Concord.
Done with my antibiotics today, so no more worry about the sun. Thankfully, it was cloudy and rainy this week!
Tomorrow, I am going to visit an old friend from when I lived in AZ. She is from here, and still has her family home on the beach, south of Boston. We worked together at one point, and car pooled. Although we remained friends when we no longer worked together, we lost touch a couple of years after I moved. We recently reconnected on Facebook, so it will be cool to see someone I haven't seen for almost 30 years.

[north woods gal]

Sheila, got a Salsa Gide Trail stem in 50mm, not 55 as I posted, above. Got it from Jensen where I get a lot of parts.

Crankin, glad you're reconnecting with an old friend. That's always something worthwhile. Have fun.

We're still at summertime hot, today. 86 for a temp while riding my Gunnar single speed for 20.6 miles of pavement. Wonderful ride, though. The sun is at more of an angle this far north in September, so didn't feel as hot as it might in July. I really see this heat as a gift, since I know just how cold it will be getting, real soon. Beats having to bundle up when riding, that's for sure.

[Crankin]

We did have a great time yesterday. Her house here is right on the water. Hard to believe that on 9/16, I was wading in the ocean, and it was 80 degrees on the coast. Had some splendid fried scallops (serious guilt), too. Should have done that short ride before we went, because when we got back, we were beat.
Today I went to the gym and then came home, showered, ate, did some stuff, and rode to work.I almost didn't make it... I could not get my trunk bag on the rack the right way, to click in. After calling DH, I figured out you had to sort of tilt it up and then slide it. By this time, I had 30 minutes until my client would arrive in my office. Thankfully, I actually had casual type cycling clothes on, because I rode those 3 miles so quickly, I was totally sweat through, as it was humid as hell. One of those times I could not cool down and I didn't have time to cool off before I cleaned up and changed to my work clothes. But, I had a little reprieve as my client was late, so I actually looked like a human.
The way home was nice and not hot, but the dirt road was full of water in the middle and lots of mud in other spots. I had to get off and walk for a little bit. The neighborhood ride part is nice, but then the next path, by my house had lots of slippery grass and roots. The gravel was OK, but by that time, when I got near the end, I kind of scooted over some final roots. I would have preferred the busy road tonight!
Florence is going to be hitting us tomorrow. While not the same as in the Carolinas, we could have 5-6 inches of rain. I am not sure I will be riding on Wednesday. Of course, this is my punishment for thinking I will ride on Yom Kippur, and not going to services.

[north woods gal]

Had company over the weekend and will be getting more, tomorrow, so just getting in what I can for rides. Our weekend guest was an old friend of my hubby's and it was great having her for a visit. She's no bicyclist, but was game to try riding on our Specialized Roll step-thu frame bike that I got as a trainer bike after my accident. She did very well on it for our daily ride around the neighborhood. We'll see how our next guests do on it. Getting a lot of use for that bike, considering we only paid $450 for it. Does make a great beginner's bike, though.

My wonderful lingering taste taste of summer is gone, now, but it was great while it lasted. Highs in the 60s for the next week and barely in the 60s on some days. Back to wearing leggings and a sweatshirt for my riding. Oh, well, this cooler weather really is the norm for September, not the 80 degree stuff.

Did ride the new Pugs out on the trails, yesterday, experimenting with the gearing. Yup, you guessed it, I'm thinking of yet another single speed conversion.

[ny biker]

Hello ladies, sorry to be AWOL so long. Too much going on lately.

Hoping those in the path of the storm are ok. The flooding in NC has been nuts. Then a tornado with one death in Richmond. I have been in NY almost a week, had to delay returning to VA last night due to storms.

I have gotten in some good bike rides, have missed a lot due to traveling for family reasons as well as some fun events. And like everyone else on this coast I have had plenty of rained out rides.

Currently my bike is in the shop, having the rear wheel hub replaced. I might have a chance to get a new hybrid bike for free, which is a long story. I don't actually need a hybrid bike, though.