Machka 

Friday was International Women's Day ... a great reason for women to celebrate by going out for a ride! This weekend is Labour Day here in Australia. And today, Saturday, is my birthday.

Lots of reasons to go out and enjoy a ride. So ... tell us about your cycling adventures this weekend.



Friday - a bit of walking

Saturday - also a bit of walking

We really need to get back into cycling again, and are hoping to go for a ride tomorrow. But the heatwave that has engulfed southeastern Australia for the past month has taken its toll on us. Too hot to do anything!

MarkThailand

Happy Birthday, Machka! And, happy international women's day!

The rains clouds are moving in - I do not know what season it is here anymore, since it is suppose to start raining in mid-April but not now. Well, at least the weather is cooler.

Saturday - I rode on my bike outfitted with the SRAM Quarq meter for the first time and tried a different riding regimen with only power output, power left-right balance, and cadence on the screen. I rode my usual cycling loop around Souvarnabhumi airport. When I started my ride at 710 am, it was overcast and 78F. After about two hours into the ride, a quick short shower came down ahead of me and then stopped - just enough to completely soak the roads and give me wet butt/shoes and dirty bike, oh well. But, this was extremely localized rain - in my 15 km loop, only a 6 km stretch was wet, but then it completely dried up by the time I returned for the next loop!

I rode my 100 km solo in 3 hr 40 min. My average power output over the entire ride was 218 watts, with an average cadence of 92 rpm. I guess my first FTP estimate of 179 watts was off.

Other power factoids are: 230-270 watts (88-90 rpm cadence, 21-23 kmh) into the wind while on the hoods, 220-240 watts (90-92 rpm cadence, 22-24 kmh) into the wind while in the drops, 200-220 watts (92-95 rpm, 33-36 kmh) with the wind while on the hoods. This power meter thing is also great in helping me pace myself - after riding at 200-230 watts, 90-95 rpm cadence for 3 hours, I was able to sprint at 260-280 watts, 95-100 rpm, 36-39 kmh for the last 20 minutes with the fast group. My peak speed was 40 kmh and peak power was 494 watts. I have not yet figured how download the data and analyze it.

Sunday - I arrived at my training loop at 645 am to find a localized washed-out downpour at my training loop. The roads were completely dry less than 5 km from the loop! So, I came home and rode on my training for an hour.

Mark

Machka 

Thanks Mark ... we were thinking about cycling today, but by the time we were kind of ready, it was too hot. It reached 35C today. Too hot for much activity! Especially since we don't have A/C this weekend. We're camping.

valygrl

In contrast to Machka's too hot and Mark's warm rain, it snowed here. I did an hour of openers on the trainer, preparing for today's (not yet executed) indoor LT test on my TT bike.

It was supposed to snow a ton and they cancelled today's crit, but even though it snowed all day yesterday, the roads were so warm from the last couple weeks of warm weather that it didn't stick, so I can actually ride outside after my LT test, if I have any legs left. Yay!

musicman1

Yea! The weather finally broke here a bit! 25 painful miles yesterday and hopefully the same today and maybe a few tomorrow. Rain is coming in mid week and the temp is supoosed to drop off again but Ill take what I can get.

My climbing was really bad yesterday and Im a good 2 -3 mph off my normal speed but still was great getting out.

evan938

Got 3 rides in over 2 days this weekend.

Yesterday, 54 miles with a group I haven't ridden with for a while...they don't like cold weather riding. It was nice to get out with them. One woman went down when she didn't swing out enough to go over an angled RR crossing, got her wheel caught in the tracks. I was the only one behind her and saw it, which sucked as well seeing it happen. Did something to her Di2 front derailleur and she couldnt drop into the small ring. she made it back though.

https://app.strava.com/activities/43793659

today, a 48 mile ride with the group i've been out with over the winter. faster first half due to some favorable tal winds, but a ride back that hurt a bit more.

https://app.strava.com/activities/43966140

and right after that, 26 miles with my brother up the MUP. his first time ever on a road bike. he has a 50 mile ride he's doing with me on 5/11, so this is to get him ready for that...it was slow, 14mph, but was faster than i thought it'd be

https://app.strava.com/activities/43966128

all in all, a good weekend. 130 miles, i'll take it.

alexaschwanden

Did a 47.2 mile ride with a friend from palo alto to sunnyvale and back, the weather was great and we had lunch afterwards.

Dalai

Happy Birthday, Machka!

Whilst many of you are still fighting through the cold, we are enduring a record heat wave and look to easily surpass the number of successive days over 30 degrees celcius!

Saturday - 35.8 degrees celcius

Raced on the Track in the afternoon Scratch, Kierin and Motorpace. 25km
Went to the local pool to cool down and swim a few laps later that afternoon but the pool was too hot!

Sunday - 35.4 degrees celcius

Went to the beach in the morning swimming in the bay and then had a lazy lunch overlooking the water.
PM - late afternoon/evening ride in the Dandenongs riding the Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd from Montrose to Olinda return 38km

Monday - Labour day holiday - 36.9 degrees celcius already and the hottest part of the day is still to come!

AM - rode out to the Dandenongs again, this time climbing the 1 in 20 and then the wall before arriving home around noon with a temp of 32 degrees already! 84km

On the 10% section of The Wall.

dave1442397

After it snowed all day on Friday, we woke up to a beautiful sunny Saturday in southern New Jersey. I went out on the Pro Pedals ride with a few friends, and it turned out to be the slowest Pro Pedals ride to date for me, with an average of 20.8 mph over 45 miles. The first race of the season was on Sunday, so the racers weren't going that fast, and many of them were only doing 30 miles on Saturday.

Sunday was also sunny, and I went out to my local Team Evesham ride. Some of the guys were away racing, so our A/A+ group was pretty small. I think we started with 7 riders and finished with 5. We did a nice 40 mile loop around the countryside.

Now that the warm-weather riders are starting to come out, I can see what a huge difference it made to ride through the winter this year. I was in cruise mode on Saturday, but a couple of the guys who didn't come out since last year were struggling to keep up (they told me so). I'm looking forward to the warm weather!

Machka 

Up near Wangaratta, it was about 33C on Saturday, 35C on Sunday, and 35C on Monday ... but I did see a digital temperature thing in Wangaratta that said 40C. And on today's ride, my on-bike thermometre read 36C in the shade and about 41C in the sun.

We rode 50.23 km in that heat today.

The ride started relatively cool (only about 27C), but by the time we were halfway through, it was HOT.

As I have an indoor job, I'm not used to exerting myself in that heat, so I struggled with it. Still not feeling brilliant.

Machka 

The first year I rode all year round, I noticed the same difference ... feels good!