Machka 

If you are new to posting on this thread, or if you are new to cycling, we welcome you! If you are returning from a previous thread, we welcome you, too.

This thread is for anyone who rides a bicycle ... or unicycle, tricycle, tandem, etc.

Are you an experienced road cyclist? Do you bike to work? Do you pull your children to the park? Do you ride weekends? Do you spin at home or in the gym? Is Zwift your thing? Do you race crits, ironman, or centuries? Touring? Audax/Randonneuring?
Or are you just starting out and remembering how much fun you had biking when you were a kid?

There are no set challenges - this is a mixed-ability / mixed-experience / everyone welcome group.

Just pick the target that you would like to achieve this month and post updates throughout the month as you work toward your target. We love seeing photos of your rides and hearing all about them.

Given the current situation many of us will be cycling solo or indoors. Don't feel alone! Share your accomplishments with us.

Machka 

Cycling this weekend

Sun, 07/03/2021 ..... Nouveau Une ..... 2:52:22 ..... 52.68 km ..... 418 m

Sat, 06/03/2021 ..... Around Hadspen ..... 44:38 ..... 11.47 km ..... 95 m

ericcox

We did a metric century today. This was 2 days after my second dose of the Covid vaccine - we took it a little easy.

Kabuki12

Sunday ride after missing last weekends ride. Howling wind forced me to leave my cycling clothes hanging in the closet last weekend. It was nice and calm today, cloudy and cool , so I did 42 + miles on two different bikes. I started on the ItalVega and finished the ride on my Colnago Super, after switching bikes at my shop in Ventura.

GrainBrain

32 miles Saturday, out and back on gravel. Empty fields and an elevation change of 475 feet meant awesome site lines. Straight white gravel road, a "farm to market" road that is built up and routinely maintained. 10mph wind straight out of the east, a rarity on a nice day! Maybe a couple vehicles over a few hours. Did 11mph into the wind, 19mph cruising back. Working on spinning the pedals and building form, only a few rides into the year so far.

38 miles Sunday, 20mph wind, did another out and back. 3/4 gravel, oh so windy!! 12 into it, 22 back.

iterax

That island in the background is the Taal volcano, which erupted in January 2020, inundating the land around the lake with ash.

Rode 150km yesterday solo as usual.. Attempted the infamous Sungay climb- just 7km at an average of 7.9% but has plenty of sections that go into double digits, and a few that are +20% - and failed. Well, I did make it to the top but had to stop a few times and walk up the last ramps. I almost suffered the ignominy of falling over when I couldn't get going again after one my stops

Anyway, yeah- I'm not going to do that- or similar- ever again. Riding my bike is supposed to be fun.

atwl77

Finally with some relaxed lockdown rules, I got to go out on a proper ride yesterday. Went up a local infamous climb to the Jugra lighthouse - it's just approx 1km distance but slightly over 100+ m of elevation, but depending on where most cycling groups start, there's always a 50-70km of riding before reaching this climb, plus a similar distance to head back. It's almost like a rite of passage to bring newbies up this hill during group rides... during The Before Times, when group rides were still allowed.

canklecat

I don't think I've ridden a bike since the first week of February, just before our Arctic blast froze Texas for a week. I've cut way back on cycling since autumn 2020 to give an old neck injury time to heal. I've ridden only 233 miles all of 2021, way down from my usual average of 500 miles a month for the past few years.

But I've been running more, 150 miles so far this year. Usually 3-5 miles a few times a week and 7 miles on a weekend. I'm aiming for 10 miles this month and a half marathon by April or May. Meanwhile I hope to crack the 30 minute mark for a 5k. Back in the 1970s I could run a 5k in under 20 minutes. That'll never happen again at my age. But sub-30 would be fine.

Running is a lot harder than cycling, at least the way I usually ride. There's no coasting, no easy mode. Even jogging is significantly harder. It's like on/off between walking and jogging or running. I hadn't run in 40 years and I don't remember it being this much harder than cycling when I was a wee lad.

Different aches and pains too. The neck is better, but now I have to watch for my old nemesis, the shin splints. Reminds me of why I quit running decades ago. But shoes a much better now, and there are lots of good tutorials on YouTube for running technique and physical therapy. Back in the 1970s we were just guessing and winging it.

I plan to ride more soon. It'll be interesting to see how running influences my riding.

Machka 

2021 Monthly March
Walking Distance (km): 16.5
Walking Time (min): 206.0
Cycling Distance (km): 64.2
Cycling Time (min): 213.8
Flights Stairs Climbed Number: 16.0
Flights Stairs Climbed Time (min): 12.8
Rowing Distance (km): 0.0
Rowing Time (min): 0.0
Other Distance: 0.0
Other Time: 0.0

Totals
Total Distance (km): 80.6
Total Distance (miles): 50.1
Total Time (min): 432.6
Total Time (hr): 7:12:38

Machka 

You can tell when my 50 km rides have been! We're trying to do at least one each month. We'll see how far we get with it.

bikecrate

Another slow start this month. Did some walking in the woods the first weekend of the month. Probably around 5 miles. I went out this past Saturday to Thonotosassa. Perfect weather, great ride until coming home I ran into the same crazy ahole who tried to spit on me back in November. He tired again, but I just rode away. 41 miles. Sunday road to Weedon Is. with very sore legs for 40 miles.

bikecrate

Got in another weekend of riding. Cool, windy and grey days. Saturday I rode to Picnic and Davis Is. for 40 miles. Sunday I went to Upper Tampa Bay trail for another 40 miles. I never did warm up on Sunday and was happy to get home and take a hot bath and eat some warm soup.

atwl77

Last Saturday I went all-out on one of my usual short 20-ish km routes as a sort of fitness test. Averaged 32.2km/h and felt like I was getting slower - in 2019 I semi-regularly used to do 34km/h along this same route. But I got one PR and one second-fastest time on two Strava segments... so maybe I just went too hard at first and screwed up my pacing for the second half of the ride. Maybe gonna give this another try this coming Saturday.

Sunday was long distance. 135km to the beach - a new place that I haven't been before. Saw friends going there on Strava before, and I was looking for new places to ride, which prompted me to plot a route to go check it out. Wasn't too impressed by the destination - just a small little spot with no real sandy region, just rocks by the seaside. I guess the view is okay.

GBK233

Just started riding last week. Hadn’t been on a bicycle since 1983.

Today’s ride: (couldn’t figure out how to reduce pic size)

GrainBrain

Did 60 miles mixed gravel and pavement. Went north/west on gravel and rained/misted the 30 miles out. Got to pavement, sprayed down the chain. Did pavement on the return, chain was not so great after all that wet grit and didn't want any more sloppy gravel. I must've chased the rain because as soon as I started the return home the mist stopped and I started to dry out! Ate a ton of food, cold and wet but good

atwl77

This Saturday was a bust. I spent Friday night binging a Netflix show that wasn't really that great anyway, so screwed up the morning plan. So instead, in the afternoon I logged onto Zwift and tried keeping up with the B Brevet pace partner. Managed to hang on for just a touch over 19 minutes... slight improvement over my last attempt, but still a long way to go before I can hang with the B group.

Sunday was much better. Got out for a long ride to the same Jugra Hill that I did 2 weeks ago. Weather was much hotter with some headwind this time around, but had a great ride nevertheless. Also got a PR on the uphill attempt that I wasn't really aiming for, so it was a surprise when it registered on Strava.

bikecrate

Had a nice day out Saturday in the Ocala Nat Forest. I got in 42 miles. Sunday I was a little leg sore, but made an unexpected discovery. I was riding for about 10 miles on the highway and as I was preparing to turn around I noticed an unpaved forest road had just been cleared of the soft sand. I took my road bike to go exploring. I was able to go about 3 miles in before I started hitting some sand spots. I was pretty excited. These are the kinds of roads I was hoping to find when I'm up there. Tree shaded and no traffic. I'm going to try and take my gravel bike out next time. It can handle the washboard and sand better. I also found a historic trail to go hiking that was off this road. 40 miles total.