Machka 

Happy Long Weekend!! Tell us all about your cycling this weekend ... and post pics if you've got them. If you're participating in other sports, tell us about them too ... cross-training.


[HR][/HR]


Friday -- Brisk 3.5 km walk, mostly on a beach with roaring waves in the bright warm sunshine. At last!!

kbarch

Yes, a nice long weekend! We closed the office today, too, so I took the opportunity to get in a different ride today. Headed into the city, did a couple of loops of the park, including a repeat of Harlem Hill where I managed a PR, and #3 of 103 for the day so far! I put forth a solid effort for just a little while, until getting down to the busiest part of the park. Took it easy after that, and ended up getting passed by a couple of greybeards working together, one of whom was in jorts. But we all know it's not about the kit. Even Assos dude managed to drop me the last time up Harlem Hill. Headed downtown after that to a place with sidewalk dining and shortly before thirty miles for the morning got some 'breffis.'

Headed straight home after that. It was quite breezy with a headwind, but I made a point of keeping the cadence up, so it wasn't too bad.

indyfabz

95 miles to Brooklyn in 90 degree heat this coming Sunday.

Machka 

Saturday -- 3 km walk, all on beaches. Sunshine, roaring waves, white sand, gorgeous blue water ... just a bit cool and windy. And 16 km bicycle ride.

kbarch

Today was a nice 50 mile group ride. A big, very diverse and somewhat disorderly group, but led by an immensely popular and adept herder of cats. We were all over the road more often than we were in a neat paceline, and a couple of drivers got annoyed with our antics (if you want to put it that way) on otherwise quiet back roads, but we were generally aware and got control of ourselves on busier roads without incident.

One guy had a new toy - a gravel bike with big knobby tires and a 1x group. He was having all kinds of fun, actually seeking out gravel, using the soft shoulder to pass and so forth. If you didn't know better, you'd think he was ten years old. Reminded me of when I got a dual sport moto with knobby tires and a larger front wheel - used to ride into potholes and the roughest parts of the road on purpose.

I mentioned the group was diverse before. Everyone was a reasonably experienced rider, managed to maintain a decent pace, and nobody was dying on the hills. But folks were from all sorts of backgrounds, and the age range was very wide - no one very young (one woman may have been thirty), but there was a sizeable contingent of folks in their mid- late-thirties, bunch of guys in their forties to early fifties, a remarkably strong woman maybe in her mid-fifties who easily claimed the polka dot jersey, and some older guys, including one former world-class racer who must have been pushing 80.

The group did sort of fall apart at the main climb toward the end, and I peeled off at the road that led back home (we actually rode right by my place early on in the ride, which was sort of weird/funny). Got a big glass of water when I got in, and you know what? You were right, Machka - I've had no problem staying up, no urgent desire to take a nap! Hydration IS key. I did have some wine with a spaghetti dinner, and that made me drowsy for a bit, but it soon passed.

Anyhow - great fun today - fine weather, good cheer, plenty of enthusiasm. Hard to believe there's two more days to this long holiday weekend!

Homebrew01

Spent all day with unplanned problems at work

BigC_82

I did another century training ride of 85 miles with avg speed of 14.9 mph. The total time was 5 hrs and 42 mins. I started at 6:30am with the temps in mid 70's and ended with temp of 92 with heat index in upper 90's. I did stop at mile 65 for small McDonald's ice cream cone and take break from the heat. I had close to 1,500 ft of climbing evelation.

bassjones

Charity ride today for an orphanage in Haiti
100K. Third Metric in 4 weeks. Slowest one but that's because we had a guy in our group who should have chosen one of the shorter routes and we were trying to get him across the line. We took turns pulling him from about mile 30 on. Got nailed by a rain storm too, but that felt good! Averaged 14.5 MPH (was supposed to be a 16-18MPH pace), but had energy to pull 17MPH miles after he caught the SAG bus at mile 55. Rode with the guys I'm thinking about racing with next year and they kicked my a$$ on the sprints we did and I told them to go ahead and kick after the other guy caught the bus, but I was only a few hundred yards behind at the finish.

kbarch

Charity begins at home.
Sounds like a good day!

tom25

A friend and I, got in our first century ride. Troy OH. To Milford OH. Via the bike paths. We averaged 14.5 mi/hr. It was hot we each drank 6 24oz water bottles, and 3 24oz gatorades. Food was pp&j, trail mix, and oatmeal cookies. We stopped for a soft serve ice cream about 70mi in. We didn't train for this ride like we should have just kept an easy pace and stopped when we felt like it. The ride was beautiful along the Miami, and Little Miami rivers. Especially from Xenia to Loveland. Good times!

bruce19

Yesterday....club B ride with only 6 riders in northeast CT from Windham to Salem to Colchester and back via Hebron/Columbia. Total of 62 mi. with 4,000 ft climbing at 15 mph. Beautiful day and a very cohesive group.

bbattle

48 miles with only 1000 feet of climbing and half of that on just one hill. The advertised pace of 16mph was gone from the get-go as we did the first 15 miles at an 18.7mph clip. I sensibly let the group go on ahead and I made my own route.

I turned onto Tater road and soon enough I was surrounded by potato fields. The road turned to gravel then dirt and then it was just some packed dirt next to a field. I could see another large field on the other side of a treeline and luckily there was another gravel road there. I carried my bike over the barbed wire fence and headed down this new mystery road. I found a farmer cleaning his tractor and he said the paved road was just ahead. Several thousand acres of a sod farm all around me.

I got back onto the pavement and made real good time back to the car. Finished 48 miles at a 17mph pace; lots of descending false flat on the return route.

Jakedatc

Sat: 30mi Shop B ride. started off slow but still ended up with 19avg. bumped up one of my KOM hills and snagged the 2nd half of it finally (whole hill is split by a light near the top that I rarely hit on green)

Sun: fun easier ride with some friends. 38mi at 17avg.. went hard for some hills and sat up to wait for others in the group to catch back up.. good hill repeat/intervals day

ButchA

Today: 9/6/15... A new personal record - even dating back to when I was a teenager riding bicycles back in the 70's!!!

36.75 miles in 2 hrs and 23 min. Avg speed: 15.4 mph - - All on an old C&V '85 Fuji road bike!


Stopping along Bienvenue Rd in Rockville, VA to stretch, drink a water bottle, etc...




Stopping at the famous mansion along Manakin Rd in Manakin-Sabot, VA. Wow, imagine living there!

Rowan

Was that on the new bike?

Jakedatc

Bruce i'm going to have to talk to you CT guys about weekend groups when i hopefully move next summer. My gf just got a house in Newington. should have lots of choices for weekday post-work rides between Newington Bike and Bicycle East but not sure about weekends.

bruce19

Happy to give you whatever advice I can. I do know that Steve over at Bicycles East can point you in the direction of a lot of local rides. Should warn you though that Glastonbury is amazingly hilly for this area. You could always come ride with us out of Windham on Saturdays but it is probably 45-50 min. from Newington to our ride site. BTW, Bicycles East is my go to shop. Going there on Tues. for a quick re-fit on my Guru. Great people. Good luck with your move.

bruce19

No, it was on the Guru. I was having shifting adjustment problems on the cross bike but I got it sorted out today. I probably would have some problems keeping up with that road ride on a cross bike. It was a small group of strong riders. Going to do a rail-trail ride tomorrow on the Colnago with my gf.

Jakedatc

I'm 5'7 125lb so hills are my gig haha. I rode with Bike East's A group a few tuesdays ago and was fine. They were definitely a fun group. Bombing down Old Maid's lane without prior knowledge of the turns was scary haha https://www.strava.com/activities/377500544

I can probably hit up your group sometime. the sunday club i ride with now has a different route all over RI/ SE mass every week so i'm used to driving around to starts. If/when I get a job it will likely be Per Diem in a hospital so it will be tricky to schedule around.

bruce19

Sounds like you're all set. Hope all goes well with the move.

cyclebycle13

Actually started Thursday w/ a 66 mile ride and over 4500 vertical feet with a friend I haven't seen in about 7 years. Sunday was a solo 100.2 mile ride and I'll get out this morning for a 50 miler.

indyfabz

97 miles from New Hope to Downtown Brooklyn on Sunday. Awesome trip as usual, but not for the faint of heart. The bike/ped deck of the Brooklyn Bridge was as crowded as I have ever experienced it in the 16 years of doing this ride.

Waiting for the ferry at 14th St. in Hoboken, NJ with the Freedom Tower in the background:



Later, we visited some friends. One of the building employees let us into this this unsold condo on the 45th. floor. This view of Manhattan can be yours for only $5 million, but it comes with 2 floors, 4 BRs. several bathrooms, and one hell of a nice Viking BBQ grill.

Long Tom

30 mi yesterday with a buddy. His turf (we alternate). Big climb up front, then some rolling truly gorgeous pastoral stuff, and then some farmland flats. Perfect weather. Same buddy and I are gonna squeeze in a fairly-damn-brutal climbing 26 mi tomorrow, terminating at my daughter's HS soccer game. Probably miss the beginning. Buddy is about to leave on a long road trip and I am doing a solo high altitude backpack deer hunt in 3 weeks (gaaaa!) so, it's game on as far as making the rides happen.

jrossbeck

Competed in my 1st triathlon on Sunday - an Olympic distance. Did great in the swim (my natural event) and did pretty good to hold my own against all the triathlon/TT bike guys on the course. I got passed by a few, but held off some others that I had a decent lead on. Ended up averaging right around 20 MPH for the 40K course, which was an absolute dream for me, considering I just finished a ~1 mile swim and had a 10K run still in front of me.

i crashed hard on the run. Walked for a while, but finished strong. Took 18th overall, so was quite happy. This race was mostly amateurs like me, all the top guy so erect tat the new nationals vent an hour away.

i just switched to Conti Pro 4000II tires in 25 a few weeks back and very glad I did. They felt amazing on the course and gave me some nice confidence vs. my old stock 23s. I did come away with serious bike envy - there were loads of just gorgeous bikes out there.

silversx80

Saturday was the first day I've been out since my accident a couple months ago. I hooked the new trailer up and toed the kid around the local MUP for about 5 miles. She went down for a nap when we got home, so I went out for another hour. Felt great.

Weather was a little stormy on Sunday, so I hooked up to the Wahoo Kickr and did a set of 3X3X3 intervals at 110% FTP (3' @ 110%, 3' @ 65%, repeat 2 more times, 5' break, do 2 more times).

Monday, being the holiday, I again stayed indoors. I have an aversion to riding roads on holidays notorious for drinking, so I did 5X5 intervals on the Kickr @ 107.5% FTP average (5' @ either 110% or 105%, 5' @ 65%, repeat 5 more times).


Legs are feeling it this morning.