Great Lakes - 4th of July Metric Ride (Plainfield, IL)

skip to page two, post #31 for the 2008 Chatter. do it now :).

----

Ride Info Link (http://www.jolietbicycleclub.org/Invitationals/July%204/jul4info.htm)

Anyone doing this ride?

I did this ride last year. The Joliet Bicycle Club runs the ride. It is flat as it takes you from Plainfield to Morris and back. Except for a quick run into Morris the roads are rural and low traffic. The stops are well stocked. The routes does kind of go back a fourth a bit (South then North then South....) If the wind favorable this can be a fun and fast little early morning 4th jaunt. Last year I was done, showered, and ready for barbecuing by Noon.

So, Who's with me?? :D

Later.

This ride sounds like fun. I may go, but don't count on the 19-20mph avg. that you guys are doing these days. I will stick to the 17-18 range thank you very much.

This ride sounds like fun. I may go, but don't count on the 19-20mph avg. that you guys are doing these days. I will stick to the 17-18 range thank you very much.

17-18, 18-20..............i just ride. it is what it is :) . if you can make it let me know. last year i rode it solo and think i was at 17.5 mph avg when it was all said and done. the route is flat and fast, but very lonely when trudging along solo. let me know if you can make it. later.

Pretty sure I'm in. I need to get together with people to ride again. Depending on who shows we can run together or in two groups if needed.

Will know more when I get back from vacation.

I will be riding this one with my mom. If anyone slower wants to join us, you are very welcome to! We will be averaging around 14-15 mph.

My mom is just getting into to biking this year. It will be her first organized ride! Woo Hoo!

Maybe we'll see you fast guys at a rest stop if we get an early enough start.

We will roll out at 7:00. Crystal

I'll probably be there, depending on weather. Planning on riding either the 30 or 45 mile route. Still a NEWBIE :o

was planning on it, but surgery to cut open my neck has trumped the ride... go figure:eek: I'll be recovering, sigh.

:eek: Oh my! That is no fun! Hope you're recovering well. Take good care, Crystal

Anyone know if you can sign up on spot? Or does it have to be online?

Thanks, Jeff

Get well Whitesox!

I haven't checked the full details, but this organization usually supports day of ride registration. Not many rides don't support day of ride registration.

BTW - I register day of event for every ride except for the really big ones. I have been rained out (really bad rain) of too many events. Justifies the extra day of event fee.

same day registration is available for this ride. due to this being a holiday and a shorter ride (metric) there is not a mad rush at 7am. in fact, i rolled into the high school parking lot last year at 7am to see only three or five other participant's doing the same, but at the end of the ride all the lots at the school were full. later.

Meet up time??? Did I hear 7?

You kids have fun out there. Watch out for stray bottle rockets!

Bah, too bad I have to work on the 4th - this sounds like fun.

Meet up time??? Did I hear 7?

yes. lets hit it early so we have time to barbecue, drink beers, and light our pets on fire with just purchased firecrackers from just across the state line. :D later.

Checked weather - 80% chance of rain for the first few hours. I'm out.

rain. not RAIN, sucks! weather.com has 30% chance of it from 7-9am then 50% chance from 9-11am then back to 30% for the balance of the day. its 515am, and orange looking outside? since i am ten minutes from the start i have time on my side. hope it clears up. i must ride. later.

A Chance? (http://wmaq.weatherplus.com/wxmap/4290883/detail.html)

might as well give it a try. i am heading out. with Psimet2001 and a little wind i could be in for a long day. hope i can find a wheel to grab! later.

It turned out to be a beautiful day....a bit windy heading out to Morris but nice sunshine and great rest stops.

Mom completed her first organized ride and we did the 62 mile route! We had a great time.

This was awesome for her especially since she had cardiac ablation a week ago to correct a heart arrythmia.

Met some other nice folks along the way.

Psimet, hope the weather forecast didn't scare you off! How'd you do aham?

Crystal

nice ride smokinmiles and props to your mom!!

it didnt look so good at 6am, but by 7am when i was rolling out the weather was turning to perfect conditions. wind out of the NW, but the sun was out and the pavement dry. i was using this ride to gauge my fitness level for RAIN. i skipped the first rest stop and limited my two other stops. unfortunately, i rode the entire route solo without a second spent sucking any wheel. i would have, but the opportunity never arose :)!

a wrong turn in Morris gave me a little extra mileage as i ended with 68. final ride time was 3:39 (18.6 mph avg) with a total time of 3:52.

also, tried out some Hammer Nutrition. liked the heed and their gels, but not a fan of their bars. all in all it was a great morning ride. later.

The Edge Stats (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=3209711)

nice ride smokinmiles and props to your mom!!

it didnt look so good at 6am, but by 7am when i was rolling out the weather was turning to perfect conditions. wind out of the NW, but the sun was out and the pavement dry. i was using this ride to gauge my fitness level for RAIN. i skipped the first rest stop and limited my two other stops. unfortunately, i rode the entire route solo without a second spent sucking any wheel. i would have, but the opportunity never arose :)!

a wrong turn in Morris gave me a little extra mileage as i ended with 68. final ride time was 3:39 (18.6 mph avg) with a total time of 3:52.

also, tried out some Hammer Nutrition. liked the heed and their gels, but not a fan of their bars. all in all it was a great morning ride. later.

The Edge Stats (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=3209711)

I'm thinking you were probably riding faster than anyone out there! No doubt in my mind that you're ready for RAIN. However, RAIN is like a marathon, there are soooo many variables that can't be controlled over such a long distance that I don't like putting pressure on myself.

That said, I still think you're all going to have a great ride across Indiana.

I am still actually on the fence about RAIN (to which my husband says, "yeah, right") because I feel so less prepared than last year. What I'll probably do is ride it and adjust my time expectations.

Forgot to mention that my mom and I saw 2 accidents yesterday. The roads were so nice and smooth but there was a guy who zoomed past us. I could see him up ahead and suddenly he did an amazingly acrobatic flip off his bike and his bike skidded into the ditch....there was no one around him, no cars, etc. I sprinted on up to him and he was bleeding down his arm and road rash on his shoulder. He said he reached for his water bottle and then came upclipped and didn't even realize what happened next. Luckily the sag was along soon to bandage him up and about .5 mile later he zoomed past pulling about 10 people behind him :D He nicely thanked my mom and me again.

Then toward the very end as we were coming back into the high school, there was a bike path along the road and mom and I went on it to ride in and this younger guy in front of us just fell into the grass and laid there. I rode on up to him and unclipped and got off my bike and he looked so disoriented. By this time I'm starting to feel like Florence Nightingale. I said, "are you ok?" and he said, "I think I'm just exhausted and way too hot" I should mention that riding with mom was slower going than I thought and we were just finishing the 62 mile at 2:00 after starting at 7:30! So these were probably slower riders who had been out longer, etc. So he got back up and was slowly motoring into the parking lot as we were loading our bikes.

Anyway, everyone ended up ok for the day.

I'm starting to think aham's Garmin is somehow wrong. He keeps reading off these huge numbers that I could never match, and yet we tend to ride together fairly well. Maybe he just holds back a lot....or all of my computers are wrong. ;)

BTW - aham has ridden the RAIN before. He just wants a better time, and anything short of that may make him feel like he failed. :(

Weather kept me from going. I had to make a decision before 5am, and it didn't look good. I needed the sleep anyway, but not going has put me into a serious funk. I don't feel ready, and the thought of watching aham and CyLowe ride off into the sunrise at mile 20, and the prospect of plodding throught the next 140 miles alone has me not sleeping well.

I'm edgy and am in a serious fight with my wife to top all of it off. I can't help but feel like none of that would be the case if I had ridden yesterday.

PO'd at myself to say the least.

I'm starting to think aham's Garmin is somehow wrong. He keeps reading off these huge numbers that I could never match, and yet we tend to ride together fairly well. Maybe he just holds back a lot....or all of my computers are wrong. ;)

BTW - aham has ridden the RAIN before. He just wants a better time, and anything short of that may make him feel like he failed. :(

Weather kept me from going. I had to make a decision before 5am, and it didn't look good. I needed the sleep anyway, but not going has put me into a serious funk. I don't feel ready, and the thought of watching aham and CyLowe ride off into the sunrise at mile 20, and the prospect of plodding throught the next 140 miles alone has me not sleeping well.

I'm edgy and am in a serious fight with my wife to top all of it off. I can't help but feel like none of that would be the case if I had ridden yesterday.

PO'd at myself to say the least.

I know exactly how you feel about missing a ride/workout that you feel you need, but, honestly, you have a really good base going into RAIN and no workout 11 days before can have that profound of an effect. (I'm sure you already know all of this!...just trying to be supportive.)

You....plodding...uh, I don't think so. Really, I think it is shider that we will watch ride off into the sunrise on his new ride!

BTW, my brother does this exact same thing before his important rides. "I'm not ready, I suck"

I'm having trouble with post ride nausea....I mean, bad. Last long 3 rides I've thrown up before bedtime and had to get everything out. Sorry if this is TMI. I'm wondering if I'm not taking in enough fluids and subsequent dehydration is causing this or if I'm just eating the wrong stuff afterwards. It's really bizarre and yesterday wasn't even a hard effort for me. Gotta figure this out.

Yikes...if it was pre-ride I'd call it "morning sickness". ;)

Get better. I'll try to as well.

I'm starting to think aham's Garmin is somehow wrong. He keeps reading off these huge numbers that I could never match, and yet we tend to ride together fairly well. Maybe he just holds back a lot....or all of my computers are wrong. ;)

BTW - aham has ridden the RAIN before. He just wants a better time, and anything short of that may make him feel like he failed. :(

Weather kept me from going. I had to make a decision before 5am, and it didn't look good. I needed the sleep anyway, but not going has put me into a serious funk. I don't feel ready, and the thought of watching aham and CyLowe ride off into the sunrise at mile 20, and the prospect of plodding throught the next 140 miles alone has me not sleeping well.

I'm edgy and am in a serious fight with my wife to top all of it off. I can't help but feel like none of that would be the case if I had ridden yesterday.

PO'd at myself to say the least.

my garmin wouldnt lie to me, would it? :)

the numbers are real. you just step it up. heck, last year at RAIN you had us rolling into the 60 mile rest stop with a near 20 mph average. i was on your wheel that entire time. then the heat zapped both of us.

i must admit that this year, if all things feel good at the start, i plan to put in a "serious" effort. i enjoy it. you know the pain, the suffering, and the fun an all out, 160 mile, in the heat, effort brings :D !

i would let missing the metric go. dont sweat it. the outlook and weather forecast had me questioning my participation up until 650am. i had the advantage of this being a hometown ride, so at 650am even though the skies appeared ready to open up and let loose with massive rains, i knew i wouldnt be far from home. who knew that at 730am the skie would clear and the sun would come out to play for the rest of the day. not brant miller nor tom skilling for sure.

besides i am guessing it will be mile 70ish before anyone rides off into the sunset. later.

You had me going there for a minute psimet. Then I realized that its just the usual pre-ride banter on this forum: I'll be slow, I'm going to ride sweep, I'm not in shape, I haven't ridden in a while bla, bla, bla... :D Where's SpeedyMcWhat'sHisName when you need him? :D From your commuting alone you've probably put on more miles in the last month than I have. :mad: Crap, now I'm falling into the same trap.

I'm looking forward to riding RAIN with a group, but the competitive side of me would also like to put in a good time. (The organizers encourage it! :eek: It says so right on their web page.) I will say this, if Aham goes, and I'm capable of it, I'll be right there with him.

You had me going there for a minute psimet. Then I realized that its just the usual pre-ride banter on this forum: I'll be slow, I'm going to ride sweep, I'm not in shape, I haven't ridden in a while bla, bla, bla... :D Where's SpeedyMcWhat'sHisName when you need him? :D From your commuting alone you've probably put on more miles in the last month than I have. :mad: Crap, now I'm falling into the same trap.

I'm looking forward to riding RAIN with a group, but the competitive side of me would also like to put in a good time. (The organizers encourage it! :eek: It says so right on their web page.) I will say this, if Aham goes, and I'm capable of it, I'll be right there with him.

this does seem to be the group standard operating procedure before a big ride :D .

as for going, i plan on a bit of it. later.

*shakes head*

I'm so going to be riding alone....*sigh*

*shakes head*

I'm so going to be riding alone....*sigh*

hey, every group needs a lead out man. you take the first 80 miles and shider gets the rest. ? :D later.

Where's SpeedyMcWhat'sHisName when you need him? :D
Did I hear my name called?

I did not make this ride in Plainfield, as I was off riding many miles at fantastic average speeds outside of Awesome's Creek.

bump for the 2008 version.......

Ride Link (http://jolietbicycleclub.org/)

it will be flat and fast. it will be low traffic on some excellent newly paved rural roads.

anyone going?

i use this is a RAIN training ride. plan go out early and ride fast with limited stops. i skipped the first rest stop last year as it comes quick around mile 23.

later.

Weather permitting I'm in. Ready for an early start, and a fast ride!

Unfortunately I read a number of posts from last year by mistake.

^^^^ yeah, what idiot bumped this old thread.............:)

and i am ready to follow your wheel the entire way.

seriously.

later.

Also planning on doing it as final build up for RAIN, along with a 75-80 miler on Sunday before tapering off next week. It's a great ride - we might do the 30 or 45 mile loop after doing the 62.

Definitely thinking about it. I should be in prime shape. Going out to Fitzgerald's All American Music Festival in Berwyn the night before. Let's see, if the music stops at 1:00 (who am I kidding, my wife will never last that late). So a definite maybe/possibly for me.

^^^^ yeah, what idiot bumped this old thread.............:)

and i am ready to follow your wheel the entire way.

seriously.

later.

OK, who is ready to join us for an early start, limited stops, and a 20 mph average pace?

I'll be there. I'm bringing my wife for her first organized ride (Bike the Drive doesn't count). We're planning the 62 mile, but she's nervous as 40ish is her previous longest. So, if you see someone in a "Ride to Cure Diabetes" jersey who looks annoyed for going 12-15mph, say hi. I know she can go faster, but I don't know for how long - so I think we'll just take it easy and build her confidence by finishing.

OK, who is ready to join us for an early start, limited stops, and a 20 mph average pace?

early start is relative.. Like 7am? :) 20mph avg sounds good to me. Rotating paceline?

I have to check with the wife, but I'd like to do it.

we can rotate the three man paceling all you want :).

a 20 mph seems like a good goal if all is right. last year i knocked it out solo around 18.5 mph and i know for sure JT1 will be pulling me along faster then that this year.

an early start for this ride would be 7am. the last two years i have should up at 7am, laid down my cash, and been on the road by 715am. i think most of the crowd comes out a bit later since its a holiday and all. i like to get the ride in early so i can get my butt home for beers and barbecue.

i plan to skip the first rest stop and limit the other two (miles 35 & 50). its a little RAIN prep for me.

later.

we can rotate the three man paceling all you want :).

a 20 mph seems like a good goal if all is right. last year i knocked it out solo around 18.5 mph and i know for sure JT1 will be pulling me along faster then that this year.

an early start for this ride would be 7am. the last two years i have should up at 7am, laid down my cash, and been on the road by 715am. i think most of the crowd comes out a bit later since its a holiday and all. i like to get the ride in early so i can get my butt home for beers and barbecue.

i plan to skip the first rest stop and limit the other two (miles 35 & 50). its a little RAIN prep for me.

later.

Sounds like a good plan to me as I'm also going to have family over for BBQ and fun at the pool.

Last fast century I did I had my first stop at 55 and another at 80 so I'm ready to even fly by the first two if need be.

I know more in the evening and maybe we can exchange some phone# for hookup.

i am going to ride out to the start/finish instead of drive the 10 miles.

how about a 7am meet up with a 7:15 am rollout? just meet up near the registration area. at that time it will not be to hard to spot people. JT1 and i are the tall good looking dudes :). i think i will sport the BFNIC Great Lakes Jersey.

later.

Gel

Us

Enjoy the ride guys. I'll drink a beer and eat a shrimp for you.

i am going to ride out to the start/finish instead of drive the 10 miles.

how about a 7am meet up with a 7:15 am rollout? just meet up near the registration area. at that time it will not be to hard to spot people. JT1 and i are the tall good looking dudes :). i think i will sport the BFNIC Great Lakes Jersey.

later.

A couple other riding friends of mine are heading out about 7:45. They plan to team up with the ABD racing group which is rolling out at 8:00. It should be a big group, fast group. Very tempting.

I plan to be there before 7:00, I will touch base with you guys and see what works.

^^^^ no problem. i kinda of need to get out early due to home front obligations. ride with the big boys and have fun. heck, push it hard enough and i am sure your group will catch my slow arse :). later.

I'm going to be there at 7:00 as well.
I'm going to wear my Germany jersey as all my other shirts are in the wash machine from commuting.

I think I'm going to bring my vintage steel. Purple top/neon green bottom colored bike.

Thomas

OK, it's 8 am....you guys should be done by now. Reports?

Report:
62.69mls in 3h 23min
I sucked wheel of aham23 most of the time.
That is all.

62.10 - 3h 15min - 19 mph avg.

the legs were good today. even coming back from Morris into that nagging little 10 mph headwind i felt solid. i enjoyed meeting you Scummer and the Chit Chat during the ride.

JT1, how did that fast group thing work out for you? we could have used you a bit coming back from Morris into the wind. i did my best to replace you :D.

oh yeah, i rode to the ride so make it a total of 76 miles for me on the 4th!! if i dont get too drinkie tonight i may try to hook up with a fast club ride tomorrow morning. last minute RAIN prep in full effect.

Edge Stats (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=6154954)

later.

62.10 - 3h 15min - 19 mph avg.

the legs were good today. even coming back from Morris into that nagging little 10 mph headwind i felt solid. i enjoyed meeting you Scummer and the Chit Chat during the ride.

JT1, how did that fast group thing work out for you? we could have used you a bit coming back from Morris into the wind. i did my best to replace you :D.

oh yeah, i rode to the ride so make it a total of 76 miles for me on the 4th!! if i dont get too drinkie tonight i may try to hook up with a fast club ride tomorrow morning. last minute RAIN prep in full effect.

Edge Stats (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=6154954)

later.

It was definitely good to meet you as well. It's always good to have some great company on those rides. But you seemed to be able to chat better than I was. I was only good for chatting in the beginning, later I retracted to thinking "Just keep swimming..."

Finally decided at about 11:30 last night to do this ride. But your 20mph "threat" scared me away from trying to meet up with you guys. Still got there a little after 7:00 but figured you guys had already rolled out. Thought I'd be riding solo but ended up joining a group that was riding about the same speed I was (18-19). The group changed into a paceline after the first 7-8 miles, and I ended up riding with them the full 62. Finished at 18.4. There was a 10 mile stretch in the middle somewhere where there were some really competitive groups. We changed leads about 5 times, cooking at 22-25mph. I think it was the woman in the short short grey gym shorts that got things started.:D