Southeast - Did You Ride Today?

I got to ride yesterday and today for a total of around 44 miles. As Ron mentioned, it has been raining here for what seemed like days on end. It was really nice to have what really amounts to springtime weather (including the thunderstorms and tornado watches) in the middle of what is supposed to be winter here. Great to catch up on some of my mileage I have missed the past few weeks.

44 miles today with beautiful weather. Should get in 50 tomorrow.

53 miles today in a tough head wind. Thank goodness it is going to rain tomorrow, I need a day off.

Just finished watching Bicycle Dreams a DVD of the 2005 Race Across America. It will give you a whole new perspective on bike riding.

The weather was great -- for Georgia (53F when I left home) -- so I headed out to Stone Mtn. Did 28 miles. This cold and/or rainy weather is really taking a toll on my climbing muscles. It was a struggle doing a lap around the mtn today. :notamused:

Was able to get out and do 21 miles today on the Suncoast Trail. Seems there was a headwind no matter which direction i was going.

Was about 45F when I left this morning, did 20 miles with the local club. Nothing fancy to report, just had a nice ride.

I hosted an Introduction to road cycling class at my LBS yesterday. It was the first class in a program we are going to be offering for new riders to help them get a good start in the sport. We did just over 4 miles yesterday.
Today my son and I went out for what was to be around 30 miles. Another cyclist passed by the neighborhood just as we turned off our street. I laid the hammer down, doing my best to catch the fellow but it simply wasn't happening. He stopped at the store up on the corner and we caught him there, talked for a few moments, and decided to ride together. He happens to be one of the regulars in the A pace group rides out of the LBS I am now working for and is WAY faster than my son or I are. I ended up overdoing it before I got fully warmed up and pulled a muscle in my bad leg. Now I can hardly walk and am concerned that I will not be able to ride for a few days which is a real bummer given what the weather report is calling for in the next few days. I ended up with about 16 miles before the pain made me stop. I am just over 200 miles for the month. According to what my leg feels like tomorrow I may try to squeeze a few more in for the month.

yes, hip still not feeling well but decided to go for a ride. Rode almost 10 miles (double what I did last weekend) on the Withlachochee. Started in Inverness and headed north. Rode just under 5 miles and turned around. It feels pretty good when I'm riding but really hard getting on and off. The injection I got has not really helped much. Oh well, it is what it is until after April 15th.

I don't know about you guys in the rest of the world but it has been unseasonable warm this winter (in the north east) - not complaining mind you!!!!

Very warm, hurt foot, no riding, SUCKS!!! But your right has been warm down here in Florida too. Like high 60's to mid 70's .. Its killing me not riding...

It's been pretty warm here too, haven't gotten a freeze yet. Did my usual 10-ish miles this morning. Pushed a little, averaged 15 MPH. Still nowhere close to what the roadies here can do, they cruise around 20MPH. Oh well.

Did my first ride of the month on the Withlacoochee Trail. Awesome. :beer: No need for arm or knee warmers or base layer undershirt. :D
I'm not used to riding virtually non-stop for many miles (in Atlanta I have to stop for a light or cross traffic every few blocks :notamused: so I get to "rest") so only did 32 miles, with the head wind and crosswind we had today. :o

Another awesome ride on the Withlacoochee Trail today. Yesterday I went north so today I rode south. FYI: We've rented a place in Hernando, about 1.5 miles from the Hernando trailhead.
Still getting used to this flatland riding with infrequent stops. Love it. :beer: Did 36.6 miles.
Tomorrow looks like rain so I'll take a day off and the wife and I may do the tourist thing.

It's been pretty warm here too, haven't gotten a freeze yet. Did my usual 10-ish miles this morning. Pushed a little, averaged 15 MPH. Still nowhere close to what the roadies here can do, they cruise around 20MPH. Oh well.

I spoke to soon I just saw that over 220 europeans have died in a cold snap there...still warmer than average in NYC

Another awesome ride on the Withlacoochee. :beer:
Did 31.9 miles today. It started sprinkling at my turnaround point but no rain. Had to get home because we're meeting some friends who have a home in Homosassa for an early supper.

I came across a group of older-than-me cyclists (about 20 riders) just south of the Citrus Springs trailhead. They were spread out all over the place. I was riding a few inches from the edge and they kept coming toward me. :eek: At the last moment some of them moved slightly toward their side of the trail so there was no collision. :o I guess they missed the signs saying to keep to the right.

Another awesome ride on the Withlacoochee. :beer:
Did 31.9 miles today. It started sprinkling at my turnaround point but no rain. Had to get home because we're meeting some friends who have a home in Homosassa for an early supper.

I came across a group of older-than-me cyclists (about 20 riders) just south of the Citrus Springs trailhead. They were spread out all over the place. I was riding a few inches from the edge and they kept coming toward me. :eek: At the last moment some of them moved slightly toward their side of the trail so there was no collision. :o I guess they missed the signs saying to keep to the right.

I know what you mean, I've had that happen before. You keep thinking are they going to scoot over, now? Yet? Now? I start thinking maybe I need my mountain bike sometimes. The worst though is when your being approached by a family with small kids on bikes. I LOVE seeing kids out on bikes.. but what I really dislike is the parents that don't teach the kids anything about riding on a MUP trail. Don't get me wrong I try to be VERY careful when this situation arises I will stop or go off the trail rather than hit a kid!! But it makes me mad when the parents do NOTHING when they see oncoming riders. They don't tell the kids to scoot over or anything. .... Rant done.... :P

I got out today for the first time since my toe/foot injury... My plans were just to take a short ride and see how my foot feels later. Ended up riding about 8 miles... about 5 on the pavement and 3 on the trails in the woods. Foot feels pretty good now... Crossing my finger that there is no pain later...

Another great ride on the Withlacoochee yesterday. Did 38.9 miles.
I came across a couple of cyclists riding south and could hear them talking about the headwind being more than the weather folks had predicted. I was riding north and thought I too had a headwind. These Florida winds are strange. You get a headwind from the north and the south at the same time. :rolleyes:

Yep... got out for a ride today. I have only rode one day since having the flu and hurting my toe/foot. So I decided to go check out the progress on section of trail they are paving on the Palatka Lake Butler trail. Well it is all but done since I rode it last a few weeks ago. Signs are up, lines are painted on the trail and grass is planted. I took the mountain bike and rode the 4 miles to the end of the pavement and then did a loop on some state forest trails. Ended up riding about 8 miles on the pavement and 6 on the trails. Great ride perfect temps... and so far (knock on wood) no pain in the foot or toe. They put up a few new signs in the forest..

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Looks like they officially added more trails... The roads / trails have always been there but none of them were really marked that well. I'm excited more trails to go check out!!!

Nope,Took a knee recovery day, Cold and stiff after a riding every day this month , the weather here has been amazing but I fear its gettin read to turn.

Yep... got out for a ride today.
Glad you finally got out for a ride. :thumb:



I did 44.1 miles today. I went south to Lake "something or other" road?? where the sign reads Nobleton 0.5 miles and points east. I decided to turn around there because I was hungry and only had 4 gels with me. :o
It was rather lonely down that way.
I headed north but had to stop after a few miles to gulp down a gel. Luckily I filled my water bottles in Floral City on the way down. Stopped in Floral City on the way back and had 2 more gels and refilled one of my bottles. I gulped down the last gel at the park across from Suncoast Cycles.
It started clouding up as soon as I left Inverness but the sun came out again as I crossed US41 in Hernando to head back to the condo/apt.

After I got home and cleaned up and changed, my wife said she wanted an ice cream from Sabin'a diner (http://www.sabinasdiner.com/) in Hernando. That's three days in a row we've had ice cream. :eek: It's very tasty but not good for my "manly physique". :o

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Did 23 today, the wind was HORRIBLE and the temps were in the 30's... had a great time! :)

YEP..... I got out for a ride today.... Went to check out the some of the new trails I found in the Etoniah Creek State Forest. It was about 67deg when I started and about 58deg when I got back to the van. VERY windy here too, although a lot of it was blocked by trees on most of the trails. Decided to ride in the trails party for that reason. Took the mountain bike and rode all dirt/sand/gravel/packed trails & what they call unimproved roads in the forest. I had LOTS of fun!!! All pretty well marked trails/roads, and over half of them aren't on any maps that I have looked at. The ride didn't start off very well.. I got on the bike and it was in a pretty high gear from the road riding on the last ride. So I was putting around on the pavement before I hit the trails and down shifted while going too slow and wrapped the chain around the chain ring up front. Wedged the chain in the front derailer.... Ugggggg first bad scratch on the new bike, bound to happen but sucks....... Had to get a screw driver out of the van to un-wedge it.... But other than that AWESOME RIDE!!!!

About 14 miles on the dirt.... about 1hr 40 min ride...

1st pic... End of pavement ...... Start of ride..

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We went to Floral City this morning for some kind of artsy event my wife saw in the local paper. While we were there we stopped at the new bakery that has a sign on the bike trail, just a few feet south of the trailhead in Floral City. Everything looked DELICIOUS. :) We HAD to get a loaf of fresh baked bread, some cinnamon rolls, and two pie-lettes. Then we headed back to Hernando so I could ride.
The wind was brutal!! I rode up to the top end of the trail and back. Total of 25.5 cool miles. What a workout!!! :eek:

Yep... More exploring in the Etoniah State Forest on da mountain bike. Right from the get go it was uphill in a bit of loose sand. Both knees didn't like that so much and were complaining util I got warmed up a bit. By the time I got warmed up a bit.... I really hit a trail/path that had lots of sand.... I think it was a steady incline in sand for about 3/4 of a mile... Good workout I must say. After a couple more miles of the sand I was kind of getting tired of it.... Got to this one spot slight uphill lots of sand... going slow... hit more sand.. Fell down.... LOL .... A sweaty fall into sand means that stuff sticks on you for the rest of the ride... DOH!! Eventually found some nice trails and forest roads... Had a GREAT ride.. 1hr 57 mins ... 15.2 miles.. Sand is slow going... That included about 1/2 mile of walking....

Good spot for a rest...
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I was watching the raccoons watch me. They were kind of hard to capture with the camera... kind of far away.
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The weather was perfect so got out for 36.5 miles. My body could tell I've been semi-sick and haven't ridden for 7 days.
I was supposed to meet my wife at Sandy's House of Sweets bakery in Floral City. I rode to the north end of the trail and then headed south toward Floral City. My wife (who drove the car) called as I was getting near the north side of Inverness. I told her my speed was down and I'd be there in 30-40 minutes. She didn't want to wait so bought lots of goodies and headed back to the condo/apt.
When I got home I found 8 pie-lettes, a loaf of french bread, and a bag of rolls. I had to taste one of the pie-lettes (apple). YUM!!!

Not sure if I'll be out tomorrow. The weather folks are saying the winds will be 20-30 mph. Sounds like a repeat of last Saturday. :o

Was able to get out and do 21 miles today on the Suncoast Trail. Seems there was a headwind no matter which direction i was going.
I get down and ride the Suncoast and Withlachoochee two or three times a year. Daughter lives in Wesley Chapel. I start at Hwy 54 (I think it is) on the Suncoast. Almost every time I have ridden the Suncoast, I start out with a headwind heading north and then near my turn around (hwy 50 I think) it turns into a side wind and a few miles after turning around it is a head wind again. Not sure how it seems to be so predictable.

Maybe I should drive north to Hwy 50 and ride the opposite way?

The weather was awesome today, even with the wind which wasn't too bad, so did 56.4 miles on the Withlacoochee Trail.

Yep...... Got out for a ride. AND conned one friend into riding with me. One of the friends that was riding with me some last summer.

We took off and parked at the entrance to Etoniah Forest. I wanted to show him some of the trails that I had been exploring. I dunno how I managed it but with 3 printed maps and GPS on the phone I still got us turned around.. LOL We didn't end up were we expected to go.. but it didn't matter we were out having fun exploring. Wow some of the trails were tough... some horses had messed up some of the better trails. And really messed up some of the trails that weren't so good in the first place. Then we actually came upon the people and the horses.... they were camped at one of the primitive sites. Anyway.. Got turned round and ended up on the Florida Trail (a section I had never been on). So it was lots of fun... LOTS of sand, LOTS of huffing and puffing getting through some of the sand... GREAT RIDE!!!! 13.85 miles and 2hrs 1 mins on the bike (or pushing a few times). On the way back we took part of the Palatka Lake Butler trail that isn't paved yet. Right in the middle of the trail there is a crew drilling taking samples. Gives me HOPE that there are plans in the future for more paving.... :D :D

Picture of the locks on the gate on part of the Florida Trail.... We thought next time just bring some cutters and our own lock.... Nobody would know if we added one of our own.... hahahah

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went 15 miles today and planned for 25.. Bought a new saddle and lets just say its not for me.


I cringed all the way back to the car.

went 15 miles today and planned for 25.. Bought a new saddle and lets just say its not for me.


I cringed all the way back to the car.

Been there.. Done that... Got about 15 miles into a ride.. Called the nephew who lived close to where I was riding.. Got a ride home LOL

went 15 miles today and planned for 25.. Bought a new saddle and lets just say its not for me.


I cringed all the way back to the car.
What saddle did you get?
My last two saddles are from Specialized. I have a Phenom on the Litespeed :thumb: and a Toupé on the Felt. :thumb: Both very comfy.

I got a cheap origin 8 saddle from amazon(about $30) not really relevant as I have a wide pelvis and the skinny roadie seats get right between my sit bones.

I'll get measured and invest some money later on but the only reason I changed seats was because I wanted a white one to match bar tape.

Yep.... Dusted off the road bike... No I mean I really literally dusted it off and took it for a ride.. :D I have been riding the Mountain Bike for quite awhile now. I am glad I went but i have had more enjoyable rides for sure. Every little thing was nagging me today. I rode about 12 miles out to pay my electric bill. And the ride home was going to be all into the wind. I had a slightly loose spoke that was creaking a bit (didn't have my spoke wrench in the saddle bag... grrr). Then for some odd reason my right glove started rubbing my hand weird and it started hurting. By the time I got home it was a red raw spot... NO clue what happened there.. Same gloves I use all of the time. Ended up riding 21 miles.... about 9 of them into the wind.. Was home about 15 minutes and it started raining.... So I guess the ride could have been worse.. :P

I got a cheap origin 8 saddle from amazon(about $30) not really relevant as I have a wide pelvis and the skinny roadie seats get right between my sit bones.

I'll get measured and invest some money later on but the only reason I changed seats was because I wanted a white one to match bar tape.
I like the Specialized method of measuring sit bone width. See any Specialized dealer to get measured.

I was planning on riding from the condo/apt in Hernando to Ridge Manor trailhead and back but the dark clouds started gathering when I still had about 5 miles to go. I decided to turn around and head for home. But I did take a few minutes to stop for some carbs at Sandy's House of Sweets bakery in Floral City. I had a piece of gingerbread cake and a raisin/something turnover. Yum. Then it was back on the bike for the 15 mile ride to the apt. I got home a few minutes before the sky opened up. :) Did a total of 55.1 miles.

Rode 15miles and crashed while testing the corning limits of my new road bike(and me).. Guess you dont know your limits until you try... lol

Nasty road rash but otherwise unhurt.

:eek: Sounds painful. I always thought tires were the limiting factor for cornering on a road bike. Shows what I know. :rolleyes:
Glad you're ok. Pics are not required. ;)

:eek: Sounds painful. I always thought tires were the limiting factor for cornering on a road bike. Shows what I know. :rolleyes:
Glad you're ok. Pics are not required. ;)

turns out its a patch of gravel..

Watch out for sand, gravel, leaves, and pine straw.


My wife told me to do an "easy ride" today. Since I have been riding hard and more miles than my usual Atlanta rides, she said 25 miles would be plenty. I guess she thinks I'm over doing it. :rolleyes: I rode from the apt in Hernando to the top of the trail and back to Hernando. Didn't feel like enough miles so I rode back up to the Holder trailhead/crossing and then back to the apt, for a total of 37.3 miles. The wind was really blowing today so I got a good workout. :)

Anyone heard from SloSpokeJim? He hasn't posted in this thread since January.

Anyone heard from SloSpokeJim? He hasn't posted in this thread since January.

Hey Ron, I am still around but riding has been a little difficult this year. My wife has some serious health issues so I am chief cook and bottle washer( I am getting dishpan hands). I am -10 riding days this year compared to last year at this time but I did manage to get in a nice 35 miler yesterday with 2 of my riding buddies. They took me out to Thrill Hill to do a little climbing (my first time on THrill Hill). It is no Sugarloaf but it will get your heart rate up. The wind was out of the South East at 25/30 mph so the return was pretty rough, still it was a gtert ride.

Do you have plans to do the Clean Air Ride on the Withlacoochee March 31?

Hi SloSpokeJim. Good to hear from you. Sorry to hear the news about your wife.
I registered for the ride in January. I'm looking forward to seeing and meeting some of the BF folks at the ride.

Hi SloSpokeJim. Good to hear from you. Sorry to hear the news about your wife.
I registered for the ride in January. I'm looking forward to seeing and meeting some of the BF folks at the ride.

I plan to be their if nothing comes up. I will be riding with the group that I ride with localy. Perhaps we can meet up with each other and put a face to all of these BF posts. It would be nice if others from the SE that post here could all meet.

Mileage update

02/25/2012

• Miles today: 51+
• Mileage this month ( February): 578
• Mileage this year 2012: 1246+
• Over/under riding days 2012 vs. 2011: -10 days
• Over/under riding days Feb. 2012 vs. Feb. 2011: -6 day
• Over/under miles 2012 TD vs. 2011 TD: +42 miles
• Average miles per ride this month: 44+
• Average miles per ride this year: 44+
• Average ride miles per month through January 2012: 667 miles
• Number of rides over 50 miles this month/total ride days this mo.7/13 Over 50 miles this year 11
• Metric Centuries this month: 1 ( Metric Century = 100km = 62.62 miles) This year: 3
• I have ridden 13 days out of a possible 25 days this month.
• Miles needed to hit 2012 goal of 8,500 miles. 7254 to go
• Tomorrows plan: Rest day. I will try to ride Monday and Tuesday

I was tired today. I guess the wind has really been giving me a workout lately. Only did 26 miles. :o

53 today 632 for the month so far. Dr appointment tomorrow so I hope to get out after that even for a short ride. I am falling behind my last years miles so I have some catching up to do.

The rain on Sunday and Monday kept me inside so I got lots of "rest". Today was beautiful so headed south from Hernando. Rode my age. :) First time I've done that in quite a while. Did 67.3 miles. :beer:

Took the mountain bike to the PLB trail, rode about 4 miles of paved trail then hit the forest for about 6 miles of none paved trails.. Then about another 4 miles back the van. A bit over 14 miles total. Only had to walk about 100ft today because of sugar sand. Lost momentum in the middle of a patch & had to bale. Great ride.. LOTS of people out on the paved part.

This is probably as close as i'll ever get to riding a hard packed logging trail here in Florida. You know like the ones I see on YouTube, the ones where I'm really jealous because they get to ride on hard pack ... :cry:

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Yep.... Took the mountain bike to the post office and beyond.... Well not that far beyond... but a little bit.. Went and did a few laps on the small state forest trail near me (just down from the post office). The map says the trail is about 1.5 miles. The first lap was really slow.... had to clear some downed trees off of the trail. All dead pine that must have fallen a week ago when it was really windy. Ended up doing 3 laps on the trail. About 1hr 5 min of riding for a total of about 12 miles.

Nothing really to take pictures of... But I had fun!!

Yep... Rode Friday... Let it be known ... Sand is NO LONGER a friend of mine. I am un friending sand on Facebook, Un following sand on twitter ... and so on... :lol: Decided to ride from the south entrance of Etoniah Creek State forest to the north entrance. I have ridden most of the way before but never in one stretch. It ended up being 15.55 miles total (out and back). Some tough miles in the mix too. Quite a bit of sand in some of the areas. I think it took me about 1hr 50mins of ride time. I had fun.. was a good work out and some cool trails (that weren't sand)..

An actual picture of Etoniah Creek. A couple of years ago the water was higher and it was a clear running stream without all of that vegetation. Had a sandy bottom and everything. I remember at the time thinking... man that would be nice to just "sit in" on a HOT summer day in the middle of a bike ride... Not so much now...
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One of the many sandy stretches today. This one was about 1/3 mile long and slightly uphill.
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Just a picture of the northern trail head. Actually part of the Florida trail & forest trail for about 3 miles I think..
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43 miles today with 10/28 mph head wind on the trip home.