Machka 

Tell us about your cycling this weekend and on into the next week.
Tell us about other sports you participate in!
Highlights? Photos?

Machka 

Saturday -- Rowan and I cycled 124.3 km ... a decent training ride on a nice spring day. High of about 19C, partly cloudy, wind mostly favourable (light) with occasional odd gusts.

Our route took us up and over the Southern Outlet, the out to New Norfolk (relatively flat with a few ups and downs) and then back up and over Bonnet Hill.

Machka 

Sunday -- 25.3 km recovery ride.

Legs a little tired in the beginning, but then OK.

silverado8405

Saturday I did the longest ride of my life, 71 miles (115 km) for a non-profit cycling/walking advocacy group with some friends from a Wednesday night group ride. Been kind of training for it all year (first year in all honesty) so it was nice to achieve my goal for the year.

Not sure how to embed the link, think this is it?
https://www.strava.com/activities/72...S&v=1474803573

bbattle

Very nice, Machka. I imagine the view atop the climb was spectacular.

Another exploration of Morgan county. I rode my fixed gear bike since it has some tougher tires; I planned to check out some gravel roads.


The track was actually very firmly packed and easy to ride on. I eventually arrived at the Tennessee River. The gravel road went along it for several miles.


Lots of soybean fields along the road.


I came upon a spring that overflowed the road. The water wasn't deep but it was very cold. A nice surprise when the temperature was 95F (35C).


Some goats just walking along the road. They looked at me to see if I had any food for them.



Cyclists are welcome.


32.36 miles with 1472 feet of climbing. My gearing was 42-15 which made the big climb a bit difficult. I pulled so hard on my brake levers they became a bit loose.

saint mucus

Yesterday was my first car free day, from riding to the store for stuff to cook for breakfast to spending the day at the lake and all my running around, only 35.41 miles but still . Added some more hand positions (bar ends) and steel peddles, can't wait to ware my current tires out a little so I can go with a little narrower tire and more of a road tread ( I may not wait).

Machka 

This is the view from the top of the first climb (taken last summer) ...




Or probably more accurately, this ... with all the traffic. Oh, and no cruise ship. They haven't started coming yet, but I think they'll start soon. This is also the view I see every day on my way to work ... sometimes with a cruise ship and sometimes not.




This is one of the views on or near the top of the second climb on the way back, also taken last year ...




And this is along the flatter part of the route ... only now, the leaves are just starting to come out.

jeichelberg87

75.5 on 9/24
92 today
5323 total for the year.

dagray

32 miles this afternoon https://www.strava.com/activities/725214859 Got a puncture to the back tire, but the sealant did its job (I run 700x25mm Maxxis Padrone tires).

JMH714

Rode 27 miles yesterday.

Rode on San Diego Creek trail in Irvine, CA all the way to Newport Beach and back. I had trouble climbing the little steep hill at end of Mountain to the Sea trail in Newport Beach and I was at 20-mile mark and my legs are so tired.

jordanair45

Rode up Mt. Hamilton in San Jose. I love this ride. However, I never do it on the weekend because it's a death sentence on a weekend imo.

Welp, I decided to do it on a weekend at sunrise cause Ive been busy all week and got zero riding in on the weekday.

So, on the way down, as I'm descending, I'm turning a blind corner and a car is driving up in the wrong lane, my lane, wtf. I press the front brake, not stopping quick enough, so I hit both brakes and my rear tire skids. Luckily, the girl reacted quick enough to get back in her lane, and I barley missed skidding into the rear end of her car. That was a close one.

But, fantastic ride! Will probably do it again this weekend lol.

Also, got the new Michelin power tires for the ride. I honestly think if I still had my Conti's I would have hit. Those tires are fantastic, probably saved a crash.

This post is not sponsored by Michelin btw.

Machka 

I see this is your first post! Welcome here.

kbarch

Saturday was just a coffee ride with a couple of local hills at the beginning for good measure. While those "hills" were of the sort that local riders may do a few repeats as a matter of training, they were NOTHING compared to what we faced yesterday on the "Hillier Than Thou" ride.

"Sadistic," as one fellow rider described the route. "Have fun?" I asked another. "No - I've never had less fun on a ride - never again. I'm thinking of giving up the bike now." Those who finished well were the sort who don't merely like climbing - they either live for it, or have mountain bike gearing for it.

Really, for a road course, it was absurd. Over a mile and a half of segments exceeding 12.5% average grade, one particularly lovely mile and a half bit with a modest 10% average grade and some 30% in the middle. I think most of us have encountered little ramps in the 20%+ range, short bits you can just power over. But yesterday, they weren't just a few dozen feet, they went on for a couple hundred yards - like I was saying - absurd for a road course. I just had ordinary compact gearing and had to get off and walk a couple of times, and it was exhausting just PUSHING the bike up the hill.

Having to stop, and walking, didn't bother me so much, and reminded me of the most difficult rides I've done before in a way, but those rides had more going for them otherwise. Before, we were climbing a significant mountain, or following (actually preceding at the time) the pro tour. Yesterday there were just a few strangers around, riding random back roads.
Not including the 4 mile neutral (but hilly) start, it was 64 miles and 7600'. I've done a couple of 10,000' rides, and plenty of much longer rides so figured it would be a workout, but had no idea it would be so biased toward STEEP climbing.
It started out chilly, but the weather was really lovely, and the roads very quiet. Oh, and I got a finishers medal.

OldTryGuy

Joined a couple thousand other riders for the Six Gap Century, 100+ miles, 11,000'+ climbing with some fast and long descents. CycleNorthGeorgia.com Home of the Six Gap Century

Right shoulder replacement in 2 weeks from today then back on the bike ASAP after.

kbarch

That ride looks like much more fun. Tough, but not cruel. And festive: how was the spaghetti? One goal I managed to achieve: finish ahead of most of those doing the longer ride, so the burgers were fresh off the grille and the potato salad was still cold.
Good luck with the shoulder!

Jakedatc

Sat: rode 25mi with the shop ride. we only had a few so we stayed in one group and did a few short sprints then waited for the slower guys. one guy had his DI2 battery crap out with 10mi to go so that was funny for the rest of us. Got myself home in time to go with my GF to her Cyclocross race. Got to see her and other friends race around and take pictures.

Sun: couldn't fall asleep sat. night so at 1am i was looking on CL for cross bikes and happened to find a good deal 100mi away... soo... Road trip! we went and got it. great guy who had upgraded and gave me a good deal on a Salsa Chili con crosso with 105 and ultegra hubbed wheels.

Mon. a friend and I are going to do some CX practicing today before work

mrodgers

My weekend started on Thursday as I took Friday off. Rode a quick after work 25 miles with a coworker. Rode about 6 miles down the trail and headed off onto the roads through the farmland. Beautiful.

Friday, coworker came up to where I live. Met at Target and I took him around the county. Had some great descents. Climbed some nice hills but I couldn't talk him into the 19%. 68 miles of farmland, wooded roads, town, highways, and even a mall parking lot.

Saturday doesn't fit in this section of the forum as it was all trail and on a hybrid, sorry. 2016 Tour the Montour trail. 62 miles of crushed limestone. VERY dirty and dusty. Had a great meal at the end of real smoked pulled pork (you don't get real smoked very often around here), hot dogs, potatoes, rigatoni, noodles, salad... Salad was the extent of the vegetables, LOL. Lot of fruit available at the stops along the route though. I did end up eating a ton because that pork was so good!

Lost my mirror on the trail Saturday. Smacked it with my hand and sent it sailing off my helmet. 50 miles later, one guy lags behind quite a bit arrived and handed me my mirror in 2 pieces and completely abraded on the mirror part. RIP my beloved Take-a-Look. It was run over many many times.

woodcraft

The regular 60 mile loop Saturday-

I've been slacking, & then had a weird muscle/tendon tweak that kept me off the bike last weekend.

Not riding that fast, so had to prepare mentally for being passed by (more than usual) other cyclists.

A large fondo ride was under way, & hundreds of riders went by the other direction.

Ted King finished 1st or 2nd at over 21 mph ave (105 m, 7600').

He puts in triple the miles that I do in a year (a bit younger too) so just need to

step up my game I guess.

Machka 

This week so far ...

Sep 24 - 124.3 km (390 min) cycling
Sep 25 - 25.3 km (75 min) cycling
Sep 26 - 6.1 km (80 min) walking + 15 flights of stairs (12 min) + 10 min weightlifting
Sep 27 - 8.5 km (105 min) walking
Sep 28 - 2.4 km (30 min) walking + 20.9 km (65 min) cycling + 25 flights of stairs (20 min)

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Totals:
Sep Cycling Outside: 299.3 km (925 min)
Sep Cycling Inside: 0 min
Sep Walking: 65.9 km (816 min)
Sep Stairs: 130 flights (104 min)
Sep Weightlifting: 30 min
Sep Rowing: 4.5 km (30 min)
Sep Time Total: 1905 min = 31 hours 45 min
Sep Distance Total: 369.7 km = 229.7 miles