Machka 

First weekend in April ... tell us about your cycling adventures this weekend. What's the weather like where you are? Is it nice enough for cycling outside, or are you still cycling inside?

[HR][/HR]

Saturday -- A CENTURY!!!!! 100 miles! WooHoo!! It has been 2 years since we've ridden a century. And we did it in 9 hours, 17 minutes ... average speed (including breaks, of course) of 17.235 km/h. Rowan tells me that our average riding speed was 19.5 km/h, and that we picked up the pace each of the loops, except the last one.

We've been working toward this goal, building up our distances over the last few months. For so long, I felt like I was getting nowhere. Every ride was difficult and unfulfilling. Then last weekend, we rode 121 km and it was a great ride! It was a like someone flipped a switch. All of a sudden, I could do it!

Today is the last day of Daylight Savings Time, and the length of daylight hours is getting shorter, so we decided today was the day to do the century.

We chose a route that was similar to the sort of route I did for my first century, 20 years ago. Multiple loops. We also chose a route that was relatively flat ... not completely flat, of course, but not overly hilly. The route consisted of four out-and-back journeys from one end of the cycleway to the other, plus an extra distance out to Bridgewater.

Today was cool, with a frosty starting temperature of 9.4C and a high temperature of 17.3C. The wind started a little breezy at 17 km/h gusting to 24 km/h, but then died off until the sea breezes came up later in the afternoon. We had a headwind one way or the other on every out-and-back, but we also had corresponding tailwinds, so that was all right.

Although the route was four out-and-backs, the changing scenery and people kept our interest.

We observed there were a lot of cyclists using the cycleway, but different groups appeared at different times. At 8 am when we started, the cycleway was full of the fast racers hammering out a quick ride early in the day. About 10 am the Hobart Walking Club's cycling group appeared. They are mostly retirees riding at my sort of pace! Around noon, the recreational cyclists were all over the place ... families with children, people just cruising. By mid-afternoon, the cycleway started to empty, but the remaining people seemed to be recreational or long distance. There was a group of guys who stopped at our turn-around point when we were there and we overheard that they were at 90 km then, and debating where to cycle next. And we encountered a woman on three legs of the journey who was running ... training for a marathon perhaps?

And we saw lots of birds ... pelicans, black swans, gallahs, a stray white cockatoo, and a king parrot!

Overall, it was a good ride! I'm a little sore, as expected, but generally I had a lot of energy out there and felt good when I finished.

So please to have finally completed a century again. That brings my total number of centuries or longer rides to 165 over 20 years.

f4rrest

Good job! It's 165 more centuries than I've done. I hope to rack up 100 miles over this weekend though.

Machka 

Sunday -- more relaxing day, in a way. Shopping and house cleaning.

AScoda

Congrats!
I was intending to work up to a century, but I am a weekend only rider and usually have other stuff to do. Even if I can average 20mph it would take at least 5 hours, so will have to plan more ahead and clear a day. I have a friend who rides 20-ish miles 2 or 3 times a week and I can't get him interested in doing it with me. "That's crazy talk" according to him.
I am heading out shortly for about 1/2 that.

Machka 

Yeah ... so are we.

We walk and go to the gym during the week, but weekends are for cycling.

Clipped_in

I rode up American Fork Canyon to Tibble Fork for the first time this year. Very scenic, but descending through the shady section of the North Fork was bitter cold. Brrr!


LINK TO MAP

Pirkaus

20 mile SS ride with my daughter on a MUP by the canal in Mesa Az
The ride was nice, the company was the BEST Pirk

Heathpack 

@Machka, yours is the best post I have seen in a long while. You rock, I am so happy for you!

H

Heathpack 

I am on a training break so we decided to sail over from LA to Catalina Island. Yesterday, 3 of us hiked from Little Harbor to Two Harbors, about 5.8 mi, 1800 ft, some parts pretty steep. It was a beautiful day.

Leaving Little Harbor. I look giant in this pic, even though I am only 5' 5" tall.



Here is a view of Little Harbor. There is a campground here if anyone wants to visit.



Here is one of the steep bits. We are hiking to the top & then along the ridge line to the right.



View from the back side of Catalina Island, looking out into the Pacific ocean.



And finally the end is in sight, the speck of water you can see between the hills in this pic is Isthums Cove, the end of our hike, where our boat is moored. More importantly, it's where the bar is located.



H

AScoda

Nice shots Heathpack.

Didn't quite get the 40-50 I had planned. 34.5 today.
Started getting a click while pedaling which I suspected was a pedal. When it got worse I did a one foot pedal on both sides and determined that was not the source. Something in the bottom bracket. Sounds like a couple of ball bearings bouncing around in there. Due for a tune-up, so not a huge deal, but didn't want to add any extra miles.
Rode by the Bike bash Tampa puts on each year, got a free cupcake to fuel the ride home.

Long Tom

Due to a combination of weather and getting sick, I hadn't ridden in a couple weeks. I did ski (hard) 3 days in there so I got 3 great workouts there, at least.

I bought a new bike during that time; an REI Novara Strada road bike that is intended to be a better winter bike than what I had been using, a viable spare/rough duty bike, and a summer light cargo bike with fattie tires. Anyway I swapped my fenders over to it, left the stock 25's on for now, and Friday took it on it's maiden voyage. Still quite sick with a cold so I wasn't real sure what would happen if I did my (very) hilly route, but I decided to try it and see. I had dark visions of exercise- and cold-induced pseudo asthma kicking in halfway up one of the big climbs, since my lungs are so full of crud still, but the lungs actually seemed to clear up for the ride.

Anyway... the bike is heavy compared to my carbon-fiber hot rod.... the wheels are heavy... cranks are heavy... so it felt sluggish in comparison, but it worked fine and will do the "winter bike" thing in style. One issue I had with my old winter bike was terrible brake clearance; they'd pack up with these little fir tree needles. Very annoying and even a bit dangerous on steep climbs where I've had them actually stop me a couple times. Stopping on a steep climb SUCKS.

This new bike has a ton of tire clearance and zero issues that way.

ANYWAY.... 33.2 miles.

GDawginHTown

Oh man, thats gorgeous! I spent nearly 6 months working in Provo over a span of 1.5 years. I wished I was into cycling back then. I could imagine myself biking through Provo Canyon.

contango 

OK, I'll join in too, because I just completed my first ever 300k brevet. I've done a few 100s and 200s before, and a few other rides of 75+ miles for other purposes, but this was a new record for me. I'm glad I did it, it was a great route using mostly lanes. The way out had a headwind for most of the way but that meant the way back had a tailwind for most of it, which was nice. Towards the end I struggled with hills in a big way, not sure if that was just because I'm still too fat or if I hadn't eaten and drunk enough. I suspect a bit of both.

Machka, your 165 centuries is 159 more than I've done

Oldhead

38 miles today, It was a bit cold at the start but got to be pretty nice by the end

AScoda

Your elevation profile is, um... perky!

pdedes

Saturday was swimming with the kids. Today was a hard 131km solo effort in Southwestern Ontario's horse-and-buggy country. My body started coming apart in the last 25km or so. For some reason, elevation and calorie usage are way off.

Kamau

Rode 52 miles today, first time riding more than 30.
Met some cool people along the way, a co-worker with a flat and a guy that also plays tennis.
Time 3.5hrs, day well spent.

Jakedatc

Sat: 15mi with gf on her new Tri bike. she is getting more comfortable on it so that is good since her first race of the year is in 2 months

sun: 50mi group ride 3k climbing. Odd group dynamics going on so Brody and I took off a few times.
Bike Ride Profile | NBW group ride near Lincoln | Times and Records | Strava not much flat road. pot hole central for many of the roads too which didn't help the speed any since we were on the brakes or cautious half of the time.

kwmcd

Looked toward my garage and saw this...

cried over my bike and then wiped the tear off.... they might leave watermarks

bikecrate

Saturday morning was just about perfect for a ride. Sunny with very little wind. You could go any direction and make your own pace. Sunday the wind picked up, but still nice. I got in a couple of 40 mile rides both days tooling around south Tampa.

woodcraft

Hope you had some warm gloves on the descent!
The temp profile is maybe wrong, as it shows a min of about 5F

therhodeo

Great 42 mile ride saturday. 50 degrees with wind at the beginning. Was dressed warmer then most guys but by mile 20 I'd had several guys ask where to get a jacket like mine. Felt good on hills and really feel like my trainer riding over the winter paid off.

woodcraft

Sunday a ride called the Nifty Ten Fifty- 10,000', 50 miles

Nifty Ten Fifty 2013 Official - A bike ride in El Cerrito, CA

A little nutty, but fun, and a beautiful day. Also nostalgic, as the route included where I rode a 3 speed to elementary school, and a Schwinn Varsity up one of the hills to get to high school.


Machka- Nice job!

Yankeetowner

75.65 miles Saturday from Inverness through Brooksville and beautiful Florida rolling hills. 31 miles Sunday on MUP at a slow pace. The weather was spectacular both days...68 degrees in the morning to upper 70's in afternoon.

Heathpack...your photos are spectacular!

alexaschwanden

Relaxing in Switzerland and enjoy the view.