Machka 

Happy Labour Day long weekend!! Tell us about your cycling adventures this weekend. Did you go for a long-weekend cycling tour? Was there a race? Did you get out for a nice long solo ride ... or ride with your significant other? Where did you go? What did you see? Got pics?


This weekend is not a long weekend for us over here in Australia ... our Labour Day occurs in March. However, they are predicting a beautiful weekend, and if we finish moving house early enough on Sunday, we might just get out for a walk or little ride or something in our new neighbourhood.

Machka 

Saturday -- no cycling, but a whole lot of moving. We moved from one house to another today. Good whole body workout.

Heathpack 

pics of the new house, then!

congrats!

4151zero

Rode all the Ventura county protected bike paths over the last few days, even a newly built exclusive path built along the beach and freeway.

Machka 

I'll have to get out there and take some.

I'm enjoying the views from the living area while I drink my coffee this morning ... the views alone could inspire someone to get out and be active. And just as we were moving a load into the house, a group of cyclists all decked out in kit went cycling past. The previous tenant told us that there seemed to be a decent cycling presence out this way.

bbattle

In spite of the threat of rain, there must have been 25 riders at the Stanley Steamer ride in Limestone County, Alabama. I went with the fast group and we kept up a good pace at 19-20 mph to the rest stop in Elkmont. Elkmont is a small village that's home to Belle Chevre goat cheese.




After the rest stop, we took off again at a nice pace and when we went hit this hill, I managed to big ring to the top in first place. That effort cooked me right good and the pack left me behind. A dropped rider eventually caught me and we rode together all the way back. Picked up a couple of stragglers and a couple of riders from a different group that got lost.


53 miles, 17mph average.

An hour after the ride, it started raining and we've gotten over an inch so far.

Heathpack 

Rode that very same bike path today, the brand new one along the ocean. Sweet!

Pirkaus

08/30/14 - Wilton, NH

Dryvlyne

Well, I had the hardest ride of life so far today (I only started road biking in mid-July): 08/30/14 - Newark, OH

As I was taking the local MUP today I got the idea that I wanted to try tackling a little elevation. So I decide to get off the MUP and start biking on a road where I had previously seen a pretty nice looking downhill. Well little did I know that there were a few massive hills on that road - one was almost a 15% grade! I'm happy/proud to report though that I actually made it up all of those hills without stopping (mind you this was also around 1:30-2p EST in the afternoon and it was HOT here today!).


Now where the ride got interesting is I expected that the road would just loop me around and I could easily get back on the MUP... nope! Long story short, I ended up getting lost on some back-roads, going AWAY from town before I finally swallowed my pride and took a break to look at where in the world I was on my phone.

I decided that the quickest route back to the MUP from where I was would be to take Montgomery Rd South... this was a BAD decision! There were several ridiculously long climbs of 6%+ one right after the other. I'm not ashamed to admit that on a couple of them I only made it 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up and had to walk it to the top. It seriously was getting to the point where I thought I might have to abandon the ride and call my wife to come pick me up, but I pressed on.


In the end I FINALLY did make it back home, but for the last 2-3 miles I literally felt every tiny grade change. When I got in the door I literally collapsed on our cold laminate flooring for several minutes until I cooled off... another mile or two and I'm quite sure that I could have succumbed to heat exhaustion.

So what did I learn from all of this... 1) I can climb hills better than I thought I could 2) too many hills is NOT fun, even if the downhill looks awesome 3) stop more frequently not only to rest, but to take pics of the beautiful scenery 4) don't be stubborn and assume I know where I am, it's ok to look at the GPS on the phone for directions - that's what it's for!


/EDIT
And how could I forget... this marks the first time too that I've gone 100+ miles in one week... which I think is really good considering I don't use my bike to commute.

alexaschwanden

I rode 31.6 miles with a friend on the coyote creek trail in San Jose. It was 90F outside with moderate winds.

bruce19

Rode the Saturday B ride with my club. There were 14 of us. Started in North Windham, CT and rode a big loop out to Salem around Lake Hayward up through Colchester and Hebron and back into the start. It was 56.6 miles with 3700 ft. of climbing. This is a recreational ride and we averaged around 15 mph.

raisinberry777

Whereabouts? Still in the Hobart area?

Machka 

Yep, still in the Hobart area, sort of. But southward ... Kingston way.

raisinberry777

Nice, there's some good cycling in that area, especially if you head further south down the Channel Highway, or a very nice (but reasonably hilly) 50km loop if you turn right at the Sandfly turnoff after Margate and head back along that road towards the city.

Jakedatc

Back from vacation... catching up. volunteered at the Rev3 old orchard beach tri. that my gf was competing in last weekend and then went to NH for the rest of the week

Sat: Preview run course (I volunteered to be the bike "guide" for the mens leader)
Sun: race day. watched gf come in from the swim and out on the bike. then the mens half iron leader came in and I went out with him. we did 13mi with much of it on hard dirt path in 1:24. nice casual pace for me on the bike but flying for him. Finished that in time to go find my gf after the finish line.

Tues: Rode from N. Conway up the Kangamangus pass and back down. 57mi with 3300 elevation (most in the first 28mi.. last 4mi up to the pass is 7%)

Machka 

We're looking forward to exploring! We think there might be a few more opportunities for cycling from home here. From where we are to Margate and back might make a nice evening ride, for example. There might also be some mtn bike opportunities too.

sardond

Friday: 31 mile hard ride. Got caught in a torrential downpour the last 3 miles.
Sat: 35 mile normal ride.
Sun: 31 mile normal ride at 6:30 am, foggy out. Tried out my new arm warmers. I like them. We will see how the weather holds for Monday.

2manybikes

How did the gf do? I bet she likes the new bike.

2manybikes

78 miles yesterday, solo. Into Lakeville mass. Almost hit a deer at full speed. Got good photos of her. Not afraid of me much.

Jakedatc

Good.. she got the time she was aiming for.. good swim and bike.. survived the run as usual. new bike is good..big upgrade from her road bike. she got an aero bottle so she can drink without going un-aero so i think she hydrates more too.

Water wasn't as cold as i thought it might be.. we spent a bit of time each day of that weekend body surfing in the waves. monday was the best day.. bigger surf really got us moving haha.

2manybikes

Sounds like a pretty good weekend!

AScoda

I've been on the mountain bike the last couple of weeks, but back on the road bike this weekend.
I somehow convinced the Performance bike group ride that riding across the bay to Clearwater beach was a good idea. It was a good ride, but it was 127 degrees and 265% humidity, which caused one rider to overheat and need a car ride back. Two big bridge crossings provided some ripping descents after pushing it up the climbs. Hit 45mph down the big bridge to the barrier islands. Wooo! I think the rest enjoyed the ride, but would probably be better in cooler weather.
Just over 60 miles total.

nesdog

Shop ride yesterday. Headed out over the Santa Monica range to the beach via Rock Store climb, Encinal descent. Seven mile grind up Mulholland and back over the ridges to the flatlands. Hot, hot, hot in the canyons with little breeze. One of our group crashed on the Decker/Westlake drop, coming up with some road rash. Total of about 46 miles with 4500' of vertical.

Machka 

Sunday -- no cycling, unfortunately, but lots and lots of scrubbing and cleaning. Thank goodness for the rowing I've done in the gym recently to build up my arm/shoulder strength!!

Machka 

The house ... or at least, one view of it. I'll get more later ... we have hardly been here in daylight hours since we took possession a week ago.




And a quick snap of the view from our dining room window. I'll try to get more/better next weekend.