biketherapy

57 miles last night. BIG for a week night. Rode from my workplace to the ride start (about 15 miles), then 25 miles with a very fast group. There were lots of attacks on the hills- it was freakin' hard! Got dropped about 20 miles in. My legs were screaming on the 17 miles to the house!

Regrets last longer than pain!

Gavush

25 miles today, back on my road bike... sporting a new stem, 90mm with about 10 degree rise. much better than the 60mm, 15 degree drop I was using. 17 avg- felt slow... nice ride though.

jaxgtr

Decided to ride this route from the house versus driving to the bike shop and leaving from there. I also figured since it looked like the bottom was about to drop out, I would ride the hybrid. Leaving from the house added about 10 miles to the total distance. Weather was very cloudy and had an occasion drip of rain, but nothing appreciable or cooling. The sun came out for a short time and it was super humid which really added to the pain of the ride.

Wind was out of the west about 10 which gave a rather solid headwind down Bowden and Baymeadows. Luckliy the route was more north and south and I did not suffer from the wind too much. It actually shifted a little to the southwest once I started back which really helped on my return trip. I started to cramp ever so slight once I got on Bishop Estate Rd and it just intensified as I went along. Once I hit Baymeadows, I was in really bad shape and had to stop to work them out more than once. When I hit the incline to the bridge I was in so much pain, I thought about calling for help as my thighs were completely locked. I was able to shake them loose and I was able to walk it out up the bridge. I've never been in that much pain before, not even after the knee surgery. Once I got back rolling, I tried to keep my cadence as high as I could sustain and made it home.

I figured on the hybrid, I could make the 47 miles in 3 hrs 25 mins total ride time. Even with stopping for 5 mins to shake out the cramps, walking up the bridge, and obviously slowing for a little bit right after, I still came in pretty close to my goal time. The mile when I cramped real bad took me 10 mins to complete so I feel pretty good about the ride time.

I really need to figure out why I have been cramping so badly on my recent rides. I have never done this before and it is really concerning. I am wondering if I am drinking too much during the week and urinating out all my electrolytes. I am taking electrolyte pills before and during my rides, so it might just not be enough. I bought a book today on Long Distance Riding so hopefully I will glean some info.

kman38

Me and about 15 other riders rode 35 miles this morning,finished up at about 8:30,in church by 11:00. I missed the annual ride Sat.because of work so we had a short one this morning.

Gavush

I over slept this morning... I turned in later than usual last night w/ a sad belly and then our little one must have had a nightmare or something because she woke us up at 2am and was very upset. So.. I made an epic breakfast (pancakes, eggs, scrambled eggs) and we ate that, went to church, and I got home, changed up, got my biking stuff together, got all slathered up with sweat proof sun block, then had to stop and help the wife's friend with her car... unclogged the a/c drain, re-setup the dvd player in our bedroom, checked mapmyride.com to plan a route, and finally got to hit the road. Parked at a gas station on hwy 100 and headed out, 1:44pm... slight headwind.... lovely. Traffic on hwy 100 was pretty heavy, I was surprised.. but then I'm usually on it at 8am and not 2pm. Had one passenger of a small pickup shout something as they passed. Passed another cyclist headed in the opposite direction, apparently I wasn't the only one crazy enough to bike in the heat. At mile 20 as I was gobbling some sports beans (first time I've had them) I stopped to talk with a fellow on a schwinn super sport who was going in the opposite direction and was wondering if there were any other exits around. Headed on my way after a nice chat and got to around mile 30 and stopped to refill my water bottles at a rest area... met a fellow on a Yamaha dual sport motorcycle with a disproportionately small & fat rear tire. Continued on my way.... about 5 miles later my belly started to feel very sad. I almost headed for the woods, feeling good about the 2 tissues I tossed in my jersey pocket, but managed to trudge on hoping for another rest stop. Got passed by one motorcycle, and beeped at by the one following him. They weren't close, so I'm not sure if it was a good beep or a bad beep. Later had someone else shout something from a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction.... Around mile 42 I got to the exit that would head me back in the right direction, no civilization there, and I was feeling better anyway... ate half my power bar & soldiered on. The shoulder on rt 7 was huge... I saw at least one bike lane sign. It was wide enough to have been an additional car lane, and there wasn't too much debris at all. Refilled one of my water bottles with the "reserve" spring water bottle I had in my back pocket. From 7 back onto 100 for the last leg... headwind was still there. Traffic was worse than before, and about 8" of shoulder in some places, lots of debris. Had one car beep 3 light beeps as it came past me up a hill. Again, unsure if it was a good beep or a bad beep. Used the last of my water on a pair of dogs that wouldn't let up for about 5 minutes, while traffic passing wasn't sympathetic at all and didn't give me much room as I tried to avoid the mutts. Got back to my car, 59.91 miles, 16.0 avg. Decided not to bother with the other 9 tenths. Stopped across the street for a rt44 poweraid slush and drove home... drank about half of it on the way home. Got my bike unloaded, went to unload the other stuff and had to head inside, very sad belly. Since I was ill last night I'm not sure if it was the sports beans that got to me today or not. I used the same power aid electrolyte mix I usually use... - However, despite all that it was actually a pretty good ride, and on a couple of the straights into a really good groove and it's the furthest I've ridden so far, and also the furthest I've ridden down the trace. (it gets very flat! I was shocked) Oh, I had also shifted my saddle back 1cm after feeling like I was too far forward and despite a little discomfort from mile 50-on, both the saddle and fit felt great.. getting closer to perfection.

map: https://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tn...iew/1065169052

(edit) oh wow, I had no idea this thing was so long... sorry. I hope you enjoy the read.

wolfpack 

summarized for 8/1-8/3: 166mi ~9500-10000' climbing in san diego & orange county with some really great socal peeps!

8/1=45mi
8/2=58mi
8/3=63mi

perico

I did 20 miles setting out at about 5:30 in the late day heat. I've pushed my average up to 16.78 mph on a pretty hilly ride. Im a newbie and have just started getting serious this summer so that was my highest average for that distance, I was hammering it out today, take that Georgia heat.

Gavush

did about 2 miles today... had rotated my rear to the front on my road bike earlier in the day to try to get some more mileage out of the tires as the rear was getting thin... and as I got settled in riding I was looking at my front tire which had hop to it.. pulled over, bead wasn't seated properly, long story short the tire didn't survive remounting (without tools... that wasn't the issue) they were some old stock my dad had picked up a while ago and he sent them to me to get me on the road... they were pretty dry when I mounted them this spirng, but still useable. Anyway, the glue for the bead had come loose and the bead wasn't staying with the rest of the sidewall as the tire pumped up. I meant to order some from performance last week but forgot... on the plus side, some 26x1.25s will be here for my mtb tomorrow so I can ride that until I get some replacements.

perico

16 miles today, 17 mph average, average hilly route.

Gavush

yes! was going out riding anyway and saw that the bike shop at the end of the 'trace was having their thursday evening ride, hill repeats - as practice for the MS ride coming up in october. I thought it sounded like fun so I went along... I took my old front tire and put that on to replace the rotted one. It's a bit old too but not terrible. Initially felt totally faux pas but when I was riding I totally forgot about it, (gumwall & black front, gumwall, red shoulders, & black center rear) and it was actually kind of nice having a normal looking tire in the front. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to all black ones made after 1998. I'd guess about 40 people at the start of it? I'm not sure how many times I went up and down, I lost count... I did 23.2 miles, and the parking lot to the base of the repeat was maybe a mile, and I went a little too far the first trip up, so I think I did 20 miles of repeats, and it was about a 2 mile climb... (the north entrance of the 'trace) it took me about 3 climbs to warm up and find a rhythm.. had lots of fun - chatted briefly with folks from time to time... saw some neat bicycles - only saw one other with down tube shifters, and her's went "click click" all fancy like. I started to track the progress of another guy who I'd call "a fast guy" who looked like he was trying hard, and near the beginning we were passing going in opposite directions at around 3/4 up, and at the end we were passing at around 1/3 up. Granted it wasn't a race, though it looked like he was pushing pretty hard and it feet pretty good that he didn't catch me. Anyway... had a blast.. could have gone longer but ran out of light at 7:50, probably had 3 more climbs left in me. Oh yeah, avg 16.0 - max, 41.3 which I'm pretty sure is a new personal record.

LAWMAN

25.3 this morning before work by myself, on what passes for hills in West TN (short but some of them very steep). Had to stop & wait for the following to clear the road (not all at once):

1. a hen turkey
2. 3 fat beautiful whitetail bucks
3. a suicidal squirrel.

it was nice.

John

wolfpack 

18mi spinning/recovery type ride. first ride after returning from socal. included 12 powerstarts.

Gavush

just under 44 miles with the saturday morning 'trace bikes group ride. 14 avg... pretty relaxed ride.

Derby

Did 47mi w/ 19mph avg. over moderate hills with group.

wolfpack 

63.3mi, Falls Lake/Youngsville/Franklinton area.

Velo Vol 

Yes. It's cooled off some, but still warm to be climbing ridges in the afternoon.

Gavush

58 miles, at 48 the avg was 17.4 - a record... then I bonked and the last 10 miles I spent wondering if I was going to make it home... evidentially I can't ride for 3 hours w/ a good pace on a banana. However, it was really really nice out. You can't buy weather like this in august.

oh, also... today I surpassed 1000 miles for the year... a goal I had set this spring and expected to meet it around November.

Fremdchen

Congrats to meeting your goal ahead of time! That's a great accomplishment. You speak the truth on the nice weather. The gods are smiling on us this year and giving us a break. I had been dreading this Aug. because last year's was so brutal, but it's shaping up to be a great month.

wolfpack 

no, i didn't ride today and i'm grumpy because of that.

Ed in GA

Road 15 mi with my wife today. My personal best. Just a warm up for her.

knatchwa

realizing how great it is to have the freedom to do, to ride to get where you need to go via your own human power.

Velo Vol 

Yes. Logged a good time. Cooler temperatures help, I guess.

Gavush

yeah, standard 28 mile after work route that's out and back on the trace. Put in some real effort and pulled off a 19.4 avg, upping my previous best avg by 1.4mph. I was shooting for an even 20.. but a few hills towards the end knocked it down by quite a bit. I'd love to see 22... if I get there it'll be just in time to loose it during the colder months.

HarryMan

Yes, a 10 mile loop I ride before I go to work. It is so calm and peaceful when no one else is on the road, the temps are low and all you hear is the whir of your wheels.

10 Wheels

Commute to a group bike ride 15 miles r/t.
Temps 80* to 96*.
Finished the day with 100.12 miles.