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Just shy of 73 miles today.
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By St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota

When for my regular ride after skipping yesterday due to the red flag warnings we got plus the smoke. Today I ended up ending it halfway as my eyes felt irritated plus I had a flat. lol Halfway point is only a few blocks away from home so I babied the bike there.

Didn't ride today.

I crashed on Sunday. I was going about 25 mph and landed in soft poison ivy and dirt. Most of the impact was to my back, left shoulder. I rode 4 (slow) miles yesterday on my hybrid. It felt like someone punched me in the stomach.

Stomach feels better today, shoulder is still sore. I did my weight training today and yesterday, and that felt pretty good.

I should know this coming weekend if I did a good job with the Tecnu Extreme Poison Ivy and Oak Scrub.

I rode 60 miles after walking 18 holes this morning and shooting a 73. Nice day to ride. Some cloud cover with temperatures in the mid 80s. I took a few roads I hadn’t ridden in a while. The new chain, RD wheels and cassette seem much smoother and quieter.


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An intersection where a really good friend and his wife were killed on his motorcycle. A car turned onto the road I’m on and directly in front of them. My friend went through the passenger window of the car and his wife was ejected.
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Still my favorite pair of short fingered gloves. Wearing them celebrating the 4 year anniversary of riding through Yellowstone on my cross country ride.
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A local historic spot.
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Grist Mill Stone.
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Neat building but the waterwheel needs some love.
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I wish folks wouldn’t do this.

I managed 47 miles in extremely humid and very hot conditions. I did something a little strange at the halfway point - donated red blood cells. The Blood Mobile happened to be at the place where I rehydrate, and they asked me if I wanted to donate blood. I said I couldn't as I had almost 25 miles to peddle back. No problem, they said - we'll just take your RBCs and put back the plasma! That's what they did.....and I felt pretty good on the return (weather excepted).

I topped 1,000 miles in August - don't ask me how. Between the hills in VA and the unbearable heat in FL - out early and riding almost every day.

Rode another 15+ miles with son, first ride after crashing. No problems.

I have a new rear derailleur (Microshift R47S) that finally gave me my first whole ride with reliable 7-speed indexed shifting. I just never could get my V-GT Luxe to work right reliably, even for 15 miles. I've finally made it to - what? 1986? Humid day, mostly cloudy.

I also cleaned and waxed my chain during the off days. I was using the shipping grease on a new chain for 1200 miles, cleaned it in mineral spirits and soaked it in molten wax. I rode in a higher gear, faster than for the last 2200 miles. (2 new chains, both cleaned and waxed Sunday.)

We might go out tomorrow, but it's supposed to be hot and humid and windy, which means: not fun. We'll see,

After a couple low milage rides I got a 30 miler with 1800 feet elevation in varying degrees of chilly wind. Every year I have to relearn layers. Arm warmers helped today.

Ride today
 

I'm takin some time off, got some other projects goin on

25 miles and finished just before it got hot and muggy. Starting to get leaves falling - it will soon be very colorful!
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!6 miles with son. Last time for a long time, alas - he and GS are going home tomorrow. Hot - nope - very hot, and humid to boot.

Got out at 12:15AM this HOT n HUMID morning. Moon approaching FULL and was hoping to see the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket go up at 2:04AM but it was scrubbed. Completed the ride soaking wet with 63 miles.

62 miles Today. About 10 miles in I noticed something was wrong. I was wondering why my bike felt lighter going up the hills. Can you spot it?


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Water bottles?

I got a new ELEMNT BOLT computer this week, and today was the first time I used the turn by turn map feature on a route I was not familiar with--a 1.5 mile loop near a local golf course that I planned as an addition to one of my regular routes. The map worked pretty well, and I totaled 11.4 miles in just a hair over an hour, which is pretty good for me on a ride that has as many hills as this one. This put me at 191 miles for August and barring some unforeseen circumstance I will cross 200 on Monday.

Longest ride so far
 

I took my longest ride ever Sunday. My Friends and I rode from Ashburn to Purcellville, VA, about 40 miles round trip. The weather was superb and the ride fun. We had some mishaps. One of us had a flat with unsurprising poor fix disasters and help from strangers. I had a crash when I lost traction on a composite wood bridge and smashed into the railing. Skinned my knee and bruised my knuckle and discovered blood thinners actually do cause extra bleeding.

But the ride was superb. And the scenery beautiful.

The picture was taken by one of my friends.

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A farm along the W&OD

25+ miles on both 8/29 and 8/31. Very windy. On the 29th, it was uphill and against the wind on the way out, and downhill with the wind back. Today it was uphill with the wind at my back on the way North and downhill against the wind home.

Got a nice 25-miler gravel ride to escape our smokey air.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3ff34fc1_b.jpgIMG_4012 by 2cam16, on Flickr
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I did the 50 mile Tour de Brooklyn with my daughter today. She saw the map up on my computer screen about a month ago and said she wanted to do that and I had just partially rebuilt my wife's old Cannondale Criterium for her. We finally found a day to do it. She's probably never ridden more than about 25 miles in a day so 50 was a long ride for her but she did fine. It is an easy mostly flat route around the perimeter of Brooklyn, about half on street and half on trails or separated lanes. She's 23 and not a kid either.

The ride shows only 48.2 miles but with to and from the start it came up to 51. I put the start there for public consumption.


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Did my 13 miles, neck pain came on at 10.5. Yes, I'm in PT, and a hybrid bike.

I am amazed at how for you guys ride. I'm just getting back into riding and have been averaging 10 mile rides. I could ride further as long as there wasn't a lot of climbing involved, but I'm getting bored and running out of routes around my neighborhood. If I leave my immediate neighborhood I would be forced to travel on busy streets with no bike lanes and crazy drivers. That's a risk I'm just not willing to take. How is the riding on the parts that are on the street there in Brooklyn? Hopefully the drivers are more cautious and alert than they are here! There are a few other places I can ride, but I will have to transport the bike.

I rode 60 miles in 90 degree temperatures after walking holes, and of course it was the most humid day in 2020 for our area. I wasn’t planning to ride quite that far but I saw another cyclist up the road, caught up with him and wound up riding together for a bit.

Well, this is NYC and the drivers aren't always courteous. But the sections that were on the street were in areas with lots of cyclists so there is some safety in numbers. Everybody is pretty aware too. And even the parts on the street mostly had bike lanes and the few that didn't weren't very busy. The route avoids all busy streets.

A beautiful day in Northern Virginia
 

My friends and I took a ride on the W&OD on this beautiful morning. Temps in the low 70’s, slight breeze, low humidity. We rode from Ashburn to Restin, stopping at the 15.5 mile marker and resting at a spot overlooking the Restin National Golf Course. We didn’t go fast, one of the group is a relatively new rider and his comfort speed was about 10mph. Didn’t matter.

Finally.....a non super heater day outside!!! It was just a really Nice day to enjoy being outside. Four of us rode a 125.6 mile loop with 5300’ of hills from High Point to south of Chapel Hill. No long climbs so I was able to ride in the bike’s biggest front gear the whole ride.

As we got closer to Chapel Hill there were a good number of other cyclists out on the road as well.

A fifth rider rode the first 75 miles with us but struggled to stay with us the last 15 miles. At that point he opted to do his own route back to the start. He had a pretty good excuse.......He’s 82 years old but still loves to ride!!