After a successful 20 mile ride and a 45 minute swim, came home and changed the tube - Conti Ultra Gatorskin wirebeads - WITHOUT USING ANY TOOLS - it can be done. Goathead flat - 2 goatheads in the tire.

Very cool - used leg and arm warmers, rain jacket as when I started it was raining, windy, and about 55F. Now up to 69F, but quite windy

46 miles, temps 76* to 95* Still hot.
4 riders pics:

Bill is 76 y/o
http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/h...view=slideshow

I DID ride today - and got a couple of inches of rain and several VERY close lightning flashes dumped upon me.
An I mean gully washing rain and overhead lighting bursts. Very disconcerting when on is a long way from home....

The thing I hate most about it is the extra work to de-water the bike and get things re-lubed. Bloody hell!

20 miles to and from work today.

Regular Tuesday night hill climbing ride with the local club - 41 miles if you include the ride to and from the start. The fast group this week was unbelievably fast and dropped me before I even got to hill#2. After a ways, I fell in with 4 guys I don't know very well and we rode HARD together for the rest of the ride. Very little talking, just hammering. One guy mentioned that he had done a 400 km brevet this past Saturday (phew!). He and one of the other guys wanted to really hammer in the flats between hills, - 23-25 MPH for many of the stretches, and I was able to hang on with a lot of drafting. They also rode hard down the hills, pedaling aggressively through stretches where I usually coast. The trouble with riding so fast between the climbs is that you get to the next climb really soon after the last and you don't feel rested, but I managed them OK - reaching the top first on some, not getting dropped on the others. Overall, a really enjoyable (but exhausting) evening.

Tuesday 8/24/2010
23.5 miles today
343.2 miles this month
4461 miles this year
144 ride days LY vs. 143 ride days TY
3039 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 59% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
186 miles ahead of last year at this date

8/24......3.8 miles, I bailed. I felt it pointless.

There are days like those. Take it easy on yourself, you've earned a break.

Nice ride MinnMan. You seem to be getting the hang of it. A couple tips that may help in the future.

#1- Use the ride to the start as a warm up by getting a couple hard efforts in to get the system going. If the early pace of the strong group pushes you beyond your confort zone that may help.

#2- Hard riding doesn't allow much energy for socializing. You are all working for a purpose, going faster than you can ride alone.

#3- Leading up hills is good because you can set the pace, a slower pace to save yourself for when someone else tries to win the race up the hill. Sometimes when I'm riding with fast riders, or in races, I'll take the lead going into the hill then soften the pace to suit me. Later, when someone hammers up a hill I still have some gas in the tank to respond and crush his soul.

#4- Someday's thats what its all about.:thumb:

Challenged a several mile hill today I hadn't challenged in a couple of years - and this time I was riding the clunker roadie with the panniers and the extra 10 pounds of steel, (as I once again had a "garage flat" this am on my Lemond.)

I was pleased that the hill seemed relatively easy to me in contrast to a couple of years ago when I had to stop and rest on the ascent.

24 miles total. Beautiful riding conditions.

52 miles, still coming back for bronchitis/pneumonia. Did fine the first 41 miles, next 5 harder, last 6 cool down/easy pedal. Great day to be out, was 74 when i left at 8am, 90 degrees when i returned.

Bailing last night after 3+miles I did 41 tonight. The weather was overcast for the first half and cooler than it has been for some time. Second half sun came out and it was beautiful.
Nice ride.

Thanks as always AJ for the encouragement.

Today was another club ride - a very fast mostly flat 27 miles that attracts some hammerheads. I stayed with the fast group (about 10 of us) and, for the first time ever, finished a ride at faster than 20 MPH avg. (20.1 to be exact). There were lots of pulls in the 24-26 MPH range (it's amazing how much time you've got to spend at such speeds to get the average above 20). I did some pulling, but drafted much of the way. OTOH, there were quite a few instances where I had to hammer for quite a while at 25 MPH (with a few guys drafting behind me) to close the gap with the fastest 3 guys.

My rides the last two days have been elating. But now I've got to go on a business trip and I'll be off the bike for 5 straight days. I'm so bummed.

BTW, if anybody is reading this who thinks they can't ride this fast, at this time last year I had never ridden more than 22 miles at a time and I had never finished a ride (which were typically 15-18 miles) above 17 MPH.

Started early, just not early enough. Ended up doing 32.3 miles with 3200 feet of climbing in what by the time we finished, was WAY over 100 degree temps. Granted, there were a couple spans of time sitting in the shade and enjoying the views of the Southern California mountains, but it was HOT, DAMN HOT. Had a great time as always, and it will be 20 degrees cooler by Saturday, or so "they " say. :50:

Twenty-eight miles tonight. The rest of the group dropped me off the front (or they fell off the back...) so I was riding solo. Just past the halfway point I caught up with the local race club. It was roughly the middle of their training loop, too. They saw me, and a few seconds later my rate of closure slowed - but didn't freeze. When I caught them, I hung to the upwind side of their echelon, just far enough back to make it obvious that I wasn't drafting. They picked up the pace to just north of 30 mph. Pretty soon they were shedding the weaker riders but they couldn't shake me; I was still back there every time they looked. After a few miles they were down to 4 riders so they finally stopped at an intersection to regroup, letting me past. Didn't see them again. I wish my camera was working.

19 mile tandem ride with wife/stoker this morning.

Blazing pedals indeed!

2 hrs with the Lake Erie Wheelers Club tonight. Very nice evening to ride with 25 other riders.

MinnMan,
Way to go! I have never been that fast and to be honest only once in the 19 mph and that was last year.
I sorta wanted to get there this year but I seldom train and only recently have done intervals a few times.
Last night I could have gone to the local Wednesday night ride and rode with them but I was in the middle of my normal ride when I remembered and would have had to wait almost 45 minutes for them to start so I just kept going.
Reading your posts though have me really wanting to go and ride with them and see what I can do.
You are correct though that AJ gives good info.

Side note, almost all my rides are in the 17 range and there are a few in the 18's All solo and all over 25 miles before I "count" them..

Yep, I rode (and will ride again) today. Since I'm still a working stiff, I'm a regular commuter. And I'm finally over my achilles injury enough that I can ride every day again and enjoy it. Hallelujah, it's a miracle! I can ride again!

SP
Bend, OR

From last nights solo ride, temp mid 70s with misting rain.

Distance: 21.80 mi
Time: 01:09:26 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 435 ft
Avg Speed: 18.8 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 19.0 mph
Max Speed: 26.6 mph
Avg HR: 151 bpm
Max HR: 167 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence: 80 rpm

I snuck in 21 miles up and down the greenway and around a lake early this morning before I had to begin my trip. So now it will only be 4 days off the bike.

There's a big difference between 20 MPH in a group ride and solo. OTOH, the ride last night was suburban - lots of stop lights, stop signs, turns at intersections etc. That's why all the 24+ speeds wee needed to get to an average of 20. I've never done 20 on a solo ride, but I've considered that it could be possible on the right route - rural with few or no stops and turns,.

It's amazing to me how many times I do a ride where my spedometer is at nearly all times between 18 and 2x MPH but the average speed turns out to be 17.5. It's because of all the slowing before stops/turns and accelerating afterwards. They really have an impact. That's why many would probably say that avg speed on a road course isn't a very meaningful statistic.........(except that it's meaningful to us)

Thursday 8/26/2010
13.5 miles today
356.7 miles this month
4474 miles this year
144 ride days LY vs. 144 ride days TY
3025 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 59% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
121 miles ahead of last year at this date

This month is not going my way at all . Today I had hoped to get about 30 so I left the house about 7:45 am. I road to my Dr. Office to set up a follow up appointment and get my monthly B12 shot. While putting my gloves and helmet on I noticed a rather large crack in the side wall of my rear rim. Now this is not good, but it was only the start of my troubles. I headed on over to the local bike shop to see what could be worked out. I got their about 8:45 and they didn’t open until 10 am so I headed on to the local Panera (not my regular one) for some breakfast and coffee. I sat at Panera until 10 then road back to the LBS. I went ahead and replaced both rims, tubes and tires and rim tape (Credit card took a big hit). They finished up about 12:00 so I headed out to try and get a few miles in. Stepped over the bike put my foot in the clip went to shove off and the crank just spun clear around. Back inside for a new bottom bracket and another hit on the credit card. Finally got home about 1:30. Five and a half hours and 13.5 miles today. These short rides are just blowing my averages away. August 2009 was a 750 mile month for me last year and I will be hard pressed to get 500 miles this August. Please send all sympathy cards to my Orlando address.

Got out this afternoon for a short 17.5 mile ride up on the mountain. Beautiful, cool 60s up there.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...k/IMG_3355.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...k/IMG_3357.jpg

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p...k/IMG_3358.jpg

Did you enjoy or have fun on any of your rides - besides the credit card drawdown? It would be sad to ride all those miles and not.