Heck - if you can do the ride 5 minutes faster each day, pretty soon you will be doing the ride in "no time at all." :p

This morning I was planning on taking the motorcycle, but low and behold it was raining. No problem, my beater bike can handle it! ;)
Grabbed my bike and geared up. Don my rain jacket, screwed on flashing rear light. Packed my back pack, and all at the same time, my wife is hollering "you are not riding that bike in the rain"..I pretend I didn't hear it!! :D

In my 5 mile commute to the subway, I have 4 or 5 blocks on a shoulderless road. Going and coming, this is my most dangerous spot. This time, I got idea. One on my neighbors was pulling out just as I was. When we got to the corner to get turn on the shoulderless road, with its high traffic, I singnaled for them to open the window. I asked them could they ride in back in me until I get to the traffic light (which ends the shoulderless road), they agreed. Banged that off, got in the wind on the dual laner, kicked the Prelude up a notch, sweet ride. Got downtown parked my bike at my favorite spot to eat breakfast..Took a picture of my bike leaning up against the window while I was eating breakfast. I put the cable lock on a chair and then to the bike.

At work I got about 20 of "you riding that bike in the rain" :D

http://www.cehoward.net/rain2.jpg

A new goal! To do a ride and never leave.

Went for a short ride, east, then north, found a new "bike lane", into northern Colorado Springs but it's a total "hillfest", YIKES! I kept going up and it kept getting steeper!! There was a Strong crosswind today so I didn't make it to the top, try another day, when there's a bit less wind! 14 miles.

Yes, but I should have had a sail to attach to my bike. The crosswind was so strong and gusty that I even slowed down coming down a hill so I wouldn't get blown sideways. About 2 hours of "hair blown" enjoyment. Yes, the wind came right through the helmet, and blew what little hair I have left.

04/08/2011
My ride today was fantastic and hot, rode with a friend north to Deer Path.
Miles today: 57+
Mileage this month: 256+
Mileage this year: 2264+
Percent of goal achieved: 32.3%
Over/under riding days this year vs. last year: -2 days
Over/under miles this year vs. last year: +221 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 36+
Average miles per ride this month: 51+
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 4735, this could turn out to be an 8,000 mile year

Great weather this morning, 71⁰F when I left home and 84⁰F and very hot when I got back this afternoon. Connected with one of my riding friends at the Sebastian Trail Head and rode north to the Lake Mary Panera on the Seminole Wekiva Trail and stopped for the usual bagel and iced tea. From there we rode north through Heathrow to Orange Blvd. Heathrow is a beautiful ride but today there seemed to be a lot of traffic and the road for the most part is 2 lanes and a lot of blind curves and cars were stacking up behind us, it was a little touchy today. After we exited Heathrow we rode down Orange to Deer Path then back to Sylvan Lake Road west to the trail head. The return trip was a little tough as we were riding into the wind most of the way and my friend was getting a little too much sun and was running out of energy so we stopped at Panera again for some more iced tea. Tomorrow we are supposed to have some good weather so I will do a solo ride probably about 35miles. My daughter and I and a friend plan to do a metric century on the Cycle Flagler Ride on Sunday

Today’s wild life count:
One Red Tail Hawks, several Sand Hill Cranes, and one deer. It’s a little unusual to see deer out this late in the day.

However, it is all GOOD!! :thumb:

I am off now, and I just geared up with my rain gear. It is pouring down raining right now.

Should be a fun commute ride home!! :D

Today was a help the little lady planting flowers and extending the drip system. Tomorrow looks like rain and very windy so I guess this will be a short bike week.

Howard, I'm enjoying your adventures. Today was a pleasant ride on the bike path, 30 miles. Fitness for sitting on the bike, butt and hands is improving very quickly this year as is fitness in every other way. I'm making a special effort to get faster in general and get stronger on hills. I signed up for the local bike club principal century ride in September. I've no idea if I'll be in shape to do it but there is all summer to work on it.

The bike path here wends its way along many salt water marshes which are loaded with wildlife, mostly geese but many ducks also. I enjoy the geese which by now are relatively tame and barely look up when you ride by as they graze the grasses along the path. There are also many swans. They are beautiful but don't be fooled. They are mean, nasty creatures just full of themselves. It's a miracle they fly at all as they are huge.

At a large pond known as Brickyard Pond, there is a family of hawks nesting in a tree. There was a hawk family there last year, maybe the same family.

The was also today, a suicidal squirrel who ran under my front wheel. I always enjoy squirrels as they are such busy and athletic creatures. Sad to say, this one died an awful death as I heard bones crunch underneath my wheel. May it find happiness in that great oak tree in the sky.

Most of all I enjoy the variety of people on the bike path which ranges from the very young on their first trike or two wheeler, to the, ahem... older folks one would not think of as athletic. These older, ahem...athletes are running, roller bladeing or, like me, taking the easy way out riding a bike. Today was an awesome day.

First sort of full week of riding this year after a year of being back in the saddle after a 30+ absence ; or was it 35+ years ? Make it 35 years.

Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon was a rest day, Tues was a rain/slush out, Wed, Thurs, Fri total: 92 miles, 5839 ft. ascent , temps 34-44F and no shortage of wind

I thought, not too bad considering that I have to limit my rides to one hour during the work week and I had to limit my rides to just over an hour a day this weekend because of other stuff going on.
I've got to remember to start the timer on the Garmin. I've probably done closer to 100 miles with 6500 ft of climbing. Oh well.

Finally got around to putting the Sigma sensor kit on and found out my cadence has really slowed down from last year from high 80's low 90's down to the mid 70's. Big surprise there. I was spinning faster on the old bike.

I spent my hour today getting it up to 85-90 on a sustained basis while fighting a 15-20+ mph headwind. A little over an hour later and 15 miles later I've got a lot more in the tank on the way back and I can even do a quick sprint around the block. Much better. It's amazing how much difference that getting just that little bit of feedback can do for you.

Berner, I am enjoying yours too.. :beer:

Also, since I am riding at least 3 to 4 times a week, I am riding longer and it is easier..

Not only that, I see you have found out that being around others that are doing it, we feed off the their energy too.. ;)

Right now, it is 7 am on Sat.. Time to hit the gym on the motorcycle...;)

I would be careful. Either your motorcycle or the gym (or both) will be damaged if you hit the gym, and you will likely be injured. I would suggest parking outside. :p

I will admit, my terms/words are sadly lacking!! :D

But, I did HIT the gym on my motorycle, and I banged a bang-bang-workout too!! ;) In other words, the workout was super!! ;)

BTW, I NEVER park my motorcycle on parking lots, always on the pavement where cars cannot knock it over..;)

23 flat miles today in the mid morning Louisiana humidity. Not too bad though, since it was coolish for a while (until the clouds split, that is!). ~14 MPH headwind at times.

My attempted departure from the Land of Perpetual Outofshapeness has been a bit frustrating since I've not been able to ride often (only 158 logged miles since last Sept!), but I'll keep on pluggin' away. I tried a bit of riding last week while we were at a nice little somewhat hilly park for a few days (Hodges Gardens State Park, near Hornbeck, LA). But, it wasn't to be -- I was still mid-recovery from a sinus/respiratory infection with significant chest congestion and even walking a half mile trigged fits of doubled-over hacking cough. Riding my bike was a futher adventure into that unpleasant activity! :eek: Thank God, I'm apparently over that and back to my usual Outofshapeness again. :)

Today I rode a bike again

yep 48 miles worth.

35 hilly miles today out and back. Good ride but I'm whupped!. There was no noticeable wind on the out-leg but once I made the turn-around sure enough there was a headwind. At one point on the way home while climbing a steepie both legs started cramping, not enough to have to stop but just enough to make that particular hill more than I'd bargained for.

The high point of the whole ride was seeing my first bluebird for the year. :) Though, through my sunglasses it was more like indigo. Excellent ride but boy am I tired!

Heavy rain this morning so I didn't go to the club ride north of Indy. But, after 1pm the rains went east, the skies cleared, and it's been a beautiful warm spring day. Got in a very nice 24 mile ride to the south of our home - a mix of rural and suburban roads. Did I mention perfect weather?

A nice 40 mile ride with Bob along the Lakefront. Some spots were really crowded with people strolling about.

A cool fog hung in the air, but we also had a some sun. Temps were 40 - 50f.

45 miles with lots of rollers before lunch today. Good workout - I'm beat. It got quite hot near the end, close to 90 degrees. We usually don't see temps like that until June. The forecast high for tomorrow is 92!

Organized metric century. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...from-Monroe-GA

Did a loopy from Leesburg, VA across the river to Point of Rocks, to Harpers Ferry, and back.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78167200

I was following a downloaded cue sheet on some roads I hadn't been on before, so I had a few misadventures, but I lived. It was supposed to have gotten to near 60 yesterday, but it only made it to about 50 so I was kind of cold all day. Some of the roads in MD were just too busy to be pleasant. I'm glad I've done this ride, but won't be doing it again any time soon.

Harpers Ferry is of course beautiful. I've been there before to hike up the heights. First time on a bike. My road shoe cleats didn't like climbing up to the railroad bridge over the Potomac much.

Lets hope for a warmer day today!

I know that was a nice ride, Harper's Ferry, Thornton's Gap(aka Skyline Drive) are among my favorite motorcycle haunts in VA. Those hills/curves are awesome just looking at them...Nice ride...:thumb:

Hooray!! My first century of the year. I did a solo 115 miles and 6000 ft of climbing on one of my favorite loops that has a nice 3 mile climb at the midpoint. I dressed for sunny skies and temps in the 80's but it turned out to be overcast and I don't think the temps ever got out of the low 60's. I was much cooler than I expected but okay at speeds below 30mph. Above that I really felt the colder temps.

Beautiful day in my section of New England today. The club ride had a very large turnout of about 100 riders. I always seem to get sucked into riding faster than planned. I like the speed but always end up out of gas. I didn't ride with the hot shots or even the second tier but I could see them in the distance disappearing around a bend in the road. I love going 20 mph even if momentarily. I'm getting faster but may not live to see summers end.