A friend and I went to a place called Russell Mill in MA for a mtb ride this morning. It is not very big, but the local mtb club as put in some really nice single track. Typical New England stuff, twisty, lots of roots & lots of rocks, short climbs & downhills. There are a number of downed trees that they have made into "skinnies" - slicing the top off the length of the log - that range from 6" to 14" wide. I tried a couple of the wider ones and was able to ride the full length of one log and 3/4 of another before I had to drop off.

You CM types just get the cagers riled up at the rest of us!

Very cool!

After 53 hot miles yesterday, I got up today and did 58 not-quite-so-hot, not-quite-so-flat Johnson and Shelby counties miles on another club ride.
The ride leaders had Long's Bakery doughnuts at the sag. (The best doughnuts in the American Heartland.):thumb:

Today’s ride:

Rode solo today with the exception of the 6 miles from the Sylvan Lake Trail Head to Panera Bread where I rode with a guy that lives in Maitland that I see and talk to on many rides. I started at 6:30 this morning to get in some miles and possibly beat the heat that we were supposed to have today. I did the normal ride to Panera Bread for breakfast and decided to ride through Heathrow to the horse farms. After the horse farms I road west on SR 46 to River Road where I turned north along the river. About a mile down the road I saw a dozen wild turkeys off to my right trying to find something to eat. As I stopped to watch them for a minute two deer walked out of the woods and looked me over pretty close then walked back into the area that they had just come from.

Ride statistics for: 07/03/2011

 Miles today: 53+
 Mileage this month May: 115+
 Mileage this year: 5194 (64.9% of my 2011 goal)
 Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +9
 Over/under riding days June 2011 vs. June 2010: 0
 Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1674 miles
 Average miles per ride this month: 57+
 Average miles per ride this year: 42.5 (best ever)
 Number of rides over 50 miles this month/total ride days this mo. 2/2
 Metric Centuries this month: 1
 Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 8,000: 2805 miles, a 9/10 thousand mile year is not out of reach.
 I should reach my goal about mid October.

Tomorrows plan: The Freewheelers are having a Forth of July picnic and ride in Mt. Dora, I might attend.

Miss Jean, you are awesome. Are you certain your are old enough to post on the 50+.

(The best doughnuts in the American Heartland.):thumb:[/QUOTE]

Map and or driving directions please.

Map and or driving directions please.[/QUOTE]

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe...88503798098773

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?oe...61911922978197

Alright! Got the road bike and the misses out to the MUP this morning at 7:00 am for as long a ride as I could go since getting this cold. Started out really good and was doing my normal speed around the loop (17-19 mph) and even got to a point where I pushed it for a little while. Everything going really great for the first 17 miles until the sinuses started to act up and forced me to slow down. Got in 23 miles and decided to call it quits since my wife was back at the truck waiting for me and the sinuses weren't getting any better. She still need some more tweaking on her new recumbent before getting to where she was with her old one. Tomorrow is another day and another try.

42 miles, went to the beach and found a farmers market/swap meet type thing at the marina. Had to stop and get a Gyro as i left early without eating. Followed it up with some coffee at the pier as it was a little foggy. After this went home very happy. No pie however.

Went out and rode a new route. A bit busier with cars but nice, challenging with more hills than I'm used to. Only rode 27 miles today. Shame it rained this morning, my team ride in New Jersey was canceled due to weather. No matter, I have a total of 43 miles this weekend so far. I want to go out for a little ride tomorrow, so I won't so sore for work on Tuesday.

81 miles in the hill country of western wisconsin. About 4500 feet of climbing. I kind of had a rough time at the end, though. THe last rest stop was at about 45 miles, and I felt progressively more tired (not tired legs, just tired) starting at about mile 55. At about mile 75, I had the onset of severe leg cramps - not just one muscle group, but both legs and both my quads and hamstrings). I had to stop, eat a Cliff bar, and guzzle some powerade. Then I limped to the finish, fighting leg cramps all the way.

I did an almost identical ride last Sunday and finished very strong, so I'm not sure why I hit the wall this afternoon. Today was hotter (maybe 86 or so) and maybe I was underhydrated. Too bad - it was a very nice ride for the first 50+ miles.

131.3 miles yesterday. It was hard.

A quick look at my drivers license confirms it. :)


Edit: I just saw that scroca did 131.3 miles. Holy Toledo! that's much more difficult than riding a skinny.

I rode 15.2 miles today. This was the longest I have ridden on roads since beginning riding in April (I've done a 16-mi ride on the local MUP). I chose a slightly busier road for the bulk of today's ride since it is less hilly and I wanted to increase my mileage from my previous, very hilly 11-mile ride. Since I am still building my skills and confidence on the new bike, I rode very early in the morning (6:30 a.m.) when there was very little traffic. I had a blast--at one point I looked down at my computer and saw that I was doing 17 mph on a flat section without too much effort. I did have to take a 5-minute break at the 10-mi mark because my right hand cramped up. I find that when I am riding in new situations, I tend to stay on the drops and grip the handlebars too tightly--out of anxiety, I guess. I keep having to remind myself to relax, maintain good form (straight back), and have fun. As I get more experience riding on the roads I am sure this will become second nature.

Short 22-miler today to check out my "new" Bianchi Giro build. She's a 58cm frame, but seems to fit well and is quite enjoyable to ride. Just needs a little dialing in. So what if there's only a fist of seat post showing?

Here's the link to my C&V post:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ianchi-content

Hard Workout At Work, Biked Both Weekend Days
 

I took on a temp. job at a snack foods company that really challenged me physically and mentally. I felt broken by Friday.

I tested my mettle by biking both Saturday and Sunday, 14 miles per trip.

Nice feeling to know that even after throwing myself at "lumping" a few trucks worth of cartons, I can still muster the energy to ride.

As a bonus, today's morning BG check was the lowest I've ever recorded!

Quick 8 miles before work this morning, working on maintaining cadence and speed. Nobody around at 0600...................

You da MAN! :thumb:

I went for a moderate 21 mile ride this morning while the DVR built up enough buffer to let me zip through the commercials on the TdF. I've been loafing lately as I had a bad bout with sinus allergies last week. Good to get back out and work up a sweat.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/96785855

Went to my usual MUP to hopefully get over 30 miles in before the heat made it impossible to do so. Started off really good until I stopped to get some cold water at a water stop and got talking with another cyclist. By the time I realized it, my wife had caught up with me so, I rode the next 4 miles with her. Took off again on my own, made another loop and ran into a guy I haven't seen in a while. He was riding behind his handicapped son and I started talking to him and rode the last half of the loop with them. Started getting too hot to do any more and my wife was waiting at the truck for me. All in all it was a fairly easy 20 mile ride and my cold didn't seem to bother me today. No riding tomorrow, so I will pick it up again Wednesday after work.

60 miler today-- amazing to see the number of red/white/blue jerseys out there today. (I wore a Tour of America leaders jersey-- from probably 25 years ago-- that is fittingly red/white/blue. I only seem to wear this jersey around this time of year :) )

train safe

I took on a temp. job at a snack foods company that really challenged me physically and mentally. I felt broken by Friday.

I tested my mettle by biking both Saturday and Sunday, 14 miles per trip.

Good to know they couldn't break you that easily!!

Today’s ride:

Rode with the Florida Freewheelers today on the annual July 4th Picnic ride. About 75 members meet at Trimble Park at 8 AM for the annual picnic ride. My friend Richard and I rode out with the shorter ride group since we needed to get back home at an early hour. Our ride consisted of a route around beautiful Lake Dora, through orange groves and shaded roads with very large expensive lake front homes. We went through the towns of Tavares and Mt Dora and got caught up in a July 4th parade in Mt Dora and had to take some side streets to avoid the crowd and parade. Just before we got to Mt Dora we stopped to help one of the club members (Ed Fraser) that was trying to work out some leg cramps. We stayed with him until he was able to ride again then finished the ride with him. It was a great ride but shorter than I had hoped. I really wanted to take some photos while in Mt Dora but we had to keep moving. It was a great group of riders and Mike the social director really cooked up some good burgers and dogs. I want to average 50 miles per ride again this month and 25 miles does not help the cause. But I have plenty of time to make up the difference.

Ride statistics for: 07/04/2011

 Miles today: 25+
 Mileage this month May: 140+
 Mileage this year: 5219 (65 % of my 2011 goal)
 Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +10
 Over/under riding days June 2011 vs. June 2010: 0
 Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1661 miles
 Average miles per ride this month: 46.8
 Average miles per ride this year: 42.4
 Number of rides over 50 miles this month/total ride days this mo. 2/3
 Metric Centuries this month: 1
 Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 8,000: 2780 miles,
 A 9/10 thousand mile year is not out of reach. I should reach my goal about mid October.

Tomorrows plan: Normal ride to the horse farms weather permitting. Possibly with my daughter.

8 miles, 7 am(what! i dont get up this early) easy pace just to spin a little in high gear. Lots of people out on the mup. Happy 4th everyone.

I had an unexpected day off work today (I had been scheduled to work the holiday, but they called me up at 5AM and told me I could stay home). Went on a ~25 mile ride with my wife instead;the longest ride she's managed yet this year.:thumb: