20 mile work commute today. Very nice weather with a tailwind on the way home.

Spied a possible college student on a bike downtown this morning at an intersection with a street going to IUPUI - he had a red and circled around until I passed on the green. It was evident he was just waiting till I got by. I reminded him that the light was red but I could see him blow through it in my mirror. A new fear I didn't use to harbor: Fear of getting creamed by an anarchist cyclist.

Upped my best average speed for a solo training ride again this afternoon my 2/10ths mph. Did 21 miles on one of my usual rural country routes. Seems like all of that slogging it out during the big heat wave of the summer has paid off in more speed now that the temperatures have come down. Hopefully by next year I can keep up with the "A" group on Saturday morning group rides.

20 miles, it was kinda hot today and I did 25 miles on a club dinner ride on Monday, with a lot more HILLS than I normally ride! I was kinda spent so I just did a easy ride today!

I did a 26km loop this morning before work this afternoon.....I made it 2/3 of the way up my benchmark hill great view of the water when you get to the top......did it in the lowest (?) gear but lost my focus and had to walk the final third.....I'm determined to cycle the whole way up one day soon.

3.29 according to my gps @ 9.1 which is just fine for me for now. I'm beginning to get a feel as to how I can best incorporate riding with my daily (almost) dog walking. The distances are nearly the same but the muscles each works are quite different, as is the terrain, with rolling hills occupying much of the bike route. For now, I think I'll walk a day, walk and ride the next, and continue like that for awhile to try and build up my legs and wind. I need a lot of work!

Interesting group ride Monday night. Mostly it was a normal evening ride, chiefly up and down around the Mississippi River. Along one stretch we came upon a lone cyclist who was going pretty fast. We caught up to him but then we slowed for a stop sign. Rather than slowing, he switched to the cycle path that runs parallel to the river road. Because there are no intersections on the path, he then had no stop signs or traffic lights, whereas we stick to the road, stop for lights, and either stop or slow down for stop signs (for the same reason as there are no stops on the path, there are some stop signs where there is effectively no traffic that can cross the bike lane on the road). So for several miles we kept on passing this guy and then he would pass us when we stopped or slowed. Near the top of a long gentle descent (about 1% average, a little more than a mile and a half, and a little steeper at the bottom - maybe 2%), we were just getting up to speed and we hit another light, so again he sped ahead of us. So once we had green, we organized ourselves into a pretty disciplined pace line and started hammering. The first guy got us up to about 28 MPH. I was second and only managed to increase a little - maybe 29 or so. I think we maybe passed the trail guy then, but at that point, I was concentrating on the road and not anything else. I pealed off and worked hard to fall back in line as the train kept accelerating. I found a gap about 7-8 back and managed to fill it. The next pull had us up to maybe 31. Each puller lasted just a brief stint pulled to the side, and then got on the back if they could. Trail guy was now far behind and beside the point - we were having too much fun to stop. The next 2-3 pulls got us up to 36 MPH. At this point, I was about 4th in line. The guy in front of me, an ex-racer, then pulled out and accelerated to the front for the "win". I think he must have got up to 38 or so. I was at my limit and had no ability to follow. We all cheered him and then settled back down for the gentle climb back out of that valley.

OK, we were going down hill, but it's not very steep. I've done the same descent solo dozens of times and if I'm feeling mildly energetic I am at 22 and if I"m hammering I can get up to maybe 27-28. It's not the kind of hill where you tuck in and the speed comes without work. The high speeds came from teamwork.

Did I mention that I had begun the ride saying to myself that I wasn't going to hammer? But sometimes hammering is just too much fun.

(For all I know, the solo trail guy is a stronger rider than any of us - he certainly kept a good pace without the benefit of drafting. Though it sounds like a contradiction, the competitive part of this story is very non-competitive - he just presented a goal for us.)

Broke the 15 mph average speed barrier on a 14 mile ride this morning. Not much to most but a step in the right direction for me!

40.5 miles this early AM.

Nice blue sky, sun shine and some hellacious winds for this morning's 39 mile ride. I sure hope that this is the end of Isaac.

Blistering 37 mile out&back with two grizzled, hard-as-nails, badasses who were both 10 years my senior. Good times. There was a chill in the air when I left the house at 6:00AM, but by the time we'd ridden a couple miles together I was sweating like it was a summer afternoon.

Quick 28 mile trip before work. Beautiful day, unfortunately I'm now at work.

Nice ride but it did get a little warm. Of course it is summer in the Arizona desert-0 Almost 50 miles but I need to leave earlier.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/216539904

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/216539904

I rode 51 mi on the Schuylkill River Trail near Valley Forge National Park. It was a glorious day for a ride--we had a cold front blow through yesterday, and it took all the heat and humidity with it. The temperature during the ride stayed in the middle-to-high 70's, with low humidity. The sky was a deep blue, with puffy white clouds. Because it was the middle of the week, and also probably because many people are on vacation, there was very little traffic on the trail, allowing me to go much faster than usual.

I like to keep track of the "weird" conveyances I see on the trail. Today it was a guy cross-country "skiing" on wheeled skis. They were perhaps only 30% as long as regular cross-country skis. He had two ski poles and was using them. He was using the modern "skating" stroke about 90% of the time. When he did so, he took up 3/4 of the trail. When a cyclist would approach from either the rear or the front, he would switch to the method in which he kept his skis together and pulled himself along with his poles. He looked like he was getting a good cardiovascular workout.

I did a 35km semi loop along the waterfront. Started out overcast and then the sun came out for the finish. I was riding into the wind at the start which was "fun".....I tried the steep hill again today but didn't even get 2/3 of the way up as a truck backed out of it's driveway. Couldn't get restarted to I walked the rest of the way. I wish I could figure out what gear to leave it in to be able to just stand up and cycle up....I'll keep trying at least once a week....one day I'll make it. Karen

Rode to work. Rode home. 20 miles. Beautiful sunny day. Looking ahead to lots of leftover hurricane rain this weekend.

that's the right attitude.

13 miles today , Isaacs rains and wind will be here Sat .

30.3 miles this morning.

Shot for 38 miles and ended up doing 30 after my wet socks, from crossing the creek that I thought had receded, started giving me problems. The only good thing about tropical storms and hurricanes is that the humidity drops for a few days after they have passed by. Another beautiful morning for cycling.

12.2 @ 19.9 this morning before work. This is likely the last before work bike ride this season; from here on out it will be a run workout, and riding on the weekend

Another fun ride with Isaccs - fighting headwinds and whizzing along in the opposite direction. 20 mi at 13.5 which is my normal average. In the end - it didn't matter. First ride with arm coolers, think I'm gonna like em. Got them for sun protection, anything else is a bonus.

Awesome bluebird day with not a single cloud and little or no wind. The planned ride was to be about 60 miles. There are so many good and quiet country roads hereabouts that it is easy to add 5, 10 or 20 miles to a ride or to reduce the distance by the same amount. This plan went well for the first 25 to 30 miles until the meltdown. I must be coming down with something because relatively quickly I lost energy and the last half of the ride was very painful, and slow. I cut 10 miles off the route but it still seemed endless.

Did 31 miles this morning in the NY Hudson Valley starting off with a temperature of 57 degrees fully layered. Got home it was up to 64 and climbing and the wife had said she was going riding but backed out. In any event hit 600 mile months back to back for first time.

Only 7 miles, to drop off my utility hybrid at the shop for some needed maint. Then a 3 mile walk to downtown to pick up a city bus home.

Another comfortable 23 mile ride this evening. Temp just around 90 and moderate winds. Since tomorrow is a planned day off my mileage for the month of August will be 402 with 2344 miles for the year to date. My current goal of 3000 miles for the year looks pretty doable right now.