:lol: Seriously! NR, I was getting queasy just reading your list, and I'm just sitting here in air conditioned comfort, not grinding out long, hot, hilly miles on a bike! :D

Safe Roads to School Under Attack

See:

http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/local/4149

and take action here:

http://capwiz.com/lab/utr/1/EZCPMSCA...AYU/5350450011

I've been known to have a cast-iron stomach. :D All that stuff was just what the body said it wanted at the time.

Other than the beef jerky (GB's a veggie) everything on NR's list looks good to me. When I walk into a convenience store I just wander around and let my stomach do the shopping.

I built the Kogswell back up yesterday. It hasn't been on the road since the explosive blow-out ride last fall. I tossed it in the car and drove up to New Freedom for "pre-pre-ride".
I've been plotting a new ride that runs along the Mason Dixon Line from west of New Freedom all the way to the Susquehanna. I only rode the western portion yesterday and whoa, it's a dirt road riders dream. At least a 1/3 of what I rode yesterday was unpaved and really beautiful. Coming soon to a Rando Ramble near you.

Sometimes you have to tell the body...STFU....you're getting an apple.

Sent my email to Congressman Cummings for Safe roads to school, thanks for posting

Yeah but a convenience store ONLY has junk and the body is hungry. It will eat anything. The store might have a brown banana or shriveled apple but that's about it for healthy food. Go into a real store and see what your belly craves.

New route sounds interesting but sounds like my failed Rando ride last fall.

That was a hard ride. This one (at least the western part I did yesterday) was nothing close to that.
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/427944

So, it's about 47 miles from the city to New Freedom, then you're throwing in 38 miles on top of that for 85 miles and 47 for the return to the ride start =~ 132 miles not including the ride to the ride start? It a gradual (in most cases) climb from nn feet of elevation to 1,000 ft of elevation to get to New Freedom (but, it's all downhill coming back, right?)

The ride up to the start would be the riders choice. This one will likely start/end in New Freedom. The next section (the longer one) to test ride is the eastern loop.
something like: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...&z=13&lci=bike

Here's your East & West merged - 99.4 miles:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...ixon-Line-Ride

You're killing me GB;-)

What's a hard ride?? The last ride was reported to be 6K climbing which I consider medium. NR numbers showed over 9K climbing. 9 K is getting hard but 6K is not. I obviously had issues but felt the climbing not to be so horrible as 9K. I'm wishing it is 9K so I can justify my cramping. Then again it might have been my diet. I was thinking about NRs diet and figured he is probably right. He rides 12K(fast), bikes everyday and is always waiting for me at the top of the hill. I'm gonna forget bran muffins, granola, fruit. Bring on the Cocoa Puffs and Twinkies....or do you think Litttle Debbie:-)

Friggin' humid ride this AM. Helped 2 young Russians girls looking for an address in Beltsville. Talk about "Lost in Translation"!

How come some of GBs oute show elevation but some flatline. I know PA is not that flat. Does google maps have elevation?? I didn't see it on NRs map.

You tell me. I don't think there is any more frustrating topic then attempting to describe the difficulty of a ride. Just so you realize, bikely gave the elevation on the Charm and Grace ride as 4200 total. Wow! That is less than half of what NR's total was. So you tell me- was the ride a 4200 foot ride? (low climbing for a century) or was it a 9500 foot ride? (lots of climbing for a century)


Not sure how NR plugged in the roughed out 2nd half of my ride, but it is not giving any elevation data. Bikely gives the first 40 miles as 2800 feet. It felt very "medium" to me when I rode it, but I don't have the slightest idea of how that translates.

The more I talk in circles about this, the more I convince myself to change to "easy", "moderate" and "hard" and that's it.

That's how I always describe a route easy, moderate or hard. I think you were right about it being a moderate ride. I saw NRs twitter/blog @ over 9K and was surprised. I'm starting to think that the elevation results in Bikely & GPS are mostly poor estimates. When I rate climbs to other climbers I just compare them to similar climbs and state easy, medium or hard. Climbing is rated to death(and purely subjective)...5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.10A...5.10D.....5.14+ and so on. You don't want to go there.

If I still had the iBike, at least we could get a little closer since you have to level the computer on the bike--then it gives you very accurate results unless you're popping wheelies all of the time.

So,... you guys ready for the Blue Ridge Summit Century followed by Foxey Coxey? NOT!

Hey Charlie! You should come out for the Delaware Flatlands Century. (I know better than to say anything to Bob--he's gotta work... dammit!)

I'm going to import the Mason-Dixon Line Ride into BiM so that it comes up elevation for the second half.

I'll post a link to it once I'm done.


Here it is:

http://bimactive.com/ba/ui/route_det..._routeID=28703

...and the elevation map looks like this:

http://bimactive.com/ba/ui/chart_get..._route&units=1

Heck! The climbing is very mild in BiM, so that should make this a piece of cake!

Now, me, I'm *way* more a "just the facts, ma'am" kinda woman. Just tell me how much climbing is involved, and over what distance. I know what the Civil War Century, at 7400 feet, feels like to me; I know what the Seagull Century, at, um, 0 feet :D feels like to me. Descriptive word ratings are necessarily subjective. My "moderate" is Isaias' "Come on, man, I'm falling asleep on my bike, here!!" ;)

The trouble is, of course, the incredibly difficulty in getting good data on this question. I've been tempted (but only mildly) to get a bike GPS just for that purpose. (Although I've heard that my bike computer, the VDO MC1.0, is supposed to have a pretty accurate altimeter function.)

:lol:

I was thinking, just after I posted to give NR a hard time about his recent food-intake story, that I routinely eat Pop-Tarts for breakfast before organized century rides. :o (It's, like, tradition now, or something, I guess. If I'm starting from home, though, I just eat what I would normally eat . . . which is *not* Pop-Tarts. :))

Okay, humor me for a moment. NR and Charlie, look at the list of Rando rides below and give each (if you rode them) a rating of Easy, Moderate or Hard.
Then PM or email your answers to me. I will post our answers tomorrow and we can see how different they are.

Charm and Grace,
Monument to Monument,
Holtwood/Conowingo Loop
In Search of Liberty,
On Again, Off Again,
Point to Point

I'll play, but we should get Maxine in there, too. (or, are grrls not allowed?)



la cerveza mas fina

anyone's allowed, but you'd have to have ridden the ride to really judge it. I don't think she's ridden any of these. and Charlie's only ridden three.
So, it's limited, but I'm still interested.

You have my PM.

Is this a question? If so the answer is ....any of mine;-)

As for the weekend ride: What is the flatland ride? Are you riding to the start?? I have a commitment but still working out the details. Might be a bunch of family at my house for fathers day which takes 2 days to prepare for. Not set in stone. Will post when I know more.

GB:
monument X2, easy but long
Charm and Grace: ( I was going to ask if this was our last ride but then it FINALLY dawned on me that charm= Balto and grace= havre de grace, no rocket scientist here) moderate but even longer
On Again off again hardest BUT I only rode 20 miles of it and there were 2 pink jerseys at the lead. From what I heard the pace did drop off eventually.

I think what makes a ride harder for me is not just climbing but the pace. When I spin at my speed I can last a long time in the saddle but when I ride in a group I try to match others pace(w/in reason) and I hit the wall sooner. On the C&G ride I rode the first 60 miles @ 15.4 which is my speed for a 60 mile ride. This felt fine but I felt tired at lunch. The final 60+ my speed dropped and I finished with a 13.9 for the day(thus 12.5 for the last 60+). So if you are really trying to analyze the difficulty of a ride you have to include pace. Granted we are responsible for our own pace BUT the definition of a race is:
2 guys on bikes heading in the same direction;-)
If you include distance, elevation gain and pace(plus temps and wind speed) you will turn biking into climbing. You don't want to go there:-) I think you described your rides well. Comparing one ride with another is the "BEST" way to describe a ride. You said that the C&G ride(compared to the M2M ride) was a little longer and more climbing but not a lot more climbing. That's what it was.
FWIW: I actually rate counties. Balto, Frederick and Washington counties tend to be moderate to hard; Carroll moderate; PG, AA(S. MD) easy to moderate(but mostly easy); eastern shore is easy.

Dangit, I wish I would have found this forum when I lived in B-more.

Hi Mango, where you riding in Lancaster?

So far, just around East Earl, and Honey Brook, Lancaster County, went to the schuylkill road trail a few times. I just moved here 6 weeks ago. You ever ride in PA?