jimmuller 

It's easy to pass a Ferrari when it's going the other way.

My calf cramp on Monday must have done some serious damage. It's still sore and the whole calf and ankle are swollen. I can bike but walking isn't easy. I was glad for today's rain, may be off the bike for a few weeks. Bummer.

rholland1951

Ouch! Here's hoping for quick recovery.

sherbornpeddler

Jim, might want to see a Doc. A road warrior such as yourself shouldn't be having rookie cramps and that sounds like more than a loose spoke.

As for myself, my wife and I biked rookie miles around Gloucester and Rockport. No Ferraris, no epic rain or power miles but we did stop at a few beaches and enjoyed very fine dining. I ate more calories than I burned.

godshammgod

When I used to live in Marblehead, my favorite ride was up Route 127 to Rockport. Stunning views.

My ride today was 40ish meandering miles through Dover and back to Newton. It was kind of hot and windy. Legs didn't feel great, but it was a perfect day to be out. Nice to see lots of other smiling riders.

jimmuller 

Thanks for the nice comment, sbp. I do have a call into the sports medicine/orthopedic surgeon who has treated me for other stuff. She's kinda' busy though so I'll hear back when my turn comes. This cramp came at the end of playing four concerts in three days. One problem with being in better shape is I think I push myself harder without realizing it. I probably got dehydrated and ran low on electrolytes. (There's a bad pun in there somewhere but I'll pass on it.)

And you took a nice pic of the two of you and the famous Rockport red shack. Sometimes eating more than you burned is good, especially if you can do it with a loved one.

In fact I did get out today. We hit the Waltham Farmers' Market and then Sharon pushed me out the door for some exercise - "See how the leg feels and come back if it hurts." So I took the Gran Sport out through Lexington to Concord and back, a bit over 34 miles. It was nice to take the sports car bike out after driving the station wagon bike so much.

Spoke to a guy with another vintage bike in Concord Center. He said it was a Swiss bike, 1972. He pronounced it CHEE-low, which I suppose must be Cilo. Original Campy crank, some newer components.

Did I mention earlier that this must be Be Stupid Week? This being Saturday the Stupid parts must still apply. The end of the Minuteman in Bedford has a blind right turn around a railroad car museum, and then and a tiny park with water fountain and then a complex intersection for those who want to continue west. It's a popular place for resting, eating, re-filling, and socializing. When I got there from the west there were least half a dozen bikers resting and conversing around the end of the path and along that turn. I was re-entering the path when some idiot, a rather big guy wearing a full red kit, came around the blind turn too fast for the situation, at least 10mph, riding nearly in the center of the path instead of to the right, and with his head turned around looking back over his right shoulder!

If I'd frozen from indecision he would have hit me head on. If I'd tried to pull over to the right where I wanted to be he would have clipped my rear wheel because I didn't have enough time. Instead I yelled loudly and pulled to the left because it was out of his line of travel. The guy just swiveled his head back to the front and continued on across the sidewalk and out into the intersection. I yelled at him and the other people just stood around gaping. He rode on obliviously, crossed the sidewalk into the street and continued west. Some people don't deserve the freedom of a bicycle.

Nevertheless it was a great day.

mtalinm

ack, spent the day trying to replace my bottom bracket in between family stuff. finally got it done after dark.

but I would swear I saw Jim From Boston heading west on Route 16 in Newton around 11:40 a.m.!

cmolway

did 50 with cycloft at 7:30am. god I love that ride.

rholland1951

Lucked into a free afternoon with the nice weather, and rode a 48 mile loop beginning and ending in Arlington, passing through Lexington, Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, Sudbury, Wayland, Lincoln, Waltham, and Belmont, focused on the Concord and Sudbury rivers. Satisfied my curiosity about Fairhaven Road in Concord, which turns out to be unpaved. High point was Water Row in Sudbury, which I'd never ridden before. Beautiful. Got a look at the Toaster House under construction in Wayland as well (https://www.behance.net/danielbroyles/frame/949564); innovation, folly, or both, it looks interesting. Lots of construction on a whole mess of roads along the way.

rholland1951

Link for Toaster House is https://www.behance.net/danielbroyles/frame/949564
Somehow, the ");" got picked up as part of the URL in the previous post.

bikinggrrrl

Were you part of the group flying down Curve Street in Carlisle? I was out for quick jog with child in stroller when a pack went tearing by as we stopped to say hello to the neighbor's chickens.

I have been doing a ton of cross training this year. When I hopped on bike later in the morning, I was disappointed in how tired my legs were and had to cut the ride short. Perhaps today will be a better day. Hoping to head to Harvard...

jimmuller 

Why is it called Toaster House? It doesn't quite look like a toaster.

cmolway

Probably. A lot of guys were wearing NECB and Cycleloft kits. We had a group of about 15 riders.

mtalinm

lovely day out. ride to church and back (30m RT from Westwood to Weston). packed my suit in a pannier and changed in the bathroom. no one even knew I rode

rholland1951

Must be a single-slice toaster.

cmolway

rolled out late this morning and knocked down 25 before riding into Boston with a neighbor. Car in the shop so no group ride tonight too far to ride to). With temps heading into the 90s, a trip to the local pool with my family seems like a much better prospect anyways.

jimmuller 

No ride today. Doc says no for the next week at least. It seems I have a partial tear of the gastrocnemius, one of the big muscles in the calf.
I won't be doing this for a while:
At least it didn't happen while or because I was riding. And right now I get to do this:

I'll have to cycle vicariously through your various reports and admire the Toaster House from afar through the Internet.

godshammgod

Ouch! Heal up fast!

No ride for me today. Tomorrow morning I'm hoping to get in 3 hours after work before the heat rolls in again.

pocky

Did the Boston Barbeque Cat on Saturday. All-you-can-eat, -drink, and -bike -- three of my favorite things.



I did:
Chinatown (start)
-->Southie (too crowded, had a fortunately-no-crash collision with a rider leaving, did no points tricks)
-->Esplanade (blew so far past it before realizing I'd missed it that I decided to just go back later)
-->Cambridge ("hot dog challenge" and inside-out clothes before realizing all they wanted was backwards clothes)
-->Esplanade again (jumped in the Charles; organizer recommended NOT to eat the spicy hot dog)
-->Beacon (drank a cup of pickle juice, "just like Gatorade")
-->JP (wasn't hungry by this point)
-->Allston (finish line)

Later that night, I did the WNBR (much slower) to bring the total to around 40mi, 30 of which was racing. On Sunday, a bit hungover, I iced my right knee and did 15 with the wife to the SoWa Open Market, and then part of the Commonwheels ride to Walden Pond on the tandem with a very strong friend stoking. All in all, a productive weekend.

Jim from Boston

This Saturday I did my Century Ride in Michigan, the “One Helluva Ride” organized by the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society. Since Ann Arbor is the home of the University of Michigan, and Michigan is considered the “Harvard of the West,” I’ll use that premise to stretch the definition of a Metro Boston ride.

The major reason to attend that ride so far away, other than to also see family in the Detroit area, was to meet by mutual agreement with several subscribers to the Fifty Plus subforum of Bikeforums. I posted a long report about the ride to the thread on Fifty Plus, “Ann Arbor, Michigan, 3rd Annual 50+ Summer Ride, "One Helluva Ride" Invitation.”

I invite you to read about it if interested, but here is an excerpted cautionary tale about an unusual hazard of hot weather riding:

I’m still OK, with some general achiness from the crash on the drive back to Boston on Monday, and I’ll be riding Wednesday; stitches out on Thursday. The front wheel was taco’ed so I’ll take it into the shop today (Tuesday). If you look at the accompanying photos, at the dinner table I’m the one against the wall, in a striped shirt. I took the photos of the assembled cyclists so I don’t appear.

PS:
For about four summers, the family spent a week or two in Rockport and I did a lot of cycling both up to, and around Cape Ann. The perimeter of Cape Ann was also a favorite besides Rte 127 A from Beverly, as well as out Rte 133 from Gloucester to Essex and then Rte 22 to Danvers. That red shack in the picture is specifically known as Motif Number 2, having replaced M#1 after the Blizzard of 1978.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_Number_1

pocky

My late father's art gallery is in Rockport, so I've spent much of the past 25 summers there. IMHO, no cycling trip to Rockport/Gloucester would be complete without some mountain biking. Check out Dogtown -- it is unbelievable. For a much easier but still great ride that is doable on a road bike with cross tires, check out Ravenswood Park.

buzzman

Jim,

Very sorry to hear about your crash. These "tar seams" are a real hazard and one I've noticed more and more in the past couple of years. They've patched the frost heaves in the Berlshires with them and I've hit them on some fast downhills on +90 degree days and gotten some serious wheel wobble and one almost wipe out at the bottom of a hill as I veered into a turn. It would be a worthwhile thread in either Advocacy amd Safety to see if other riders have had similar issues. And worth bringing up to MassBike and LAB.

Take care and heal well.

Jim from Boston

Hi buzzman,

Thanks for the note and your well wishes. I just dropped the bike off at Back Bay Bikes. I do plan on posting a thread about the tar seams, and may I also quote you as well? A few of my fellow subscribers on the Ride also independently made note of those sticky tar seams.

I'm not sure about the BF policy on same-subject threads posted to multiple Forums. I had thought of A&S, as well as the Commuter and Road Cycling Forums. If had to choose one, it would be Commuting, since roadies probably wouldn't ride slowly enough to be entrapped. I'll post to Commuter now, before the heat wave abates, and let me know if you have further thoughts.

Jim

Edit: I'm posting from home, and for some reason I can't get on to threads I have not subsribed to, or post new ones, so my tar seam post, already composed, will have to wait until later today, or tomorrow.

mtalinm

Jim, so sorry to hear! Maybe you should take a few days off, at least until the stitches are gone? It is crazy hot here as well.

buzzman

Jim, Feel free to quote me but I've had issues with tar seams at higher speed- like on descents at 30 + mph. My experience has been they soften in the heat and what feels "sticky" at slow speeds feels slick at higher speed.

jimmuller 

Jim_f_B, sorry to read of your crash. And at only 5mph yet. Going slow isn't all it's cracked up to be. [Sorry for the pun but not too sorry. A little levity might help.] And at 94 miles. Do recover quickly!