Machka 

Last weekend of August! Last weekend of winter down here ... what's it like where you are?

Tell us all about the cycling you're doing this weekend.

Machka 

Saturday -- 4 km walk.

That's all I had the energy for. We've been fighting this massive Australian flu/cold thing for a while now, and mine has turned into a very annoying sinus infection. For a little while this morning, I actually debated about not getting up at all. But I did, and I did get out for a walk.


On our walk today. It was a lovely 15C out there ... snow driven heat. Tonight it is supposed to snow.





Plus some of the flowers in our yard. Most of the trees and plants here are evergreen so even though it is winter, they keep their leaves.

kbarch

Yesterday, for the first time, I took the bike to work. I've been reluctant, since I don't really have a way of cleaning up after the 90 minute ride if it's hot, and don't like to ride at dusk or later as it is the rest of the year when it's time to return home, but since we close the office early Fridays in the summer and it was nice and cool in the morning, it worked out quite nicely. Also managed to get 7 miles in riding Citibike to a meeting and back.
Tomorrow promises to be a very social ride, and today's riding was mostly relaxed and easy going, but I just have to brag somewhere about today's ride....
As a ride, it wasn't much to brag about, but I managed to get some great times on some key segments. I was in kind of a hurry to meet a friend for a ride up River Road and got some nice PRs up Palisade Ave. Cracked the top 3% on another segment heading back to the GWB. Best, however, picking up 25 places in the standings on one noteworthy segment along the way - to 41st overall. Better yet, that was only the official standings. This was an odd segment that many people get credit for when coming down an adjacent descent rather than going up. It's easy enough to find these bogus results by looking at power and HR data and the profiles, and removing those, unofficially 11th out of 6513 riders, 5/2531 this year, and 5/436 of CRCA (big local race club) riders. No, not KOM, but a thrilling achievement, I felt, especially considering how I typically fall much further down the leader boards (happy to break the top 10-20%), and struggling as I do to keep up with "A" riders.

tnburban

Almost got hit head on today. Townsend, TN. Was going around a curve (left bending). Two other roadies were coming from the opposite direction. One waved, I waved back, then all of the sudden from around the curve a big SUV coming from the opposite direction decided to pass the other two around the curve by coming in my lane. To my right was a 30' drop off into a shallow river with lots of rocks. That was not an option. I had no where to go and hugged the last .0001" of pavement before the grass started sloping off towards the drop off. I literally had all these thoughts go through my mind about being in the hospital, broken bones, etc. Maybe it was because it was head on and I could see it all happening, but could do nothing about it. Luckily the driver split the two lanes last second and gave me enough room to get by.

This is usually a very very very bicycle friendly area. Summer tourists are in full force right now, so my money is the plates were from out of the area, not that I had a chance to look, as I was too busy not trying to be hospitalized. FWIW, vehicle was probably traveling around 25-30 MPH trying to accelerate to get around the other bikers

And also had a lady walking a dog who lost the leash and the little yappy ankle biter chased me for a good 100+ yards.

I've had better rides...

Jakedatc

Sat: 60mi Cycle for Cystic Fibrosis ride. Headed off with the front group with a few of us expecting to get dropped quickly but that was OK. We made a really solid group of 6 that rode most of the way together. Only bad part was getting stung in the neck at mile 50, that hurt for a few mins. Good ride for a great cause. we rode another 10mi home and now my legs are smoked.

mtn bike ride planned for tomorrow.. get to try out my new dropper post. should be fun but the legs are not going to like it

woodcraft

Forecast was 84, but got hotter. Garmin said 102 at one point.

A riding partner is about to leave on a trip, & requested 100 miles- last chance to get some miles in.

I put a route together that was fun, w/ quite a bit of climbing. The coastal parts were nice, but inland was where the dehydration happened.

107, 6,800'.

Vole, vultures, berry pickers, turkeys.

Machka 

Today ... a short, quick walk at the beach just to get a bit of fresh air and exercise. Still trying to shake this sinus infection brought to me by the Big Australian Cold. We might have walked longer, but it was freezing out there. Snow down to about 200 metres and a cold, cold wind. My sinuses weren't too happy about that. Still it was nice to get out for a little bit. Always love watching the waves at the beach, even if it is nowhere near warm enough to stick a toe in the water.

Otherwise just studying.

San Pedro

Maybe a couple miles today with my five and six year old daughters. It's nice to enjoy a ride with them, hopefully it's not something they tire of doing with Dad too quickly.

It's been so hot here, that from the commute, work, and family stuff that I was out of energy this weekend to do a real ride anyway.

atwl77

On Saturday I wanted to go out on my usual morning training ride. There was some distant lightning and thunder, but only light rain so I went ahead with preparations (breakfast, etc). Was just about to leave the house when it suddenly started pouring. I decided not to be a badass, as per rule #9, and spent the morning browsing the Internet wondering if I should bother with something like Zwift or Sufferfest.


Sunday morning, despite weather reports from three different apps saying no rain, there was rain at 5am in the morning. Waited until 5:30, still raining. Screw it, I thought, I'll just be badass. But by the time I went out the door the rain had been reduced to just a light drizzle.


My usual route is either 27km or, if I make two loops, about 47km. But I pushed myself a bit too much though, with my heart rate hitting a new record 185bpm high as I attacked an early segment hoping for a new PR. I'm really not good at pacing myself on these high intensity, time trial-ish workouts yet, I often end up going in the red too soon and end up struggling near the end. Even worse, my right leg felt like cramping halfway through the first loop, so I decided against going a second round and took it relatively easy for the rest of the route. In the end I got a couple of 2nd and 3rd personal bests, but not a single PR.


Gave the bike a quick wash later on, due to the wet roads.


Moving Time: 58:15
Distance: 26.6 km
Avg Speed: 27.5 km/h
Elevation Gain: 267 m (over-exaggerated by Strava's elevation correction; had to use it because the weather must have screwed with my Garmin's elevation and it was significantly under-reporting. This usual route should only be about 160m)




Glad you're ok. Reminds me of the last time I encountered a near miss from an overtaking idiot. I was quite tired that time and was momentarily spacing out (probably staring down at the road right in front of me), so didn't realize until the idiot had passed barely inches beside me. Apparently he was overtaking a couple of slow cars in his way, and either didn't bother or didn't notice me. Good thing I was riding quite close to the road shoulder, had I taken the lane that might have resulted in a rather nasty head-on.

jamesdak 

Wow, glad it all turned out ok.

jamesdak 

Well, I had a 3 day weekend.

Friday - Took out the old Schwinn PDG Paramount and set a new PR on my base 25 mile route.
Saturday - Another trip around the same 25 mile route. Plan was to go easy but the ol' Giordana wanted to go fast and I wound up just 1 mph under my PR pace of Friday.

Sunday - Followed my example from last weekend and just did an easy 20 miles in the north end of the valley not worrying about anything. Just enjoying the ride and taking a bunch of pictures.

Heading out of Eden towards Liberty



This shot shows how dry it can be out here. It is a high desert area despite how green it can be.



Liberty Area









The cut in the mountain is the North Ogden Divide road. Tour of Utah races through there each year.



Love this barn



Nordic Valley Ski Resort



The wonderful Basso out on the ride today

Maelochs

everywhere you ride is ugly and no one envies you.

I am going to struggle to get out for a ride through suburbia in the rain. I know you are jealous.

jamesdak 

I'm sorry. I'll be sure not to share in a few weeks when the colors change and I have to ride on this ugly road.

John00

44 Miles on another hot smoky day. It's going to be 95+ and smoky every day for the next ten days

bikecrate

Soggy weekend. Saturday the wind finally changed to a northerly direction. I think this is the first time in three months it hasn't blown from the south on the weekend. It had rained the night before and again about an hour before I left, so it was super muggy. I went to Upper Tampa Bay trail and back for 40 miles. Sunday there was rain in the area, but decided to go anyways knowing that I would get wet at some point. Which is exactly what happened. I got sprinkled on about 4 times and rode through some massive puddles. I then got a flat about half way in the ride. Anyhow, another 40 miles to Picnic Is. and Davis Is.

Ogsarg

I was off the bike for 9 days due to a family eclipse trip (totality is amazing) so Sunday I paid the price. Did my usual 40+ mile loop and while I felt great when I started, I was really feeling it by the time I got home. It was hotter than usual and that may have been part of it, but the time off was probably a bigger factor.

wipekitty

Friday: A cycling friend went with me to do recon on a route for next weekend's Bike Fest. Six miles in, a tire goes boom! We fiddled around on the side of the road, made a tire boot, and headed back to the bike shop for a new tire. After that, we hit the route again - all good this time, though we cut the last climb on the ride. 65.5 miles for the day, 2,976 feet elevation gain.

Saturday: The weather was looking iffy, and I needed some groceries, so I tried something new. I set up my steel fixed gear with a single speed freewheel and SPD-SL pedals, and set out to do a combo short road ride and errands run. I went up a hill, down a hill, to the store and home, and successfully completed my first single speed climb since March. 12.4 miles, 787 feet.

Sunday: Short evening ride: 21.4 miles, 1,503 feet. I've been really working on regaining confidence on the descents, and scored a QOM on one! The lookout is lovely this time of year...