Your Weekend Ride Reports -- April 19/20/21/22/23
 

Yesterday we managed a 5 km walk.

Today we got out for a 20 km bicycle ride ... despite the fact that my nose was running and I was coughing on exertion.

Distance: 20.17km
Elevation: 89m
Moving Time: 1:15:26
Elapsed Time:1:20:28
Speed: Avg: 16.0km/h | Max: 27.4km/h


Now I'm drinking orange juice and trying to relax.

2019 Monthly April
Walking Distance (km): 63.4
Walking Time (min): 798.3
Cycling Distance (km): 57.3
Cycling Time (min): 216.0
Flights Stairs Climbed Number: 104.0
Flights Stairs Climbed Time (min): 83.2
Rowing Distance (km): 16.7
Rowing Time (min): 104.4
Other Distance: 0.0
Other Time: 10.0

Totals
Total Distance (km): 137.4
Total Distance (miles): 85.4
Total Time (min): 1211.9
Total Time (hr): 20:11:51

Absolutely brilliant 105 mile bank holiday ride yesterday with 7 others. It was my second build-up ride to Chase the Sun in June. It was a route none of us had ever done and I just kind of plotted in Strava using "That looks like a country lane" as I plotted way points. So we could have been in for some interesting surprises along the way. However, the route was absolutely stunning, very few main roads, brilliant coffee stop. Just a little bit warmer than we thought it was going to be. Great company as well, and my fast 100 miler to date averaging over 15mph for most of the duration. The first 5 and last 5 miles slowed down the overall average to just under 14mph, but I live in a city and well, there is lots of traffic.

Some properly beautiful spring days here. Wish I had the energy to ride every day.

30 leisurely miles Friday on the hybrid, including some errands. Seems to be true that these longer, moderate effort rides are good for burning fat. And I still have energy afterward.

23 hard workout miles Saturday on the road bike, including some practice on the aero bars. Can barely move today. Gonna take a while to get the neck and upper body accustomed to that position. But it boosted my average speed on the training circuit route.

I was planning to just rest Sunday but I might sneak out on the hybrid for an easy ride.

Group ride under super windy conditions Saturday. I was a little nervous about safety but everyone in the group was solid

& only a bit of downhill braking was needed. A couple of spots going 3 mph on the flat.

Got yelled at for taking a lane in town, even 'tho I was going at least the speed of traffic. Almost got run over by a tourist turning left in front of me.

Added some to get just over 100 miles, 6,600'

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Still struggling to get good weather to ride in and to get back in shape. Still I think this was the first time since November I got 4 days in a row done.

Friday - Took out the Y-Foil for a little over 24 miles. Was moving out for awhile but then the winds came in....again. Still, finally a sunny and warm day. Nice to get out in the valley and see everything greening up so well.

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Saturday - A tad over 30 miles on the 34 year old Belgium racer. I'm really loving my time on this bike. It's just so fun to ride, quick and comfortable. Another beautiful day but the winds were blowing by the time I got out. I didn't really care though and just enjoyed the sites. Legs were tired though. I'm eating to lose weight rather than ride hard so it'll probably be another month before I start seeing my usual speed.

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Got a nice 60 mile ride in Saturday. Took the usual rail trails, people are finally coming back out to cycle and run. Temps in the mid 70s but a constant 13mph South wind that I went head first into for the first 30 miles.

Feeling pretty good about my fitness this year, I'm really able to comfortably maintain a good constant speed now for many miles into these winds. I managed about 17mph into the 13mph wind and wasn't uncomfortable or fatigued. The legs just kept spinning away happily!

Did a quick 16 mile loop today (Sunday) before visiting family in the afternoon. I stayed in town and soft pedaled around then tried to snipe a podium position on Strava with the 20mph South wind! Ended up 11th on the segment, 7 seconds from 4th :lol:

Finished up the weekend with 11 easy miles Sunday just to get the blood circulating. Helped with the dead legs from Saturday's workout. I was pedaling with such little effort I could have used light bulbs as pedals and not broken 'em. ;)

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Annual 80+ mile One Way Ride From Ashton MD to Solomons Island MD
 

Every year (sometimes twice) the weekend time and weather gods align and I will ride from our house in Ashton MD (midway between Baltimore and Washington DC) southeast to the house of friends of ours who moved down to a waterfront house in Lusby MD, near the Solomon's Island/Drum Point area. My wife and other friends of ours drive down later in the day, bringing food and we have a feast.

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Trek Domane SL6 with bikepacking bags to carry clothes to change into, plus usual tools and the like.

Over the years I've lengthened the ride to avoid the dodgy sections, like interchanges with major Interstates and the like. I've done it as low as 75 miles and as high as 85 miles. This 82 mile route is a good compromise that bumps up the climbing to almost 3000 feet but avoids the tense stretches. A few of the back roads are in horrible shape after a tough rain/ice winter, but had hardly any traffic so I could easily navigate the potholes.

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The route. The wind was pretty much heading from the red dot directly towards the green dot...

The heavy rain from the night before dropped a few showers right before I started and the roads were still wet. Even worse, it left behind 20 mph winds from the southeast, which were in my face for about 65 of the 82 miles, feh! I stopped at 37 miles in Harwood, where the flag was whipping, and at 63 miles in Prince Frederick where Route 2 was kind of funneling the winds right at me in stretches, but occasionally the road would meander east and I got more of a side wind.

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Horizontal flags aiming away from the destination are not my friend.

I made it down in a total of about 6 hours with stops, and was showering at Chris and June's place when the carload of others arrived. Shortly we were all chowing down while enjoying the view of Mill Creek, which feeds into the Patuxent River then the Chesapeake Bay.

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Sunset over Mill Creek

I hadn't had a longish ride in 3 weeks so wasn't sure how I'd feel but ended up doing 93 miles from Hollister over to the coast, south to Castroville, and back mostly the same way. When I got back to town I was feeling pretty good so took a loop south to Tres Pinos and back into town. The last 5 miles was straight into a good 15MPH wind, which pretty much finished me off.

Great weather this weekend except for the wind. Trees were swaying all over. Saturday I went out to Upper Tampa Bay trail and back for 40 miles. Sunday we had Easter things to do until late afternoon. I was restless so went on a short 26 mile ride around Davis Is. in the early evening.

5 day weekend ?!?! I am envious.

"...Weekend Ride Reports -- April 19/20/21/22/23..."

Well ... no.

Actually, I get a 5 day weekend for Easter, then I could be back at work on Wednesday, Thursday is another public holiday, and I could be back at work on Friday.

So I took Thursday the 18th, Wednesday the 24th, Friday the 26th off ... and made an 11 day holiday out of it. :)

These 5 days are just the first half. :)

Other countries have real holidays and take time off. We have Hallmark holidays, like National Picnic Day, but get no time off. :)

Actually, the Thursday is another holiday to mark Anzac Day. which means absolutely nothing to those outside Australia and New Zealand, but marks the sacrifices by those two countries in a certain world war. Every year it falls on the one day, rather than moved around the calendar like Easter.

I missed the weekend - but Tuesday was gorgeous (mid 60s F and sunny), and I got a very nice spring ride in. 40.3 miles, 2,172', and an astounding (for me) 17.2 mph average, solo.

This is one of my favorite moderate, couple hour ride routes - quiet country roads, varied terrain, and a fun descent back into town.

I would have had a QOM, but I've permanently quit the Strava leaderboards :D

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