I sent my wife to the beach with the ladies. Her yelling is quite dim, if you know what I mean.
I have 15.5 hours this week on the bike. Didn't hear a peep. ;)

"raced" today. Got taken out on first half mile. Tried for about 10 minutes with someone else to catch back up to the three's, but eventually we lost hope and just waited for the group behind to pass us. Eventually the master's caught us, so we just rode the back of the field. Turns out the masters are a bit slower then the three's. It was a tad bit more relaxing.

The wheel car was non existent. My teammate flatted on like mile 4. Waited 10+ minutes, four fields pass, but no wheel car.

Friday: Watched from windows the 24/7 rain that has been hitting FL for the last week nonstop. Actually, I have not been able to get out since last sunday because at the time I can ride early in the morning there has been torrential rain and tons of wind. I don't mind getting caught in the rain, but it is hard to convince me to go out in the rain from the beginning.
Saturday: Rain stopped for a few hrs this afternoon, so went out on a quick 38 mile ride. Still some wind, but not nasty.
Sunday: I am hoping to get in 65 miles in the morning if it is not raining.
Monday: same as sunday.

The plan was to do a 60-70 mile solo ride today, heading into the hills after the 40 mile mark, climbing up to about 800ft within about 5 to 6 miles, with a nice decent of about 12, before the last few miles home. Wind, rain, and not even being able to see said hills this morning till after lunch time, due to weather reduced that ride to a short spin of 20 miles, nearly all at sea level.

Going to try and aim for same hills tomorrow or monday, weather permitting, although other plans might reduce the ride to 40 odd miles.

same here.

I've got frequent flyer miles from work travel that I offered my wife for a long weekend with her friends. I figured Florida, Vegas, whatever. Her response? "You'd like that wouldn't you so you could have all weekend to ride your bike"
Yeah, I would.....
Glad you enjoyed your "vacation on the bike"!

The last 25 photos are from today (Saturday):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7617519339243/

So ... the story ...

I drove to Bentley, found a nice place to park, and set off from there. My route took me along Gull Lake ... a very quiet scenic road which I found a couple years ago, and really like. I reached Hwy 53 and headed for Rimbey, but stopped distracted by the Snowmobile Haven. Who knew something like that existed in my area. I find things like that fascinating so I had to take photos.

I reached Rimbey and found it full of motorcyclists ... I guess they are all coming out of the woodwork too with the good weather. And then I got lost in Rimbey. I had entered it a different way than I usually do, and made a turn where I should have gone straight. Rimbey is, however, very small so it didn't take too long to figure it out. At the outskirts of town I stopped to eat and also to take off my long sleeved top and knee warmers ... it was too warm for them! In fact a temperature thing in Rimbey told me it was 24 degrees.

The road I chose for the way back to the Medicine Hills was one I had not cycled before. In fact I only drove it just the other day. It was beautiful! I took some shots of old houses, duck ponds, and Rimbey from a distance. And then I was into the Medicine Hills where Herbie greeted me ... you all know who Herbie is, right? :D

I topped a hill, and stopped to take some photos of the ski hill, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a cyclist coming to a stop. It was a guy from Rocky Mountain House who was just as surprised as I was at seeing another cyclist on the road. He also cycles long distances ... I think he's a triathlete ... so we chatted briefly and then went our separate ways.

Up another hill and I was able to get a shot of Bentley before beginning the final descent.

And then I picked up some water and snacks ... water for the guys doing my 400K route today, snacks for me. I drove out to find them, chatted with them briefly, gave them some water, and headed home.


Here's a shot of the Snowmobile Heaven :D

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/...e8a90b.jpg?v=0


EDIT: I forgot to mention ... this ride ended up being a comfortable 80 km.

I ended up with 60 miles today (out and back). It was almost the perfect ride. Winds were calm for the first 25 miles, during the last 5 miles out, a slight breeze of about 7-10MPH picked up. So after the turnaround, I had a nice little breeze at my back for the ride in! It was a good day.

Friday: sorting out a weird noise in my cranks after work, put in 25 miles between taking the whole bottom end apart and putting it back together.

Saturday: Family duties w/kids. A couple of walks, many games of badminton, rode to the grocery store for a big pack of ribs to barbecue.

Sunday: Up early for a solo century ride, two times around Stukel Mountain, which turned out just awesome. Perfect weather, everything worked right, and I stuck my goal of getting in under 6 hours - did 5:44.

I think it was my first long ride this year where I didn't have the allens out trying some different bar position or cleat or saddle adjustment - everything was good and comfy. I was pretty fresh up to the 80 mile mark, and calculating that a fast finish would bring me in under 5 1/2 hours, but that's where I turned up into the Poe Valley for the last set of small climbs and a bad headwind kicked up. By 90 miles I was pretty toasted, and fortunately the first part had gone well as I dragged in pretty slow by the end.

But now I need to find a good climbing route to work out for next month...

Sunday's ride: 75 miles with 2 buddies. Great weather. Good tempo pace. Not hard but not slow.

Tomorrow will be a 18 mile MTB ride, and then grilling afterwards.

180 miles yesterday.

Washed the bike and camped out on the couch watching races today.

Not sure about tomorrow.

Made a 27 mile loop around the area this afternoon. Got rained upon, but still enjoyed the ride.

Looks like spring has sprung up there in the northlands- very scenic pictures. We don't have any snowmobile heavens around here, but have some golf cart purgatories out east of here.

Best 50-mile ride ever for me. Pace was right, nutrition was right. Only problem was a failure to unclip on a short tough hill. The blood washed out of my new shorts just fine.

Monday - who knows?

Sunday's Ride:

Just got in from a 55.6 km bicycle ride out to Sylvan Lake and back. There's no ice on the lake anymore ... I think the last of it melted a few days ago ... and the beach was full of people. There weren't too many people in the water, however. I wonder why not!! :D

I may have to make a trip out there during the week when it's not so busy.

Yesterday we joined some NorCal BFers for a self-supported century. We're on the tandem, there were at one time 15 half-bikes in the group. We rode into the Sierra foothills, new territory for us. Because of my broken wrist and the awkwardness of standing to climb we've avoided a lot of climbing the last 6 weeks. We paid for that. :( Chili Hill got our attention, but good. :eek: My longest ride since my crash 10 weeks ago; so glad we went.

Enjoy the pictures.

This family stopped traffic:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...rDucklings.jpg

Some random trees we rode under:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...lagh/ARBT3.jpg

Sierra Foothils:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...raFoothils.jpg

How I roll these days:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...owIcanride.jpg
Made of ingeniuty + cannibalized aero bars + conduit shaped to fit + nuts and bolts + electrical tape + bar tape + a touch of duct tape. Not real pretty but comfortable and very functional.

The stoker's view:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...tokersView.jpg

Great pics Red Rider! Thanks for sharing! And heal up quick!

I did a solo century yesterday at a brisk but not breakneck pace. Nice to ride out into farm country & smell the lilacs. Unfortunately, the fertilized fields added some spice to the olfactory experience. Enough rolling hills to get about 3000' of gain.

Then did an easy 40 recovery this morning, followed by a nice round of golf! :)

Don't some of you have a long weekend this weekend? Where are you riding today? Are you riding to the beach, to a family BBQ, on an event?

Hey Machka,
I went out to St. Adolph for a quick 50k(a bit past) on saturday, met a teacher who did the Paris-brest-Paris Brevet in 2007.
the floodwaters have finally receded enough to get all the way out red river dr.

Did the teacher give you his/her name?

Dan

I'd guess mid-late 20s. nice fellow.

I don't think I know him, but I know there have been some new riders since I left Winnipeg in 2004. There is a good group of randonneurs there in Manitoba. I miss riding with them.

Sunday, had to do something so I went for a 60km coffee-ride(40 to the coffee place, 20 home) to enjoy the weather. Legs still felt dead, my gluteus minimus were sore beyond description and I averaged 24km/h. Oh well.

Biked 27 miles this morning with a nice break in the middle to watch the local Memorial Day services.

233 miles for the 3 days with 6900 ft of ascent. Perfect weather for just riding around.

110 Saturday, hills, some jamming with the boys. 49 miles Sunday, all jamming with the boys (Nyack Ride). 57 miles today non-jamming with the Freds (they F'd up a simple group ride as usual, don't ask me how they manage this). 216 miles over the weekend.

That doesn't suck. But I do.

A short 40 miler Saturday with 6,500' climbing testing a new crankset. Not much going Sunday or Monday.