Machka 

Did you get out for a ride this weekend? Where did you go? How far did you go? Did you meet any goals? Try anything new with your cycling?



Saturday - Rowan has been busy working on my new-to-me Shogun touring bicycle, and today we got out for a 9.9 km test ride.

There is a bit more work to be done, but it coming along!! It rides a little bit differently than my titanium, which is to be expected. I'm looking forward to riding more.

Machka and the Shogun


Shogun and Merlin


Shogun looking down the road

dstrong 

Machka...I KNOW you're on the other end of the planet but it still looks weird to me to see you all bundled up for ride, while I'm going out at 7:30a and it's already 76 and on it's way to 100!

For the second week in a row, I did the Mellow Johnny's "Middle of the Road" ride, lead by members of the UT Cycling team. About 30 of us rolled out of MJ's at 8:30 and did a 35 out-and-back to the small town of Elroy, east of Austin. It was mostly rolling hills but there were two long hills on the outbound that kicked my ass. I was trying to keep with "the kids" up front but got dropped off the back of the lead group. I managed to not fall too far behind and got to the turn around only a minute or two after the front group. On the way back we had two dogs attack...one pretty good sized pit mix and a little yippy dog. There were about 20 of us in the lead group and the "DOG!" cry went up as the two rocketed out of a driveway. The little yippy dog shot right through the group (lucky a car wasn't coming the other way) while the big dog took up the chase of the front riders. I heard a loud whistle and the big dog pulled up and sat there as the rest of us went by...I was ready with my water bottle and would have given him a shot of weak gatorade if he made a move. All in all, a very good ride...2'46" ride time, 44 miles and about 2700' of climbing.

Machka 

It was about 6C out there ... that's 40-ish F, I think, with a bit of a wind. So it was quite chilly.

Today we're driving over the range to a place that should be marginally warmer.

Machka 

Sunday - Rowan and I drove to a city about 100 km away, and cycled there ... 28.8 km on the tandem in a howling wind. The winds were clocked at 44 km/h gusting to 61 km/h. The pine, eucalyptus, and palm trees sounded like ocean waves.

Quite by chance, the route was such that we were able to do the whole thing ... into the wind, crossing busy highways, etc. without putting a foot down.


The terrain in that area ...



Getting ready to go ...

M_Wales

Picked up a new set of wheels friday and put 26 miles on them yesterday and 26 miles today and love them...

Guitarrick

Sorry, no thread derailment meant here.. M_Wales, what computer is that? I've never seen it before, I like it!

Did you get out for a ride this weekend? Yes, but Saturday only. Had to cancel today's ride due to the answer to your last question.

Where did you go? More exploring around the local Metroparks here. Found a great new spot to ride just 10 minutes away from home, I never knew it was there. This usually happen every weekend.

How far did you go? I rode a little over 20 miles then had to cut the ride short, again, due to the last question...

Did you meet any goals? I was looking to find a new spot to ride and to check out some of the paths that run through the woods for a change, so yes.

Try anything new with your cycling? Unfortunately, yes. I was riding through the woods (not on stump jumping MTB trails, just a dirt path for cycling) on a touring bike (no fork suspension)... can you see where this is going? Right over the handlebars after I hit a root sticking out of the ground. I went up, turned sideways and bashed into a rock when I landed. Then the Sojourn landed on me. My shoulder is pretty far past sore so I won't be riding for minute.

Then I came home and sliced my finger wide open on my new chefs knife. So even if the shoulder feels better in the next couple days, I still won't be able to grip the bars to ride.

I've had less painful Saturdays. On the plus side, I did find a great new place to ride. I'll just slow waaaay down if I decide to explore the woods again.. and respect Henckels knives from now on!

M_Wales

It's a older Cateye CD300DW and work very well...

Guitarrick

Thanks. I like how it mounts, that looks slick. I'm looking to replace my Garmin Nuvi dinosaur, maybe I'll find one on ebay.

gladiator13

Did you get out for a ride this weekend?
I rode today with my uncle finally. He lives just down the street but works an hour away so meeting up is difficult sometimes

Where did you go?
We took a nice country tour with some pretty decent hills. Nothing huge though. Just some short steep ones.

How far did you go?
We did just over 42 miles, new personal best.

Did you meet any goals?
Today was the furthest I've rode, with the fastest average and I managed to stay on my big ring on my front crank even when it really started burning.

Try anything new with your cycling?
This week I started training on just my big ring. No downshifting the front crank, no matter what, until my legs get stronger and I can spin faster.

Machka 

A word of caution ... pay attention to your knees. Pushing the big ring, especially in hilly areas, can lead to knee damage. If you start feeling twinges in your knees ... shift.

gladiator13

Thanks for the tip. I think its more of a mental gap than a physical one. I know I'm plenty strong. I'm just trying to work on building forward momentum and getting a higher cadence. I live in a relatively flat area. I know the next ring is there if I need it as well. I know I don't want to be dying to stay on the big ring but it worked today. I smoked my riding partner up every hill.

Machka 

Anyone else ride this past weekend?

chibibike

I rode my bike again for the first time in 3 weeks. It was nice.

StephenH

Did a 200k permanent on Saturday.

salesman

I got out on Sunday...Rode the Canal and back home for a 30 mile ride. Longest distance so far and I can feel myself getting stronger by the day.

timster

Saturday I was sick. I spent the day on the couch and did a total of 0 miles.

Felt a little better on Sunday and got out for an easy 35 miles.

Wested

Nice vermont century on Saturday. Not many hills, excellent weather.

JayC

I rode with my usual group on Saturday morning. Unfortunately the little woman was feeling a little saucy and decided to go out with some guys going 25+ on the flats. After hanging on with them for about 8 miles, I knew real quick my day would end up crappy if I tried to hang on at that pace. Ive lost a lot of weight but Im still nowhere near "in shape" for me. I dropped off the insane group and about 5 miles later she realized I had dropped off and she dropped as well and we picked up the next fastest group and rode with them for a while. By 45 miles in, though, I was cooked. Those first 8 miles had taken their toll and I was done so I dropped out again and rode by myself for 5 or 6 miles and she realized I was gone and dropped out of the group again and pulled me in. Ended up that day with 53 miles total at an average of 17.5 which I thought was excellent considering I dont think I went over 15 MPH the last 8 miles because I couldnt keep my heart rate down.

Sunday we decided to take the mountain bikes out to the greenway for a nice recovery ride. We rode 20 miles at a nice easy pace, loaded the bikes up and called it a day.

Great weekend of riding. I wish we had gone out with a group with a little slower pace instead of Speedy Gonzalez but it is what it is. If I can lose another 20#s, I can probably hang with that group.

jamesdak 

Busy weekend for me but I did get some riding in.

Saturday was 53 miles with a personal best avg speed on this route of 19.5 mph. Surprised me a bit as the first 5 miles were very leisurly.

Then did the same route Sunday for another 53 miles. Felt really flat and just could not get it going. Finished with a 18.1 mph overall pace. Did not sleep well the night before and think that impacted the ride more than the fast pace (for me) the day prior. Even fell flat on the sprint this day as I only got up to 33.1 mph.

Will be doing my first organized century at the end of the month with over 7000 ft of climbing. Curious to see what my pace will be when riding with a group vs all my current solo rides.

Still can't get the Brooks saddle back quite far enough so I'm having a bit of knee pain. Have ordered a Velo Orange saddle with longer rails that should allow me to get the aft positioning I need to save the ol' knees.

FactVord

Did you get out for a ride this weekend? Yes, on Saturday and Sunday (I'm a weekend warrior).

Where did you go? My usual MUP path.

How far did you go? 100 miles over 2 days; new personal best.

Did you meet any goals? My goal was breaking my former record of 70 miles over 2 days (set over a month ago). I would like to complete a century before end of summer.

Try anything new with your cycling? (1) Yes, I attempted to increase cadence (+20 my average) over 10 miles length, but failed miserably. My average cadence is around 55-60 (yes, I know it's relatively low). (2) Increasing max sprint speed over 500meters - measly 33mph final.

banerjek

Solo century to a nearby mountain. I can't believe I was skiing on this same spot barely over a month ago.

Mose

Saturday I laid a stone path in front of the house and set and levelled a 1700 lb granite slab. Yesterday I did a club ride. The ride was a little over 100 miles from Dayville, CT down to Mystic, CT and Watch Hill and back up. I rode to the ride too so I ended up with a total of 142 miles with about 7,000 ft climbing, average speed 18.2. The portion with the club was a very good tempo, 19+mph. I limped it the 18 miles to and from the ride which brought down my average speed on the day. Little sore today.

Jakedatc

Sunday got out to do the loop our group ride is doing next week. Hilly 50mi in northern RI. 3000'ish of climbing. Happened to show up at the same time another guy from the group was heading out to do the same thing so we teamed up. After a few hills i realized he wasn't as fast but that was fine by me so i'd slow down at the top and let him catch back up. Sometimes it's more fun to ride with someone than ride off on your own just to go faster. I might be showing some faster folks around another loop this week so he might have saved me from myself

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/98228877

tiredone

Did you get out for a ride this weekend?
Yes, I did the Zachary Manago Ride in Paradise, a charity ride in memory of Zach, a college student who was struck and killed by a car while on an around the island ride last December


Where did you go?
We started at Zach's memorial where he was struck near Wahiawa, right around the upper center of Oahu. Then we went towards the north shore and turned west to start a clockwise circumnavigation around Oahu. Here are the ride maps for both days:
Day 1
Day 2

How far did you go?
The first day was about 71 miles, but there were plenty of rest stops at police stations to refuel and talk to officials about improving bicycling conditions in Hawaii. We even had several support vehicles following us! Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the early start of the Day 2 ride because i was just so damn tired from the ride and lack of sleep (got about zero hours of sleep before the first day ) So I had to get dropped off about halfway through the ride at Kaneohe, and only got 41 miles for Day 2.

Did you meet any goals?
Yes, farthest distance I've ever ridden! The farthest before this ride was an organized metric century at 62 miles.

Try anything new with your cycling?
Tried to copy the pros after watching the sprinters rocking their bikes side to side in the Tour de France, probably looked silly doing it myself

Here are some pics because a BF post is not complete without them:


The ride included a cyclocross/hike portion at Kaena Point, because the pavement ends in a trail and then the trail ends in a bunch of rocks. I have a newfound respect for racers in the Giro!


There's a fence going around Kaena Point to protect the endangered Nene bird. That's my bike with the yellow tape; I probably simulated at least a hundred miles of wear on my new Conti GP4000S's just from cyclocrossing through this part of the ride.


Waianae (west side) coast line of Oahu to the right. Directly ahead where all the riders are, the trail ends in a washout with a very real danger of falling into the ocean, so I took the safe path that others were taking and went up and around to the left.


Rest stop at Kahuku Police Station. Just about 15 miles left in the ride.


Rudy Pospisil in green, a firefighter from Canada who joined in for the ride, commenting about it at the end point in Haleiwa.



Overall, it was a great ride; about half of the bikes out there were fixies though, which makes sense since Zach Manago himself was a fixie rider. Thankfully, I wasn't the only roadie here, with the rest of the bikes being road and MTB.