Machka 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all the Canadians!

Wherever you are ... tell us about your riding, or other exercise, this weekend. Where are you riding? Solo? Group? Event? Got pics? Especially autumn pics!



Saturday - We're getting ready to go for a cool, spring ride to a town up the road and back ... a place we haven't cycled in a while. And for a little photographic competition, I'm hoping to collect some good pictures of street signs. We'll see how that goes!

Commodus

I've got a race on Monday, but to be honest I'm not really looking forward to it. Totally lacking in motivation this week, I've probably got...maybe ten hours on the bike this week. Feel like crap really.

I need to go out and suffer on my road bike to get my head right, but I'm leaving tomorrow for the race and can only take my cross bike. Maybe I can find some XC trails or something. I'm running it 1x9 and the gearing is just totally inappropriate for the road, it just ends up getting on my nerves.

le sigh.

I'll go out and toodle around and try to find some street signs to photograph. Thanks actually, that gives me a bit of motivation.

Machka 

Saturday - Rowan and I rode 95.74 km with about 750 metres of climbing, out to a town we had not cycled to in a while and back. The shoulder on the road has deteriorated quite badly in places which made for a bit of a rough ride, and I struggled with breathing on the climbs, but overall it was a good ride.


I did take some pictures of signs and other things, but haven't processed them yet. Meanwhile, here's a shot of my father and me on a ride on 20-Aug the three of us did when Rowan and I visited Canada ...


(click photo for more photos of cycling in Canada during our holiday there)

Machka 

Sunday - Rainy in this part of the world, so we're heading into the city for the morning and part of the afternoon. Maybe we'll ride this afternoon.

StephenH

A lot of the local rando riders were down in Houston for the weekend, but I wanted to do a 200k up here, so I posted a perm on the rando board, and got two of my favorite co-riders out for it. Had great temperatures, a bit windy going south but we made up for it going north, and all in all, just one of the funnest rides I have had in a good while.

Machka 

Sunday - We managed to get out for a 25.4 km ride up the road and back on our tandem after returning from the city ... longer daylight hours are GREAT!! It was, however, a little chilly out there.


Any Canadian cyclists on a little Thanksgiving weekend tour? Or carb-loading with pumpkin pie?

Machka 

OK, some photos from Saturday ...

Wombat sign ... do the wombats know they are only allowed within those 16 km??


And us, on the ride ...



(Click for more ride photos)


Let's see some of yours!

StephenH

I would love to post one of those wombat signs on a local road to see the reaction!

travelerman

The Western world seems to be filled with people who are off on the weekends - I know, because I am a chef at a restaurant 40% of whose business occurs on those two days - but my "weekend" fell on Monday - Wednesday this week:

After 21 years mostly-off the bike I've been trying to re-build my base for the past three months, and passed a milestone this week by getting past the 30-miles-in-one-trip marker - riding a total of 80 miles on three absolutely beautiful warm fall days. Mostly on some rolling-hilled farm roads (all paved in our county) outside of town. The longest ride had me travelling through two small towns - but most of the ride was out in the country.

I re-discovered why it is not a good idea to stop two-thirds of the way through - it was hell climbing up out of the valley I stopped in to munch on a Power Bar - the energy from which I appreciated on some rough hills near the end.

"Indian Summer" seems to be hanging on for another week or so, but my work schedule and the waning hours of daylight are going to limit my time on the bike to 10-12 miles at a time, except for the one weekday off (Monday), when I intend to get in at least 35 miles.

gerundium

30 mile ride. had a reasonable hill near the end that is pretty steep, totally died going up it :-( last 6 miles home after that with a strong headwind were no joke.

Machka 

That would be funny!

But then, if I posted a sign about bears here, it would cause a bit of a stir!

JPM

did a 40 mile loop this morning. Nasty head wind for the first 18 miles that turned into a crosswind for the next 2 but the ride home was pleasant.

gladiator13

I did a pretty tough 39 mile ride with the local club today. It didn't go as well as we hoped. The person planning it didn't realize that a bunch of roads were gravel. After a few miles and one rider getting a flat we decided to change our course. Well right after we changed we hit a pro level king of the mountain climb and then I broke a spoke and my rear wheel came so far out of true it couldn't make a quarter turn. So after we wrestled with that for awhile and finally got it right we cruised on. After that there were no more difficulties and it was a nice ride. It just took twice as long as it should have.

Nice milestone for me though. I officially passed 1000 miles for the summer. Good day for me

JPM

Nice job!

Machka 

Those kinds of rides can be rewarding ... lots of effort at the beginning but relaxing at the end.

thcri

Newer rider, second year, first on a road bike.

My MPH is low due to the fact I just started working on upping my Cadence. This was in a 20 mph wind. When I got on top of the first hill it felt like 60 mph as the bluff was right on top of Lake Pepin and the wind was from out of the south building up speed across the lake. My cadence is normally around the mid 70's at best.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/119952606

Falchoon

Long weekend here so I've had three good rides, a bit over 300km in total, no pics sorry.

Chris L

My comeback from injury is complete. After breaking three bones on July 26, I have now completed my first century since the crash, after 190km on Saturday. Yeah, I probably could have done the extra 10 and made it a 200, but that wasn't really the point. The point was that the 190 made exactly the kind of statement I wanted to make. A friend and I headed off early down the Tweed Coast in Northern NSW...



After I passed Pottsville, I was thinking about how glad I was to be back in that part of the world...



But maybe that was only because I was making new friends when I paused to apply sunscreen and refill some water bottles at Mullumbimby.



We must have been making reasonable time too. We broke three hours to Mullum for the first time I can ever recall doing it. We also managed to beat the rain when we headed off into the hills behind the town.



Of course, the rain was waiting for us on the return, and stayed with us until the Burringbar Range.



The century milestone came up, appropriately, at the top of the highest climb of the day, Tomewin. The view would have looked better on a clear day, but who's complaining?



Damn that felt good.

Machka 

Sounds like a really good ride Chris!

Machka 

Monday - Rowan and I got out for our usual evening ride, but the cold air and pace we set toward the end of the ride were very hard on my lungs ... really struggling with the breathing these days for some reason.

Jakedatc

As promised Machka.

Sun: went rock climbing at Rumney then a short ride up to a lake nearby. basically up a 6mi hill varying from 4-12% then enjoy the speed on the way back down.


Then Monday: Hiked up Mt Tecumseh in the white mountains. the shortest official 4000 footer in NH fairly easy 5mi loop to the summit and back with pretty nice views of the valley and surrounding mountains. Nice for a half day before heading home. Might be short but they all count when you're ticking off the list

Crappymonkey

I had some great rides this holiday weekend. The weather was absolutely perfect and I had the time to get out and enjoy it. On Sunday I went to the Rouge Park area to get out of the city and there were almost no cars for the entire ride.

For anybody in Toronto who is looking for a nice smooth ride with low traffic you can see the route here.

Here are some of the phone pictures that I took along the way...

kd83

Got 32 miles in on monday, not a bad ride and first time i ever took that route. Sorry no pics, but it was nice weather in PA this weekend

Ultraslide

Sunday I did 100 miles with 4 buddies. 3500 feet of ascent, mostly big rollers in light wind. They dragged me along at a 20 mph average for the day. One of the guys broke his rear shifter at mile 40 and did the remaining 60 in two gears; big ring or little ring with his 17 on the back. Weather was just gorgeous. Sunny and mild. Great ride!

eippo1

I should have brought my camera with me this weekend as I was out riding in NW CT in the Litchfield hills. First time using a powermeter and realized it's basically a suffermachine. It was an interesting revelation as to what my body could do on all the hills and showing me how often I soft pedal on rides.

Saturday's ride was short only being 12 miles to check our my power on hills and get used to having more numbers to look at. Sunday was a tempo ride of 5 miles w/ plenty of climbing and I managed to blow my legs off by the end of the ride, which is great because my MIL lives on the top of a hill w/ a 12% grade. Rode through Salisbury, Sharon, Amenia Union (NY) and Lakeville on my ride and got a nice treat of seeing some sheepdogs doing their thing at a farm I passed.