Weekend Cycling Report -- March 22/23
 

Tell us about your cycling this weekend ... or any other sports you're involved in!


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Ummm ... so far this weekend, we haven't done much in the way of sports, aside from a bit of a walk on a beach. We've done a series of tough rides the last few weekends, and have been busy during the weeks ... and so we wanted to take a bit of a break. :)

50 miles on the Withlacoochie trail. It's a paved rails to trails path affectionately referred to by us as "the coochie".
Scenic, couple of quaint little towns along the way. No pictures, forgot camera again.

Sat: windy 36mi group ride

sun: planning to do 43mi group ride edit: 42mi windy again.. legs are toast

I broke out the Carbon Bianchi and let her run wild and free in NYC went over the GWB with a psycho who wanted to go 20 mph over the walk way....went down town to the Park did a loop and back up to the bridge a good fast 20 miles.

70 miles up the coast. Then a couple of beers, a dip in the jacuzzi and now watching some hoops.

Friday: 55 mile climbing ride, with a total uphill of about 25 miles, 4000 ft total elevation change, lots of 6-8% bits, some 10-13%. Theres theres actually two climbs with a picnic area in the middle that we stop at. Heres a pic from that picnic area.

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps63becae6.jpg

If you look at the brown area of the hillside, that is the cliff adjacent to the road we are about to climb. Once you take the turn in the road that you can see on the left of this pic, you are about 1/4 of the way of that climb. The ultimate destination is an LA County fire station.

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...psbdb83534.jpg



Sat: 65 mile climbing ride, total uphill again about 25 miles, 3500 ft total elevation change, but mostly 3% ish with only a few steep nasty bits. No pics, sorry.




If you follow such Strava goings on, this was a crazy good two days of riding for me: 48 PR, 13 ladies top ten segments, 3 QOMs, overall 98 achievements.


Currently at 165 mi for the week and just shy of 10,000 ft climbing. Tomorrow I plan enough of a ride that I can top my week off to get my first ever 200 mi/10k ft weekly total.

H

breaking in the new track bike this weekend.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-62aMUlAaYA...0/IMG_1502.JPG

Local century ride yesterday. Bit gutted to go over 6 hours but my recent "training" rides (650 and 400km) haven't been optimal :)

Country road classic by znomit at Garmin Connect - Details

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps72b09b13.jpg

Today just a little baby ride: 35 miles through a local canyon, not much elevation change, just 5 short little hills. Topped me off for the week at 200 mi & 11,000 ft elevation change.

H

Sunday - 14.03 km around Launceston, exploring some of the paths and trails.

Sunday I rode 78 miles of mostly chipseal roads in rural areas. Of note, we stumbled upon zebras and camels. I'm guessing it was a privately owned sanctuary of some sort.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...99004298_n.jpg
I'm the big/old guy third in our pace line.

Did my first Century on the Withlacoochee Trail on Saturday, and was fortunate enough to get with a great group of riders. After the first 7-8 miles alone (and in the dark), at first light, two riders passed me at about 20 mph. I fell in behind them, and less than a mile up the trail we headed out onto the country roads for an 8 mile loop with some Florida "hills." I asked them if I could join them, and they said "the more the merrier." I offered to share in the pulling, but they said that Michael was a super strong rider and liked pulling. We stayed together for 70+ miles with Michael pulling nearly the entire time. We picked up three other folks (two on Cervello tri bikes) who had left before us. Michael pulled at a steady 20-22 mph for nearly 70 miles, only slowing for road crossings and two brief SAG stops. When one of the group had some asthma problems with about 20 miles to go, Michael stayed with him and sent the rest of us on to finish. We rode individually the last 20 miles, but I was fresh enough to keep nearly an 18 mph pace. The final result was (per Map My Ride) 102 miles at an average speed of 18.7 mph for a duration of 5:27:47. A big thanks to Michael and his friend Tom for letting me ride along on their century, I had a blast...and the weather was in the 70's most of the morning, only going into the 80's late in the ride! This was the perfect first Century ride, particularly for someone my age (63) who just came back to cycling last May. It doesn't get much better than this!

I haven't been riding my hybrid in months, so I busted it out this weekend. Since it weighs about 10 pounds more than my road bike it about busted my legs. However, glorious weather on Saturday made for an enjoyable 40 mile ride. Sunday I got in another 40 miles. It was a little dreary and my legs were giving out on the last 5 miles.

I didn't get to ride on Saturday, but Sunday I rode with a group from my FLBS. Worked out to just over 42 miles, pretty flat though. It was a fun time. :)

Bike Ride Profile | Morning Ride near La Habra | Times and Records | Strava

That is an awesome pace. Especially since it was your first Century and you are back to cycling less than a year.

Very impressive.

H

Kickoff of USA Crits in Delray Beach Florida on Saturday night. The women's race was better than the mens. The men had a 3 man breakaway early on that almost lapped the filed but then the peleton clawed them back to get within 10 seconds thanks to some nice field prems. Followed it up with the Delray Beach GranFondo on Sunday, great day of riding.

Weekend Cycling Report -- March 22/23
 

Rode 4 days in a row. First rides since December. 2 rides on my new Motobecane and 2 on my new Follis. Follis seems to be a nicer ride. Waved to a lot of cyclists but only a couple returned the wave. Very strange.

Saturday I did 13 miles solo just to get a feel for the new bike and Sunday I went on my 1st group ride and did 32 miles. Was a bit cold, mid 30's to low 40's but I had a lot of fun

I was out there too. I was wondering if any other members were there. Hadn't ridden the trail before and I didn't know about the ride event going on. I started at Hwy 50 and rode north to Inverness, turned around at 25 miles, then back. Weather was indeed fantastic. Easiest 50 I've done.

The Withlacoochee Trail is 46 miles long from Dunnellon on the north to about 6 miles north of Dade City on the south. A new northern extension is scheduled to open any day now, and I don't know how much more that will add (at least a few miles I would guess), but I hear it is a beautiful ride along the Withlacoochee River. Since the trail is a "rails to trails" it is relatively flat unless you leave the trail and go onto the local roads which have some small rolling hills. Our Saturday morning ride does this and sometimes goes down to the Brooksville area where there are some nice rolling hills. If you want hills, at least Florida "hills," the West Orange Trail connects to Clermont, and there are some rolling hills there.

San Antonio area has some nice hills too. San Antonio Cyclery does group rides in the area. Hwy 52 an I-75 area.