Machka 

Where did you ride this weekend? How far? How fast? Or did you do other sports this weekend instead ... cross-training?
What's it like where you are? Good cycling weather? Or not?
Got pics?


[HR][/HR]

It is another long weekend here in sunny, warm Hobart. After a miserable January, we finally started to get a bit of decent weather. If the forecasters are to be believed, it should hit 33C today.

And we are planning another beach ride.

Buffalo Buff

Today was a good day.

Rode to a nearby lake, enjoyed the view, then rode back. About 8 miles.

Rode another mile to a local disc golf course, where I threw 18 holes, getting about 3 miles of walking in.

Did 15 minutes with my ab wheel, then got back on my bike and sprinted the ~3.5 miles to the gym as best I could. Fastest I've ever gotten there!

Was chest day. Could only get up to 310lbs on bench today, normally I can hit 325-330. Frustrating. Did do better on weighted dips than normal though.

Rode ~3.5 miles from the gym to work. Traffic was backed up the last mile, which worked fine for me on my skinny road bike. Had a lot of people honk at me, like I'm an ******* because they're stuck in a box that's stuck between other boxes

Just rode home. Was a good day. Still have energy left, not sure what to do! Maybe a night run.

Machka 

Good variety!

Machka 

Thursday -- Rowan and I got out for a 9.62 km evening ride ... just a casual ride up and down some of the streets in a neighbouring town with the appealing feature of being relatively flat.

So nice to ride in the evening again ... that little ride made me very happy.



Saturday -- 19.07 km near a somewhat local beach. This ride was a slog! And by the last 5 km, I felt quite sick and horrible. There was a misunderstanding and I had thought we would be riding on the beach, not a road loop near the beach, so I was dressed in beach attire ... swimming suit, rashie, and shorts with the least padding in them. Although the temp did not reach 33C as promised (of course), it did get to 28C ... and I'm here to tell you that the swimming suit + rashie combination is not particularly breathable. I wanted to stop and rest several times, but could not wait for the ride to be over!

But it did eventually end, and then the fun began ... we went to the beach with our surf skis!! When we first arrived, the beach looked relatively calm, but soon after we got there the sea breeze kicked up and our surf ski adventure was much like being on a rowing machine (with kayak-style paddling), but with the benefit of sea breeze, sunshine, and warm waves washing over us. Great fun!! And I even managed to catch a few waves and come flying back into shore ... made all the paddling out worthwhile. The rashie also came into it's own as I tumbled off my surf ski a few times.

We did a bit of wading and I also attempted to swim, but the waves were a bit much for my limited swimming skill.

Buffalo Buff

Sounds nice. I still need to make it out to the NC coast sometime when I have a few days off.

Jealous of those temps too. I felt like we had nice weather, hitting 65f/18c some days. Just moved from somewhere that is under a few feet of snow so I'll take it

kbarch

Not much to report, but I took my time getting my act together and by the time I got outside it had started snowing. Well, why not? I'm in the kit, I've got the fenders... So I just went for a short spin up to the park, a lazy loop, then home. Of course, but the time I got home, it stopped snowing. Here's the bike on the way home.



Didn't someone say something about icebergs somewhere earlier?

The park was surprisingly crowded - I guess because it's a little warmer than it has been - but the folks who were there were more oblivious than ever - many standing in our sauntering down the very the middle of the road, as if it was a lawn or something. There weren't many other cyclists, but it wasn't as if there wasn't plenty of other traffic - parks vehicles, carriages, pedi-cabs, etc...

In any event, it was just 18 miles, and it was fun!

San Pedro

Only my second time out on my bike, and I did a 13.2 km ride (most likely). About 5 km of that was pure climb (and 5km pure down). I was able to climb higher than I thought, but I couldn't finish the nice loop through the small mountain near my house. Probably was like another .5k to 1km to the peak of the road. I was pretty beat and didn't know that at the time. Out of shape. Down hill on a wet road covered with pine needles was fun too.

Really much better climber than my old commuter bike. Hopefully, I'll find more time to do some fun rides, rather than the upcoming commutes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7h...ew?usp=sharing

San Pedro

You made me cold looking at that.

Machka 

Sunday -- We drove into town, found a place to park, and cycled part-way up the cycleway and back into town.

It's the Hobart Regatta long weekend this weekend, and the Wooden Boat Festival is on as well ... Home | Australian Wooden Boat Festival ... so Hobart is teaming with people.

We milled about for about 3 hours looking at various boats, and chatting with a number of people about our Bike Fridays (our bicycle of choice today), including a friend of ours who had a boat in the festival, who builds bicycles, and who just bought a Bike Friday tandem. We stopped for fish and chips and gradually made our way back to the cycleway where we continued our ride.

All up ... 25.94 km.

jbchybridrider 

94.7km today Riverton to Clare rail trail. Very warm, summers back and the last 20 nearly killed me the head winds were so strong.

Country side is the Barossa Valley wine region and there were plenty ripe wild growing apple tree's to keep me topped up along the way.

kbarch

Those 'icebergs' were mostly melted today - nice and warm, above freezing by a couple of degrees, so I rode 33% longer

kbarch

That's a beautiful thing!
Of course, rather than apples, one normally thinks of bananas for bike-ride nourishment. So I wonder what it's like to ride in Brazil or some such place, where there are banana trees growing wild along the side of the road (will never forget seeing that from the bus on the highway between Sao Paolo and Rio)....

2manybikes

About two miles snow shoeing.

Machka 

I spent about a month cycling through Queensland a number of years ago, and in several places mango trees were planted along road reserves ... my cycling partner and I supplemented our diet with fresh, ripe mangos.


There were bananas too, the short, sweet lady-finger style of bananas ... but those we had to buy. There were little fruit stands set up here and there selling them, and other fruit for very reasonable prices.

jbchybridrider 

Banana's would be nice. There was also ripe peaches and at other times of the year would be grapes but I'll take what I can get.

I didn't say I got stung by a wasp on the forehead too and woke up with a pumpkin head, when at home I'm normally am a banana head.

woodcraft

The Saturday ride was given over to fixing a storm-damaged roof.

Sunday killer 1 1/2 hr spin class while it dumped rain outside.

Machka 

Monday -- Rowan and I rode the Pipeline Track + a bit. 25.54 km in total.

Pipeline Track

The Pipeline Track is one of Hobart's easiest mountain bike trails ... a gradual climb to the end and then a relatively easy cruise back to the start. And it is beautiful! Because it is quite high in the mountains there are some lovely views, and the trail itself goes through varied vegetation including some of my favourites ... groves of manferns.

In addition to the main trail, we took one detour to Silver Falls ... pushed the bicycles up and cycled down. And another detour to Crispins Well. For that, we locked the bicycles and hiked up ... not too far. Both really pretty falls.

Nice day ... good ride.

Machka 

The beginning of today's photos ...

Starting up the Pipeline Track ...




At Silver Falls ...

CoMotionRider

Virginia had some warm weather this weekend. Saturday started off cold but made it way up into the upper 50’s, but very windy. I got out for 39 miles. Wind was rough. Sunday it was supposed to get into the upper 60’s but actually made it into the 70’s. It felt great to ride in shorts and just a jersey. Big group ride for 53 miles. Again lots of wind. We took the tandem out. Great weekend. Loved the warm weather.

Carbonfiberboy 

It was pouring Saturday so our group ride was cancelled. We consoled ourselves with an hour on the rollers and trainer. Sunday it did not rain and we rode with our group for a change - we've been leaving ahead of them and just riding Z2. This time we thought we'd do intensity instead and that's what they dished out: 1:14 of Z4 and 20' of Z5, which way understates the amount of high intensity due to HR lag. However we stayed with the group and averaged 16.7, .6 faster than we've ever done this route with the group. Not bad for February, so I guess we're doing the right thing.

nuke_diver

And I was just going to write that you didn't have any pictures Machka

Rained this weekend so I wouldn't have gone riding even if I could. First week after surgery all seems to be going well. I see the doctor today and will find out when I can get back on a bike. Hopefully a stationary bike this week and maybe my older bike by the weekend (since it's supposed to be near 80F...in FEB!!!!! here in NorCal). Not sure that's a good thing. I'll be on my older bike first since I'm not sure I'll be able to easily twist out of the clipins for a while. I suspect though real cycling is likely a few weeks out...maybe a month

jsigone

Yesterday got out for a flat beach cruz ~ 70.9mi / 4:08:44/ 2,408ft

alexaschwanden

Friday: 51 miles in the rain
saturday : relaxed
sunday : imax show in san jose
monday: 33.2 miles using the Guadalupe trail and san tomas trail.

floridamtb

Dolphin Cycling Challenge in Miami, had a George Hincappie sighting

Fly2High

OK newbee responding here.

I only got the bike on Jan 17th. and have only been doing 3,3 and 5 mile runs so far (average about 20-30 mins max). Started doing some indoor training over the past week,

Sunday Feb 8th I had my best run to date. It was about 41 deg on Long Island , NY and I got decked out in a insulated long sleeve jersey, shorts, leg and arm warmers and a Pearl Isumi Softshell jacket. I cycled for 1hr 5 min for a total distance of 11.6 miles. Averaged each mile between 11-15 mph and maxed several times at 22 mph. I just do a 1 mile loop around my block to stay close to home in case something should go wrong and repeat it several times. Sunday, I was having too much fun and enjoyed the burn. It was cool to also see some of the neighbors out jogging too.

When I was done, it was a little warmer(47 deg. F) and decided to wash the bike down to get the road salts and sand off of it. Re-lubed and all shiny now.

Best day yet for me. Looking forward to warmer weather and longer rides to come. For now, I'll enjoy my indoor training and stealing a ride here and there when the weather isn't too bad. I don't mind cold, it is rain, ice and snow that bothers me. I feel there is no reason to push getting injured and miss riding tomorrow. Not that competitive yet.

Today, the roads have a nice layer of ice on them from the freezing snow/rain we have had. So glad I rode yesterday....

yeah, I'm hooked.

Frank