Tell us about your cycling this weekend ... and post pics if you've got them!

Saturday -- 4.5 km walking, some of that with Rowan.


And then my longest Zwift Ride yet.

Distance: 30.52 km
Moving Time: 1:20:13
Elapsed Time: 1:20:13
Elevation: 254 m

............... Avg | Max
Speed ... 22.8 km/h | 61.6 km/h
Heart Rate ... 141 bpm | 169 bpm
Cadence ... 81 | 127
Power ... 86W | 171W

Crazy ride today.
A couple of friends set out with the goal of getting 100 miles just by doing repeats of Alpine Hill in Palisades Interstate Park (just under 3 miles down and back up), and a couple of us decided to join them for a bit. One of the instigators had to leave for work before he managed to get more than 76 miles (but nearly 12,000'). I ran out of snack and got hungry and bowed out after maybe 10 repeats and headed to The Market for a sandwich. I'd done a fair bit of hilly riding before joining the party, and wound up with 76 miles and just under 9,000 feet.
Haven't seen reports of how anyone else has done yet....

The top of every one of those climbs in the middle was the same - just goes to show how inaccurate the elevation numbers are, but still gives a pretty good idea.... Bike odometer shows only 74 miles....

Saturday - Got out for a lazy 50 miler around the valley. Opted for the Serotta CSI today. Wanted to see how it felt on a long ride, it did ok.

Friday my work sponsored a movie outing. I decided to use the time to bike home with a nice view instead of sitting in a dark theater. The 22 mile morning ride was pleasant for the first 13 miles than WHAM comes a strong headwind. Fine, winds are from the north, generally, won't be an issue riding mostly south on the way home. Wrong. Winds were from the SW, temps dropped more than normal and I was chilly on part of the ride and because of the headwind, my toes started complaining of the cold. So it wasn't the nice, summer evening ride I was expecting, but it was a 67 mile day. The weather in Nor Cal has been crazy this spring: mostly cold, lots of fronts moving through and hence lots of wind. I was happy when this past week the weather was rather pleasant and I needed no arm warmers. And it was VERY windy out today, even early this morning. My ride day off (platelet donation), but I'm not sure I can convince myself to ride tomorrow if the wind is as strong as it is today.

Sat: was planning on doing the gravel ride with the shop 15 mins away. GF texted me from the start of our shop ride 3 blocks away and said they were doing a route I wanted to do. Ran to the basement, grabbed road bike, loaded it with bottles and garmin. Ran outside and got shoes and helmet from the car and took off. I knew they had already left but the start is usually mellow and I had a great tailwind. Caught my GF's group within a mile and asked how far the long route group was and she said not far. Kicked it up another notch and caught them in the next few streets. 21.5 avg for a few miles wooo good and warmed up. Group had about 6-7 people and we had a great ride. The longest stretch was into a rough headwind that made me glad to have a powermeter so i knew i wasn't just sucking. 40 miles later we were back and I spent the rest of the day being dehydrated and bonky. Long mtn bike ride tomorrow, hopefully we get most of it in before it gets really hot again.

We had 200k/300k/400k brevets scheduled yesterday, had two of us doing the 300k, four riders on the 400k. That's me in the back right, tandem stoker back left. Slow ride, but worked out okay, and was actually less hot than anticipated.

Got a recovery ride in late this morning. Sunny and quite warm - some roads I've never taken before, some of which I'll never take again - just because I kept following the flattest road, which became increasingly bike-unfriendly. Not terrible, just kind of weird, semi-industrial, with irregular shoulders. Took just one bottle, and finished it off just a little before arriving back home an hour after leaving. Just under 13 miles, about 500'. It was kind of weird getting home, having lunch and a nap all before 1:00 - after leaving so late, especially.

p.s. to yesterday's report: one friend did manage to finish his Alpine Century - took him 12 hours start to finish (little more than 10 moving) and he accumulated FIFTEEN THOUSAND feet - and he never got even two miles from his car! A couple of others who joined the party got a metric or more with around 120'/mile for the day.

Friday was a public holiday, went out for a short group ride but for some reason I was "off". Couldn't keep up on the climbs where I would usually be the first to the top, had to struggle to avoid being dropped on the flats, etc.

So decided to skip a Saturday ride and just rest.

Sunday I was supposed to do some hill climbing with a relatively fast group, which required some driving to get to the starting location. Just as I was about to head out the door, came heavy rain. I thought I'd just drive there anyway, maybe the weather over there would be different but no, the rain just got heavier and heavier as I drove. Parked the car, checked the group's Facebook page and it looks like they cancelled. Decided to sit and wait in the car for a while, as the rain was still quite heavy and I didn't want to navigate the windy hilly roads in such rain. A couple of other cyclists were also in their cars waiting -- I could tell by their roof racks and/or what the drivers were wearing, lol. One by one they decided to leave, the roads partially flooded by then, and so after the rain began to lighten I decided to leave also. If I had waited another 15-30 minutes I am sure the rain would have stopped, but I didn't want to negotiate the very wet roads, especially since I could no longer enjoy bombing downhill afterwards in such road conditions.

Saturday - 20 miles around the home.

Sunday had a fun whole day riding. Around 115 miles (?).
Redmond - Mulkiteo - ferry 1 - Clinton (Whidbey Island) - Coupeville - ferry 2 - Port Townsend (Olympic peninsula) - Kingston - ferry 3 - Edmonds - Redmond.
When I got to Coupeville around noon I found out that the previous 11:45 and 12:30 PM ferries were cancelled due to low tide . Anyway great view and nice weather




Whidbey island, before taking my second ferry from Coupeville to Port Townsend


Port Townsend seen from ferry


Olympic peninsula, on my way to Hood Canal bridge and third ferry from Kingston to Edmonds

No road rides in over a month since being hit by a car and breaking my shoulder. But I was finally cleared to use my road bike on the indoor trainer this past week, provided I didn't put too much weight on the bad arm/shoulder. It's still crunchy and not quite rejoined.

So far, so good. I thought I'd have completely lost any conditioning and would be gassed out after five minutes. But I've been able to handle four indoor trainer rides of 30-60 minutes, including some short sprints and 5 minutes of Zone 4 efforts. Shoulder aches a bit after some rides, but soaking in a hot tub helps. Tonight I stood on the pedals two or three times for 30 seconds at a time and was able to support myself -- although it would have been unbalanced on the road without the trainer supporting the bike.

To be safe I should probably wait another month to try a road ride, but I'm going to ask the physical therapist next week. I'm getting antsy.

Sun: Got out real early to the mtn bike area as we were warned the parking gets full. GF and I hadn't been to this place before but it is the largest area in CT so it is well documented and mapped. We did an easy green loop then a few blue trails before heading back. At the end GF decided to take a short trail back and I continued on the blue we were on that would end at the same spot.. famous last words. I got to the end of the trail and my horrible spidey sense got me all turned around. Also the signage pointing towards the parking lot we were at was a small poster on one tree then nothing after that (with 2 turns needed). wandered back and forth on a fire road looking at my garmin's "BEGIN" flag taunting me. Ended up going around far enough that I ended up near the end of that first green trail and at least knew where to go.. followed it the wrong way back (luckily no one came the other way). Dropped me RIGHT back where I had started being lost.. great. This time I ran into some people heading out and followed them. ended up with 5 mi extra getting me to 14mi total. Very happy I have the roadie fitness to deal with that kind of mistake but it was frustrating. Long ass day on the mountain bike but trails were great and we'll go back for sure.

Got in a great 50 mile ride on Saturday. Started in Falls Village, Connecticut and went up through to Sheffield Massachusetts - then back down south to West Cornwall Connecticut where I got the most amazing pastry (it was called a Chocolate Chub - to absolutely die for!!!). Some new roads for me - they were in between two other sections of the state that I've done a fair amount of riding in so I'm now able to connect some dots to create new loops. Gorgeous day!!!

Monday

The rear tire on my trainer flatted yesterday. I didn't feel like fixing it then, but I did today and got a Zwift ride in.

Distance: 13.11 km
Moving Time: 31:27
Elevation: 65 m

"Terrible Two" double century Saturday.
Weather was pretty good- not too hot, but wind from opposite of usual direction slowed things a bit.
The route is remote & scenic for the most part, but much of the pavement is in horrible condition, including a number of gravel sections.
Didn't break any speed records, but finished in OK shape. The recently installed 11/34 cassette eased the suffering on the many 13%+ climbs.
The new Wahoo bolt lasted almost to the end but the app has been a PIA- crashing & won't upload the file to Strava.
201 miles, 17,700', 15:11 moving time.

I went on a solo bike vacation this weekend in the Fanning Springs area of FL. I rented a tiny house cottage that was right on the river. On purpose I was seeking out some non paved roads to ride on with my adventure/gravel bike. The first day I went on a combination of packed dirt and paved roads that mostly went through farm country. One thing I learned is how badly the roads are marked in rural areas. Sometimes there is no sign at all or the road has several names depending on where you're at. Also, it appears many routes I thought were open, based on Google maps, were actually fenced off by farmers or the government. Much improvising had to be done. Total for day one was 42 miles. Day two the centerpiece of the ride was going into Andrews Wildlife Management area. I thought it was a short loop in and out. However, I kept getting blocked by gates and had to try side roads only to find they didn't go anywhere. I finally figured out I was going to have to hop a gate to continue. It was barely a road with grass up to my knees. It took a while to figure out how to get out, but I finally did. It would have been a little more enjoyable if I knew where I was going, but I also got to see tons of deer leaping through the woods, flocks of wild turkey and some boars too. My bike and I were covered in dirt and sand. I continued riding for a while longer until my legs said that's far enough time to turn around. About then I got caught in a long and sustained downpour. It actually worked out well since it cleaned off my bike. Due to getting semi lost I did more miles than I anticipated. It was about 53 total.
Typical packed dirt road in the area:

Bridge over the Suwanee river on the Nature Coast Trail:

Gravel road inside Andrews WMA:

Not much of a road in Andrews WMA:

I had an absolutely cracking club run on Saturday. Six of us broke off from the group we were in (bit of confusion, we thought it was group 2 due to who was in it, but really it was just some of the faster guys who wanted an easier ride in group 3. group 3 does a slightly different route, missing out the main climb which we wanted to do), and most of us ended up posting some of our fastest rides of our normal club run. I improved over 1mph from the last time I did the full route (before Christmas), going from a 15.5-16.6mph. This year I have been seeing massive gains in speed and endurance so I'm feeling good. The goal is to hit 18mph average for at least our Thursday evening club ride.

Sunday - This day was a bust. Decided to be bad and rode the old 3 speed down to the store for some donuts early in the morning. By midday I was feeling sick and really tired so I skipped doing a real ride. It better have not been the donuts because they are a basic food group for me, LOL!




Hanging out under my willow tree eating the donuts and savoring some fresh coffee.



I think this bike is finally done. Replacing the crank and putting on a new chain were the final things needed to make this a reliable errand runner.<br/>

Friday, 1 June 2018 ... 2.9 km walking + 6 flights of stairs
Saturday 2 June 2018 ... 2.9 km running + 3.1 km walking + 12.6 km cycling indoors with Zwift
Sunday 3 June 2018 ... 2.6 km running + 3.5 km walking + 10.45 km cycling indoors with Zwift
Monday, 4 June 2018 ... 5.2 km walking + 4 km cycling indoors with Zwift + 5 flights of stairs
Tuesday, 5 June 2018 ... 5.1 km walking + 10.76 km cycling indoors with Zwift + 4 flights of stairs
Wednesday, 6 June 2018 ... 4.8 km walking + 4 flights of stairs
Thursday, 7 June 2018 ... 4.5 km walking + 6 flights of stairs

Friday, 8 June 2018 ... 2.3 km walking + 4 flights of stairs
Saturday, 9 June 2018 ... 6.6 km walking
Sunday, 10 June 2018 ... 3.4 km walking + 15.91 km cycling indoors with Zwift
Monday, 11 June 2018 ... 6.3 km walking + 13.5 km cycling indoors with Zwift
Tuesday, 12 June 2018 ... 4.9 km walking + 15.42 km cycling indoors with Zwift + 4 flights of stairs
Wednesday, 13 June 2018 ... 3.1 km walking + 2 flights of stairs
Thursday, 14 June 2018 ... 3.1 km walking + 7.42 km cycling indoors with Zwift + 6 flights of stairs

Friday, 15 June 2018 ... 3.1 km walking + 4 flights of stairs
Saturday, 16 June 2018 4.5 km walking + 30.5 km cycling indoors with Zwift
Sunday, 17 June 2018 2.6 km walking
Monday, 18 June 2018 5 km walking + 13.1 km cycling indoors with Zwift + 4 flights of stairs
Tuesday, 19 June 2018 2 km walking + 15.77 km cycling indoors with Zwift + 2 flights of stairs


2017 Monthly June
Walking Distance (km): 81.5
Walking Time (min): 1018.8
Cycling Distance (km): 149.4
Cycling Time (min): 480.6
Stairs Climbed Number: 51.0
Stairs Climbed Time (min): 40.8


Totals
Total Distance (km): 230.9
Total Distance (miles): 143.5
Total Time (min): 1540.1
Total Time (hr): 25:40:06


**Almost all of that walking has been commute/utility walking. The little bit that hasn't been commute/utility walking, has been slow walking with Rowan as he recovers**