Happy Weekend! What are you doing for exercise this weekend? Cycling - inside or out? Hiking? Swimming? Canoeing? Tell us all about it and post pics if you've got them! There have been some great pictures posted lately.

Saturday -- Rowan and I got out for a short 500 metre walk this afternoon. It was supposed to be rainy, windy, and cold all day ... but it cleared for a bit, and the wind died down, and the temp crawled up to 10C so I figured we'd grab the opportunity and get out in some sunshine!

He's been out walking with his home care worker a couple times this past week ... one was just a very short walk, but the other was a slow 1.9 km, with a couple breaks. 1.9 km isn't bad at all!

And then I rode the trainer ... Zwift! Good ride ... some hills, some sprints ... a section of virtual pouring rain.

Distance: 30.23 km
Elevation: 254 m
Moving Time: 1:18:14
Elapsed Time: 1:18:14


....................... Avg ............... Max
Speed ............ 23.2km/h ........ 62.6km/h
Heart Rate ...... 137bpm .......... 177bpm
Cadence .......... 82 .................. 146
Power ............. 92W ............... 282W

Hey, good to hear Rowan's making progress. It'll probably seem slow but if you keep a diary it may help.

I rode 19 miles Saturday morning, first time outdoors on the road bike since I was hit by a car in early May. Felt pretty good most of the first 15 miles. Using the indoor trainer has helped maintain some fitness. Mostly a casual pace that felt slower than the 15 mph it turned out to be.

Shoulder began aching around 15 miles in so I stopped at the LBS to buy a helmet/sunglasses mirror (I feel nekkid without a Take-a-Look, and my other helmet and mirror are with a friend who rescued my bike and gear from the ER in May). They had a used Specialized Tarmac on sale so I took a spin around the block. Wow. Big difference from my '89 steel bike. That lightweight carbon bike felt like it climbed hills almost by itself. And the bar and hoods are much more comfy than the old school design. The brifters help too -- much quicker to shift on climbs without losing momentum, which is always a problem on climbs with downtube shifters since I have to sit at least briefly to shift. I can see now why I usually get dropped on climbs in faster group rides.

Newer bikes have some definite advantages. Kinda tempted, although I'm not sure I'll have any spare change after medical bills from the injury. We'll see.

Saturday - Not sure how today was going to go. Did my usual 25 mile ride yesterday but with temps avg 100 degrees. I took it easy but was afraid it may have taken a toll on me. But didn't seem to be the case. Did around 51 miles today at a respectable 18.1 mph pace. It did get hot and windy for around the last 20 miles. Took out the Giordana XL Super today as I continue to dedicate this month to riding one bike after another until I get through all of them. This bike is still my favorite, something feels so magical about it.




The mighty Italian out on the road today.



Not all that clear today. A lot of wildfires out here and it effects the air quality.

The "Rowan" thread is kind of a diary: https://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plu...341-rowan.html

And yes, I read through there and can see how far he has come.

BTW - Rowan has posted in there.


Glad to hear you're back on the bicycle again!

I'll get caught up on reading that thread again. I haven't looked for a couple of weeks.

I kept journals of my mom's health care and complications over the years, which helped put things into perspective.

And with my own injuries and complications I've been doing the same, although now it's very shorthand using my smartphone. I use Google calendar and Keep for most notes. Helps when the nurses and doctors ask questions. I've also enabled Google tracking by default to my private timeline, so I have a record of my medical visits and related stuff (trips to pharmacies, etc.). It's also a safety thing -- if I'm unconscious and can't remember how a collision or injury occurred, I don't need to rely on Strava or other activity apps. It's all automagically recorded by Google. This helped confirm my version of the collision that busted up my shoulder in May. While I was never unconscious, stress and pain can cause inaccurate memories, so it was helpful to have an independent and objective recording device that confirmed what I remembered.

Sunday -- Casual ride through the volcanoes on Zwift.

Distance: 16.65 km
Elevation: 61 m
Moving Time: 40:13
Elapsed Time: 40:13


........................ Avg .............. Max
Speed ............. 24.8km/h ........ 41.8km/h
Heart Rate ...... 122bpm .......... 134bpm
Cadence ......... 81 .................. 113
Power ............ 81W ............... 134W

And something for your amusement ...

When your cat crashes his bicycle in his dream ...

https://www.strava.com/activities/1686859266

27.7 mi. w/1666 ft elevation at 14.9 mph.with my gf. A KOM and a couple PBs and a couple close to PB. The best part is that it was a really pleasant ride and quality time for us.

63 miles on Saturday. Perfect day after the heat wave of the previous week broke. Was actually a bit chilly at the start ... low 50's F. but low humidity and mid-70's by the end of the ride. Started in North Canaan, CT ... up into SW Mass through Bash Bish State Park into New York and back into Connecticut to start point. Perfect day!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1687043970

Wifey and I did a different route than our normal (well, slightly) trying to hit exactly 3:45 of riding. If we'd had a bit of faith we'd have gotten to the end of Sun City and probably gotten the time on the nose. It was a good ride, other than about 10 minutes of getting rained on towards the end. You can even see where it is by the temperature drop.

Then the sun came back out and turned the world into a steam room, just in time for our brick run.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1687113834

Sunday - Was planning on an easy 25 miles but wound up doing a little over 30 at an avg pace of 19 mph. The old Maillot Jaune just wanted to run this morning so I let it go.

Only rode 13 miles yesterday. I wussed out because of the triple-digit temperature here in So Cal. Record breaking heat.
Jon

Gorgeous weather this weekend, but nothing special, ride-wise.

In kind of a foul mood yesterday. Rode fast-ish for a warm-up, then sort of wandered around, just trying to keep the pace up. Because there was a bit of a breeze from the north, I thought I'd give a shot at improving my time up the little segment from the Alpine boat basin up to the circle. Got a good run up to the point I needed to switch to the little ring and KA-RUNCH! Jammed! Got the chain un-stuck and headed back down to try again. Took a while to settle down and get ready to go again, but again I got a great start - kept it above 20 for about 1/3 of the climb, but this time it wasn't the bike that crapped out, it was me. All of a sudden I felt like I was running on fumes, then totally out of gas. Well, it wasn't quite so bad - but speed plummeted, and I wound up poking my way up and back onto 9W, from where I took the easiest way home. Maybe if I'd had breakfast I wouldn't have been in a foul mood or bonked. Strava is broken at the moment, but I seem to recall the total was around 30 miles, so probably about 12-1500' (edit add, now that Strava is back up: it was 31 miles, 1600' - I'm getting the hang of guesstimating elevation... )

Group ride on old familiar roads today, a few familiar faces, a few new ones, and very quiet, until the return from the Market, where a handful of us decided to hammer a little, so there was all kinds of chatter that went with that. We had lingered at the Market for a little while, but it was all over very quickly. 45 miles, 2170'

Thursday, 100 mi
Friday, 101 mi
Saturday, 22 mi (with my kids)
Sunday 125 mi

Time for a couple of days off.

Well...I'm learning gravel!

Thursday: Solo ride, working on some gravel skills. Knocked off a pretty nasty gravel climb (parts of the climb hit 18%!) 33 miles, 2,211'

Friday: Fast solo road ride, with a bit less climbing than usual. Tried out a few hills that I haven't done in a few years, and had previously only done on a fixed gear. 43.7 miles, 1,762'

Sunday: Group gravel ride (67 miles), plus riding to/from and a few bonus miles. 100.8 miles, 6,243'. I think that's the most climbing I've done in one day.

Saturday was 21 miles doing errands. Traffic is getting bad so I've started biking which is less frustrating. Sunday was a 32 mile ride as I got a late start. Discovered that 12+% grade is more than I can handle :-/ . Some walk of shame while two people biking in the opposite direction could enjoy my shame.

Monday -- Just a bit of a spin to start the work week. Plus a PR on a sprint.


Distance: 12.50 km
Elevation: 65 m
Moving Time: 30:22
Elapsed Time 30:22


......................... Avg ............. Max
Speed.............. 24.7km/h ....... 46.4km/h
Heart Rate ...... 124bpm ......... 172bpm
Cadence ......... 82 ................. 148
Power ............ 82W .............. 234W

Got an 20 in Saturday morning, and 52 Sunday afternoon. Supposed to be very nice weather, albeit hot this week so I need to take advantage of it.

I did 75 miles around Lake George, NY on Saturday, 5500' of climbing. The entire loop around the lake is 95 miles, but the roads kinda suck on the far side so I called my wife at mile 65 and we met at 75. Still not a bad day of riding.

At 6:30 Sunday morning it was already 75 so I knew it was going to get hot. Decided to head toward the coast. Rode over to Watsonville and then south on the Pacific coast bike route for about 5 miles before starting back. Google bike directions guided me to a road I never knew about with a mile long 10+ % grade that kicked my ass but was nice otherwise. 63 miles total. It was about 90 when I got home a little before noon.

I did 31.5 yesterday

July 4th got in a bonus holiday ride out to Flat Woods trail for 45 miles. Saturday did the Picnic and Davis Is. route for 41 miles. Sunday went back to Flat Woods for another 45 miles. It's so hot and sweaty my hands were slipping on the brifters.

Rode along the top of the levy:

Heavy rains flooded part of the trail pretty badly:

Nice. Love the bike. I'm riding a Guru Sidero (Italian for "of steel."). My favorite bike.

Was up there at Raquette Lake but on my Ducati. Hills were no problem.