Did the usual 22.5 today. I rode without a helmet for the first time in 4 years. When I was getting ready to leave this morning, I couldn't find my helmet. I finally tracked it down to the bed of my pickup, where it had been left when we came home Sunday! It was wet from the morning dew, so I went without. The odd thing is that it is really noisy riding without a helmet. I twist the straps just in front of my ears, which tends to push the airflow out and around my ears, it is much quieter for me riding with the helmet on. I also noticed that the sweat ran down my face. Needless to say, I will have it on again tomorrow. It is getting a little hard to keep clean anymore, so I ordered a new one this afternoon. After 4 years, I think I got my $24 worth from the old one!

Yup -- the usual Conte's ride in Arlington. Three times out-and-back on Military Rd., dragging my friends along (they're normally twice out-and-back riders, but they pushed it a bit harder this time). 13.something miles, 16.5mph average speed. Also met another Hokie with an interesting two-tone orange and red/maroon "Harlequin" bar taping job that I may have to copy.

Added a few extra miles on my usual ride today, 25.8 miles. Really quiet this morning, don't think I saw more than 18 people during the whole ride, and a few of them were walking their dogs.

Thursday 8/27/09... Good solo 40.25 mile ride today. The temp was 77 degrees at 7 am when I started this morning with the humidity at 94% and 86 degrees when I finished. The upside of the ride was I beat the heat and rain again today and I felt like I could have gone for a full 100. Breakfast at Panera was great as usual. I should break the 725 mile mark this month my best YTD.
All is well in slo spoke Jims' household.

40.25 (s)miles today
648.88 (s)miles this month
4,395.39 (s)miles this year
17 ride days this month

Rode 41km out to Bluffers Park and back this morning. Man, that hill is frickin' steep.

35mi/1:50hr with 5 of the local Hammer guys. about killed me on this ride, as i'm not used to such a high pace after being sick with bronchitis.

I've been doing my usual morning A rides of 20-30 miles at 18-20 mph.

But todays ride was preempted by an angry cager who yelled profanities and threatened us with bodily harm. We were able to flag down a leo who was able to radio out to find the auto and stop them. We were then stoped by another leo, twice and asked to give a statement. They really wanted to haul this guy in, but had to hand over to the county leos since this didn't happen in the first's jurisdiction and since we only really wanted the cager to be educated and not have to go to court etc the guy got let go. Perhaps he won't do that again.

I don't think I'll be going out today. Maybe tomorrow.

Did my usual 22.5 miles again today. I didn't ride yesterday as I didn't feel very good first thing, just couldn't get going until later in the morning.

Wednesday I had a suicidal squirrel jump out in front of me while I was going downhill at about 18mph. Luckily my bike has those interrupter levers in the middle of the handlebars and my fingers were resting on them. I grabbed both and locked up the rear wheel, I had to modulate the front one to keep from going head over teacups. The tree rat turned around directly in front of me, missed him by about 6 inches as I was skidding to a stop. Why am I mentioning this now? Because I just looked at my rear tire as I was walking past the bike and noticed a spot where the surface had been ripped off down to the threads. I've ridden 35 miles on it like that and didn't notice!

I really didn't want to buy new tires at the moment, especially since I already used my 30% discount I had at Nashbar on Wednesday for a new helmet. I did have another tire that had a small cut in it through the tread, so I put a patch on the inside as a boot and I'll use it until I can get the new tires here. If its not one thing, its another!

Friday 8/28/09... Got started early and at about the 5 mile mark I remembered something that had to be done at home so I turned around and went back. Only 10.53 miles today. Shortest ride in almost 2 years. Tomorrow will be a better day
All is well in slo spoke Jim's' household.

10.53 (s)miles today
659.41 (s)miles this month
4,405.92 (s)miles this year
18 ride days this month

Yes, but not until early afternoon. We started in Inverness on the Withlachochee and only rode about 6.5 miles north to Hernando. From there we went west on what was said to be a county trail. Didn't go too far as the weather was looking a little threatening. Turned around and headed back to the trailhead at Inverness. Luckily we missed the rain. Only gone for about an hour but at least we go some miles in today.

Tomorrow we are headed up to Fernandina Beach. There is a state park there called Fort Clinch that supposedly has some trails. We're gonna go check them out and stay in the area tomorrow night. Hopefully we'll find somewhere else to ride on Sunday on the way back.

Linda

54.5 miles, 5:10am departure time. Back to reality so far as avg goes vs. last week.

Saturday 8/29/09... Got started early this morning to check out the deer population. Saw 3 before sunup and 6 more around 9 am. Made up for my poor mileage on Friday, got in 63.29 miles. Also was entertained by 3 sand hill cranes playing with a baby snake, watched them for about 15 minutes. Very funny. This is now my highest mileage month this year.
All is well in Slo Spoke Jim's' household.

63.29 (s)miles today
722.70 (s)miles this month
4,469.21 (s)miles this year
19 ride days this month

Did the usual 22.5 again. I wanted to go further, but the honey-do list was waiting, along with the honey I'd have to deal with if I didn't get some things done!

I took advantage of some cooler weather and did a 50 mile out-and-back to Doswell, VA, home of Kings Dominion amusement park, and birthplace of Secretariat.

My longest ride on the single speed ever. Tested out the Bham Bike Club's upcoming Mountain Goat Century. We did just 75mi of it, but felt like more. 44x16 did not like a few of the 12%+ grades, so I walked a little, but all in all - I feeel good

Set out to do about 60 on the Withlachoochee Trail, but rather than crap out later, I did a U-turn at the Istachatta store, and rode back to the 301 end of the Withlachoochee Trail - ended up at 32 miles. Been spending too much time on road trips rather than road rides.

28 this morning. I had 44 planned and mapped it out last night on mapmyride with almost all new back roads... Left at about 5:20am. I should have stayed in bed. I got chased by so many dogs I ended up taking a road back home that nearly cut the loop in half. Never mind that one of the roads I picked was horribly bumpy and full of holes, PLUS had 2 water crossings where water flows across a concrete "bridge" - naturally this part of the ride was within the first few miles and it was still completely dark out and my 1/2 watt blaze does well enough for nice, predictable road but not that mess...

Rode 95 miles on Sunday from West Melbourne to Vero Beach. Took Strawberrry Bridge Causeway to A1A all the way down to Vero Beach beginning at 6:40AM. Finished around 5 hours later. Once in Vero almost bonked but luckily found a 7-Eleven and bought Four 32 ounce Gatorades, a power bar and a cliff bar. This saved the day for the ride back home. Rode around 65 miles on Saturday from Merritt Island to Melbourne Beach and Back. This morning rode my standard 30 miles from West Melbourne along Minton Road to Jupiter then Emerson Drive (Nice bike lane) South to Bayside Lake High School and Bombardier Drive and back. Averaging around 280 to 330 miles a week.

I was limited to 30 minutes today, but I went about 6.5 miles.

DISCLAIMER: This is my first post and I have only been riding for 2 weeks.

Monday 8/31/09... Well I guess you could say I road today. They are repaving a 3 mile section of the Seminole Wekiva Trail so I spent about 3 & 1/2 hours trying to find detours around the construction. I am suprised that this is taking place with the economy in the condition that it is in. I only road 17.33 miles and most of it at 10 mph or slower. I had plans to get in another 25/30 this evening but low and behold we are blessed with the Florida liquid sunshine that is so popular this time of year. O-well there is always tomorrow. This is now my highest mileage month this year.
All is well in Slo Spoke Jim's' household.

17.33 (s)miles today
740.03 (s)miles this month
4,486.54 (s)miles this year
20 ride days this month

Tuesday 9/01/09... Back to my normal 30 mile rides today they paved a little over a mile of the trail yesterday and should get about the same today and tomorrow if the weather holds out. Boy the new section is really smooth, gotta love it... Jeesh I sure hate riding the first few days of the month the numbers look so small.
All is well in Slo Spoke Jim's' household.

30.42 (s)miles today
30.42 (s)miles this month
4,516.96 (s)miles this year
1 ride days this month (Sept.)

Wednesday 9/02/09... Nothing to brag about today , only 6.2 miles.

All is well in Slo Spoke Jim's' household.

6.2 (s)miles today
36.62 (s)miles this month
4,523.96 (s)miles this year
2 ride days this month (Sept.)

Thursday 9/03/09... Set out to do about 25 but wound up with 50.16 miles. At about the 10 mile mark I stopped at Panera Bread for some breakfast and ran into a friend that I have ridden with before, so we started riding together and it turned into 50 miles. I am glad that it worked out that way as 6 miles on Tuesday was killing my average rides this month.

All is well in Slo Spoke Jim's' household.

50.16 (s)miles today
86.78 (s)miles this month
4,573.32 (s)miles this year
3 ride days this month (Sept.)

I haven't ridden since Sunday! First a broken car to repair, then rain, then not feeling well, more rain . . . . GRRRRR! Maybe tomorrow!