Not much in the way of time or energy or motivation today, but with the Tour de Tow coming up I figured best get out and ride. Put in 10-1/2 at 16.7mph, couple of intervals at 25 or 26 and one at 30 (ok that one was downhill on 23rd Ave and you HAVE to go that fast to keep th' cars from tramplin' you :) ). The speeds keep eefin up and the waistline keeps shrinking :). Anyone else going to be in Bartow Saturday? I'll be the geezer on the beat up yellow thing with the Jeannie Longo-wannabee teenager on the green and white Giant dropping her poor old man. :)

Thanks, I was working too hard to take more. It would have been more fun with others of my ability.

Which other centuries does everyone ride?
I once did the Cross Florida, and have since riden the Horse Farm Hundred (Gainesville, FL), Horrible Hundred (Clermont, FL), Tour de Forts (Jax) and Endless Summer Watermelon Ride (now in St Augustine,FL).

Roll on, 5k is great. I think I only did 7k all last year, I'd never really kept track before, never riden this hard either.

Well friend didn't come over to work on his bike..... Soooo I went for a ride... I'll work on my bike some other time. Some days that headwind just makes me NOT wanna ride..... I mean cant I just have a ride with NO wind for a change.... No headwind....... no tailwind..... LOL With my east/west normal weekday ride.... Its either blowing one way or the other.. OK ..... im done crying... :D Got a bit later start that usual waiting to see if my friend was gonna come over. Got to the resting rock and KNEW I wasn't going to make it back home by dark, so called for a ride to meet me a couple of miles out from the house. Still ended up riding 21.68 miles. Battled the wind for the out part of the ride..... and as usual about half way back the wind died down.. GRRRRRRR!!!!! Took the camera but nutting really of interest again.... Did have a water bottle malfunction though... I freeze them... and one sprung a leak. Kept feeling water on my shin... .... GLAD i got a ride in... but if its that windy tomorrow.... imma go ride the mountain bike someplace where the wind wont effect me hahah

Tuesday 9/14/2010
30.3 miles today
322.8 miles this month
4870 miles this year
157 ride days LY vs. 157 ride days TY
2629 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 65% of my goal.
85 miles ahead of last year at this date

The daughter and I decided to do some night riding to beat the heat so we headed out about 6:30 the temps were in the low 80s and umidity was 58%. Really good riding weather. We road the SWST from end to end. We stopped for a lemonade at Panera Bread and got home about 9PM

Motivation meter today 10.0 on a scale of 1-10

Y'all have been busy! Back on the commute today. Earlier this week it was in the low 60s in the morning. Today it was right about 70, but at least the humidity was still low. It's still getting up to 90 in the afternoons though. I'm starting to gather up colder weather riding clothes. Scored a long sleeve base layer top off of ebay for about $10 including shipping. And yesterday I found a pair of tights at a thrift store for less than $6.

droobieinop, nice to see some group ride pics for a change.

It's sad I've only been out on the Fuji once so far. Hopefully I'll fix that this weekend.

abracapocus Find the latest issue of Bicycling Magazine. http://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/...ures/gear-fall There is a good bit of advice on cold weather clothing. I do appreciate the need for budgeting and started out the winter here in layers of long johns and wife beaters under my bibs and jerseys. By Feb I had three different types of wool base layers with long, short or no sleves and socks. Arm warmers, leg warmers, weather proof gloves, shoe covers, balaklava and beanie.

Granted, I work at a shop and have access to wonderful products but, everyone can ride comfortably year round with the right gear. Please, try to avoid buying online, if you can help it. The money you spend at local brick and mortor gets passed around locally and supports your community.

Oh, and I'll try to copy some FB pics of future rides, if I don't take any (it can be risky at 25 mph).

droobieinop, from looking at that article, that's mostly what I'm doing. Except my focus is on technical fabrics since I don't wear wool.

There are a few reasons I turn to online shopping to find what I need. I'm ebaying a bunch of stuff so I have $ to spend in my paypal account. My goal is to reduce the stuff I have. Also, the selection for women in LBS' is generally abysmal. I do support them when I can. Bought my commuter and its accessories at one. I go by there for incidentals like tubes, grease, tools, bike tune-up, etc. But for what I would pay for one piece of clothing, I can outfit myself for the entire winter if I'm patient. The other thing about women, is that many buy lots of clothes for various activities that they barely or never wear. I don't mind giving those items a new home ad a greatly reduced price. :-)

Another lovely ride into work this morning. I've had to add a jacket in the mornings. My bags got a shout-out from a dude walking his dog. Oh, heh, yesterday on the way home I passed someone riding up out of my neighborhood that I see from time to time. In greeting he honked a duck horn at me. How can you not LOL at that?

Thursday 9/1/2010
31.5 miles today
354.3 miles this month
4902 miles this year
159 ride days LY vs. 158 ride days TY
2597 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 65% of my goal.
52 miles ahead of last year at this date

Did a solo ride this morning. When the daughter and I rode Tuesday night we heard a pop that sounded like a spoke breaking, when I got back from my ride today she informed me that 3 spokes had broken so it was off to the bike shop to get them replaced. Dang this bike riding is expensive.:notamused::notamused:

Motivation meter today 9.0 on a scale of 1-10

I thought you purchased new wheels not to long ago? On a similar note, I had to tighten 2 spokes on my ride today... I'm almost positive its the same 2 spokes (one on back wheel one on front) that come lose all of the time. It happens enough that I started carrying a spoke wrench with me. I just cant stand that "creek, creek, creek noise".... LOL

Anyway I had the bright Idea of going to town to pay my moms house insurance and my light bill. She had to pay this one in person because she changed policies. (ok I paid it but you know what I mean... LOL) .. Anyway I left at about 12:15 this afternoon. Of course had the nice headwind on the way into town.. cant NOT have that. :P Took the long way (safer way on bike) from one place to the other. Ended up riding 36.28 miles. Stopped and got a Pepsi about 10 miles from home (needed some sugar). Was a great ride felt strong most of the way, got a bit overheated towards the end though. Saved a bit of money on gas... Had the camera... nothing of interest to take pictures of... Or maybe I just have an eye for photo's..... that's probably what it is .... DOH!!

I'm trying to increase my mileage to prepare for a metric century next month. Did 35 miles. Starting Saturday I'll be uping my miles by 5-8 miles per day -- I hope :rolleyes: -- till I'm up to 55-60 miles. Is this possible in all the @#%^&* traffic in the Atlanta area? Maybe I could just do 30 laps around my neighborhood. :innocent:

Holy crap. You've ridden around the earth nearly two times. :rolleyes:

Yes and am I tired:eek:.... correction tomorrow:lol:

kjc9640 44 THOUSAND miles this year? I doubt I've got 44,000 miles on my road bike, and I've been riding it for 20 years! :) You da MAN!

Another heart stopping sprint up 23rd Ave to start my afternoon ride - wish some of the millions the county's spending on this road would come far enough west to benefit me! :) Put in about 16 miles again today, with stiffer than expected winds out of the southeast. Getting that haircut this morning was a smart move - cooldown's taking much less time. Looking forward to Saturday!

Mileage correction made, I only wish I had ridden 44K miles.... well one can dream can't I????:innocent:

zzOtherlandzz: The 2 new rims purchased a couple of weeks ago were for my bike the broken spokes were on the daughters bike, either way I picked up the tab:lol:

Today was going to be an off day since I'm telecommuting, but I ended up taking a little ride anyway. A friend organizes this thing called Free Art Friday Atlanta. You follow them on twitter @fafatl and every Friday a map comes out of all the location where you can find a piece of free art. The map came out today and two pieces were up in East Atlanta Village, just a couple miles from my house. One involved storm troopers, so I knew I had to try and get it for my boyfriend. :-) Sadly by the time I got up there, someone else had snagged it. I did get the other piece though. At first glance it doesn't look like much, but it starts to grow on you. The material is plexiglass so it has this luminous feel to it. Anyway, I got a quick 4 1/2 mile ride out of it. And...pictures happened!

Where I found the art:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/...c57aa5e763.jpg

What it turned out to be:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/...cdd65e1de2.jpg

Quiet neighborhood street:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4110/...4ed4dd4b40.jpg

On the back of a building:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/...6cc406bebd.jpg

A closer look at the art:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/...744c635d15.jpg

umm, don't tell the doc but YES! Only about 5 miles. Hubby loaded up the road bikes late this afternoon and we headed over to the rec complex near the airport. Lots of roads with no traffic. At first the knee felt really tight but after a few laps around the parking lot I decided to go a little further. Now, I don't think I ever got out of a really low gear but it did feel great to have the wind in my face. Went to PT this AM and my range of motion (on my own) is up to 120 which is great. They basically said that next week (my last ) will be to strengthen the knee. I'm thinking that maybe tomorrow hubby and I might head over to the Withlachochee Bay Trail. It's about 10 miles out to the Bay and back and I think I'm up for it.

LindaN

LindaN.. That's great that you got out for a bit of "wind in the face" riding. It is .... SOO SOOOO SOOOOOO boring riding a stationary bike. I tried a trainer & after a couple of months never touched it again, other than to move it out of my way .. LOL

I got out for a ride Friday, Was getting ready to go do my normal ride when my friend decided he wanted to go too. Naturally he made me ride my mountain bike, because that's all he has to ride.. LOL A bit west of town there are some good size hills for Florida, so he says lets go climb those (paved hills). So we head out and he is always full out... I could barely keep up with him (which pisses me off cus I ride a LOT more than he does). But I keep up!! We ride about 6 miles out of town + climb this one side road hill. Really working the quads. Then we turn around and hid the same headwind that has been blowing all week. Ended up riding 16.56 miles. Was a nice ride.... good workout on the hills... He was A LOT more tired when we got back than I was... :D Every time we ride I say the same thing... "you know you gotta pace yourself", especially if you want to ride everyday... or most days like I do. ....... Anyway fun ride!!!

Beautiful, slightly chilly morning. 30 miles out and back. The Richmond Area Bicycle Association (RABA) is having their annual Heart of Virginia century ride this weekend, and their route overlaps much of my usual route, so I saw a few extra bikes out there today. Also lots of yard sales, farmers markets, alumni weekend at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, and just generally a lot of activity out there.

Great Picture! It is the true art you found that day.

I started back riding about three weeks ago. I did about 15 miles on the North Augusta Greeneway this morning. If anyone else on here was there, I was the old guy on the old white Trek 750 Hybrid. When my new bike comes in I plan to ride on the tow path along the Augusta Canal also.

Tour de Tow, 37 miles. It was my 13yo's first organized ride. Normally she's much faster than I am, but the hills and the headwinds leveled the playing field :). Nice ride.

Saturday 9/18/2010
36.0 miles today
390.3 miles this month
4938 miles this year
160 ride days LY vs. 159 ride days TY
2561 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 65.8% of my goal.
35 miles ahead of last year at this date

Did a solo ride this morning. weather was perfect

Motivation meter today 10.0 on a scale of 1-10

Photo 1 & 2
On some of my rides I pass this old cemetery so today I stopped to look around. Many of the markers dated back into the early 1800s and some were so weather beaten that I could not read a date at all. It's a shame the the upkeep has not been taken care of .
Photo 3
Sylvan lake sports complex. This complex has about 30 soccer fields and every one of them was being used today.
Photo 4
A new bike shop opened last week by the SWT so today I stopped in to take a look. I think i will upgrade my bike to the one in the photo. What do you all think?:lol::lol:

CAN'T go wrong with that upgrade... :D

Saturday morning I finally got back on the road bike for 17.4 miles. Out to Decatur, back towards downtown, picked up the PATH in Candler Park and rode it over to the King Center, then looped around back home. Last time I rode it I had trouble with chain drops. So I read the internet to see what was up and it turns out I was crossing the chain. D'oh! No one ever told me not to do that. Or they did and I didn't listen. So one of my goals on this ride was to get myself doing it right. :-) My mountain bike will probably be happy about my new skills too. The seat and I are not friends though. It's the stock seat and I doubt it can be comfortable for me. So I'll probably pick up a replacement this week.

And, a few pictures...

This big foot is all around town. They say different things, or nothing. Cankles is the funniest one.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/...94795714c1.jpg

At Moreland getting ready to cross on the PATH, I noticed my reflection in the pedestrian button:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/...18e9050774.jpg

Over by the MLK center:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/...c33b3b08bf.jpg

The East Atlanta Strut festival setting up in my neighborhood:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/...9b42dcc89f.jpg

I guess you can call it that. Wasn't much in miles. Hubby and I went over to the Withlachochee Bay Trail. I wanted to ride the 10 miles out and back but he thought that was too agressive so he parked about half way down. Getting on the bike is not really a problem...it's those first few minutes of pedaling. The knee is still really stiff even though my range of motion is good. I did climb a few of the small hills but my speed is verrrrry slow. We got to the end (only about 2.5 miles) rested and turned around. I was kinda glad he parked where he had because the wind was in our face on the way back and I was pooped. Some of that might have been the fact that the temp was in the low 90s and I really had not been outside for any length of time in over 6 weeks.
Anyway, next week is my last week of pt and I plan on getting to the gym and trying to spin some. I really need to get my endurance up because I want to do the Trek Breast Cancer ride on 10/9.

LindaN