My Most Recent Ride 2008 (Part I of series)

Re: My Most Recent Ride

My latest ride is the Bike Virginia. See my post there for details.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Tom, whenever I have a situation like you did and no one looses their tempers its a good day. I stopped at Frankie's at the end of my ride saturday also.
Cooled off for a while and drank a few glasses of tea before taking it to the car.

I wish I had the patience to write everything down. I start pretty well then get bored and go.....the end

Sounds like a good weekend.

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Well, I made it out the door yesterday for a ride. We didn't leave until my husband had asked me 3 times if I had my cleated shoes. Guess I can't blame him since I did drag him out of bed at 5:30 am.

It wasn't as long a trip as the one I had planned Wednesday. Just didn't have the time with our plans to go to dinner in Stockholm. It turned out to be a 'Critter Day'. I adore 'Critter Days'!!

On the drive out to the place I'd picked we saw not only two deer, but a pair of bull moose! Moose are all over Sweden. Many of the busier roads have moose fencing and though Jens said there are moose around Uppsala, I'd only ever seen one, way in the distance. Tiny enough I thought it was a horse at first before I saw the body wasn't shaped right.

These were fairly close. Enough so that I could see the beginnings of their antlers in velvet, only about 8 inches long or so. Moving quick for the road (one of those with moose fencing) before jogging paralell with it and then turning back across the field toward the trees. My first 'close' encounter with wild moose around Uppsala! Loke was fascinated. His nose smooshed against the window and whining.

The trip was just 20 miles. Nice and cool in the morning and I just love morning light. After all that rain and 50 F highs we had not long ago, clear skies and summer temps were wonderful.

Loke was limping after 9 miles or so. Jens came to get him and I finished the trip solo. I think it might be booties. Unfortuntely, without the booties, he'd be limping a lot longer as the skin on the bottom of his feet vanished. Talk about rock and hard place.

On the ride there were still more animals. A mouse streaked across the road less than 20 feet away. Loke was still with me at that point and he REALLY wanted that mouse.

After Loke was packed off in a nice A/Ced car, I saw two deer. One I know I had to of passed within 10 feet off as it had run to a patch of tall weeds and grass with no way out unless I saw it and I never saw it. Amazing how something coloured a bright orange-y brown can vanish in a tangle of green.

The next one was a buck and it was just standing on the road between two fields. It watched me come until I was close enough to see that strangely enough, it's antlers had no velvet. Almost like it hadn't shed them from last year or something since most deer right now have velvet covered nubs and these were sharp, shiny 10" pronged spikes the deer here have. I actually slowed down a bit trying to figure out what it was going to do since I was zipping down a hill and it wasn't moving. Finally, about 20 feet away it decided to run off.

A good ride, a good day. My only complaint is that my cycle tights gave me a friction rash just above the knees. They seem to do that after about a year of use and getting wet during a ride as they did ride before this one. Oh and why are all exercise pant type things BLACK?? Even here in Sweden, when you're reclining under the summer SUN with temps pushing 80, in black it feels like broiling in a dutch oven. Even a darkish blue or gray would be better than full blown black. (Rant Over)

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

My rides are not that exciting. However, I've been slowly making new
friends along the trail. Tusculum trail that is. I do see some animals.
Mostly groundhogs, turkey, rabbits and deer.

I'm out there every day that it is not raining. I'm back to triking and
the Greenspeed is working out very well. It has a 12 foot turning and that works well on the trail. This one has a SRAM Dual Drive. I like it. There is
one very serious hill on the trail. Something wrong with the Garmin. It
has been blanking on the elevation at about 10%. Very aggravating. Will
need to find out what is going on.

Hope to get out early in the morning. :bike:

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

My wife dances on thursday night for three hours so I rode downtown with her to take a ride. Pulled out rigt at 5 and it was hot hovering just below 100 degrees with a hot wind of 5-7 mph. I had lost a rear brake pad on my last ride and replaced it with one that didn't exactly fit so I was going to have to take it easy on the downhills

Anyway, started off slow 15-16 with my heart rate about 110 for the first 8 miles or so. There were a few walkers on the trail by the river but I didn't see any cyclist yet. Came to the first real hill about mile 9 and started to pick up the pace. This hill has two sections the first is about a 4% grade and I kept it at 16 mph and my hr was 135 or so. the second section hits a steady 6% and edges up towards 8% at the top where my speed scrubbed off to about 10 and my HR was up in the 160's.

A flat section so I backed it down for a minute and caught my breath. Just ahead was a small downhill which launches into a long very slight uphill. I poured it on coming down the hill just as a bus was coming up behind me. I hit 32 and tried to see if I could hold it over the next 1/4 mile. I held the bus off but I was burning. glad to see him turn off. Over the next 15 miles I wouldn't see any riders as I went into the back country of Ft Benning. My odo showed 27 when I stopped and ate at the turnaround and my adverage was sitting right at 16.8.

Coming back there are some real nice rollers that if you work really hard you can keep you momentum on. 4 miles later as I came down to a really long straight-a-way I saw a rider in the distance and I decided to give chase. I put it on the big ring and the 11t cog and stood on the gas. Even though it was a very slight ride I was able to hit 27.5 then backed it down just alittle to about 26. My HR was holding at 150 and the rider ahead was getting larger fast. I saw her look over her shoulder and then hit the drops and she tried to hold me off. No chance I was a rocket at that point and I passed her feeling strong. I kept the gas going as long as I could and she was probably 100-150 yards back when I eased off.

I love my bike

Finished up with 54 miles and a 17.8 adverage with a total tiime of 3 hours 4 minutes. I should have stretched it out into a metric as my wife didn't finish fancing for 30 more minutes. Next week I guess.

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Whee!! Look at us all getting out and riding.

I rode today. My longest trip of the year so far. Hubby dragged out of bed and by 7:15 I was 38 miles from home and waving bye to Jens. The first hour and a half of the trip will have turned me into a nag. We NEED that printer!! My nice Sverigeleden maps didn't show the area I was in very well and I ended up taking a wrong road. When I figured it out, I tried to find a road to cut over to the one I needed rather than double back and try to figure it out without a decent map. It turned out to be a gravel road. It wasn't too bad at first. Farms everywhere along it so the gravel was nice and packed down. After a mile or so, I was suddenly surrounded by Woods and the gravel was loose, making going quite difficult. I wasn't even sure I was on the right road I needed to get back to my planned route. Honestly, I expected it to just dead end at a logging spot or something.

Luck smiled on me (or just d*mn good navigation ) and soon the gravel packed down again as I came upon more farms and houses.

Beyond that the ride was pretty for a while. Then the heat kept going up. I finally had to give up on keeping Loke with me around mile 19 or so. That happened to be at the place my last trip started from. That made it easy for Jens to find me.

The last 20+ miles home were brutal. I was regretting not jumping in the car and letting Jens take me home too when he picked up Loke. In the shade, going down hills or cruising along flats wasn't so bad. The breeze was enough to take the edge off. Going up hills, I felt like I was on a roasting spit and broiling under the sun. It was making me so sick. I wiped out almost 3 liters of water by drinking and another 2 by drenching my shirt. Hard to believe I'm the same woman who used to ride in 95 F in southern Mississippi. :

Somehow, I gritted my teeth and kept creeping and cooking up those hills and chewed through the miles. One neat moment as I was coming down a blissfully cool and shady stretch toward downtown Uppsala. I stopped to guzzle more water and I noticed something moving in the undergrowth a few yards back from the path. It was a hare. It stopped and just kind of stared at me long enough for me to dig out the camera, power it up and snap a pic of him. Going to put it on my blog once I get around to writing the post. Right now, I'm going to crawl into a boderline chilly shower and then stretch out on the couch for a nap.

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Hi, Terri.

I bet it was the navigation.

It's interesting to hear that you've lived in southern Mississippi. I was born in Hattiesburg. Both sets of grandparents lived outside Richton.

Sweden sounds like a nice place to live and ride. Isn't is wonderful to have an understanding and supportive spouse who will drop you off, wait for you, whatever, to get your ride in? I'm very grateful for how Karen supports my riding habit.

Tom

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

It's not a habit...its an ADDICTION.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

I went to USM for a couple years, Tom. I grew up all up and down the MS Gulf Coast mostly. Pascagoula for a larger chunk of it with a mix of Moss Point, Gautier, Lucedale and a few other small towns I can't quite recall the names of as they went by in a blur. Born in San Deigo, CA and spent some time just outside of Boston during my childhood as well.

And yeah, I feel very lucky with my hubby Jens. He has no real drive to cycle, but has been almost turning himself inside out to make sure I still have fun with it.

Oooh! Also must add, my SIL's hubby has started showing a bit of intrigued interest in my bent. Not sure how far it will go, but he was sitting in it and fiddling with the handlebars and pedals as he asked questions about cost and different models.

And HB has it right, it is an addiction with me at least. I get cranky when I don't get out enough.

Terii

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

absolutely an addiction. Saturday I made it to the river just before 7am and there was a DF rider named Ron who I knew was unloading his bike. The last time I rode with him a group of 5 of us went out on a 50 miler and on a hill about 10 miles out he blew away from me and I never saw him again.

So anyway, I talked him into riding a metric century with me. He was recovering from a real tough century with 14,000 feet of climbing so he said he hadn't been on the bike much in the last two weeks. We started out easy in the 15-16 range as we cruised into downtown Columbus as we headed south towards Ft Benning the pace increased to 17-18. Lots of runners out but we didn't have to slow down much.

Once onto the post there was a pretty good climb and he beat me to the top by 50 or 75 feet from that point on the pace went up. We had along downhill on the otherside of that ridge and I picked it up to 27. He fell off my wheel so on the flat I slowed down and waited for him.

The wind was picking up now and we both took a couple of pulls staying right about 20. We were now over 20 miles and facing a series of stair-step climbs over the next 7 miles. We took turns still keeping the steam on, the second to last climb has a long into with a 1% grade that saps your speed before turning slightly to the right and amping it up to a solid 10%. I kept my speed at 16 to the turn dropped it into the granny and started spinning. I didn't go down to the 32t ring but probably about the 27. I managed to keep my speed at 11 all the way up way better than I have ever done before on that climb. Ron dropped off my wheel but not far off.

The last climb starts out a 4-6% then kicks up to 11-12%. The good news is its not too long. Ron was actually in front of me when we hit this one and I passed him about half way to the top. 9mph all the way. Man I am never going to hit these numbers again.

Just past there we stopped drank and ate (I thought) before turning around. The return is a stairstep down over 7 miles and man is it fun. I can usually adverage about 24 over this section. I told Ron to grab my wheel and off we went screaming back down that 12% grade. I usually hit 42 right there but to keep him close I held it to 38. We were still cruising at 21 when we topped the next rise. That was pretty much what we did until we were back to the flats heading back into main post.

Just then Ron just dropped away. I eased it back to 12 and he slowly eased up. "my legs are gone!" was all he said. " Have you eaten anything",
Nope he hadn't and he was fully bonked. I gave him a couple of FRS chews that I had and led on. About 8 miles away there was a Subway so we took it easy until we got there keeping the speed about 15-16 again.

Three cookies and a coke later and Ron was set for the last 10 miles of the ride. We didn't set any speed records but we did hold it at 17 or so into the wind as we brought it back up the Riverwalk. The temperature by now was an even 100 degrees but thankfully we had good shade on the trail.

Just about 5 miles left and we both had a flat within about 1/2 mile of each other. Sitting still we really felt the heat but again we had shade at least.

So, 62 miles in 4 hours 3 minutes total time for a 15.3 adv

Ward

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Way to go. That's a lot of miles.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Buddy,

I'm an ultracycling wannabe. I have everything I need but my wife's permission. I really love that woman so I guess i'll keep being a wannabe.
She does let me get out for a few long rides and i think she's going to let me ride Sebring again next year.

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Ward, after reading about your last ride, remind me NOT to ride with you. All I would see is your back side before you disappeared over the horizon! :yikes:

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

After having three flats with my carbon wheelset I put my spinergy's back on and went out yesterday aftenoon. With half a red bull under my belt I was feeling ready rock n roll

The Riverwalk wan't crowded and I set a personal best for the first 8 mile section with an adv speed of 21.2. I came up on the racerboy wannbe's at about mile 4, they looked like they were just warming up. I blew past them at 27 and didn't look back.

I couldn't hold that pace so after about 15 miles my adv had dropped to 20.4 and I was settling into a steady groove. I had a little bit of tailwind so I was trying to catch my breath from my time trial start. I looked in my rear view and I saw the little peleton catching up with me. Now they always turn around at the same place, about 5 miles from where we were, so I decided I wasn't going to let them catch me. There was a stop at a t intersection then a left turn and I cranked it up to 25. Over then next 5 miles I kept it between 24.5 and 25 all the way. They closed to within probably 100 feet but just couldn't quite catch me.

At the turn around point I unclipped and sat up and they pulled up around me. "I thought ya'll would never catch me" I grinned when I said it. I got absolutely no response, just grim faces and heaving chests. "what the matter ya'll need to catch your breath before you can talk" Needless to say that didn't get any response either. So while they turned back I continued on. I went out 5 more because I wanted to make 50. Turned around and brought it on back home.

My adv over the next 20 miles only dropped to 20.2 still my fastest ride ever. At mile 45 I had an owner of a bike shop (that I don't use) catch me on hill time trial bike all tricked out with super deep carbon rims etc. I picked it back up and grabbed his wheel while we went thru a heavily congested area. As soon as we cleared, I pulled up beside him about 21 asked if he wanted a pull. He said he was good so I picked it up to 24 and walked away from him. What I was hoping is that he wouldn't figure out how much it was killing me. My legs were screaming like Hannah Montana fans but now I was only 5 miles out. After he dropped out of sight I dropped it down to 21 hoping that he didn't have the legs to catch me.

So, back at the car with a total time of 2 hours 35 minutes and 40 sec for 50.3 miles officially my fastest 50 mile ride with an adv of 19.3. the last mile is in town traffic and I had a few stops which dropped the adverage down.

Jon, i'm going to try and come to the Sunrise century so you need to ramp up your game

 

Re: My Most Recent Ride

Ward, I will see you there at the beginning but I don't do 19.2 MPH rides!!!

:yikes: :yikes: :yikes: