My Most Recent Ride 2010 (Part III of the series)

Hey, Curtis. It's 10 miles each way for me. So a commute to work and home is 20 miles total. 100 would be challenging.

 

I'm sure that my side of the story is not the whole of it.


That rear tube had just one hole in it, plugged by the leg of
a wire staple that made it... and I pulled two more staple
fragments out of the tire, for a sum of four wires in the tire.

I'm not brave, Dave, just really wanted to ride my bike!

Speaking of which....

 

Yesterday for the first time ever I broke the metric century 100km barrier. The ride all told was 109km at a pace of 29.3kph so I was pretty satisfied. Climbing was 600 meters but was mostly rollers so it was more fun than work.

Originally I had planned to do 95kms by adding a 34km section going down south of the Sea of Galilee along the Jordan valley. As I approached my destination in the Jordan valley I thought to add a mere 5kms more to reach the magic 100km. The light tail wind of course made my decision easier. So I kept on cruising and decided I would turn around only at the next town which was Hamedia even farther down south.

In the end I could definitely feel the ride in my legs but was happy I managed to control the urge to push too hard and blow up or cramp.

 

Hi Tom,
I don't ride to work because I'd spend all day getting there and back. However, when I'm able to go to one of our facilities within a 20 mile range, I really think hard about it and depending upon the weather, go for it. I do wish I had the stamina and speed to make the ride regularly to and from work, as it would save me considerably on fuel, although I think my lunch spend would go up! Also, at my current work location, no showers! And that's just not fair, so I have to be content with riding occasionaly at lunch.

Freddy,
Congratulations on your first metric century (Tour de Sewer http://www.bellgardenslions.com/Ride.html )! I know when I did my first one, I thought I was going to die before the end. That was 2 years ago, I did the same ride again this last year, and since I had ridden to and from the ride, I added an additional 16 km. I was feeling really good that day and thought about picking up the extra 50 km to make it a Century in miles. Then work got hold of me, so that thought was pushed out of my head.
Keep up the riding, I know the more I ride, the better I feel. And I do love being in the saddle and rolling along.
Oh, and for 2011, I'm planning on doing the Solvang Century ( http://www.bikescor.com/solvang/ ), so I will hopefully get my first century in miles!

Curtis

 

Thanks. Onward and upward as they say. I took a look at that Solvang Century and certainly looks like a Challenge with 5000 ft of climbing where most of it is in a big climb towards the end.

I recall reading that the old Discovery team would do some winter training in the Solvang area.

Good luck with your 2011 challenge.

Freddy

 

I Wish!

-The lowest temperature that I can comfortably ride outside, is 40 degrees F.
It has not reached that temperature in a while.

On the plus side, the bike is clean and well-adjusted,
just in case the temperature outside rises enough to allow me to ride.

As you may have suspected by now, I'm posting this here because
if I can't ride, well then I may as well write about it!

 

I'm with you, Steve. Though my temp limit is around 45 F. I've tried layering and still come home to shiver long hours away under a thick blanket after soaking the heat out of a hot bath even after short rides. Not to mention the challenge of getting dressed in 4 layers and NOT being drenched in sweat before one makes it out the door. I'm sure it looked quite amusing the few times I stood outside on colder days and pulled on the extra layers over my thermals to avoid the overheating.

So, I just stick to the trainer once it gets chilly. Admittedly, I'm still toying with the idea of heavier weight wool thermals though I'll have to order them on-line. The heaviest I can find here in Sweden are 200 g. I find that rather ironic for such a cold country as Sweden.

 

Thirty-six degrees when I started today. The forecast was for a high of 64 but I didn't believe them and dressed accordingly. A little hot on the first steep climb but once we hit the fast rollers I was happy to have all four layers up top.

We rode a nice 40 miles and stopped at a BBQ shack for lunch. Chopped sandwhich with delicious fried green tomatoes then back on the road. The route back took us over a few pretty rough road which didn't show up on MapMyRide but no traffic and very scenic.

Ended up with 81 miles and 3669 feet of climbing. Average moving speed was 15 mph and our total time with lunch was right at 6:30. High temp was 53 and the temp was already back down to 46 when we finished.